One of the more surprising plot points of Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery revolves around the most famous painting in the world – the Mona Lisa. Rian Johnson‘s film sees billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton) invite a group of guests to his luxurious island, filled with priceless artwork, and the legendary painting is his pride and joy. The climax of the film features a fiery showdown underneath the titular glass onion, and concludes with the painting burning to ashes.
Speaking to Empire via their Spoiler Special podcast on the movie, the director explained how they were able to put together the replica – along with the surprising revelation that any replicas of classical work of arts are actually legally obligated to be destroyed and documented. Along with that, Johnson also discussed his love for a similar scene from a surprising source – Mr Bean.
We got a very talented, local Belgrade artist to do a recreation of the Mona Lisa and it was kind of extraordinary having it on set. I didn’t realise this, but if you get a recreation like this, you have to destroy them when you’re done filming, if it’s a famous work of art. You actually have to document yourself burning the canvas because of the counterfeit market. Daniel was a bit worried that we were ‘killing the puppy’ by upsetting people as we destroyed the Mona Lisa, but the scene in Bean where he destroys ‘Whistler’s Mother’ is one of the funniest scenes in cinematic history, so I figured we’d get away with this. That scene is so good.
Additionally, Johnson added that a post-credits sting was filmed, just in case audiences were unhappy at seeing a legendary piece of history destroyed before their very eyes. But the way it happens, with Helen (Janelle Monáe) setting the building on fire via Miles’ “perfectly safe” hydrogen-based alternative fuel, makes the finale most impactful, according to the director.
We also shot a little coda which we decided not to use, with Blanc on the phone speaking French and getting a little affirmation of ‘ah, oui, oui, merci’ and cutting to an office in the Louvre where the real Mona Lisa is, with the security guards saying ‘well, back to work’. But that pulls a punch, I like that the real painting gets destroyed in the movie.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is currently streaming on Netflix. You can see our interview with Johnson and Daniel Craig down below.
