Whether you caught Rian Johnson’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery during its brief theatrical run or are champing at the bit for it to arrive on Netflix on December 23, you might also be looking for other films in the same vein. Some similar twisty mysteries to sink your teeth into, anchored by a brilliant, eccentric crime-solver. So we’ve compiled a list of some excellent Glass Onion companion movies.
The second Benoit Blanc caper, following 2019’s Knives Out, Glass Onion takes Daniel Craig’s sly sleuth to a private island in Greece, and into the waiting arms of a new all-star cast, featuring Edward Norton, Janelle Monáe, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Jessica Henwick, Madelyn Cline, Kate Hudson, and Dave Bautista. It’s the first of Johnson’s two Knives Out follow-ups heading to Netflix (in a landmark deal for the writer/director).
Check out the list, either on the full page or the slideshow directly below, for a few other superb and sinister murder mystery offerings, some of which actually influenced Knives Out.
1. Murder on the Orient Express (2017) / Death on the Nile (2022)
Where to Watch: (Orient Express) Fubo, DirecTV, or rentable on most platforms. (Death on the Nile) Hulu, HBO Max, DirecTV, or rentable on most platforms.
One of iconic mystery novelist Agatha Christie’s most beloved brains is Hercule Poirot, a character who’s been brought to movies and TV dozens of times over the decades, with many of Christie’s Poirot books having been brought from page to screen. And you can rarely go wrong with them, so seek them out. If you want the most recent, souped-up Poirot adventures, then obviously check out Kenneth Branagh’s takes on Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile (with A Haunting in Venice arriving in theaters in September 2023). A genius mind, a big-name ensemble, and a crafty case to crack.
2. The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939)
Where to Watch: Tubi (w/ ads), Kanopy, or rentable on most platforms.
If we’re talking legendary detectives from fiction then we have to get Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes in here. Like Agatha Christie, Conan Doyle’s work has been adapted into just about every form of storytelling — stage, radio, screen — for a hundred years. And you can take your pick from any era. But for this list, let’s journey all the way back to the adolescence of sound cinema itself and dig into 1939’s The Hound of the Baskervilles, which features one of the silver screen’s most famous Holmes (Basil Rathbone, who played him in 14 films!) in one of Conan Doyle’s most famous stories.
3. Brick (2006)
Where to Watch: Rentable on most platforms.
Before Knives Out, there was Rian Johnson’s Brick from 2006 to let us know how deep his love for film noir and mysteries went. Presented like a 1920s hardboiled detective story, while centered on high school students in a California suburb, Brick stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a young man out to solve the murder of his ex-girlfriend. Inspired by the writings of Dashiell Hammett, and soaked with attitude and aptitude, Brick is a cult classic that’s not to be missed.
4. The Last of Shiela (1973)
Where to Watch: DirecTV or rentable on most platforms.
This wonderful whodunnit — directed by Herbert Ross (The Goodbye Girl, Footloose) and written by Psycho’s Anthony Perkins and Broadway Musical legend Stephen Sondheim — is one of the blueprints for Knives Out’s famous faces game, starring ’70s stars Richard Benjamin, Dyan Cannon, James Coburn, Joan Hackett, James Mason, Ian McShane, and Raquel Welch. Set about a yacht, The Last of Shiela centers on a movie producer who hopes to solve the mystery surrounding his wife’s death by inviting the suspects aboard his ship.
5. Crooked House (2017)
Where to Watch: Rentable on most platforms.
Again, there are plenty of Agatha Christie adaptations to choose from, most of which feature either Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple (an elderly woman who solved murders). But there are plenty of non-Poirot/Marple works as well and 2017’s Crooked House — starring Max Irons, Terence Stamp, Glenn Close, Gillian Anderson, Stefanie Martini, and Christina Hendricks — is a devilish good time. The story centers on a young detective who’s called in to investigate the death of a wealthy tycoon who’s been poisoned in his own bed.
6. The Name of the Rose (1986)
Where to Watch: AMC+
Based on Umberto Eco’s novel, which was one of the best-selling mysteries of all time, this one is set in an Italian monastery in the year 1327. The Name of the Rose stars Sean Connery as a Franciscan friar who is renowned for his deductive powers. His keen and cunning mind are put to the test when a string of murders occur during the monastery’s theological disputation between the Franciscans and Papal emissaries. F. Murray Abraham and Christian Slater co-star.
7. Wind River (2017)
Where to Watch: Roku (w/ ads), Redbox (w/ ads), Vudu (w/ ads), Pluto TV (w/ ads), (Freevee w/ ads), or rentable on most platforms.
Wind River, from Yellowstone and Hell or High Water’s Taylor Sheridan, features a couple of off-duty Avengers, Elizabeth Olsen and Jeremy Renner, as an FBI Agent and a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service tracker, respectively, who are brought in to solve the murder of a teenage girl on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming. It’s a terrific neo-Western/noir tale set amongst the cold, bitter wilderness. There are no grandstanding detectives here, just regular investigators looking for justice within a wicked web of secrets.
8. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)
Where to Watch: Fubo, Showtime apps and add-ons, DirecTV, or rentable on most platforms.
Though writer/director Shane Black helped revolutionize the mismatched buddy-cop action movie with his screenplay for Lethal Weapon, he’s also a fan of mismatched buddy mystery films (okay, with action) and 2005’s Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (as well as 2016’s The Nice Guys) is an exemplary example of unlikely crime-busters cracking open conspiracies while also redeeming themselves in the process. It all starts with a murder and then snowballs into something much bigger, throwing our underdogs into a storm of s*** they never anticipated. Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer, as a thief and a P.I., stumble into a murder case filled with madcap mayhem.
9. Knives Out (2019)
Where to Watch: Rentable on most platforms.
Well… duh. Knives Out is definitely going on this list. Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc is brought in to investigate the death of a wealthy best-selling crime novelist, all while the writer’s nurse, Marta (Ana de Armas), fears she’ll be blamed for a possibly lethal mistake. Knives Out was a hit in theaters, released shortly after Thanksgiving in 2019 and performing strongly all the way into the new year (until movies stopped being in theaters, in general, in 2020). Rian Johnson gave us a great, gripping gotcha-fest complete with a new cinema-ready sleuth.
Which films would you recommend? Let’s discuss in the comments!
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