The Unlikely Hero of Rian Johnson’s <em>Knives Out</em>

This story contains spoilers for Knives Out.

A thick cloud of guilt looms over the unconscionably wealthy family at the center of Knives Out, the spirited new whodunit from the writer-director. In the film’s opening moments, an elderly patriarch (played by Christopher Plummer) is found dead in his study. Though his throat was slit, law enforcement quickly rules Harlan Thrombey’s death a suicide. But when Benoit Blanc, a mysterious private detective (Daniel Craig), arrives to investigate, Harlan’s loved ones assume that the octogenarian, eccentric and exacting in life, has left them a final challenge: unearthing the details of his suspicious demise.