The Hidden Elizabeth Holmes Joke in ‘Glass Onion’ That Everyone Missed
This article contains SPOILERS for Glass Onion.
Proving once again that Americans love both grisly murders and when Daniel Craig does a goofy accent seemingly stolen from a giant cartoon rooster, Glass Onion is currently tearing up the Netflix charts. But upon further reflection, I can’t help but wonder if all the film’s characters are secretly doomed.
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In the shocking conclusion of Glass Onion, we learn that Edward Norton’s megalomaniacal billionaire character Miles Bron is actually just “a moron.” Exhibit A: His futuristic fuel alternative, Klear, has some major safety issues, turning people’s homes into giant-ass ticking bombs.
A number of real-life life tech billionaires seemingly inspired the movie’s villain; obviously, there’s that one guy who also has a penchant for marketing irresponsibly explosive products, but also Elizabeth Holmes. Norton recently confirmed that he specifically studied a photo of the Theranos founder for a similar shot in the movie and worked hard to nail the “crossed-eye while trying to project seriousness” look.
But this revelation also has me worried about the safety of Benoit Blanc and the rest of the Glass Onion crew (especially Derol, the random stoner). At the beginning of the movie, Blanc and the rest of Bron’s guests are each given some kind of unnamed COVID cure administered by Ethan Hawke, who I’m going to go ahead and assume is playing himself.
This makes sense to the audience at the time because Bron is supposedly a genius — and also because we all know that the super-rich are monsters who would totally hoard a miracle cure to host private parties in exotic locations. But given the revelation that Bron is wildly incompetent and averse to scientific rigor, in hindsight, it seems extremely alarming that this guy just injected several people with a mysterious wonder drug.
How does this go back to Holmes? Well, Theranos’ faulty blood test results had dramatic medical consequences for a number of people by falsely informing important medical decisions. Can you imagine what could happen if a like-minded entrepreneur started randomly distributing an untested, unregulated treatment for a respiratory virus? Trusting a Miles Bron-approved cure is probably in the same wheelhouse as trusting horse medicine. All I’m saying is, hopefully, Knives Out 3 won’t open with teary-eyed Hugh Grant crying at Benoit Blanc’s funeral.
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