FAQ

It's a cue to the police detective to ask a specific question; you will notice that each time he asks a variation on "Did you and so-and-so arrive together?"

A second theory is that it could be a way for him to mark certain parts of the recording, sort of like making a note to himself to pay special attention to that part of the interview later.

The third theory is that Blanc is using it as sort of an improvised lie detector. One meant to interrupt the interviewee and see if they could stick to their story or have to think up a new lie.

He presses the key whenever the conversation starts to get off track. It's to jolt the detective into getting back to business.

That particular sound of the piano is used in cinematic mysteries when the plot thickens. He's simply mocking the mystery genre by pressing this "suspense key" over and over when one of his culprits says something that might relate to the murder, or make them more guilty, as happens in mysteries. Edit

Whilst there is no official proof, the fact that the names are soo close it is reasonable to deduce that Harlan Thrombey is an homage to Harlowe Thornbey. Edit

It was telling L about her husband's affair.

The full text:

My heart It's time to cut the deadwood. He's cheating on you. I have proof I know you don't need to see. Untether yourself. It's time. - Dad. Edit

That was, indeed, a very silly thing for Fran to do. People do silly things and only realise after the fact. It is possible that Fran did not know that Ransom would have murdered her then and there, and it is also possible that Fran, herself, might have wanted to blackmail Ransom. She was, after all, under the impression that she had evidence of his crime stashed away. Perhaps she thought he would try to retrieve that first before "murdering her" if that was his intention. Whatever the reason, the movie does not make it clear.

Fran was also trying to prove that Ransom actually did something wrong, because the "evidence" she had, the tox screen, proved that the correct medication was in Harlan's system. She had no other evidence that Ransom did anything, so if he showed up, that must mean he was expecting something to be in the tox screen and, therefore, was guilty. She was naive and tried to confront Ransom and get the real proof or a confession before bringing in anyone else. It is also interesting that Fran said she watched movies often. Many times in movies, characters do confront the bad guy in similar ways and survive. Maybe she thought it would turn out that way for her, too. Edit

While our initial view of events show her leaving with him alive, a short while later we revisit the scene and see her struggling with just walking away. She opens the door and looks in just as he is in the act, and that's how it happened. Since Harlan cut his carotid artery, blood sprayed out of his wound and at least one small drop sprayed across the room.

Yes, and to emphasize this point the police discuss blood spray that "proves" suicide.

But why was the blood spot so tiny? A spec that tiny would have to come out a very tiny hole or be from a normal drop that broke up after impacting something - which means other unimpeded drops would have gone farther. Edit

She didn't. Two employees each transferred college tuition fee electronically, one did it direct to the colllege, one did it to Joni not realising the other has already paid. Joni stayed quiet about it. Harlan was writing her a final payoff. Yes, he looked at the accounts, that's how he discovered this was going on. He has a multi-million dollar mini-empire, it's not unreasonable that it would not be picked up immediately.

Furthermore, at one point Harlan broods over the possibility that his own indulgent treatment of his family has made them the rather unpleasant people they are. It's possible that he had either known or suspected that Joni was double-dipping into his finances in such a way, but was at that point no longer willing to overlook it whereas he previously had been. Edit

There are many possible ways in which Ransom could have failed to administer the amount of morphine needed to kill Fran in 10 minutes. 1. He may not have known the amount of dosage needed to kill, and underestimated the amount. 2. He may not have known how to read the units on the syringe, and underestimated how many units would be needed. 3. He may not have known how to find a vein or insert a needle into it properly. If the injection was accidentally applied intramuscularly or subcutaneously, it could have delayed the effect of the morphine. 4. He could have overfilled the syringe with air, reducing the amount of morphine that would have been injected. 5. Fran might have weighed more than Harlan (a slender elderly man), and would have required a higher amount of morphine in order to overdose. 6. Fran might have had a tolerance to morphine. Edit

The moment of the suicide and the aftermath are both shown in the movie. The victim committed suicide to prevent his nurse from being implicated in his apparently inevitable death.

He committed suicide because he didn't want Marta's life to be ruined by her going to court and possibly having her mother deported as a result of the investigation into his death. He also chose to commit suicide instead of dying due to the incorrect dosage because if she were found responsible for his death, she would not be able to inherit the estate like Harlan intended for her. Edit

Although it would be suspicious, it was written in a notebook presumably full of other murder ideas. Furthermore, the toxicology report would have easily proven or disproven it as a method of murder, and said report was still in the works until later in the movie. Until proven or disproven, it wouldn't have been worth pursuing.

Also, until the tox report came back, the obvious throat slash cause of death would be the cause that the police pursued. Edit

Marta's original nationality isn't clarified, partly because Marta's nationality is used to illustrate the thoughtlessness of the Thrombeys. Despite their claim to treat her as "part of the family", everyone who brings it up gives her a different nationality, which suggests they don't actually know which is the correct one, which in turn suggests that they've never bothered to find out. For all their fine words, they're not really interested in her.

However, in the apartment that Marta shares with her family, there is a statue that resembles the Virgin of Guadalupe. If that's what the statue is, it would suggest that the family is Mexican. This would add a humorous touch as each of the Thrombeys imagines that Marta is from some more "exotic" location in South America.

Ultimately, it doesn't really matter. For all the debate about immigrants and immigration, Marta herself was born in America, thus making her just as American as the Thrombleys -- and even if she wasn't, the movie is arguing that she is still a person, worthy of being treated with respect, decency, and compassion regardless of ancestry.

She's referred to as an "anchor baby" at one point, which is slang for a US-born child of undocumented immigrants. (An "anchor baby" has birthright citizenship in the US. The child is supposed to "anchor" the family in the US because the authorities would be less likely to deport the parents, so the thinking goes.) In addition, Harlan mentions that Marta's mother could be deported, but not Marta herself. This implies he knows that she is a citizen. Since the mother can be deported, the most likely inference is that Marta is the daughter of an undocumented immigrant mother.

At 47:08 Richard Drysdale states 'We know you're from Uruguay...' - but she is also mentioned as from Ecuador, Paraguay, and Brazil.

Ana de Armas, the actress, is from Cuba, but Marta the character's nationality is left purposely ambiguous. Edit

Harlan told Marta that he was cutting all his kids & their families off so they could stand on their own. Per Linda & others during the investigations, Linda had built up her own business and wealth so if anything, it sounds as if she will be quite comfortable thanks to her own hard work.

We don't actually know how successful her business is, or how involved Harlan is in it. He is clearly disappointed in all his kids, and realized he never taught them to stand on their own. This implies that whatever success any of them attained was through his help. We also see what's in Linda's heart when she attacks Marta at the will reading and falsely accuses her. Edit

There most likely is not a missing scene. By leaving the event off-screen it doesn't let us know if family members are telling the truth when they say "they were on her side". The vote that did take place was most likely unanimously against, or at the very least heavily lopsided.

Also, we already know they don't really care about her because they don't know what country she is from. Edit

Plenty of people have genuine accents, even those usually featured in movies for theatrical effect. However, Blanc's accent is often stereotyped in other films (as in 'Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb') as that of unintelligent comic figures. Because Blanc is one of the most intelligent characters in this film, his accent may represent a rebuttal of this stereotype. Because it bears little resemblance to most 'real' accents, it may also serve in-universe as a disarming tactic.

It may also be a homage to Hercule Poirot, a detective in many Agatha Christie books, who would often exaggerate his Belgian accent so English-speaking people would underestimate him.

Given his extremely French name it seems he was from Louisiana. I think Ransom just said it's horrible because he didn't like it. Edit

This is explained in the movie. She probably wouldn't have gone to jail, or, if she did, not for long because it would have been some charge like negligent homicide or something, but Harlan knew her mother was an illegal immigrant and that if Marta was investigated, that would be found out and she would be deported. He knew he was dead either way, so he thought he could spare Marta any trouble that would come from the investigation and stop her mother from being deported if it was obviously a suicide and not an overdose.

As for later after the plan had been carried out, Marta still probably wouldn't have been charged with murder. She would still potentially face the negligent homicide charge, and now also face charges that had to do with tampering with a crime scene or hiding evidence or something similar, but the problem still remained that her mother would probably be deported, so she couldn't tell the true story until things got out of hand. She even says at one point in the movie that she didn't care if she went to prison, but she didn't want anything to happen to her family.

Also, she would not have inherited any of Harlan's fortune because of the law they kept mentioning in the movie

Nobody said anything about murder.

Strictly legally speaking, even if she had overdosed him, he died from his own wounds and not because of Marta's actions, so she could never be charged with negligent homicide or even attempted murder (there's no attempted murder by negligence, i.e., without intent). But she could nevertheless be in trouble, especially being an immigrant, so it made sense to try to cover it up anyway. Edit

It's a refrigerator magnet that she used to erase the magnetic VHS tape. Edit

No. Ransom heard it from Harlan earlier.

One online dictionary reports - In for a penny, in for a pound "came into American use without changing the British monetary unit to dollar." It's also often shortened to "in for penny". Edit

It was just to make sure that someone in the house bears witness to the fact that Harlan was still alive long after Marta got out of the house at midnight. That's why she wore Harlan's attire and came down the stairs to make just a glimpse visible to Harlan's son, who didn't bother looking closely because he obviously wouldn't suspect that someone else would wear his father's clothes and come down the stairs at night. In this manner Marta got a solid alibi in her favor. Edit

In Harlan's case. it was that he didn't want to take any chances on Marta losing her inheritance. That was more important to him than his life. If he had allowed Marta to call the ambulance, the press would have picked up the story and Marta's mom may have been exposed. If he had done nothing and it turned out he was overdosing, Marta would have lost the inheritance. He may also have been drawing inspiration from Agatha Christie's novel And Then There Were None as an inspiration. In that novel, one of the characters devises a plan to kill himself and fool the police.

In Marta's case, it was likely an example of not thinking clearly under pressure at first. It seems she did realize that it was possible that there was no overdose when she went back upstairs after wearing Harlan's clothing downstairs. However, when she opened the door, it was too late for her stop Harlan from killing himself. He had made up his mind already.

It was also mentioned several times that the Thrombey family, Harlan included, were all overly dramatic. It's not that far-fetched to believe he could actually convince himself he was dying simply because Marta feared he was. Edit

No, it wasn't Marta. You missed nothing, it was just a woman who looked like her. If it were the case, it would be implausible since the Thrombey family didn't care much about Marta. The woman's face can be seen in another photo.

And if Harlan knew Richard was cheating, he likely knew it was not Marta, otherwise Marta would not have received the inheritance. Edit

The family was pretty tight. He probably though if he left her her fair cut, she would share it amongst the family. His goal was to punish his son and daughter in law . It was NOT done out of love. Blanc even said he wanted to "jab the knife in all the way". He wanted to make Walt and Joni suffer. Sadly, it appears Linda got caught in the mix.

She didn't need the money. Besides he already gave her the loan to build her successful business.

Harlan was disappointed how all is children turned out as a result of him indulging them too much and not teaching them to stand on their own feet. Linda did build a successful business, but couldn't have done it without him helping her. She wasn't "self-made" like Harlan was so he didn't respect what she did. Later we see Linda's true character at the will reading, harassing Marta. Edit

The path of the baseball, from Richard throwing it out the window, to Blanc picking it up, to Blanc throwing it to the dog to catch, to the dog giving it to Linda to Linda returning it to her father's office, is how Linda finds Harlan's note telling her that her husband is cheating on her. Edit