Warning: This article contains major spoilers to Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.
It doesn’t take much convincing to watch Knives Out—the murder mystery film franchise is as alluring for its cast as it is for its gripping, Cluedo-esque twist ending narrative. That’s why its sequel, Glass Onion is unsurprisingly one of the biggest films to drop this season.
Created by legendary filmmaker Rian Johnson, Glass Onion brings together a whole new cast to join screen king Daniel Craig, who was the only actor to reprise his role from the first film. This time, his character Detective Blanc is called to a faraway island where he joins guests of tech billionaire Miles Bron for a murder mystery weekend.
The next part is predictable—they end up having to solve a real murder when one of Bron’s guests is supposedly poisoned. What’s not predictable is what Blanc and his secret sidekick uncover the real murderer—and how they went about it.
So if you got to the end of the film and felt mind blown by its plot twists and turns… same. That’s why we’ve unpacked the ending below.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery ending explained
When guest Duke (Dave Bautista) dies after mistakenly drinking billionaire Bron’s (Edward Norton) cocktail glass instead of his own, it seems as though the killer intended to murder the corrupt tech tycoon. As a result, Bron is on a mission to find out who tried to kill him, but his plan backfires when all the lights in his property go out (a planned move for his “fake” murder mystery), and someone shoots Andi (Janelle Monáe).
Then, the first twist. The Andi on the island isn’t actually her—it’s Helen, her identical twin sister. As it turns out, Andi was killed, but it was long before Helen, Blanc and the other guests arrived at Bron’s Island mansion. Following? Let’s unpack this a little more.
Who killed Andi?
Miles Bron killed Andi, who was his former business partner, after she threatened to expose the truth about his corrupt new energy source (called Klear), which he planned to release for public consumption before he’d properly tested it.
When he committed the murder, Bron made it look like Andi died from suicide, but Helen had a hunch that something (or someone) else was at play here. This, she and Blanc joined forces and travelled to Bron’s mansion with his inner circle.
Who killed Duke?
Once again, Miles Bron killed Duke—although he hadn’t originally planned to. Duke spotted Bron while he was driving away from Andi’s house after killing her. Knowing that he would put two and two together after Andi’s body was discovered, Bron devised a way to kill Duke without raising alarm bells on himself. He spiked his own drink with pineapple juice, a fruit which Duke is deathly allergic to. Bron could drink from the vessel to his heart’s content, but when Duke took a sip, he collapsed and died.
What happened to Miles Bron?
When Benoit Blanc finally puts the puzzle pieces together with the help of Helen, they are able to lay out the evidence before each of Bron’s guests. This isn’t enough justice for Helen, however. She begins smashing Bron’s elaborate statues before each of his guests join in. They finally understand the depth of his crimes and after lying for the billionaire for years in order to benefit from his wealth.
Helen also sets a fire, which ironically turns into a flaming fireball explosion after coming into contact with Bron’s untested and dangerous invention, Klear. The flames destroy his Mona Lisa painting, which Bron had displayed in his home, and this ultimately seals Bron’s fate. He’s toast—figuratively, and potentially literally if he doesn’t escape the house.
Madelyn Cline (who played Duke’s onscreen girlfriend Whiskey) told marie claire Australia that that final chaotic scene was “cathartic” to finally act out.
“We’d been standing on the same marks for about two or three weeks and everybody was going a little stir crazy. It was the moment we’d all been waiting for and the opportunity to break these very fragile structures that we’d been tip-toeing around.
“It was so chaotic and so much fun, everyone was waiting for that moment,” she added.
She could be speaking for the viewers too—suffice to say the ending of Glass Onion was worth every bit of its “whodunnit” turmoil.
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