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Knives Out

2019 film by Rian Johnson

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 19, 2026
Entity authoritySource title only
Source-derived summary

Knives Out is a 2019 American mystery film written and directed by Rian Johnson. The film's eleven-actor ensemble cast is led by Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc, a famed private detective who is summoned to investigate the death of a bestselling author. Police think his death is a suicide but Blanc suspects foul play and investigates to ascertain the true cause of it. Johnson produced Knives Out with his longtime collaborator Ram Bergman. Funding came from MRC and tax subsidies from the Massachusetts state government.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Knives Out” as 2019 film by Rian Johnson. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Knives, film and Rian.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2019—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Knives, film and Rian providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Knives Out”, the useful work is to connect “2019 film by Rian Johnson” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 19, 2026. The first chronological checks are 2019.

Critical limits

Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Knives Out”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Knives Out primary sources, Knives Out archive and Knives research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Knives Out”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Knives Out” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.