Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery continues its predecessor's story in one perfect way, encapsulating the real meaning behind both films and their respective mysteries. Glass Onion is a spiritual successor to Knives Out, with Daniel Craig's Benoit Blanc returning for yet another case, this time centered around a murder mystery party gone wrong. Much like the first film, Glass Onion has lots of murder, intrigue, and mystery, all centering around one aspect that perfectly continues one of the franchise's central themes.
Both Knives Out and Glass Onion center around money in some capacity. With Knives Out, the plot revolved around the murder of Harlan Thrombey, and subsequently how his immense wealth would be distributed. This meant that Knives Out was centered around "old" money, accumulated by a high-class, old-school murder mystery writer. With Glass Onion though, as opposed to Knives Out, that same central theme of money is explored differently, with the sequel revolving around Edward Norton's Miles Bron whose massive wealth was acquired through more modern methods or "new" money.
Glass Onion's Real Meaning Makes The Movie Better
By continuing this central trend of the franchise, Glass Onion becomes even better than it may first appear. While the movie is highly entertaining, very funny, and features a great cast at the top of its game which makes it a great movie in its own right, continuing this theme ties it to its predecessor despite being somewhat of a standalone sequel film. In doing so, it becomes clear that Rian Johnson in his trait of subverting clichés is not simply striving to make fun enjoyable movies that break the murder mystery mold, but rather a franchise full of those types of films that still have a message and meaning at their center.
Why Knives Out & Glass Onion Both Tackle Themes Around Money
This begs the question though of why both films tackle themes centering on wealth. Knives Out's plot focused on Benoit Blanc attempting to deduce who murdered Thrombey, in doing so uncovering the motivations of Chris Evans' Ransom was simply to get his cut of the inheritance that Thrombey left the family. In Glass Onion, the murders center around the film's fictional business and how animosities can build surrounding Miles' vast wealth, which is poked fun at through plenty of namedrop jokes and celebrity references in Glass Onion.
Ultimately, the reason why both of the films tackle these themes is down to their genre and the conventions within it. Unfortunately, one of the main factors that drive the kind of real-life crimes dramatized in these films is money, with people striving to acquire their own wealth often driving them to commit crimes as shown in the films. The films are critiques of how greed can cause rich people who only care about money to commit horrible acts like murder, with the central theme of Glass Onion only further exploring what Knives Out began in how murder and money can often go hand in hand.