Download Knives Out screenplay PDF here for personal, private use.

Knives Out is an updated take on a classic sub-genre, taking full advantage of all of the intrigue and drama that a ‘whodunit’ automatically provides, and dousing it all with a healthy dose of sly irony and humor. Above all other facets, its stand-out feature is its use of the ensemble cast, a necessary part of so many murder mysteries, instantly evoking the varied personalities of an Agatha Christie novel.

Director Rian Johnson has assembled a fantastic array of actors, most of whom are playing far from type: action man Daniel Craig as an amusingly effete, Southern US gentleman sleuth, superhero Chris Evans as a camp, scarf-swaddled, outrageous playboy, incumbent Bond girl Ana de Armas as a shy, conservative house keeper. What resonates from the film is a sense in which its entire cast are having a great deal of fun putting on this drama, the theatrical qualities to the script highlighted intentionally by Johnson, rather than suppressed in a bid for something more filmic. As largely a tribute film, it slightly suffers in its imitating quality and the actual murder mystery itself is just enough to get the job done rather than anything approaching a Conan Doyle-like level of intrigue. But what entertainment it loses on the plot front is more than made up for in the writing and the performances. Watching the story unfold is simply extraordinarily fun, a word that I rarely use to describe watching any film.

Johnson has an irreverence in his storytelling, the plot point about de Armas' character's mendacity-triggered nausea or really the entirety of Lakeith Stanfield's constantly non-plussed local police detective character speaking to that exact trait. A tribute to a beloved sub-genre and a testament to what can be achieved with some Cluedo-esque production design, a fantastic script and a collection of top notch actors giving their all to their roles.

EveryFilmIWatch is multi-channel film review project run by Sebastian Cox, ScriptUp co-founder. Further reviews can be found on Instagram.