The following contains spoilers for Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, set to hit Netflix on December 23.
Daniel Craig officially said goodbye to the James Bond franchise with 2021's No Time to Die: the fifth in his extremely successful run as the super-spy, which culminated in a decidedly permanent departure. 007 will most assuredly go on, but Craig at least is ready to let No Time to Die be his final statement as the character. It's hard to complain about the legacy he leaves behind, especially after the franchise's famously arduous nature took its toll on the actor at the center of it.
And yet his first film since No Time to Die makes a fitting -- if far more cheeky -- send-off as well. Knives Out, Rian Johnson's arch puzzle box of a murder mystery, cast Craig as bloviating detective Benoit Blanc. The actor returns to the role in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, and it's clear he may have a new franchise to call his own. More than that, the second film makes a strangely fitting send-off for Craig's reign as the world's most popular spy.
The Bond Movies - And Spy Stories in General - Are a Type of Mystery
Spy thrillers -- even those as larger-than-life as 007 -- always have an air of mystery to them. Bond inevitably begins his adventures with questions that the British Government needs to answer, which ultimately leads to a culprit and a crime in progress (usually in the name of global domination). Both the 007 franchise and the Ian Fleming novels on which they're based bring geopolitics into the mix, but beyond that, the differences between Bond's adventures and traditional drawing room mysteries of the Agatha Christie variety come down to the level of action involved.
Glass Onion plays that up, particularly in the differences between Benoit Blanc -- who audiences meet for the first time in Knives Out -- and Bond, which had defined Craig's star persona for many years. Blanc is miles apart from Bond, particularly the actor's stoic version of 007. He's subtle, where Bond is overt; he observes, where Bond takes action. Above all, Blanc is a talker -- expounding at length upon theories and evidence -- while Bond is often quite silent. And yet, for all of that, they remain connected in key ways, particularly their shared coolness under fire and emphasis on cultured courtesy.
Glass Onion Brings a Little Bond Into Its Setting and Villain
That makes Glass Onion an ideal place for a somewhat more mischievous Bond send-off. It starts with the setting: an island compound in the Aegean Sea owned by an eccentric billionaire looking to change the world. It's inspired by traditional mysteries such as Christie's Death on the Nile, which take place in exotic locales, but it also could be lifted straight from 007's array of baddies. It even has sinister gadgets and high-tech accouterments controlled by its owner, as well as an explosive fuel source that leads to its fiery destruction in the film's climax in classic Bond fashion.
The antagonist himself is far more Bondian than it may appear as well. Miles Bron, played by Edward Norton, is a duplicitous schemer who steals ideas from his betters and controls a group of influential people via secretive means. His ultimate goal is a form of clean hydrogen fuel -- the same one powering his estate -- but thanks to his dangerous ambition, it threatens to become a literal apocalypse. Throughout Glass Onion, Blanc and his allies use stealth and deception first to gain his confidence and ultimately to undo him. Again, the spiritual nods to 007 are hard to miss.
That makes Blanc something of an affectionate dig at Bond's self-seriousness. Like the titular Glass Onion, he uses his lugubrious explanations and status as a renowned detective to hide his purpose of stopping a villain, which differs little from what it would be if 007 were there. That he does so in a far more relaxed manner -- and with a far less menacing façade -- becomes a quiet joke at the expense of his previous role. It's all in good humor, but the barbs still hit home: a gentle raspberry to accompany the solemnity of No Time to Die's more formal farewell.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery will be available to stream on Netflix beginning on December 23.