When Detective Benoit Blanc is involved, do not expect it to be just any other movie with a simple and plain problem and resolution, and in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, it's about finding who the killer is and what the motive behind is. Here's what happened in the ending, explained.
Warning: This article contains spoilers for Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. Read at your own risk!
The Ending of Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, A Recap
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery started with Benoit Blanc reeling with the effects of the pandemic and staying indoors doesn't really suit him well. He plays Among Us with his friends and while he is a really great detective, he couldn't get the game.
Then, each of the characters are introduced as they receive an intricately made box with puzzles to solve to get to the middle where an invitation lies, one from the tech billionaire Miles Bron that calls them for a reunion of the "Disruptors" in a lavish murder-mystery party.
As they are all excited to go to the trip, they pack their things and head off with excitement to their trip to Bron's island. Each of them have their own style of transportation, seemingly mirroring each of their personalities, and they are greeted by a man in a clad white suit wearing a ponytail.
That man is played by Ethan Hawke, and he administers the vaccine for all with a vaccine gun straight to their throat and he puts on their wristband which is their key to their rooms, then, a lavish ship arrives to bring them on the island.
As they go aboard the ship, a surprise guest appears -- Andi Brand. She alights the taxi and takes everyone's breath away because while she is always invited, she never comes, but this time, she does.
Miles Bron proudly welcomes them into his island while his dock elevates from under the water. Much to his surprise, Benoit Blanc is there, but more than that, Andi was there. He invites everyone to "inbrethiate" the moment as they convene with the view of a, literal, glass onion.
The whole trip has been planned by Miles Bron but he called onto Blanc because he didn't really send Blanc an invite, but since Blanc is already there and it's quite rude to have a guest leave, Bron invited him personally, making it official.
They begin the murder-mystery party but Blanc spoiled it by exposing the who the murderer is with his plain observation of everything that happened in just one afternoon and because of that, all that is left for them is to party, literally, but then, the real murder-mystery begins when Duke Cody choked to death.
Everyone screamed, except Andi and Duke's girlfriend, Whiskey. Just as they were investigating, the lights went out. While a fiasco happens during the lights out, Andi goes to Blanc but she gets shot to the chest with a gun.
It turns out the real case Blanc is handling is that of the murder of Andi Brand in a suspected suicide a few days before the Glass Onion reunion happened following her loss in court against Miles Bron for intellectual property over Alpha Industries.
Andi decided to walk away when Miles wanted to push for an unstable super-fuel, Klear, but Bron got all the Disruptors wrapped around his fingers and Andi lost her day in court.
On her death day, she found the napkin to use to prove her case, the one where she first wrote the idea of the Glass Onion bar, and Alpha Industries. She immediately sent a copy of her photo with a red envelope to each of their email.
Miles wasn't in Greece that time, he was in New York with his visit to Whiskey and Lionel faxed him a copy of the email of Andi, the one that could bring Miles Bron down to his very core, exposing how a huge fraud he is.
Every single one of the Disruptors went to Andi's place but all of them claimed that they left because no one answered the door. Her twin sister, Helen, didn't want to believe that Andi died in a suicide, thus, she called for the services of Detective Benoit Blanc.
Helen wanted Blanc to be there at the party but Blanc had a better idea: have Helen portray her deceased sister to know whoever her killer is because to most of the attendees, Andi is still alive, and only the killer knows if she is already dead.
Back to the present, it turns out Helen was shot but not dead. Andi's diary saved her and Blanc thought it'd be best to have her out of everyone's hairs to get her to investigate the rooms of other and the Glass Onion room. Her blood was just some hot sauce that legitimately looks like blood.
They all go back to the main room and it is revealed that Andi is actually dead and it is Helen, her twin sister, with them. The reason why Duke died is because he was just some collateral damage. See, his phone notifies him on random stuff, news, and when Andi's death was reported, Duke saw it,
Miles made it sure Duke won't ruin the party so he put some pineapple on Duke's cocktail even when he said, "Duke don't dance with pineapple," because he is allergic to it. It wasn't an accident, Miles actually gave Duke his glass.
Miles was exposed but his friends remain close to him because they all need something from Miles: Birdie screwed up with her business and Miles is covering for her losses, Claire needs funds for her campaign, Lionel gets funding for his research, and Duke's channel has been set up by Miles, Whiskey was just riding along for her future.
Miles makes the world go round with his money. He burned the tissue that Andi wrote on, the very proof of Andi's case. With each of the Disruptors refusing to admit the truth because they were in need, Helen couldn't help it so she shattered everything glass in the room.
When Helen made her ultimate decision to bring down Miles, she opened the Mona Lisa case, thus, making him broke. His friends now "see" things as the truth and she waits for the police to pick Miles up for his crimes.
READ MORE: Who Deserves to Die in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery?
The Ending of Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery Explained
It is all plain and simple. See, the title of the sequel, Glass Onion, is something much like Miles Bron himself, a mirage of a genius who makes money move for him so that he could control them and make them answer to him when he is just a moron who manipulates everyone.
Much like a glass onion, Miles Bron is shallow, fragile, a façade that sparkles but breaks easily, a fraud incarnate. He may get everyone wrapped around his fingers but those who has strong principles couldn't be bought by any amount.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery also has its take on the influencer culture which is quite critiqued by many, it holds a message deep within of the truth of today: money can actually buy anything and people are holding onto those who has the bills to pay, an allegory of today's sad picture.
In a Knives Out fashion, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is already a closed book and it is already concluded with its murder mystery, much like that of the first film, and both stories are totally unrelated to each of it. The only common denominator is Detective Benoit Blanc.
With Knives Out 3 currently under production, it is expected to take on a different murder mystery with only Benoit Blanc as the one thing in common between the three movies.
In a recent talk with Uproxx, director Rian Johnson reveals that he isn't leaning on the possibility of having a Benoit Blanc Knives Out prequel, "Having Daniel Craig in that part, the temptation is to think that Blanc as a character is what's interesting about these movies. He's interesting in his function within the mystery, you know what I mean?"
Johnson further explained, "I don't know, the notion of building out a backstory, learning where he came from, all of that stuff, to me, I don't know, I have a natural inclination to kind of push that stuff back and to say a little goes a long way in terms of that."
Johnson reveals that the main goal is always the mystery, "Ultimately this has to be the story of the mystery. The mystery's the thing. And the detective is interesting in the way he solves his function within solving the mystery. And if we get glimpses beyond that, that's great. But I feel like a little of that goes a very long way for me."
With these words of Rian Johnson, it could be inferred that Knives Out 3 will be a different mystery, a new adventure for Detective Benoit Blanc, another baffling case that would leave everyone scratching their heads off for the whole first part, only to have their jaws hanging for the last minutes of the movie.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is now available to stream on Netflix. There is no release date yet for Knives Out 3 but surely Rian Johnson will return to direct and Daniel Craig will still be Benoit Blanc.