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 withGlass Onion: A Knives Out Mysteryall 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, whileGlass Onionmay not be on the same level as other legendary sequels such asThe Godfather II,The Empire Strikes Back,Terminator 2orThe 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 theKnives Outname is perfect proof that it’s the differences and not the similarities between movies that can propel a sequel to greatness.
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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 originalStar Wars, a franchise close to Johnson’s heart, gave the good guys a typical action movie victory,Empire Strikes Backdelivers possibly the most shocking revealin cinema history; if Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a villain in the firstTerminator, 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. InGlass Onion’scase this is utilized by switching up the reasons why Blanc’s character is caught up in this murder mystery.
Knives Out’sBlanc was genuinely hired in the original movie, whereas inGlass Onionhe’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, whileKnives Outplays on the Thrombey family(and the subject of rich troubled families for that matter),Glass Onionputs 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 Outis framed as a family tragedy, yet the sequel starts off -literaly- as pure fun and games.
Despite the film inviting viewers to grant it someconcessions to cover up potential plot holesfor the sake of entertainment,Glass Onionchanges the who, when, where, why, how, and even theending 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 theKnives Outfranchise 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 onthis trick is none other than James Bondhimself. 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 whyKnives Outis required viewing to enjoyGlass 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 enablesGlass Onion’sescapism into a true billionaire weekendgetaway.
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 andKnives Outspecial is that Johnson doesn’t even have to be bothered by that because that’s notwhat the whodunnit is supposed to provide.
In a Hollywood era whenmost studios are happy to simply make more of the same but bigger, Rian Johnson’sKnives Outhas one-upped the trend by tossing Benoit Blanc on an exotic island that evokes that same feeling,Glass Onionis definitely more stylish yet with a very different outcome. The result isa blossoming movie franchise for Netflix, the streamer’s first, and ifKnives Outplays its cards right, then Johnson can truly honor Christie’s legacy for years to come.
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