10 Movie Scenes That Brilliantly Subverted Expectations

Rian Johnson's Knives Out is at once a brilliant example of a whodunnit and a glorious subversion of one. 

First and foremost, rather than wait until the end of the movie to reveal how the murder victim died, Johnson shows us what happened before the first act is over.

In the film's first reel, we learn that wealthy novelist Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) slit his own throat after learning he'd been given an overdose of morphine.

And though the situation is ultimately far more complicated than that, with the real whodunnit being the identity of the person who poisoned Harlan, it's still a fascinating upending of the murder-mystery formula, to show the victim's actual moment of death so early in the story.

It ensures audiences have no damn idea what to expect for the remainder of the tale, where Johnson clearly has a ton of fun toying with our notions of what should and shouldn't happen in a film like this.