Editor's note: The following contains spoilers for Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.Mysteries are always a delight to watch, especially when we have all the clues we need to solve them ourselves. But, sometimes, the clues aren’t hiding exactly where we think they should. In Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Rian Johnson’s sequel to his hit movie Knives Out, there are numerous little details scattered throughout that might help viewers figure out what’s going on before detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig)—or just as quick as him. Then there are also those details that don’t add much to the plot, but sure make Glass Onion a much more rewarding and entertaining watch. In case you’ve seen the film, but still have no idea what we’re talking about, here’s a list of all the clues, cameos, and Easter eggs that you might have missed.
The Beatles' "Glass Onion"
Glass Onion’s very first Easter egg is in its title. It turns out that Miles Bron’s (Edward Norton) brief rendition of “Blackbird” on Paul McCartney’s guitar isn’t the only Beatles reference in the film. “Glass Onion” is also a Beatles song that can be found in the band’s self-titled tenth studio album most popularly known as “The White Album." With lyrics such as “Lady Madonna trying to make ends meet” and “The walrus was Paul," “Glass Onion” pokes fun at fans that are constantly trying to look for hidden meanings behind the band’s songs, telling us that sometimes, things that seem deep and complex can be quite simple and see-through – much like Miles Bron and his mysteries. The reference to the song can also have something to do with the movie’s intent of showing the truth behind the obscenely rich and famous, as one of the verses says “Looking through the bent backed tulips/To see how the other half live." And if there's any question whether this is a direct reference, the song is also featured in the movie's end credits.
Yo-Yo Ma Solves Miles Bron’s Musical Riddle
Glass Onion starts with an unlikely group of friends each receiving an invitation in the mail to a fancy murder mystery party from alleged genius billionaire Miles Bron. But, being the phony, pedantic jerk that he is, Bron doesn’t simply send his friends a regular letter. His invitation comes in the form of a box of riddles that must be solved one by one in order to reveal a small card containing the event’s info. One of the riddles is a song that is correctly identified as Bach’s “Little Fugue in G Minor” by world-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma, who is attending a party at Birdie’s (Kate Hudson) instead of socially distancing during Covid. A fugue, as Ma explains, is a musical puzzle, a tune that becomes something else entirely when layered on top of itself.
Celebrities Among Us
In his first scene in the movie, famed detective Benoit Blanc is shown to be spending the first few months of the pandemic just like many of us did: utterly depressed and killing time with countless games of Among Us. However, few among us (ha!) can say that they had a group of game partners as star-studded as Mr. Blanc. Sitting in his bathtub, Benoit has a two-screen setup, one of which shows a Zoom chat between him, actress Angela Lansbury, Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim, actress Natasha Lyonne, and basketball player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Benoit’s friends are all somewhat connected to the mystery genre. After retiring from basketball, Abdul-Jabbar wrote a series of novels based on Sherlock Holmes’ brother, Mycroft, alongside writer Anna Waterhouse; Lyonne is set to star in Rian Johnson’s upcoming Peacock murder mystery series Poker Face; one of Sondheim’s greatest plays is Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street; and one of Lansbury's best-known performances is as Jessica Fletcher on Murder, She Wrote. And if you look really closely at the game screen, you can see that both Mr. Sondheim and Ms. Lansbury have screen names that reference their most famous works: Stephen’s alias is FleetSt, while Angela goes by MSheSolved.
The Game of Among Us Also Foreshadows the Impostor Plot
In Among Us, a spaceship’s crew must figure out which one of them is the impostor that is sabotaging their mission and killing them one by one. The impostor wins if they manage to take everyone out without blowing his cover. Meanwhile, in Glass Onion, one of Miles Bron’s so-called disruptors isn’t who she says she is: the woman calling herself Andi Brand is actually Andi’s twin sister, Helen (Janelle Monáe), who is trying to solve Andi’s murder and take down Miles Bron. In this scenario, the impostor is not the killer, but the one tasked with uncovering the killer’s true identity. However, that is only one possible interpretation. After all, Helen is far from being the only impostor at Bron’s murder mystery party. Miles Bron himself is pretending to be a technological and business genius while he is nothing but a thief that stole all his ideas from Andi. And, in this case, the impostor is very much the killer.
A Book Near Benoit’s Bathtub Tells Us a Lot About the Story’s Structure
Still in the Among Us scene, there is yet another element that tells us a lot about the story of Glass Onion. There, on the ground, right next to Benoit’s bathtub, is a copy of Edward Powys Mathers’, a.k.a. Torquemada, Cain’s Jawbone, a murder mystery puzzle with the pages arranged in the wrong order. The book dares the reader to figure out the correct order of the pages, and its inclusion in the early scenes of Glass Onion is an indicator that the film’s story won’t be told in the traditional order.
Hugh Grant Is “Married to James Bond”
Perhaps the most obvious celebrity cameo in Glass Onion is that of Hugh Grant. The British actor appears briefly as Phillip, a character that was later confirmed by Grant himself to be Benoit Blanc’s husband. Phillip is the one that opens the door of Benoit’s apartment to Helen, and he’s also said to be worried about Benoit’s pandemic depression.
What’s in a Mask?
Something important about the characters in Glass Onion is that they are nearly all wearing a mask - sometimes figuratively, and sometimes literally. Since the movie takes place during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, when Miles’ guests first meet to travel to his Greek island, they are almost all masked up to protect themselves and others from the disease. But the way each of the “disruptors” wear their mask tells us a lot about their personalities. Lionel’s (Leslie Odom Jr.) properly fitted, sober black mask is a clear indicator of his science-oriented mind. It’s the mask of a man that knows just how severe this pandemic is. Meanwhile, Claire’s loose mask, with her nose popping out, tells us that she is a busy woman with no time for vanities, but also that she doesn’t care as much as she pretends to. Birdie’s golden mesh mask shows a complete misunderstanding of what the masks are even for, and Duke (Dave Bautista) and Whiskey’s (Madelyn Cline) lack of a mask speak of their blatant disregard for others.
Ethan Hawke Administers the Covid Vaccines
A Covid shot doesn’t mean you get to stop wearing your mask, but, in the world of Glass Onion, it kind of does. After all, the vaccine that Miles Bron got while we were all still locked up at home is certainly much more powerful than the ones going around. And who did Bron get to administer this vaccine to his guests? None other than Ethan Hawke. The actor is credited as playing the Efficient Man.
Alpha and Omega
The name of Miles Bron’s company might be Alpha, but it is not the first letter of the Greek alphabet that appears all throughout Glass Onion. Instead, it is the letter omega, the alphabet’s very last one, that we see all around: on Bron’s yacht, on Lionel’s lapel, and even on Benoit’s watch, an Omega Seamaster 1948. Together, the two letters form the expression “alpha and omega”, meaning the beginning and the end of something. This indicates that Miles’ empire is coming to an end.
Noah Segan Is Not a Part of This Experience
Benoit Blanc, Helen/Andi, and the “disruptors” aren’t the only people staying at Miles Bron’s mansion. There’s someone else around, and I don’t mean Whiskey or Peg (Jessica Henwick). But don’t worry: Derol (Noah Segan) is not a part of the experience. He’s just going through some things. Or, maybe, he just wants to make a throwback to the franchise's previous movie, in which Segan plays one of the police detectives trying to solve the murder of Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer). In an interview with Screen Rant, Johnson stated that Segan is one of his best friends and has been in every single one of his movies.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Hourly Dong (No, Seriously)
.jpg?q=50&fit=crop&w=1500&dpr=1.5)
Yet another shout-out to Knives Out is Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s cameo. In the first film of the franchise, Gordon-Levitt appears as a TV detective in a show that Marta (Ana de Armas) watches with her mother. In Glass Onion, he doesn’t appear at all, but his voice can be heard every now and then as the deafening “Dong!” that marks the passing of time in Miles’ private island. Much like Segan, Gordon-Levitt is a regular in Johnson’s filmography and has been in every one of the director’s movies since starring in his debut feature, Brick.
There’s an Upside Down Rothko Painting in Miles’ Living Room
The living room in Miles Bron’s mansion is full of famous works of art. But not every artwork in Bron’s private gallery is displayed quite as it should be. A painting by American abstract artist Mark Rothko is hanging upside down. Now, the painting features only two blocks of color, and it would be understandable for someone that doesn’t know much about art to hang it the wrong way. But someone claiming to be a once-in-a-generation genius? Yeah, that’s suspicious…
Young Miles Bron Dresses Just Like Magolia's Frank T.J. Mackey
Bron's entire career is based on making people believe he’s someone other than himself, and this didn't start with Alpha. In a flashback to long before Andi started the company, we see the “disrupters” hanging out at a bar when Miles comes in. His outfit in this scene is identical to that of another movie character, Frank T.J. Mackey (Tom Cruise), a pick-up artist from the 1999 movie Magnolia, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. The fact that Bron is emulating Mackey speaks of his desire to charm everyone around him, and a cockiness that he apparently admires in the Mackey character.
In His Fall-Out With Andi, Miles Wears Steve Jobs’ Signature Look
In yet another flashback, we see Andi and Miles having the fight that would eventually culminate in Bron taking control of Alpha. This time, however, Miles is not dressed as any movie character. Instead, his look is an exact copy of Steve Jobs’ signature outfit, from the jeans to the black turtleneck. Once again, this wardrobe choice tells us a lot about Miles and how he wishes to be perceived, except now it's his desire to be seen as a tech and business genius that is at the forefront.
Serena Williams and Gravity's Rainbow
Another celebrity that makes a cameo in Glass Onion is world-renowned tennis player Serena Williams. The sports star appears as a virtual fitness coach in Miles' gym, bored out of her mind as she is forced to wait online for someone to ask her for a lesson. To pass the time, Williams is reading a copy of Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow in yet another throwback to Knives Out, this time, to a scene in which Benoit Blanc states that no one has ever read the famously long and difficult novel.