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Rian Johnson's Knives Out

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Noaqiyeum Trans Siberian Anarchestra (it/they) from the gentle and welcoming dark (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
Trans Siberian Anarchestra (it/they)
#476: Feb 10th 2023 at 10:51:01 PM

Agreed, although I think there’s an issue of whether they should have realized that they need to ditch him earlier than they actually do.

Lionel had the best reason to leave because he has all the information to know that Klear should blow up in their faces, but he's also characterised as thoroughly taken in by in Miles' charisma. He's very intelligent, and as a result very good at rationalising. He had more respect for Miles than he did for an entire team of colleagues telling him that signing off on the rocket launch would ruin his career, reinforced again by the reveal that he forwarded Andi's e-mail, so it's no surprise how much it took for Miles to lose his respect.

Claire, in contrast, repeatedly expressed how concerned she was about her public image, and realised she needed to distance herself from Miles as soon as Lionel told her about the test results. So it did seem like weak characterisation that she didn't take any of the opportunities she had to actually do anything about that before the dome exploded.

(Birdie and Duke weren't involved in Klear and had specific things they still hoped to get from Miles, Peg was stuck with Birdie, and Whiskey was waiting to quit until after they left the island.)

Edited by Noaqiyeum on Feb 10th 2023 at 7:02:13 PM

The Revolution Will Not Be Tropeable
slimcoder The Head of the Hydra Since: Aug, 2015
The Head of the Hydra
#477: Feb 10th 2023 at 10:57:26 PM

It did a thing like in the first film where all the other guys were united together but it doesn't work as well here because in the first film the Thrombey's are an actual family and united by a single goal of contesting the will.

But here we have more disparate unrelated individuals whose connection to each other didn't even occur until adulthood from the looks of it. So the idea that not even one of them would at least go "Fuck you Miles" is kinda ridiculous especially with how severe this situation is.

"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#478: Feb 11th 2023 at 2:30:04 AM

Lionel and Claire believe they owe their success to Bron so it can probably be easily explained as "con men must have victims who want to be fooled."

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
dcutter2 Since: Sep, 2013
#479: Feb 11th 2023 at 3:42:20 AM

~Larkman

I owe you an apology, since someone else mentioned a rocket flight above, I went back and watched Lionel's first scene and yeah they mention Bron wants to 'put this on a manned flight'.

I'd forgotten it and you were right about that.

jakobitis Doctor of Doctorates from Somewhere, somewhen Since: Jan, 2015 Relationship Status: I'd need a PowerPoint presentation
Doctor of Doctorates
#480: Feb 11th 2023 at 11:41:48 PM

I think it's the case that as soon as one of them gets/got the courage to tell Bron where to go, the rest would also find their metaphorical balls and do the same... but none of them dared to be that first one, in case they got the Andi treatment.

"These 'no-nonsense' solutions of yours just don't hold water in a complex world of jet-powered apes and time travel."
KarkatTheDalek Not as angry as the name would suggest. from Somwhere in Time/Space Since: Mar, 2012 Relationship Status: You're a beautiful woman, probably
Not as angry as the name would suggest.
#481: Feb 12th 2023 at 12:18:23 AM

That’s not a bad idea, actually. Reminds me of that one bit from Discworld:

They avoided one another's faces, for fear of what they might see mirrored there. Each man thought: one of the others is bound to say something soon, some protest, and then I'll murmur agreement, not actually say anything, I'm not stupid as that, but definitely murmur very firmly, so that the others will be in no doubt that I thoroughly disapprove, because at a time like this it behooves all decent men to nearly stand up and be almost heard...

No one said anything. The cowards, thought each man.

Edited by KarkatTheDalek on Feb 12th 2023 at 3:18:36 PM

Oh God! Natural light!
Zendervai Visiting from the Hoag Galaxy from St. Catharines Since: Oct, 2009 Relationship Status: Wishing you were here
Visiting from the Hoag Galaxy
#482: Feb 12th 2023 at 6:38:31 AM

Yeah, Bron could absolutely destroy each one, one at a time. And since each has different grievances or different levels of knowledge (Claire only finds out about the Klear problem in the movie, for example. If Lionel stood up before the movie at any point, Claire would have sided against him because she didn’t know what the problem was) and most of them don’t seem to actually like each other much, there’s very little incentive for any of them to collude and plan together.

Not Three Laws compliant.
TheAirman Brightness from The vicinity of an area adjacent to a location Since: Feb, 2011 Relationship Status: It's so nice to be turned on again
Brightness
#483: Feb 13th 2023 at 7:06:38 AM

Bron had already proven to be a murderer, of his own ex and one of his (alleged) best friends no less.

The latter while they were all in the same room together, as a decision he made and carried out in literally a few seconds. And a few minutes after that he tried to murder again with a loaded gun, the intended victim only surviving by Deus ex Machina. And the gun, it should be noted, is still in his possession as far as anyone is aware, and nobody has any reason to assume he’s out of bullets.

Miles Bron made it very clear to them that they will ride, or they will die. Literally.

Edited by TheAirman on Feb 13th 2023 at 9:07:33 AM

PSN ID: FateSeraph Congratulations! She/They
TwinBird Dunkies addict from Eastern Mass Since: Oct, 2009 Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
Dunkies addict
#484: Feb 13th 2023 at 8:28:27 PM

I have to wonder, currently staying in Middleborough, whether setting the film (the first one, I mean, even though this thread seems to have metastasized) there was a deliberate subtle joke (there aren't many houses like that here - they were filming at a historic mansion in Newton - and if there are any they're probably a laughingstock for their ostentatiousness, and quite possibly not worth a full million), or whether it's just that Rian Johnson (born in Maryland, raised mostly in California, spent his entire adult life there) picked it with a dart on a map of Acceptable Targets (ironic, since the film seems to take on anti-Southern bias).

Edited by TwinBird on Feb 13th 2023 at 11:43:14 AM

My posts make considerably more sense read in the voice of John Ratzenberger.
Ookamikun This is going to be so much fun. from the lupine den Since: Jan, 2001
This is going to be so much fun.
#485: Apr 6th 2023 at 9:24:03 AM

Just finished Knives Out and enjoyed it a lot, but man the alternate character interpretation and shipping really is stepping on eggshells.

Death is a companion. We should cherish Death as we cherish Life.
ArthurEld Since: May, 2014
#486: Apr 7th 2023 at 7:13:47 PM

Meaning...what?

Like what character interpretations are you talking about?

Ookamikun This is going to be so much fun. from the lupine den Since: Jan, 2001
This is going to be so much fun.
#487: Apr 10th 2023 at 5:26:45 PM

Mostly in the trope page. And the whole toxic shipping thing with Marta and Ransom.

Death is a companion. We should cherish Death as we cherish Life.
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