Knives Out

Morning, Mr. Thrombey.

Mr. Thrombey? You up there?

Mr. Thrombey, I'm coming in.

Shit!

You killed him, you bastard!

You murdered him!

I didn't murder nobody!

You slashed his face open.

You left him bleeding in the street like a stuck pig,

then you crushed his skull with a forklift

and burned his hands off to erase the fingerprints!

You'll never prove it.

We have the nanny-cam footage!

Alice, turn that off now, please?

- Why? It's almost over. - Now. Please, just turn it off.

They're finding out who did it and the Wi-Fi sucks in my room--

- Turn it off, now. Alice! - There's two minutes left.

- What? There isn't even anything bad on. - Off!

It's just normal TV, and they're just talking!

They're talking murder on it!

- They're just talking. - Your sister just had a friend she loved

slit his throat open and she doesn't need to be hearing that right now!

Let's be sensitive!

Alice, you can keep watching your show. It's fine.

- No, I guessed who did it anyway. - It's okay.

I'm sorry, Marta.

It's okay.

It's Harlan's son.

Hi, Walt.

Hi, Marta, It's Walt.

Would you mind coming to the house early?

The police have a few more questions for everybody.

What?

Hey. Excuse me, ma'am.

You with the help?

Hey! Her name's Marta. She was Granddad's nurse.

She's with us. "The help"?

It's okay. I'm sorry.

No, it's not okay. What the hell?

How are you doing?

Not very good.

Alone.

Lots of this and not knowing what to do next.

Marta, anything you need...

You're part of this family.

Thank you.

- How you doing, kiddo? - Linda.

How are you?

You know, the funeral helped, I guess. Just seeing him.

I thought you should have been there.

- I was outvoted. - Get arrested!

- Die up your own ass for all I care! - Richard.

He's not coming.

Ransom. Little shit.

Missed the funeral.

Excuse me.

We're ready for you now. We'd like to see you one at a time.

All right. I'll go first.

I'm assuming this will all be wrapped up before the memorial tonight.

We'll do our best, ma'am.

So...

how you doing, kiddo?

We're just gonna reintroduce ourselves as a formality.

I am Detective Lieutenant Elliott,

and this is Trooper Wagner.

Now, I'm going to record this, just to make things easier.

All right, we're with Linda Drysdale née Thrombey,

Harlan Thrombey's eldest daughter,

and discussing the events that took place the night of his demise one week ago.

November 8th.

We're very sorry for your loss.

Thank you. That means a lot.

So, we understand on that night the family had gathered

- to celebrate your father's 85th birthday? - Yes.

- How was it? - The party?

Pre-my-dad's-death?

Oh, it was great.

Did anyone besides the family show face?

Fran, the housekeeper.

He was a nice guy, but he was so hairy.

- Jacob? - And I've dated Italian guys.

You know what I mean? It was like...

Marta, Harlany's caregiver.

Good girl. Hard worker.

Her family's from Ecuador.

And Wanetta.

Greatnana. Harlan's mom.

- Hi, Nana. - His mom?

- Nana? - Wow. How old is she?

We have no idea.

Okay... and your son, Ransom,

did he attend as well?

Yes, but he left early.

Ransom, are you leaving?

Right.

Would you say that all three of you showed up around the same time?

No.

Richard came early to help the caterers set up.

Okay. And you and your husband, Richard, work at a real estate firm in Boston?

No. It's-- It's my company.

Right. Right. Sorry.

I built my business from the ground up.

Oh, just like your father.

You two were very close.

We-- We had our own secret way of communicating.

I mean, you had to find that... with Dad.

You had to find a game to play with him,

and if you did that, and you played by his rules...

Everyone idolizes their dad, right?

I don't know. Do they?

Very much not.

Don't know why I said that.

But my wife, Linda, does.

Harlan started out with a rusty Smith Corona

and built himself into one of the best-selling mystery writers of all time.

Wow, seems like all his kids are self-made overachievers.

Sure.

For the record, I'm speaking with Walt Thrombey,

Harlan Thrombey's youngest son.

So you run your father's publishing company?

Yeah. It's my-- It's our--

It's the family's publishing company.

Dad trusts me to run it.

Thirty languages.

Over 80 million copies sold. A real legacy.

You guys fans?

I mean, I don't do much fiction reading myself, but--

Big fan. I'm a big fan.

I mean, his plots are just like...

Like, I won't spoil it for you but-- Okay, like Thousand Knives?

The cow and the shotgun.

Like, where do you come up with that?

Well, Dad said the plots just popped into his head, fully formed.

It was the easy part for him.

So you're in the area, right?

So, you guys probably arrived around the same time.

We all got here around 8:00.

My wife, Donna, she's my rock.

Jesus, Donna! Are you all right?

My son, Jacob, he's 16.

Very politically active.

The boy is literally a Nazi.

He's an alt-right troll dipshit.

Kids today with the Internet, it's amazing.

So the night went well?

I mean, we're all gutted, but...

I was happy to have that night with him.

To be by his side,

to think about our books and what we've accomplished with them.

It's like I can still feel his hand on my shoulder.

Passing the torch.

So, we're here with Joni Thrombey,

Harlan Thrombey's daughter-in-law?

Yeah, I married his son, Neil.

We had one daughter, Meg.

And then Neil passed on 15 years ago.

But you remained close to the Thrombeys?

They're my family.

I feel simultaneously freed by

and supported by them.

It's that balance of opposites that's the nugget of Flam.

Sorry, the nugget of...

Flam.

Oh, yeah, Flam, your skin care company. Sorry.

I forgive you.

Yeah, it's skin care, but it promotes a total lifestyle.

Self-sufficiency with an acknowledgement of human need.

That's Flam.

But it's also Harlan.

He got me and Meg through some tough times.

Granddad gives my mom a yearly allowance

and he's never missed wiring a tuition payment to my schools.

He's a genuinely selfless man.

But you left the party early?

Have fun.

To see some friends at Smith.

You know Dad pays for her crypto-Marxist-post-deconstructural-

feminist-poetry-theory-whatever major?

She could have stuck around for the cake.

I think Linda was upset.

But Harlan understood.

Right.

You two showed up to the party around the same time--

If I could pause?

Because I just...

Who is that guy?

- And why are we doing all this again? - These are just some follow-up questions.

We're attempting to be thorough, so we can figure out the manner of death.

So by "manner of death," you mean if someone killed him?

If one of us killed him?

- One of his family killed him? - No, Walt-- Walt, no, no.

Is that what you're suggesting, Lieutenant?

No one's saying that, okay? This is all pro form a.

Okay.

So who the fuck is that?

This is Benoit Blanc.

- Benoit Blanc? - Yes.

Mr. Blanc is a private investigator of great renown.

Wait a minute.

I read a tweet about a New Yorker article about you.