How To Do A Plot Twist - Knives Out

Verisimilitude means that things feel true, real, or genuine. It's not just logical continuity. If it were, your GOT example wouldn't work because Geoffrey is being entirely illogical, it's the dumbest thing he could possibly do given the state of geopolitics in his world and it's the kind of thing people who watch cinema sins would ding as a plot hole.

It's not "logic" that makes that click. Logic is not a system of truth (verisimilitude literally means that it resembles the truth). Logic is a system of grammar. You can have a perfectly logical set of statements that derive a nonsense conclusion, which follows logically from the premises but is false because the premises are false.

What makes something feel true in a story is that it tracks with our intuitive understanding of how people behave, even, and especially, when that behavior is not logical. That's why it feels true.

I wrote a longer comment, but it was too long. Here's the gist: This movie was not good. We casually figured out the entire premise halfway through the movie, including the stage knife fake-out at in the end. The swapping the drugs, the double-swap, the dogs, EVERYTHING about this movie took two seconds to figure out because the writing was really bad. And since it tried to be smarter than it is by revealing the murder early on, there was absolutely nothing engaging about the second hour of the movie. It was boring, and it was boring because it was dumb. And it was dumb because anyone who stops to think for two seconds while watching it will figure out the whole thing halfway through.

EDIT: Honestly, with the rise of directors like JJ "mystery Box" Abrams and Rian "Subversion" Johnson, it is safe to say that we're seeing the dawn of the idiot director. The kind that can't tell a story to save their life, but instead opts for some stylistic beat in the hopes that it covers up their utter lack of talent and effort. Zack Snyder is also a good example of these idiot directors.

0:15 The sixth sense might have done that pretty well

Shout out to my first watch of this where I was constantly saying "haha he sounds like Foghorn Leghorn" only for Ransom to say exactly that in the end

there was also another foreshadowing clue- in the flashback before Martha gives Harlan the Medicine when they play the game and talk he mentiones that he had all 4 conversations he planned to have and cut all 4 of them out. This is interesting because so far the plot has only shut light on 3 conversations that night.

This video is unwatchable and aged poorly because of TLJ unwarranted hate. Could have just talked about a great film without having to repeat the brain rot incel takes

"Until you can't tell the difference from a stage prop, and a real knife" this blew my mind when the climax came, just brilliant

Another perfect Whodunnit with a plot twist: Hoodwinked. You keep trying to figure out who was the culprit, not really focusing on the fact that the bunny was in EVERY single person's story. Only when it's revealed do you actually realize he was involved in everything.

I cant believe he made the Last Jedi?? The Knives Out trilogy is the best set of films Ive ever seen

I remember watching this movie on a school trip years ago, GODS I loved it.

I finally watched knifes out for the first time with no spoilers and I'm surprised with how much positive feedback it has. The "plot twist" felt very obvious and stereotypical when I saw it. Maybe because I'm watching it years later, maybe I've seen too many movies, maybe my expectations were too high.

The show started as a "who done it" and immediately you know it's not going to be anyone with the obvious "motives", they're just red herrings. Then we have the dogs barking that's nor explained when the detective breaks down the explanation for how the woman heard the stairs. (There's also an error of them not including the woman hearing the stairs when the hippie woman walks down the stairs that I got caught up on on the moment but by the end of the film it seemed to have just been a writing error.) So that obviously is a clue left unanswered, thus leaving you to pay attention to when the dogs bark. Which as stated in the video, only happens with the guy, thus leaving him as the main suspect as he's the person unaccounted for by the police's story. (That is, if the police don't know, then it must be part of the answer).

Second when we see the woman panicking about the medication, the old man clearly isn't having any side effects and thus the labels must have been switched in some way and the girl is being framed for murder. This is further confirmed by the "change in genre" as it moves to a "will she get away with it". This 100% confirms that she isn't to blame for his death and that the medication labels must have been switched as the movie makes a point for the woman to be seen as an empathetic character who the audience is supposed to root for, so there's no happy ending with her getting caught or her getting away with it, as doing so would go against the detective's who character and the point of him in the film in the first place. Leaving the only possible resolution to the film being that someone is framing her and the goal of the film is to figure out who.

Third, it's not mentioned in this video, but in one of her confessions (I remember when in the film exactly as I only saw the movie that one time a few days ago), she explicitly states that the old man told her that "all 4" of his family members got what was coming to them (I think this is after it's revealed that she gets the inheritance). Up to this point in the film we only know about the old man firing the guy from the publishing company, of Jan threatening to expose the other guy's affair, and the old man cutting off the payment for the little girl's schooling. So that's only 3 people accounted for. Thus there's someone else the old man screwed over who we don't know about yet. Of course the only one not questioned is Hugo, so it must be him.

Finally, the fact that he pretends to be on the main character's side and trying to protect her from the rest of his family, then as soon as he's caught he admits everything felt like just overkill telling the audience that he was never on her side and wants her found guilty. Of course with all the other evidence pointing to him, he is the guilty party.

All this not to even mention the grandmother noting his existence after the girl jumps down from climbing the side of the house. It was all just so obviously him that it took away from the story for me. It gave the same energy as watching a magician when you can clearly see the wires gleaming in the sunlight behind him.

Idk I had the same issue with Coco and everyone loved that movie. I personally hated it for a wide variety of issues, but I try to justify that movie's glaring obvious ending with it being a children's movie and people having a weird relationship with Mexican culture (I myself an Mexican and trust me, it's weird how people respond to the culture).

But this movie was obviously not a children's movie and had a lot of people talking about how well it was written, so again, maybe I'm too used to analyzing these small things and figuring it out and end up taking the fun out of it. But I like the challenge of figuring out the mystery alongside the characters and figuring it out early on unfortunately makes it feel like you're just waiting for everyone else to catch up which is just boring and annoying.


These are some really hot takes, if you disagree, please by all means, disagree. My own feelings about the film in no way has to take away from your own enjoyment. If you like it, by all means, enjoy it. I'm happy you can find happiness and joy where I can't.

More people need to rewatch American History X

this made me think about the twist in twilight breaking dawn part two which has zero foreshadowing and like maybe one tiny spec of verisimilitude it makes zero sense it's just for shock

Bro casually put Leia's theme in the beginning.

The initial twist of Knives Out (the nurse thinking she did the murder and was running from Benoit) was not really a fresh idea to me. I think I've seen it a couple of times before.
I was a massive mystery fan.

13:07 my favorite part of this movie is that I was able to guess that the bottles were switched very early on. It had me guessing what other twists would happen. The best part about me guessing the end tho was that I was able to figure it out before my mom lol

Shut up

I loved seeing Chris Evans in this movie because he always looks like he has so much fun whenever he gets to play a villain

Wait a minute...
Starts taking rigorous notes

"Ned dying in GoT has no foreshadowing" checks cast ...... you just missed the foreshadowing.

I love how Harlan learns he’s been accidentally poisoned and instead of freaking out he’s just like “damn this would be great for my next novel,” really shows you how dedicated he is to his craft and how much he trusts Marta

Another thing that the twist turns on its head. Initially, Marta’s “throwing up when lying” thing seems like a silly convenient contrivance for Blanc’s benefit. And it is that. But suddenly, it becomes an actual hindrance and danger to the protagonist, which is Marta. Putting Blanc in the antagonist role for most of the movie is so good.

Now give us an analysis to knives out 3 wake up dead man

Bro just spoiled the enirety of game of throens for me

16:00 As much as I dislike The Last Jedi, I will say that Rey’s parents being nobodies is honestly one of the best things Rian Johnson did in that movie. I think it’s way more inspiring that someone could be so in tune with the force no matter who they come from, that someone could rise up to greatness no matter their family lineage. It’s actually a really good message, that your kin doesn’t have to define who you are. But then JJ Abrams messed it up in Rise of Skywalker (among other things)

Its a very interesting comparrison to make, comparing two completely different film projects, one that is clearly a passion project spanning multiple years of rewrting and development, and the other the middle child in a trilogy of another director's vision, sandwiched between their ideas and story, just because its the same director. I kinda understand your logic but i just think its unfair to compare when imo TLJ is a completely funcitonal movie that is held down by the ideas set up by JJ which ultimately never went anywhere satisfying in the 3rd one anyway xD

anyways great video, im not meaning to hate <3

Not meeting expectations ≠ subverting expectations

I was so sure Abrahams would have made Rey Lukes daughter so I was actually extremely grateful to Johnson for ruining that... so tired of everything important in that galaxy revolving around that one family

Edit: typo

9:30 Would it though? Like, in universe, he and Anakin both used it for 3 years max and it’s soaked in youngling blood. It’s iconic to us, but to them, the saber’s a stepping stone

This is one of a handful of movies I can rewatch. Among an even smaller number of movies, it stands out as exceptional for all the reasons you’ve mentioned. I love this movie.
I feel much less enthusiastic about Glass Onion but that has grown on me after watching it two more times. I have high hopes for the new movie also.

For a channel that seems to pride himself on being so smart and intellectual when analyzing characters and projects, it's pretty scummy to just conveniently leave out things to fit the narrative that "well his star wars movie was a bad take on subverting expectations, but this is really good." Nah both are good, it's just that most people apparently including you got so wrapped up in how shiny everything JJ makes is, you forgot he's a dogshit storyteller who entirely relies on mystery boxes and has no actual substance beyond lens flares.

This movie taught that almost any writer/director can make a great product as long as it has a proper vision and if that vision is executed exactly as planned. That’s all it takes to make a great film/video game/tv show.

OH MY GOD THE LIKE BUTTON IS A FILM CLAPPER THING I LOVE IT

i watched this with my murder mystery addict family, but i was DELIGHTED by the clever tension of both wanting the “murderer” to get away with it and wanting the “mystery” to be solved by the detective. the double-bluff at the end that meant a) marta was innocent and b) while ransom set off the chain of events, it WAS still harlan’s fault—his hubris that has been showing in the state of his family relations making him overcomplicate the situation. character work was great and consistent, but my god i was BUZZING walking out of that theater. this movie is still SO great even if you know the killer, but i want everyone to feel that reveal like i felt it