Knives Out has been read as work that investigates class warfare, wealth inequality, immigration, and race in contemporary American society.[66][67][68] In interviews organized for the press junket, Bergman, Rian, and some of the actors expressed candid views of themes common in the Knives Out story, allowing multiple interpretations of the film.[37][66][69] Rian stated the central story neither condemns nor subscribes to a single ideology; rather, it was designed to provoke all moviegoers to contemplate.[66] Moreover, he saw whodunits as well-suited to scrutinize institutional power, a belief influenced by Christie's writings, work he considered indicative of a woman who, while not political, was attuned to British society throughout her life.[18][66]
Class warfare
Knives Out ranks with other turn-of-the-decade films—such as Ready or Not, Parasite, Hustlers, and Joker (all 2019)—in which class warfare is the unifying theme.[70][71] The film makes literal class struggle by framing Harlan's death as an explicit tale of good versus evil, Marta emerging as the heroine because of her humanity.[66][70] Whereas Marta is distraught from the moment Harlan dies, the surviving Thrombeys are fractured by greed, fueled by their stakes in Harlan's publishing fortune. They are ruthless and oblivious of Harlan's demise in a quest for wealth they feel entitled to control and seize by any means.[70][72] In this sense, it is the Thrombeys, not the elusive suspect per se, who represent the true villains.[70] Yet, in spite of the family's contempt for her and the working class, Marta resists their coercion thanks to her wit and moral convictions.[70][73] Much emphasis is placed on the alternating points of view of Marta's ordeal to reinforce chasms between the classes.[74] Fast Company's Joe Berkowitz argues this device forms the film's class consciousness.[74]
Eugene Nulman, the Senior Lecturer of Sociology at Birmingham City University, posits a Marxist interpretation of Knives Out. Marta is analyzed as an analog for healthcare workers made vulnerable in the COVID-19 pandemic by the failures of neoliberalism, and Nulman contends that the film presents the Thrombey family dynamic as an allegory for capitalism, each relative embodying bourgeois archetypes: the rentier class in Linda, the investor class in Walt, the celebrity class in Joni, the trust fund elite in Ransom, the right-wing establishment in Jacob, and the liberal establishment in Meg.[75][76] Harlan is the exception because his modest origins, class consciousness, and the family's exploitation of his labor define his circumstance.[76][77] For this reason, in Nulman's interpretation, Harlan's deliberate suicide and transfer of wealth to Marta are subversive acts that, alongside the Thrombeys' vilification of Marta (mirroring the status quo's counterrevolutionary force), suggest credence to the idea that capitalist exploitation can only be addressed by revolution.[75][77]
Race
Race was also examined in thematic studies of the film. Knives Out concentrates on a critique of white supremacy and liberal paternalism, comically depicting the Thrombey–Marta relationship through condescending affection and running gags about Marta's country of origin.[66][68] In his essay for White Supremacy and the American Media, professor Michael Blouin contests the film's analysis of white nationalism. Blouin argues that Knives Out resigns to Jeffersonian democratic ideals—liberal universalism, pragmatic reasoning, and an a priori sense of justice—that buttress a set of racialized assumptions. In doing so, in Blouin's words, all expressed antagonism is neutralized, therefore "depoliticizing a crisis that has so far proven to be resistant to the ideal prescribed by many white liberals."[78]
Narrative structure
In Knives Out, Rian experiments with narrative structure to generate suspense. The film begins in a traditional whodunit format that is subverted by two tonal shifts.[7] The first shift arranges the plot as a thriller by establishing Marta's reckoning with the manner of Harlan's death, her own implication, and quest to evade the investigation's purview as a cause of conflict, thus framing Blanc as the antagonist. It is in the second shift that, through plausible deniability, Marta's innocence is unequivocal.[7] This posed a significant writing challenge as Rian intended not only that Marta be a sympathetic character, but also be perceived as justified in her behavior. He was also keen to portray the extent an innocent person could go when threatened with incarceration.[7]
