History YMMV / KnivesOut

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation/KnivesOut Has its own page.]]

* EvilIsSexy: [[spoiler:It probably won't come as a surprise to anyone that people have this reaction to Ransom -- he's played by Chris Evans! The official Twitter account even jokingly branded itself a thirst account for Ransom and his sweater.]]

* KickTheDog: Harlan's treatment of Walt could be interpreted as this, with both firing him and cutting him out of the will. Cutting out Linda and Richard? Linda did have a successful career and wouldn't be penniless, while Richard was cheating on her. Cutting out Ransom? He had it coming. Cutting out Jodi? She ''was'' ripping him off. Hell, Harlan even said he'd keep on paying for her daughter's (Meg) college, which was more of a bone than he threw Walt. But all Walt did (deleted scenes aside) was run the production company the way Harlan ''insisted'' it be run, and any ideas Walt had (adapting the novels into film and television) were instantly shot down. Harlan said he wanted to do it so Walt could "make something of his own," but what, exactly? The only thing on his resume is running ''Harlan's'' production company, which being fired from isn't going to get him any interviews. He's also, to be honest, too old to be starting another career or trying to branch out into something else. Out of everyone Harlan kicked to the curb, Walt is the most sympathetic.

** Meg also has a lot of defenders who will try to justify her [[spoiler:selling out Marta's secret about her mother's immigration status so the family could blackmail her]], even though it was an incredibly selfish and (given her previously voiced political opinions) hypocritical thing to do no matter what kind of pressure she was under. It is also perhaps somewhat telling that the other member of the Thrombey family that viewers are willing to defend and think the best of also happens to be a young, attractive woman who espouses left-leaning political positions (that she may not fully believe).

** Meg also has a lot of defenders who will try to justify her [[spoiler:selling out Marta's secret about her mother's immigration status so the family could blackmail her]], even though it was an incredibly selfish and (given her previously voiced political opinions) hypocritical thing to do no matter what kind of pressure she was under.

** Similarly, the beginning of the film lead some viewers to ship Marta with Meg, due to the obvious closeness between them and Meg seemingly being a WhiteSheep to her family, similarly to Harlan. Only for almost all potential shippers to completely drop it after [[spoiler: Meg betrays Marta’s confidence and reveals her mother’s illegal immigrant status to her family -- who Meg ''knows'' are racist and xenophobic, and currently working against Marta.]]

* BaseBreakingCharacter: Meg. Some fans feel that she's just as bad as her family, especially considering [[spoiler: she outed Marta's mother as undocumented]], and that all her talk about social justice is just lip service because she protected her money when the chips were down. Others feel that she does believe in what she was saying, and was just forced to [[spoiler: tell Marta's secret]] because of family pressure.

* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadAss: Trooper Wagner, despite his NiceGuy tendencies and fanboy demeanor, didn't become a plainclothes detective investigating homicides by being incompetent. If you look closely, you'll see he carries his gun in a crossdraw holster (on his left side, with the gun angled towards his right hand), this allows for a faster draw than carrying it on his right side. It's preferred by people who want to draw their gun in a hurry.

* 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. Evans might be doing this in-character, since his character knows Harlan cut ''everyone'' out of the will, but Michael Shannon as Walt was full into LargeHam, 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.

* AcceptableTargets:
** The "masturbating Nazi" Jacob Thrombey.
** Wealthy, elitist conservatives get a thrashing via the majority of the Thrombeys. Excluding Harlan and Nana, the family is arrogant, ''horrifically'' racist, and constantly boasts about their name despite only becoming wealthy within the past few decades ''and'' thanks to Harlan's hard work (he bought the much hyped 'family home' in the 1980s from a Pakistani billionaire, rather than it being in the family for generations) making them come off as incredibly snobbish. Their political biases against immigrants and a staunch support of the law is quick to be discarded [[LaserGuidedKarma when their position is threatened]].
** The BourgeoisBohemian also gets zero love as seemingly progressive characters like Meg and Joni appear to be much more interested in their personal rebellions and struggles that don't threaten their wealth, become otherwise reactionary when their own privilege is questioned and are shown to be just as racist and classist as the rest of their family.

** Jacob Thrombey is believed to be based on conservative pundit Ben Shapiro. Shapiro would draw [[https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/glass-onion-ben-shapiro-murder-mystery-b2252286.html headlines]] for a long [[https://twitter.com/benshapiro/status/1607358237724098561?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet Twitter rant]] against the sequel ''Film/GlassOnion'', criticizing its writing for misdirecting the audience... which is a staple of the murder mystery genre.

** Wealthy, elitist conservatives get a thrashing via the majority of the Thrombeys. Excluding Harlan and Nana, the family is arrogant, ''horrifically'' racist, and constantly boasts about their name despite only becoming wealthy thanks to Harlan's hard work ''and'' within the past few decades (he bought the much hyped 'family home' in the 1980s from a Pakistani billionaire) making them come off as incredibly snobbish. Their political biases against immigrants and a staunch support of the law is quick to be discarded [[LaserGuidedKarma when their position is threatened]].

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Most of the Thrombey-Drysdale family can apply. Despite casting several big talented names like Creator/ToniCollette, Creator/MichaelShannon and Creator/KatherineLangford, in the grand scheme a large portion of the family are ultimately used as [[BitCharacter background characters in the overall plot]]

** Linda is shown to have genuinely loved her father and be grieved at his death, and so Harlan's decision to cut her out of the will can be seen as unnecessarily cruel (although it is worth noting that Linda is also clearly established to be independent of the Thrombey descendants, both financially and in lifestyle, and so arguably doesn't need his inheritance, to begin with), particularly as Harlan never appears to have had a chance to explain his reasoning to her.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Most of the Thrombey/Drysdale family can apply to this Trope. Despite casting several big talented names like Creator/ToniCollette, Creator/MichaelShannon and Creator/KatherineLangford, they are ultimately used as [[BitCharacter background characters in the overall plot]]

* JerksAreWorseThanVillains: [[spoiler:Ransom]] is easily the worst member of the Thrombey family, being a greedy, psychopathic murderer and manipulative schemer. The rest of the Thrombey family, on the other hand, mostly put on a [[BitchInSheepsClothing facade of affable charm]] in an attempt to mask their bigoted and jerkass ways. The only two members that don’t try to hide their jerkassery are Jacob and Richard, the former being an alt-right troll who is quite awkward, soft spoken and comes across as a shrinking coward when dealing with a real life conversation and the latter being a pathetic, bumbling, closet racist. [[spoiler:Ransom]] meanwhile, is not only [[AtLeastIAdmitIt openly proud of being a jerk]] but he is also extremely confident and charismatic, traits that Jacob and Richard both lack. As such, some viewers found themselves disliking the rest of the Thrombeys - or at least Jacob and Richard - far more than [[spoiler:Ransom]].

* JerksAreWorseThanVillains: [[spoiler:Ransom]] is easily the worst member of the Thrombey family, being a greedy, psychopathic murderer and manipulative schemer. The rest of the Thrombey family, on the other hand, mostly put on a [[BitchInSheepsClothing facade of affable charm]] in an attempt to mask their bigoted and jerkass ways. The only two members that don’t try to hide their jerkassery are Jacob and Richard, the former being an alt-right troll who is quite awkward, soft spoken and comes across as a shrinking coward when dealing with a real life conversation and the latter being a pathetic, bumbling, closet racist. [[spoiler:Ransom]] meanwhile, is not only [[AtLeastIAdmitIt openly proud of about being a jerk]] but he is also extremely confident and charismatic, traits that Jacob and Richard both lack. As such, some viewers found themselves disliking the rest of the Thrombeys - or at least Jacob and Richard - far more than [[spoiler:Ransom]].

* JerksAreWorseThanVillains: [[spoiler:Ransom]] is easily the worst member of the Thrombey family, being a greedy, psychopathic murderer and manipulative schemer. The rest of the Thrombey family, on the other hand, mostly put on a facade of affable charm in an attempt to mask their bigoted and jerkass ways. The only two members that don’t try to hide their jerkassery are Jacob and Richard, the former being an alt-right troll who is quite awkward, soft spoken and comes across as a shrinking coward when dealing with a real life conversation and the latter being a pathetic, bumbling, closet racist. [[spoiler:Ransom]] meanwhile, is not only [[AtLeastIAdmitIt openly proud of about being a jerk]] but he is also extremely confident and charismatic, traits that Jacob and Richard both lack. As such, some viewers found themselves disliking the rest of the Thrombeys - or at least Jacob and Richard - far more than [[spoiler:Ransom]].

* JerksAreWorseThanVillains: [[spoiler:Ransom]] is easily the worst member of the Thrombey family, being a greedy, psychopathic murderer and manipulative schemer. The rest of the Thrombey family on the other hand, mostly put on a facade of affable charm in an attempy mask their bigoted and jerkass ways. The only other two members that don’t try to hide their jerkassery is Jacob and Richard. The former being an alt-right troll who is quite awkward, soft spoken and comes across as a shrinking coward when dealing with a real life conversation and the latter being a pathetic, bumbling, closet racist. [[spoiler:Ransom]] meanwhile, is not only [[AtLeastIAdmitIt openly proud of about being a jerk]] but he is also extremely confident and charismatic. Traits that Jacob and Richard both lack. As such, some viewers found themselves disliking the rest of the Trombeys far more than [[spoiler:Ransom]].

** Walt could be considered one. [[spoiler:Though deleted scenes reveal he's thrown in with some very bad people and risks their wrath if he doesn't pay them back, his greatest sins early in the final film are riding his father's coattails and wanting to believe the best of his son. He becomes much less sympathetic when hedecides to use Marta's mother's immigration status as blackmail leverage midway through the film, but even this is brought more from desperation and fear than genuine malice.]]

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: It's very easy to read Harlan as a dick who decided to screw over his own family because they didn't turn out to be the people ''he'' wanted them to be. He punishes Meg by proxy when finding out that Joni was embezzling from him, even though Meg was attending college and had no incentive to screw over her grandfather. Likewise, he cuts off Linda and doesn't even leave a [[spoiler:coded message or]] explanation why. What hammers it home is that Marta emphasizes she doesn't ''want'' the money, she wants to stay out of trouble, and he knew it would be hard for her when the family found out. [[spoiler:Also, he refuses to let his own nurse do ''the job she's paid for'' and thus his death is entirely his own fault.]]

** Wealthy, elitist conservatives get a thrashing via the majority of the Thrombeys. Excluding Harlan and Nana, the family is arrogant, ''horrifically'' racist, and constantly boasts about their name despite only becoming wealthy thanks to Harlan's hard work ''and'' within the past few decades (he bought the much hyped family mansion in the 1980s from a Pakistani business man) making them come off as incredibly snobbish. Their political biases against immigrants and a staunch support of the law is quick to be discarded [[LaserGuidedKarma when their position is threatened]].

** Wealthy, elitist conservatives get a thrashing via the majority of the Thrombeys. Excluding Harlan and Nana, the family is arrogant, ''horrifically'' racist, and constantly boasts about their name despite only becoming wealthy thanks to Harlan's hard work and within the past few decades, making them come off as incredibly snobbish. Their political biases against immigrants and a staunch support of the law is quick to be discarded [[LaserGuidedKarma when their position is threatened]].