Shot by Shot with the ‘Knives Out’ Trailer

With a cast impossible to ignore, Rian Johnson's 'Knives Out' immediately rises to the top of our most anticipated films of the year list.
Knives Out

We see a dying breath from Thrombey before his backgammon game topples to the ground.

Along with a few bottles of Ketorolac Tromethamine, which is an anti-inflammatory drug used to treat pain in patients. Could Thrombey already be on the way out before his killer struck?

As Marta makes a horrid, terrifying discovery, we hear Walt’s exaggerated fury towards Detective Archer’s questioning. “You think one of his family killed him? Is that what you’re suggesting?” Archer opens his palms in a calming gesture to no effect.

While a woman lays motionless upon the floor, a gloved hand comes into frame holding one more little bottle of medicine. Morphine, another pain killer, but one much deadlier in small doses.

The gloved hand takes a moment to enjoy the action about to occur. SNIKT! The needle goes right into the neck. Do not pass go. Do not collect two hundred dollars. That person swims with the fishes. In 1914, Agatha Christie volunteered as a nurse at the hospital in Torquay, England. She was an apothecaries’ assistant qualified to write prescriptions, and she developed a strong understanding of how medicine can be transformed into poison. Such knowledge is at play in Knives Out. If you want to read more on how Christie’s understanding of chemistry aided her in the murders she plotted for her books, then you must read Kathryn Harkup’s “Agatha Christie, the Queen of Crime Chemistry” over at Chemistry World.

Detective Blanc condemns the family by theatrically challenging the group, “You all love twisting the knife into one another.” This family lives to devour itself one tasty morsel at a time. Once again, the Radiohead song blares in my brain, “I want you to know/He’s not coming back/His blood is frozen/Still there is no point letting it go to waste.” The bones of Thrombey will keep these folks fed for generations.

Cue Ransom spewing the most humorously venomous scene of the trailer. “Up your ass,” he directs at one dear family member, followed by a barrage of “Eat shit, eat shit, eat shit…definitely eat shit.”


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Brad Gullickson: Brad Gullickson is a Weekly Columnist for Film School Rejects and Senior Curator for One Perfect Shot. When not rambling about movies here, he's rambling about comics as the co-host of Comic Book Couples Counseling. Hunt him down on Twitter: @MouthDork. (He/Him)