DEEP DIVE

When telling the story of Harlan's birthday, his children each tell the police that they were beside him while he blew out the candles. They changed the story so that they each seemed like the most-favoured child who deeply loved their father.

When recounting the events of the night, we learn that Harlan's dogs were barking late in the evening. We also learn during the film that Harlan's dogs don't bark at people they know & like. Roughly half way through the movie, Ransom shows up for the will reading & the dogs charge at him, barking away. This is an early hint to the audience that Ransom did return in the evening, though he had apparently left.

Harlan catches Richard cheating on his daughter Linda. He writes a letter to Linda & tells Richard that if he doesn't admit to his wife that he cheated, Harlan will send the letter. After Harlan's death, Richard breaks into Harlan's desk to see what he wrote & finds it blank: Harlan was bluffing. At the end, we discover Harlan & Linda communicated using invisible ink. This is actually revealed to the viewers for a split second while Richard is holding the 'blank' letter.

In the very first scene of Ransom & Marta at the restaurant, we hear Ransom ask the waitress for an extra bowl. Later, the waitress brings the bowl. It's very casual & super easy to ignore. Only later in this scene do we realize, Ransom only asked for the bowl so that Marta could throw up in it if she was lying to him. It was very subtle but a nod to how he meticulously planned everything, including this 'spontaneous' dinner.

At the end of the movie, Benoit reveals that he knew Marta was involved in the death of Harlan in some capacity because of the blood stain on her shoes. He says he noticed it the moment they met & that can be seen earlier in the movie. Upon meeting, Benoit says "I've been doing a little poking *pause* You were hired..." and continues on. For most of this dialogue, including the pause, Benoit is staring at Marta's shoes. It's a quick moment & viewers thought nothing of it.

Near the end of the movie, Ransom attacks Marta with a knife he pulls from the chair of knives that Harlan kept around. Thankfully, and somewhat comedically, it's revealed that the knife was only a prop. Marta wasn't injured. This fate was hinted at much earlier in the film, when Harlan tells Marta that Ransom has never been able to tell the difference between a real knife and a prop knife.