Contrary to what Hollywood’s current landscape might suggest, making a great sequel is no easy feat, and that’s exactly what makes Rian Johnson’s success with Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery all the more worth celebrating. Nevertheless, with at least one more Benoit Blanc adventure planned, it’s worth looking into why this sequel works so well.
Undoubtedly, while Glass Onion may not be on the same level as other legendary sequels such as The Godfather II, The Empire Strikes Back, Terminator 2 or The Dark Knight, Johnson does pull off some of the tricks that make all those films so good. In fact, the director’s reluctance to use the Knives Out name is perfect proof that it’s the differences and not the similarities between movies that can propel a sequel to greatness.
What Makes Great Sequel?
As a self-confessed Agatha Christie fan, Johnson understood that just because a story happened to be centered around a specific protagonist or linked to a certain genre it does not mean it’s forced to rehash the same old tropes of the past. So if Hercule Poirot could hunt down a serial killer in one book and then tackle a wholesome family murder, so can Benoit Blanc.
See, if the original Star Wars, a franchise close to Johnson's heart, gave the good guys a typical action movie victory, Empire Strikes Back delivers possibly the most shocking reveal in cinema history; if Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a villain in the first Terminator, then Mr. T-800 be the hero in the sequel is the perfect way to innovate on the original’s flavor but with a twist. In Glass Onion’s case this is utilized by switching up the reasons why Blanc’s character is caught up in this murder mystery.
Knives Out’s Blanc was genuinely hired in the original movie, whereas in Glass Onion he’s almost driven to Miles Bron’s island out of sheer boredom after being stuck at home for too long. Indeed, it could be argued that Blanc’s early decisions in the films are reckless to some extent, in contrast to the way his cunning behavior always puts him one step ahead of events in the first film.
Even more so, while Knives Out plays on the Thrombey family (and the subject of rich troubled families for that matter), Glass Onion puts together a colorful cast of characters, each representing a power player in different sectors of modern society, the so-called disruptors. All these things combined mean the sequel features different suspects, motives, location and, most crucially, the murder mystery is now something the audience knows it's coming, only no one knows the when - Knives Out is framed as a family tragedy, yet the sequel starts off -literaly- as pure fun and games.
Despite the film inviting viewers to grant it some concessions to cover up potential plot holes for the sake of entertainment, Glass Onion changes the who, when, where, why, how, and even the ending for one with a bittersweet mystery aftertaste. The only two constants in this sequel are the what - a murder mystery- and Blanc himself.
Why Benoit Blanc Is The Perfect Franchise Protagonist
If the one consistent element the Knives Out franchise will have is Benoit Blanc, then it goes without saying that Johnson couldn’t have conceived a better protagonist. After all, both the writer-director and Daniel Craig have been quite vocal about their desire to pass on exploring Blanc’s personal story or past too much as they don’t consider it relevant to the films they want to create.
In a way, it’s funny that Craig has found himself playing such a character since one of the most iconic men in cinema known to rely on this trick is none other than James Bond himself. Throughout 25 films, 007 fans rarely got any personal insight into Bond’s past, with the most complete presentation of the spy’s motivations and story arc being developed in the Craig era.
There’s no right answer to what order should any one person follow to watch James Bond movies, and in the same way there’s no reason why Knives Out is required viewing to enjoy Glass Onion. As the world’s greatest detective, Blanc is bound to always find himself surrounded by the elite, yet due to the franchise’s own nature that doesn’t necessarily have to be the case forever, no matter that this time around it enables Glass Onion’s escapism into a true billionaire weekend getaway.
Sometimes following up a great original film can be hard precisely due to the huge task that is creating a narrative arc of the same caliber, but part of what makes Blanc and Knives Out special is that Johnson doesn’t even have to be bothered by that because that’s not what the whodunnit is supposed to provide.
In a Hollywood era when most studios are happy to simply make more of the same but bigger, Rian Johnson’s Knives Out has one-upped the trend by tossing Benoit Blanc on an exotic island that evokes that same feeling, Glass Onion is definitely more stylish yet with a very different outcome. The result is a blossoming movie franchise for Netflix, the streamer’s first, and if Knives Out plays its cards right, then Johnson can truly honor Christie’s legacy for years to come.