For Glass Onion, see here.
- Acting in the Dark: Jamie Lee Curtis says that the actors weren't given the whole script and isolated from each other as much as possible to avoid them sharing spoilers.
- Actor-Shared Background: While it may or may not have been intentional, like Linda, when her father Tony Curtis died in 2010 Jamie Lee Curtis and her siblings only found out afterwards that he had changed his will a few months prior and disinherited all of his children, leaving his whole estate solely to his widowed wife. However, Jamie Lee has never publicly spoken about it so it's unknown if she also felt the same way as Linda or the other Thrombeys do.
- All-Star Cast: The film has an exceptionally impressive amount of named talents in its cast, one that rivals fellow modern whodunnit film Murder on the Orient Express.
- Award Category Fraud: Despite playing the protagonist, Ana de Armas won a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress. She was however nominated as a lead actress at the Golden Globes and Satellite Awards.
- Billing Displacement: The three first names featured on the poster and ending credits are: "Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas". De Armas plays the Main Character. She is also shunted off to the very edge of the poster of all the major characters, despite, once again, being the main character, with Craig being front and center and Evans next to him. The posters at least can be excused by the fact that Marta's relative outsider status is a plot point.
- Completely Different Title:
- Spain: Daggers on the back.
- Latin America: Between razors and secrets.
- Corpsing: Maybe. In the scene where Walt is yelling at Ransom, asking him if he thinks Harlan left him enough money for a glass of milk, Ransom has a delighted grin on his face. Chris Evans might be doing this in-character, since Ransom knows Harlan cut everyone out of the will, but Michael Shannon as Walt was full into Large Ham, yelling right into Chris's face, so it could have been just left in. The next immediate cut to Ransom from a different angle shows him still looking smug, but the delighted grin is gone.
- Creator-Driven Successor: To Rian Johnson's first film, Brick, being another Deconstructive Parody of a popular subgenre of Detective Fiction, the British "cozy".
- Deleted Scenes: Two scenes would have had Blanc going deeper into his investigation, with payoff later on.
- During his interview, Walt says that he injured his leg in a bicycling accident. Later, Blanc visits Donna at their home, learning that the "accident" happened in the middle of the night. Walt actually owed money to some unsavory people.
- Early on, Blanc develops a skin rash. Later, he confronts Joni about the fact that her entire Flam line has received nothing but complaints, causing him to deduce that she is actually broke.
- Dyeing for Your Art: Toni Collette as Joni is given a highly unflattering fake tan
that's deeper and more jarringly orange than her usual light tan. She also seems to wear the classic "Botox face." To understand how severe this make-under was, here are a few screencaps◊ of Joni with the other characters. - Enforced Method Acting: Rian Johnson kept strict control over how much each actor knew about the script to make sure those playing characters in the dark were as confused as the people they were portraying.
- Executive Meddling: According to Rian Johnson, while making this film, he discovered that Apple has a rule of not allowing villains to use iPhones on-camera (presumably Jacob's phone) in films in which said product appears, out of fear that doing so would hurt the brand image of their product, and that this is apparently a rule that extends to any movie involving their product.
- Fake American:
- Daniel Craig, an Englishman, plays an American sleuth who hails from the Southern states. (Possibly; other characters' reaction to his accent and unkind comments about it allow for the possibility that it's an in-universe case of Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping, in which case his nationality is unknown).
- Australians Toni Collette and Katherine Langford play an American mother and daughter.
- Canadian Christopher Plummer plays an American.
- Irony as She Is Cast:
- Both Ana de Armas and Marlene Forte (who plays Marta's mother) are originally Cuban, pretty much the only place in the Spanish-speaking world their characters can't be originally from.note .
- Linda Thrombey's most notable trait is her arrogant and deceitful claims that she is a Self-Made Woman, despite owing much of her success to her famous, wealthy father. In contrast, her actress (Jamie Lee Curtis) was praised for her honesty and humility in a post-release interview where she admitted that nepotism played a role in much of her early acting career (her parents, Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, were both famous actors).
- Inspiration for the Work: Johnson's director's commentary reveals he was inspired by Stephen Sondheim's love of hosting murder mystery parties in developing the story. Sondheim gets a Shout-Out when Blanc sings a few lines from Follies, and makes a cameo in the sequel Glass Onion.
- Missing Trailer Scene: The trailer features a shot of a man standing on the front porch of the Thrombey estate menacing Donna Thrombey, who drops a bag of groceries. This shot does not appear anywhere in the finished film, but is from a deleted scene where the creditors that Walt owes money to come to collect.
- The Other Marty: Ricky Jay was cast as the security guard but died before he could film his scene. M. Emmet Walsh was cast in his place. A photo of Jay is seen briefly, presumably depicting a younger version of the character.
- Never Work with Children or Animals: When Ransom first appears at the house, Harlan's dogs lunge and aggressively bark at him to indicate that he's not to be trusted and ultimately the real murderer. Apparently it was very difficult to get the dogs to do this convincingly, because Evans just had such a nice aura about him that the dogs loved him and only wanted to play. Johnson eventually had Evans stuff dog treats in his pockets to get the proper effect.
- Playing Against Type:
- Benoit Blanc is only the second role with comedic traits for Daniel Craig in his long and prolific career (after another Bunny-Ears Lawyer Southern-Fried Genius, Joe Bang in Logan Lucky).
- Ana de Armas' roles are almost always some sort of Ms. Fanservice, but here she gets to play a Chaste Heroine.
- Michael Shannon, usually cast as imposing authority figures and mentally unstable villains, here plays Walt as a whiny and petulant weakling.
- M. Emmet Walsh, best known for playing sleazy characters, plays an elderly and amiable security guard. This also would have been the case for original actor Ricky Jay.
- Jaeden Martell, best known for playing the courageous All-Loving Hero Bill Denbrough, plays Jacob Thrombey, an alt-right G.I.F.T troll and a total Jerkass.
- Toni Collette is better known for her dramatic but especially horror roles, but here plays a more comedic role as an air-headed valley girl.
- Don Johnson is best known for playing the suave undercover cop Sonny Crockett on Miami Vice. Here, he's an ineffectual xenophobic bumbler who's cheating on his wife, can't keep a secret, and openly tries to bribe the cops to get his way. Could double as an Actor Allusion since Crockett and his partner Tubbs were horrible at keeping it a secret that they were cops.
- Playing with Character Type: As Ransom, Chris Evans seems to return to his roots as the brash yet charming Jerkass that he was initially known for note before his career-defining role as Steve Rogers. When helping Marta to clear her name, he shows what appears to be a softer, more sincere side that recalls his performance as Cap, but he ultimately shows his true colours as a murderous, xenophobic villain, a complete departure from any of his past roles.
- Production Posse: Director Rian Johnson brought some of his regulars in here.
- Frank Oz portrayed Yoda once again in The Last Jedi. Frequent collaborators Noah Segan and Joseph Gordon-Levitt also appear.
- Noah Segan has appeared in pretty much everything Johnson has directed up to this point.
- On the crew side, cinematographer Steve Yeldin, composer Nathan Johnson, and editor Bob Ducsay return.
- Reality Subtext:
- Jacob Thrombey, portrayed as an alt-right troll, was inspired by the online backlash Rian Johnson received after The Last Jedi was released.
- The Thrombeys' spectrum of attitudes (ranging from outright xenophobic to Condescending Compassion) towards immigrants echo right-wing sentiment during the Trump administration.
- The Red Stapler: Johnson reported fans inquiring where to buy Ransom's wool sweater
- Referenced by...:
- Schaffrillas Productions quotes the "Compels me though" line (with the matching clip) when talking about Cody barely singing and getting away with it but being so good at it when he does.
- The Dartmoor level in Hitman 3 is named "Thornbridge Manor" (which sounds rather similar to the "Thrombey Estate" in the film), a cricket ball can be seen outside of the window of Fernsby's office (referencing the baseball Ransom throws out of Harlans' office in this film), while the whole level is one massive Locked Room Mystery the player is able to solve, with the murder of Zachary Carlisle being the focus, and even has a secret passage in the room like in the film.
- Separated-at-Birth Casting: Katherine Langford and Jaeden Martell look so much alike they are completely believable as first cousins.
- Star-Making Role: Playing against her typical fanservice supporting roles, Ana de Armas nabbed a Golden Globe nomination for her performance and began to get more prominent marquee roles and commercial deals off this role, including Marilyn Monroe in Blonde.
- Those Two Actors: This is the second time Michael Shannon and Jaeden Martell have played father and son, after 2016's Midnight Special.
- Throw It In!:
- Richard handing his dish to Marta while he asks for her input on the family's conversation about immigration was an improvisation by Don Johnson.
- Rian Johnson noted in an interview that Michael Shannon made several funny improvs, among them "I will not eat one iota of shit!" and "Maybe Harlan left you a cold glass of milk in his will, asshole."
- Jayden Martell reportedly improvised Jacob's "anchor baby" line. It was initially lost in the chaos of the scene, but Michael Shannon happened to hear it and informed Rian Johnson, who added a shot to focus on Jayden.
- As noted in the main page entries for Brick Joke and Book Ends, the final shot of the film is Marta looking down on the Thrombeys while sipping from Harlan's mug, with only the words "My House" fully visible, implying that she'll be keeping the whole inheritance for herself. Rian Johnson revealed in an interview that this wasn't entirely intentional.Johnson: It’s funny that was—it wasn’t an accident, but it was kind of an accident. A happy accident. I knew I wanted her to like sip tea in the final shot, and I had had separately the idea of "My house, my rules, my coffee," as that first shot in the movie—after that first big dramatic shot of the house, breaking the tension with kind of a goofy modern joke mug. And I was like, "Oh she can have that at the end!" Then when we were doing that close-up, she was up in the balcony and I yelled up, "Sip the tea!’ and she brought it into frame and those words came up and I was just like, "Oh that’s pretty nice."
- Underage Casting: In a rare version of this trope, K Callan was in her early eighties during filming—and still too young to play Great Nana. The character's age is never specified, but given that Harlan is celebrating his 85th birthday, Great Nana is at least a century old (by biological standards alone) and likely even older that that.
- Voice-Only Cameo: Joseph Gordon-Levitt is the detective character talking on the television (whose screen is not shown) that Alice and Marla are watching.
- What Could Have Been:
- Benoit Blanc’s Southern accent in the script is described as “the gentlest Southern lilt possible”, in contrast to the final film where his accent is so extreme other characters mock it.
- Ransom's repeated declaration of "Eat shit!" to his family was originally "Fuck you!" It was changed to keep the rating at PG-13. Additionally, in the shooting script he refers to Meg's major as a "LUG"note degree rather than "SJW" as in the final film.
- Foreshadowing: In a deleted scene the apparent Loan Shark threatening Donna has a coat just like Blanc's while when Blanc arrives at her house in the next scene, he's without that coat for one of the only times in this movie. This implies that the man was sent by Blanc, Elliot and Wagner to give them a moment of Engineered Heroics and make Donna more willing to talk to them about the loan Walt took. Sure enough the "loan shark" reappears as one of the cops in the final scene.
- Word of Saint Paul:
- Daniel Craig believes Blanc was previously a cop.
- On Instagram in April 2021, Jamie Lee Curtis reveals the fates of the Thromby family post-movie. As per her words:“To clear up any rumors, the Thromby family is in family counseling and the therapist suggested they stay away from Benoit Blanc in the future. Linda was fine as she kicked her loafer wearing prick of a husband, sorry @donjohnson to the curb. The rest of them are hustling. Ransom is apparently in the knitting sweater business, a new skill he picked up in the slammer. Joni has some vaginal scented bath bomb, Walt is self publishing his memoir. NONE of us will be joining Mr. Blanc in Greece. As the family spokesperson we wish the filmmakers all our best in their new venture.”
