The Stupidity of Miles Bron, Explained

[@PillarofGarbage]

Pay me to stop making Glass Onion videos: www.patreon.com/pillarofgarbage

[@Violn95]

Well it's a good thing I'm broke! Don't stop!

[@TheAmityElf]

Lol, "Buy my silence!"

[@riversong4997]

Lmao

[@fds7476]

We do not negotiate with blackmailers.

[@realMacMadame]

I love for these videos

[@benwasserman8223]

I think Miles is a good PR guy- that’s his biggest strength. The self-confidence in saying nonsense like you mean it, though in every other department he comes up short.

[@PillarofGarbage]

the irony being if he could ever look accurately at himself, he'd realise that his ridiculous self-confidence is unearned

[@daelen.cclark]

He’s an idiot, and he’s a determined and overly wealthy idiot. (The worst kind.)

[@florismalipaard4969]

So he's elon musk

[@espalier]

@@florismalipaard4969 or the orange goblin.

[@SamanthaLain]

@@espalier he's a lot of people

[@chandlermiller3944]

Sending Andi the invitation box is actually the dumbest thing miles did. He could have not sent her a box because of the bad blood and then he never would have been put under scrutiny by the world's greatest detective. In magic this is called over proving. He's trying to hard to prove he didn't do it which then adds to the suspicions instead of taking away from them. He literally invited his own demise to the island.

[@blackbot7113]

Given the timeline the box designer must've been hired long before the murder. I imagine actually building them also takes time, so to me it makes sense that he ordered the box for Andi BEFORE he killed her. In my mind, there are three options: * He didn't include her initially, then killed her and ordered a box for her afterwards. Would be super suspicious. * He killed her and THEN ordered all the boxes. The time frame seems to short for this to be feasible. * He included her in the order, then killed her and didn't bother cancelling the order. Seems the most likely to me. But I don't think the movie confirms it either way, right?

[@rottensquid]

@@blackbot7113 Right. The whole point of inviting her was to prove he didn't know she was dead. And it's exactly what you describe, the "proof" that's actually an aberration in his behavior, making it look more suspicious than if he'd done nothing. But when he learned about the envelope, he had to act fast. So he must have come up with the whole murder mystery idea after the murder, and sent the box before Andi's death was publicly announced. It's not a lot of time to have it constructed, but presumably, with enough money, all things are possible.

[@silversonome5360]

guys he only has a fax machine in his home he couldn't have called the box designer to cancel Andi's box

[@lnsflare1]

​@@silversonome5360I mean, he could have faxed them, but then that would involve the designer having written evidence that a box intended for a famous murder victim was stopped before the murder was publicly revealed.

[@plazasta]

sidenote, another great example of over proving in mysteries is in the Columbo episode Suitable for Framing. One of the reasons Columbo suspects the nephew, Dale, murdered his uncle is that with everyone else, we had a general but vague idea of what they were doing the night his uncle died, but him? We knew EXACTLY where he was, what he was doing and at what time. His alibi was simply too perfect.

[@Anergyne]

"He fooled Andi and killed her" feels like a weird argument because people don't expect to get murdered. Even by your former business partner who just stabbed you in the back. "This guy I've known for years might kill me, I shouldn't let him into my home" is just not a thing most people consider, and I genuinely pity people who do live their lives like that. Fooling Andi and killing her didn't take genius. It simply took Andi not being absolutely paranoid.

[@peterolson146]

Not only Andi not being paranoid, it took Miles violating hospitality rules and cold heartedly murdering someone who used to be his best friend. In other cultures his actions are particularly despicable; he poisoned her as she hosted him! She made him tea!

[@joshwhite5730]

@@peterolson146 isn’t it still evil no matter what culture it is

[@bluexephosfan970]

@@joshwhite5730 oh yeah murder is always fucked, but in many cultures there is a strong rule of hospitality that demands all hostilities be put aside while hosting or being hosted. If you absolutely must murder them, don't do it while at their place for tea, yanno? This is a key plot point in ancient stories like the Odyssey, for example

[@shraka]

Yep. One of his big talents is being extremely casually unethical. Just so extremely out of line it's hard to predict how far he'll go because most people aren't anywhere near that awful.

[@philsurtees]

@@bluexephosfan970 It's America. Aside from all the other murders and violent crimes, there's an average of more than one mass shooting per day. There are so many that you only hear about the really bad ones. They have 25% of the world's prisoners. It's an uncivilised $h1thole. Somehow, I think they're beyond hosting etiquette - any etiquette at all, frankly - when it comes to murder...

[@Trockenmatt]

All of his moments of being "smart" are just him having an incredible charisma. It doesn't take technical know-how to get someone set up at Twitch, it just takes knowing the right people and connecting them.. It doesn't take a mathematical genius to get someone elected to city council, it just takes knowing what to say. It doesn't take a genius to play it cool when someone you thought you murdered shows up at your party, it just takes a cool head. That's what Miles is. In D&D terms, he has a Charisma of 18 and an Intelligence of 8.

[@jenniferhunter4074]

He's an opportunist. It's just basic thinking that takes advantage of opportunities. You can see it in the scene where the scientist guy asks "You didn't burn it?" and you see the look on Mile's face.. and voila... he gets his lighter out and he burns the stupid napkin He's always stealing other people's skills. I thought that was hilarious. I loved Edward Norton's acting because you could see "the character" thinking "oh, let me do that". We all do this in a sense. Does anyone really highlight when a store screws up the pricing? No. we just go all in. We'll play the "but it says this" game. To the point that stores pushed for a get out of jail card legislation and the "price match" is always with specific competitors and not the warehouse retailer. when Napster was a thing, people just used the app and they didn't care about the cost and I sincerely doubt they cared about the ethics of the system. They just wanted to get some music. Miles just understands how to manipulate and cash in on people. He's got animal instincts. Lots of people have those instincts. We couldn't function as a social group if we couldn't lie. This is just basic humanity 101. Miles has a lot going for him. He's white. He's a male. He's not ugly or unattractive. That really is the bar he had to pass. Then, a few token successes and the illusion begins. Miles is "successful" because of perception. People play along with the game. Monkey see monkey do. Then, people will play along unconsciously because of their own animal instincts as humans. It's just group dynamics and we can show the studies to prove how susceptible people are to group peer pressure. The anti-sjw crowd is a clear exhibition of this with their conformist behavior that somehow, turns into them using the same trite debunked arguments of their masters. You can tell that group is a bunch of dolls just regurgitating something they thought sounded clever. I remember when they babbled about the bomber run scene in TLJ and they all said the same thing. The other side said "magnets? " as an explanation for why they "fell". It wasn't hard to think up a plausible explanation for why these bombs with red lights went to the big ship to go boom. However, sometimes, you put your critical thinking non-conformist brain on and then that person will take a big step back and they start asking those prime questions such as "Is this true" and they go back to the beginning. Think of atheists such as myself. Former Christian. Believed that religion's "truth". AT some point, reality gave me too many discrepancies and I had to look. I didn't go into the investigation expecting to be an atheist. I genuinely thought that I would prove my religion was true. The joke was on me. I came out and said " How was I so stupid as to fall for this obvious bs?" (Of course, being indoctrinated since birth and living in a religious culture bubble, there were reasons I didn't have to look at this thing. When I did... suddenly, garden of eden is a metaphor and the knot of religion gets un-knotted.) It takes a lot of energy and practice and just general knowledge to get to that point. That way, you hear a guy on youtube. He sounds nice. 5 videos in, he says something stupid that you catch because you understand that topic. Suddenly, you start re-evaluating the content and go "Maybe not for me". One of the interesting experiments to prove that we aren't as "independent rugged non-conformists" is the Asch tests. We're all vulnerable to this kind of group dynamic. We're a social species. We're not lone wolves. We're cuddly bald monkeys with brains. We're not even as scary as monkeys. We're like bald cuddly sheep. baa-baa.

[@daelen.cclark]

He’s a promoter/marketing guy.

[@jeremypnet]

@@jenniferhunter4074 all very good. The only flaw is that the bomber scene in TLJ really was truly stupid.

[@loxodoncyclotis1823]

He also scores pretty low on Wisdom. After all not everyone has the ability to transform other peoples' lives and help them reach their full potential like he does, he could've been content with that and made a great career out of it. But no, he had to fall for his own hype and try to cast himself as some kind of modern Da Vinci.

[@TheBlackCloakedMan]

Charisma? He did with money. That's what you need to accomplish all these things. Yes, he became incredibly wealthy afterwards, but he clearly came from money. Like Elon Musk.

[@EtruskenRaider]

The obvious answer is that Miles was already rich when he met the shitheads, he just wasn’t insanely rich until Alpha. His clothes are too nice in the flashbacks. He provided the initial cash investments and introductions.

[@octochan]

There's another example you probably could have added to your argument about how Miles overestimates himself - that he thinks he successfully seduced Whiskey away from Duke, and that Duke doesn't know about it. He probably thought he was being real slick, filling his penthouse with roses

[@PillarofGarbage]

Great point!

[@axlm.808]

On the other hand, everybody think Whiskey is just a dumb bimbo girl. But she's way smarter than she looks and uses both Duke and Miles to her own benefits

[@TJ52359]

with Whiskey , -- didn't they imply that he'd been at a Party with/for her a few weeks earlier -- she tells Andi/Helen that she's looking to move away from Duke's "Brand" because she has her own goals which they might hinder -- Duke's lifestyle practically screams 'Here for a Good time, not a long Time"... how long has he been with Whiskey? How Long would he have been? How many other Whiskeys have there been since Miles joined the group? It's wholly possible he'd been positioning himself as her rebound Sugar-daddy since the second time she accompanied Duke somewhere

[@camipco]

@@TJ52359 Yes, but the point is that Duke isn't oblivious to that, and Miles isn't outsmarting Duke using Whiskey as a pawn. Whiskey and Duke and Miles are all engaged in a power shuffle, for sure, as are the rest of the shitheads with Miles, but Miles isn't playing it at some higher level.

[@TJ52359]

@@camipco oh no doubt it's a three sided Chess Game... but as I read @Octo Chan's comment they were citing Miles' hook up with Whiskey as more of a 'The stripper really liked me." (no offense to Whiskey) kind of stupid, rather than simply being outplayed by either/both of them... -- and with as many past Whiskeys as there have no doubt been, how many Did Miles run game on (successfully, or not) after Duke was done with them so he's probably got a history of 'some' success upon which to base his delusion...

[@abigfavor]

Imagine lowering the bar of intelligence to not admitting you killed someone or trying to kill her in front of everyone on the beach. It makes me feel bigly smart

[@PillarofGarbage]

we must be gods to them

[@artisticcannibalism1350]

@@PillarofGarbage I knew it!

[@soccerandtrack10]

In lame man's terms,we call it screaming at the top of your lungs because of reality and the 1 yelling physically can't admit reality is real because they're to insecure.

[@capsey_]

@@soccerandtrack10 poor layman was just called lame

[@user-NameName]

@@soccerandtrack10 what?

[@MarioGMan25]

There's a few bits like where he seems to think Helen is Andi's ghost, considering that strange shoulder touch. That and he was utterly surprised by the Helen reveal, meaning he never thought of a twin even after Duke showed him that Andi was dead.

[@snarkysmalltalk1349]

Yes I just realized that the last time I rewatched it. The shoulder touch just seemed so strange I knew it had to mean something. He was definitely thinking she might be a ghost.

[@brokencandy1797]

I assumed that he assumed that Andi had somehow survived the attempted poisoning and was scared of if and when she would call him out. He can't ask because he can't admit that he has any reason to not expect her to be alive.

[@user-NameName]

You can justify anything in the film being true if you think touching someone’s shoulder constitutes them believing in ghosts…

[@RictusHolloweye]

@@user-NameName - Touching the shoulder of someone he thought was a dead person returned. Were you not aware of the rest of the relevant information?

[@user-NameName]

@@RictusHolloweye That doesn’t immediately mean that he believes in ghosts. It’s a blatant non sequitur.

[@DozyBinsh]

I'm also kinda shocked by how many people seem to think Miles' initial murder of Andi was by some kind of undetectable poison. He just dosed her with sleeping pills and left her in the garage with the car running. Helen explains it out loud in the film. He's capable of functioning and planning, but he's not a genius and it was a stupid thing to do.

[@hurricaneofcats]

Yeah as far as murder methods go it's not the most surefire way to kill someone. The pills could wear off. Someone could find and revive her or it simply couldn't work for a dozen reasons. People are acting like he gave her cyanide or something.

[@Mathee]

Exactly; the fact the coroner report found sleeping pills in Andi's system, but there were no sleeping pills in her home, were one of the points Helen brought up as to why she refuses to believe Andi commited suicide

[@dr.strangelove2066]

Seeing again up close the email Andi sent to the shitheads totally dispels the supposed inconsistency of "why did she let Miles into her house, he was obviously gonna kill her! Such a bad movie!" because she literally invited them all to come! "You all know where to find me." Why would she expect anyone to kill her when they showed up to her front door because she was expecting them to come. And they all did come!

[@michaelsinger4638]

Also Miles killing her himself after driving his own car over to her house after they were in the middle of a public bitter legal case, when he was supposed to be living overseas. It’s such a stupid thing to do that Andi probably never guessed he’d be foolish enough to actually do it.

[@eomoran]

Except she didn’t send the email to miles.

[@eomoran]

@@michaelsinger4638 exactly, she was so smart she got killed, yknow, as opposed to just letting her be arrogant

[@peterolson146]

@@eomoran miles doesn’t have email that’s why Leslie Odom Jr faxes it to him. Andi knew someone would share it with him

[@user-NameName]

“She was so clever that she died.”

[@Rime_in_Retrograde]

I didn't realize people thought Miles's characterization was inconsistent, but that might be because I know someone like Miles in real life - charismatic with a lot of initiative, constantly looking for ways to "get rich quick", often fall for their own hype, and good at using other people's ideas but not at coming up with their own🤷🏻‍♀

[@shraka]

I've met a few too. Do you think it's possible some of the audience are falling for Miles' confidence man persona? They've literally bought in to a fictional character's sales pitch? If so I do not envy these people - that's a level of meta sucker I have trouble even comprehending.

[@erin_3569]

​@@shraka I mean, there's still people praising Elon Musk's intelligence even after he lost billions with his gestion of twitter

[@shraka]

@@erin_3569 That's very true.

[@lnsflare1]

​@@erin_3569You have to remember, "Donald Trump" is more a class of mental disorders (namely narcissism, megalomania, inferiority complex, substance abuse, breeding kink, and several truckloads of daddy issues, to begin with) than he is a person, and Elon Musk (and Miles) is a terminal patient.

[@11ldevendrakumaragrawal27]

​@@erin_3569yes you could say writers had predicted the trend

[@nrpbrown]

Honestly Miles is a great example of why confidence is so important and at the same time so dangerous when left unchecked.

[@mikaylaeager7942]

Miles is at the very peak of Mount Stupid on the Dunning-Kruger chart. He's not entirely incompetent but he is exorbitantly over confident. Anyone can fall into this trap but it is particularly common among highly privileged, broadly educated white men. Miles is that guy who tries to lecture you on biology or economics based on one gen-ed course and "common sense," and you don't bother to correct him despite having a degree in both topics because you know just enough to know how little you actually know about two extremely complicated and constantly evolving fields of study.

[@slowCPU]

Dunno why you brought race into that but go off queen

[@mikaylaeager7942]

@@slowCPU I brought race into it because in the study I’m referencing men that belonged to other racial groups did not have the same level of overestimating their own competence. Saying men generally would be inaccurately representing the results of the study.

[@slowCPU]

@@mikaylaeager7942 k

[@MasteringJohn]

Stupidity and arrogance are human universals, not racial or sociological particulars.

[@mikaylaeager7942]

@@MasteringJohn That’s why I said anyone can fall into this trap, some demographics are just more susceptible because of their experience and socialization.

[@onearmedbandit84]

I don't think the fact Johnson wrote the film during the 2020 pandemic, two whole years before the rise of Andrew Tate and Elon Musk's Twitter saga, gets enough credit.

[@daelen.cclark]

Even if he didn't write it during the pandemic, he at least understood what it was like at the time.

[@YumLemmingKebabs]

I mean, Tate didn't "Rise" in 2022. He just fell in 2022. He was rising the whole time. Most people just hadn't heard of him before he got arrested because he's such a niche weirdo.

[@Di7manya]

Elon Musk's Twitter saga only broadcasted his dumbness, but his reputation as a "genius" and how stupid he really is was well-known by then. At the very start of the pandemic he "predicted" that covid cases in the US would be zero by May 2020 for example.

[@ManticTRIGGER]

@@YumLemmingKebabs I know you are wrong but I'm to lazy to explain so fuck it you are right

[@shraka]

@@YumLemmingKebabs Tate is hugely influential - just mostly to teenage boys.

[@amandac.s.9452]

I always interpreted Miles lack of reaction to "Andi" showing up in the island was that he thought his plan failed and Andi survived. After all, it's well established that the actual murder itself was very hands off, and the news of Andi's death hadn't broken. He had no way of knowing whether or not his plan worked!! He was surprised, upset, and nervous!

[@ludwigamadeushaydn706]

The problem even then is that the movie never even attempts to imply what he thought was going on.

[@gaileverett]

@@ludwigamadeushaydn706 I don't see that as a problem. The movie wants us to believe he's smarter than he really is. If It had been absolutely clear what he was thinking at that moment, a lot of suspense would have been lost.

[@ludwigamadeushaydn706]

@@gaileverett I mean that at some point it would have been nice to find out.

[@OK-yy6qz]

@@gaileverett a mystery movie doesn't work if there's no logical way for the viewer to arrive at the same conclusion as the characters.

[@Nao-uy6mj]

@@ludwigamadeushaydn706 You kind of do though. When he sees her on the island for the first time, he weirdly touches her shoulder, almost like he's looking at a ghost. I honestly don't think he thought that far into the future, he probably didn't have too many concrete theory of what was happening and decided to "put the ball in her court." Or since he'd already took Duke's gun beforehand, he'd already planned on using the lights situation to kill Helen just to make sure she stayed dead. That's the thing about him though, is he's stupid and doesn't think about the consequences of his actions more than one step ahead.

[@dr.braxygilkeycruises1460]

Love this video!!! Miles is indeed dumb. Though it isn't mentioned, notice when Miles pulls Benoit into the Glass Onion to ask why he's there, *Benoit TELLS him, "maybe someone reset the box."* It is at that point we see Miles *adopt that thought and restate it as if HE Is The One Who Originated The Idea!*

[@tarvoc746]

Miles is definitely really good at stealing ideas and then selling them as his own.

[@flyingfireballmaster1816]

That was the moment I began to question Miles’ intelligence. Given how confused he was at Blanc’s arrival, I just assumed resetting the box was impossible because otherwise any normal person would have figured that’s what happened. It seemed really odd that he had to have someone else suggest that before he even considered it. It was kind of a perfect moment. Like everyone in the movie, I made a bad assumption based on the idea that Miles was a genius.

[@cidevant002]

I feel like you keep missing the fact that Miles didn't know for sure that Andie was dead when he first saw Helen. He could have imagined that she survived somehow, some neighbor helped her out or something and he only had a clear idea when Duke showed him the news. It's only after he took care of Duke (the only witness that could put him at the time when Andie died at the place), only then he took care of Helen (the one obviously trying to uncover him). If Duke HAVEN'T shown him his phone and the news of Andie's death, Miles probably wouldn't have done anything to him.

[@Braddicusfinch]

I don't think he did miss this, pretty sure he stated this as a rebuttal to The Critical Drinker video in his video response

[@cidevant002]

​@@Braddicusfinch Even if he did on that video, he didn't on this one. He talks like Miles knew from the very start that Helen was an imposter.

[@Braddicusfinch]

@@cidevant002 I disagree, though there certainly is room to come to the conclusion you did. To me, it was more the idea that Miles would be shocked to see "Andi" alive because his hubris would not allow him to think his plan failed

[@shraka]

@@Braddicusfinch I think it's more like he is pathologically two faced, and dumb. He was confused - didn't know how Andi was there, even touched her because he thought she might be a ghost - but was instinctively confidant on the surface because that's how he operates. I've seen people who do this; charismatic and confidant as all hell then you find out later they have NO IDEA what is going on. I honestly think he was STILL confused after Duke showed him the video. I don't think he understood the implication because later he's surprised that it wasn't actually Andi, he's just being blackmailed so he's gonna kill the guy blackmailing him and go kill Andi again.

[@lnsflare1]

He was probably very confused as to how come he wasn't being arrested for attempted murder if Andi was still alive and mentally competent after she saw him drug her and then she woke up in our was rescued from a staged suicide.

[@AndrewFullerton]

This sort of thing is why we need to teach media literacy in schools. Same as how a villain doing X evil act in a story isn't the author explicitly endorsing X, or how narrative decisions are about more than just avoiding plot holes.

[@hugoCastellnaos]

Miles didn't think Andy was a fake, but that she was able to survive the first atatck.

[@samuelbarber6177]

Thing is, the pineapple juice wouldn’t normally be that stupid, considering that if Duke’s blood had been analysed and some poison had been found that would things so much more suspicious than just a mishap involving Duke’s lack of an epi-pen, however, he also attempted to bring this up with Blanc as ‘who tried to kill me?’ So would probably look a bit weird for him if it was determined by an Autopsy to be an allergic reaction.

[@phantasosxgames8488]

but that is the point: Miles Bron quickly acted that someone poisoned his own cup , so it would only goes back into making Miles suspicious , since pineapple wouldn't affect him.

[@Thommy2n]

Exactly! I thought the same thing. He’s good at quick and decisive thinking, which can be very much considered one of many types of intelligence in it’s own right. But that quick thinking he does is only seemingly in the moment one step at a time, not really considering the following steps to see if it can actually follow through & work. Be it launching Klear before proper testing, borrowing the Mona Lisa with an easy override, building a fancy dock that is useless in high tide. Or impulsively murdering his friends with the nearest thing available the second things he doesn’t have full control over them.

[@android19willpwn]

I disagree here. If he truly wasn't the culprit, he would have no idea what the cause was. In this scenario, he saw someone drink from his glass and immediately die. Assuming poison in already suspicious circumstances wouldn't be an unreasonable action. Assuming an allergy would be *more* reasonable but, with how quickly everyone else gets onboard, it's clearly not the first thing on people's minds. It's one of the better, subtler misdirects he performs.

[@jonsrecordcollection7172]

@@phantasosxgames8488 Exactly! Miles claimed somebody tried to poison him. If that's the case, there should have been actual poison in the cup. Instead, the cup would smell like pineapple, which isn't poisonous to Miles. But pineapple was poisonous to Duke, which makes Miles Bron's claims that "Somebody's trying to poison me!" immediately suspicious. Miles' poisoning of Duke only looks likes evil genius if you don't think about it for more than 5 minutes.

[@djwewasson]

Also the missing gun makes the death incredibly suspicious. Like, with nothing else it could look like Duke was killed to get access to his gun right before Helen was shot. And Duke getting killed by pineapple in Mile's cup leaves little other conclusions...

[@trinaq]

I love how every previous Edward Norton character is the smartest person in the room. He's also a member of MENSA in real life. Miles just THINKS that he's crafty and intellectual, but he is woefully mistaken.

[@rizahawkeyepierce1380]

Stupid characters are often played by very smart actors. The kid who played Luke on Modern Family is a member of MENSA as well.

[@LocseryuOfficial]

@@rizahawkeyepierce1380 it takes a smart man to act dumb

[@randomnerd3402]

He played a bit of a pretentious dumbass in Birdman

[@animeotaku307]

Irony as cast. Same with Bautista; he is vocal about his opposition to the alt-right IRL.

[@mikejeffries3333]

@@animeotaku307 I think there's also something fun/intriguing (for pretty much anyone working on a piece of media) about becoming or making a villain-if you can make them interesting or entertaining, even if they are basically an embodiment of everything you disagree with, it can be fun to explore these characters. I know that I really like writing villains, and I imagine that actors can have some fun playing these awful people-it's like getting to explore something that you'll never do otherwise.

[@codeimplode]

From Netflixs 'Dont Look Up' Kate: "You guys, the truth is way more depressing. They are not even smart enough to be as evil as you're giving them credit for."

[@kingflumph5968]

There's a model sometimes used in game theory called 'level k thinking' which describes the framework of how players in a strategic game think about the actions of other players. A "level zero" player, also called a naive player, acts as if the other players don't exist, or at least without really considering how the other players will act. A level one player considers other players as if they are all level zero, and plans their strategy to respond to level zero planning from others. A level two player considers all others to be level-one players, and so on. It seems to me like miles is a level one player at most, but most likely a level zero. As Mr. Garbage points out, he rarely consider the ramifications of his actions or how other people are likely to respond to them when he makes his decisions. He either doesn't know what other people are likely to do, or he assumes it incorrectly because he assumes that he is at the highest k level. As said, he's not special. He's a naive and sometimes competent guy stumbling his way through a situation that demands a lot more strategic thinking than he is capable of, and it works for a while because he is confident enough to seem like he belongs. Great video as always!

[@PillarofGarbage]

Thanks for the added nuance, very interesting!

[@McDonaldsCalifornia]

That meshes pretty well with the fact that Blanc overestimated him. Blanc treated him as a higher level player

[@just-trying-my-best-everyday]

"Mr. Garbage" had me in tears

[@DeathnoteBB]

@@McDonaldsCalifornia Yeah poor Blanc. Too upstanding to assume sheer incompetence.

[@VeronicaWarlock]

@@DeathnoteBB that’s why i think Blanc’s early framing in this movie is important. He’s being starved of challenge by Covid, forced to fall back on mass consumption puzzles and games with simple, reliable solutions. When what SEEMS to be a good Christie-level mystery comes along (with a puzzle box, a high profile corporate court case, several important figures, a murder, and a missing piece of blackmail), he is so desperate for challenge that he just assumes it will be one. He even puts Helen in danger to get himself on the scene. He skips right over Miles as a suspect because it’s “too obvious.” (I’m not criticizing him as a character, i think it’s brilliant setup for the eventual result. Fits right in with the themes. Even Blanc was taken in by the Glass Onion.)

[@b1g_m00n]

as a brazilian man, recently freed from the grasp of a tyrannical nitwit, it always riles me when people say that successful men are succesful because they're some sort of genius, instead of seeing them as what they are: people who are going about the world doing what they want and getting everything they want because this world was made to give them what they want for the sole merit of being who they are. it's like saying a king is a genius because he snaps his fingers and his will gets done. his will gets done because he's the king. it's what the game is rigged towards.

[@paulenan9636]

If you don't mind me asking? How are things over there? Did the situation calm down after the coup attempt in Brazilia?

[@b1g_m00n]

@@paulenan9636 *sigh* things are still somewhat tense. the military have always considered themselves overseers of the democracy somewhat, and that's only gotten worse since the CIA-supported military dictatorship from 64-85. Bolsonaro had been a (terrible) military man, so he ran on that to curry favor with the (many) conservative and reactionaries who hate their own freedom and would like nothing more than to have a daddy military dictator to rule over them. so his government was largely considered a military government (more military men in position of power than back in the dictatorship times, even). finally, now the military seem keen on avoiding any sort of consequence for what his government did, and also avoiding consequences for the coup (even though the rioters had spent two months in front of barracks all over Brazil demanding the army take control of the country, which is deeply unconstitutional, and even though numerous high ranking army folk tried to stop the rioters from being arrested during the putsch attempt). the main thing that worries me is that the security forces are deeply reactionary (as per). Lula is really politically savvy and he's done his best to rally numerous formerly conflicting forces to his side - really, this mealy mouthed revolt performance only galvanized and legitimized his grasp on power - and he's just fired the insubordinate head of the army, but the guy he's put in his place isn't reaaaally that much of a democrat (considering he was head of the military academy when Bolsonaro started campaigning in it back in 2014 - which goes against both military and electoral statutes - and was the boss of a specially authoritarian general that threatened the supreme court to keep Lula in jail back in 2018 so that Bolsonaro could win). really, my fear is that one of these days Lula will give an order and someone somewhere won't abide by it. that's a crisis. the only reason this hasn't happened yet is that they have much less popular support than they had in 64 - even though even back then their support wasn't that solid - and essentially none of the international support (thank the USA for electing Biden, God only know what would have happened is DJT was still in power).

[@paulenan9636]

@@b1g_m00n damn, that bad, huh? Got friends in Ceara who apparently managed to blend out the political troubles or at least stopped complaining about it, so now learning that problems are still brewing is a bit worrying... Stay safe, man

[@TSDTalks22]

Dread it, run from it, another video on Glass Onion from Pillar of Garbage always arrives

[@furbysimitar]

I really enjoyed glass onion, the style, twist, the characters *chefs kiss* Surprisingly your videos have increased my enjoyment 10 fold. There are callbacks I missed and depth that I didn’t see my first viewing. I believe this movie will become my litmus test on the quality of people’s movie critiquing.

[@ryanangelastro504]

I also love how this and the original Knives Out are self contained, so you don’t need to watch one, to watch the other.

[@Connor-vj7vf]

I watched the film and thought "Wow, I can't believe Rian just crapped out a script with an Elon caricature as the killer, seems so on the nose" Then I found out he wrote it in 2020. Life imitating art I guess

[@user-NameName]

Did you know that Elon musk isn’t the first person in history to claim ownership of the things he’s purchased before?

[@dammagrilla]

Miles Bron rearranged is "Mr B is Elon" lol

[@realMacMadame]

@@user-NameNameRian says Bron is based on a couple of people including Elon. I believe it. Who would base a character entirely on Musk in 2020?

[@davidioanhedges]

There are plenty of other "genius" company owners who he could have based it on, Elon is just the current one, who has let the mask slip ..

[@user-NameName]

@@davidioanhedges It’s kind of like the writer director of this movie who constantly steals shit from other movies and pretends like he invented them himself.

[@nickcoronado898]

I think the smartest thing Miles does in the movie (and I think it's actually quite clever) is after he kills Duke with the drink (with his OWN glass btw), he "suddenly notices" that it was his glass and redirects the suspicion, acting like it was an attempt on his own life. If I had just poisoned someone with my own glass and saw it on the floor with my own name on it I would think "shit I forgot it had my name on it, .now they'll know that I gave it to him" Ya gotta admit, that's pretty smart. But yeah otherwise all of his moves range between idiotic and like a normal person level of intelligence.

[@stick3448]

Is it smart, though? When an autopsy was run, they'd see that it was just pineapple that killed Duke - pineapple mixed with whiskey, which I doubt was a normal drink for Miles. I don't even think he was thinking of blaming it on poison and redirecting until he saw his glass on the floor and realized he could - he was just focusing on getting rid of Duke. He thinks quickly, but he mistakes having quick thoughts with having quick thoughts of substance.

[@bpora01]

I think he knows how to talk to people. To tell them what they want to hear in a way that gets him what he wants from them. A very underappreciated power.

[@victorcsavage]

I definitely agree that Miles is at least good at BSing. The Elizabeth Holmes homages are an especially accurate analogy; she clearly wasn't an incompetent idiot, but she turned Theranos into a giant snowball she had no chance at stopping despite the fact that the whole premise of the company was BS. And yet she was able to charm enough people during and before the grift that those on the outside saw it as another precocious inventor type; such a massive success can't be all smoke and mirrors, especially when the magician is so damn convincing. The difference is that Miles was able to hype a product/company that did deliver because of Andi's competence. But I still think Alpha did go further than it could have with a master BSer up front , but he obviously couldn't hack it as the sole leader.

[@Electronica27]

Unappreciated? More like sinisterly hidden. It's pretty explicit that it's implied that he represents Elon Musk in many ways. He did not found Tesla not PayPal, just happened to be in the right place and right time. And made sure he was the face of all of it. Then when it comes for him to actually manage free from proper advisors, he makes all of the wrong decisions. Some people are really good at looking like leaders rather than being an actual leader.

[@satyasyasatyasya5746]

He's the classic late-stage Capitalism "ideas guy" in that he can only do something with the ideas of others, or have others do something with his own ideas. A peculiar kind of 'business alchemist.' Which wouldn't be a problem if such skills weren't married to the kind of greed and vanity Capitalism rewards.

[@daelen.cclark]

How would that be done without capitalism? I want to know how to do it right.

[@user-NameName]

Artists are some of the greatest offenders of this.

[@seven-cats-3]

@@user-NameName ??

[@shraka]

@@daelen.cclark Give the people who had the idea and people who implement the idea, a share in the company. Give the communities you impact (or the whole of society) a stake too. Disseminate power rather than consolidate it.

[@user-NameName]

@@seven-cats-3 Show me an original work of art that didn’t steal from anyone.

[@hikupptheoverthinker]

People seem to mixing up intelligence with charisma & cleverness. Miles has charisma, it's how he got into the gang with others to begin with. He also can be kind of clever here and there, but the way he carries himself mask the problems when people aren't watching for them. He was so consistently successful at this, that he then did indeed start to believe his own lies, he truly thought he was smart. It was interesting to see how easy it was for his character to unravel.

[@katpiercemusic]

Miles is a confidence man. He’s good at convincing people of ideas. That’s it’s own kind of intelligence I suppose, but that intelligence is extremely limited. What’s more, as you said, he’s bought his own con, so he can’t see the danger around him. He thinks what he says is right simply because he said it. I can’t imagine where Rian Johnson got his inspiration for a character like that!

[@MelissaWickersham-k4o]

There are countless confidence men throughout history. From billionaire tech bros to snake oil salesmen to KZbin manosphere influencers to pulp sci-fi authors who started their own religion to former real estate tycoons who became reality stars, confidence men have always existed in all professions. Miles Bron could have been any real life confidence man in history.

[@envysart797]

I think you can read this film as Miles having been so stupid the entire time that he doesn’t grasp who Andi is until Duke shows him the Google alert. Like this whole time, he thinks he somehow failed to kill Cassandra and she’s there to actually take part in the game.

[@JohnRollercoasterJr]

That would be hilarious

[@matti.8465]

I can see Miles thinking Andi showing up like nothing happened is her playing with him, hence why he's so nervous around her.

[@DisKorruptd]

Every single "Smart" thing Miles does in the film is prompted by someone else. Blanc says it himself: "Your one murder with any panache at all, and you stole the whole idea from me! " "you still kept the envelope? You didn't burn it or anything?" Even Miles admits to it! "No, my puzzle guy barely got the five done in time," "It’s fine. It doesn’t matter. It’s just… I hired Gillian Flynn to write the whole thing…" Even his puzzle boxes and murder mystery aren't his own idea

[@camipco]

Another important thing that many people missed about "Miles is dumb". It is said by Blanc, who is a genius, and he says it as a self-reprimand. In context, Blanc clearly means "Miles is dumb compared to how smart I assumed he was".

[@subaveragejoe2]

The idea that someone who is wealthy could also be a fool is genuinely painful to deal with for a certain type of person.

[@jeremyusreevu237]

How? There are...like...a ton of stupid wealthy people.

[@geminia999]

I mean, context is important. Someone who is wealthy from inheritance or a lottery, no one is going to think much of because their wealth is not tied to anything they've done. A person who created a successful business and become a billionaire off it shows acumen needed to succeed, often a form of intelligence (otherwise if anyone could do it, anyone would do it).

[@compacta_d]

I didn't think he knew Helen was an imposter until Duke showed him. He didn't stick around to make sure she actually died. He took off and almost pancaked Duke. But maybe he does and goes through it all again in front of the worlds most predefinite detective instead of literally doing nothing, letting everyone go home and work it out with Duke in a position of still upper hand.

[@colonelweird]

I really appreciate this series on Glass Onion. It's rare for a youtube channel to keep coming back to the same topic with new insight, and I think it's usually a missed opportunity. I realize much of what you say in these videos is in response to some really bad takes on the film, but for once, the controversy hasn't fallen into the usual petty absurdities that we've seen so often in disputes over Star Wars or superheroes or "woke" anything -- no, these are new petty absurdities, and for once the disputes feel fresh. At university my best classes were the ones where the design of the class was on focused but open-ended discussion of particular texts -- for me the best one was an upper level seminar on Plato. The good thing about these discussions was that even when someone was badly wrong or completely misunderstood what they had read, it inspired great responses. We all had to dig a little deeper each time. I feel like something similar is happening with these videos. There's nothing better, in my opinion, that coming back to a worthwhile text again and again to look at it from a new angle, and that's what is happening with Glass Onion. I'm sure that a year from now I will remember more about the plot, characters, and themes of this film than any other film I've watched recently. It's too bad this doesn't happen more often. But I'm glad it's happening now.

[@Sootielove]

Miles' stupidity also comes from a lack of foresight: Klear's failure would destroy his company's reputation, the police would test for fingerprints on Duke's gun, they'd test Duke's glass for poison and reveal it's just pineapple juice, he didn't burn the letter until someone told him he should have, he didn't think his friends would check their phones about Andi's suicide, etc. He just assumes that he can coast through these serious crimes the same way he coasted through Andi's business despite the fields being so different.

[@X2XImTheNewCancerX2X]

I think another part of Bron's stupidity is just that he's incredibly shortsighted, which goes hand-in-hand with his overconfidence. Like, he wears a glove when shooting Helen, but doesn't seem to realize his prints would be all over the gun from when he stole it. He doesn't realize he would still be the first suspect in a traditional murder case. He doesn't realize pulling some 'who just tried to kill me?' thing would make him look incredibly suspicious when Duke's blood gets analyzed and it comes back free of any poisons and just shows it was an allergic reaction. He seems to realize Klear is dangerous to some extent but is pushing it for the money he can get from it initially, without thinking that just a couple Klear-related disasters will tank him. He's bought into his own hype so much that he's incapable of just looking a couple of steps ahead.

[@JohnnyTheWolf-d3p]

To quote Burn After Reading: "Intelligence is relative".

[@matthewwatkins4938]

As one of my favorite video game characters has stated "Even drooling imbeciles can achieve success in certain fields."

[@beksfue5937]

I know a guy who graduated with honors from Stanford. He is very well read and knows basically everything there is to know about my country's history and politics, can spend hours talking about nuclear physics and complex mathematical problems, he even proved to HIMSELF that global warming was real (he used to think it was fake) through math and stuff... ... Then, at 70 years old, he let a dude he'd known for four months, who just HAPPENED to be a lawyer who knows about divorce law, to convince him that his wife of 20+ years had been cheating on him. Even though most of us kept telling him, with PROOF (that refuted his supposed proof) of the contrary (those who didn't just HAPPENED to have a beef with the wife, and kept telling contradictory shit, like naming one dude, but describing another one). Now the guy is mostly alone, and lost the house that cost him more than half his life savings after the divorce. As paradoxical as it sounds, people can be really intelligent and absolute, effing idiots at the same time.

[@MelissaWickersham-k4o]

Your friend was very book smart. However, it seems to me that your friend is lacking in the social intelligence department. He doesn’t seem to understand how other people think and how people could intentionally deceive others.

[@didiercollard]

Every tjme you cut to Helen's rampage at the end, it only gets more satisfying. 😁 And I love how it echoes Bron's self-hype moment when he talks about the Disruptors. After breaking all the stuff everyone kinda wanted to see broken, she breaks the thing no one wants her to break.

[@amycox5733]

Hey, fun fact: the Mona Lisa was painted on wood. The one shown burning in the movie is canvas. It’s possible that the prop maker just didn’t know, but it’s also possible it was deliberate, and it was a fake Mona Lisa in canon.

[@charminglady2011]

I think it was supposed to be fake to make a point. Just like that other painting that was upside down.

[@taylordinney1484]

That would be nice since Helen wouldn't have committed a crime against humanity by burning the real one.

[@JohnnyTheWolf-d3p]

That reportedly was the original plan, which got scrapped because they decided it would have undermined the dramatic impact of its destruction.

[@graydanger]

I didn't realize that burning the napkin was also a borrowed idea until watching this videos. That's just perfect.

[@Hypershock93]

I kind of look at Miles like a kid trying to get out of trouble at school. No matter how intelligent they are, kids' instinct is often to try and weasel their way out of trouble, so they'll lie, point fingers, backpedal, anything they can do to avoid being the one in trouble. Miles isn't so much "a stupid person" as "a guy who failed upward who reacts on instinct when threatened"

[@MelissaWickersham-k4o]

Of course. He’s not so much “stupid” as incredibly immature and childish. He does what he does because he’s a naughty schoolboy at heart.

[@FTZPLTC]

It is genuinely funny that Glass Onion portrayed someone of average intelligence with a bit of low cunning but an inflated sense of their own ability... and a lot of people who fit that description to a tee declared that this wasn't plausible and must be bad writing. And yeah, Miles' outsourcing for intelligence is well signposted. He refers to his "puzzle guy" having put the puzzleboxes together; and that his murder mystery was written by a famous screenwriter. These are played like little jokes but they tell you that he's someone who wants to appear smart, even if it's completely hollow.

[@cogsworther1639]

Miles is a competent person who thinks that they're a genius. That's it, that's the whole movie, and I love it.

[@ethanhandel1001]

Not sure competent is the right word for someone who allows Blanc to stay on the island considering he showed up (from Miles' perspectie) with the woman that Miles thought he murdered a week earlier.

[@cogsworther1639]

@@ethanhandel1001 I interpreted that moment as Miles being placed between a rock and a hard place. He didn't want Blanc to stay with him, but he couldn't turn away Blanc and the woman who he himself had invited without looking suspicious. Does he act suspicious in front of a detective now, or does he risk exposure later? In the end, his belief in his own "genius" won out. He thought that he could outplay Blanc, and so, in the end, they stay at the island. That's just my read on the scene, though.

[@ethanhandel1001]

@@cogsworther1639 Except they both played into the idea that it was just a prank pulled by one of his guests. Blanc was very apologetic and at that point Miles could have easily sent him away without seeming suspicious at all. He could have even come across as generous, offer to treat him to a weekend in Greece since they're already there, fly his partner in, all that stuff because of how wealthy he is, even offered to invite him back on some other occasion.

[@Rajeenik]

I think Miles' reputation as a genius relies entirely on what he can do for other people. The guy is a basically a living Ponzi scheme. He gets some things done for people who then owes him favors, then he uses these favors to get things done for other people who then owes him favors, etc. Each things he does for people brings him influence, power or money (something all of the three), and erases whatever shortcoming or failure he could have faced. Like that moment at the beginning of the movie where Lionel shows every stupid idea Miles had, but dismiss them of it because out of all them, there was one that struck gold.

[@senxauraximili7106]

He’s also extremely opportunistic. He takes ideas the moment he gets the chance.

[@g0ld3ney3]

The biggest show of his intelligence (or lack thereof) are his constant malapropisms, which is called out. He simply thinks that because he's so smart, he must be using these words correctly; big words that a smart person would use.

[@dominikainslie9168]

I like your observations here. I think this characterisation just makes him more real. I also think it says a lot about people who think it's a plot hole. Good work, dude. I enjoyed this onionette!

[@27950288419716]

I also thought killing Andy at all was stupid. After drugging her he could have just grabbed the envelope, destroyed it and left her alive. What would she have done about it after waking up? Tell the police he destroyed a document whose very existence was contentious.

[@Electronica27]

Lmfao even Blanc says that. Because the whole court case only happened a couple months ago so the heat was still high.

[@27950288419716]

@@Electronica27 Not quite, Blanc states that him doing anything was stupid (which is true), but I meant just stealing and destroying the napkin without killing her would have been smarter than killing her on top of the rest.

[@floppiethethirth]

I think the box was almost certainly sent out before the murder. Otherwise Miles needed to have ordered a box, have the box created, sent to Andi, have the box be found by Helen and the taken to Blanc. And only then can Blanc pull strings to get Andi's death kept under wraps. That timeline just doesn't make sense to me.

[@sianmembrey374]

The boxes must have taken some time to design and make. I assumed he ordered a certain amount and they all got sent out by the supplier. Andi’s got sent out as it was never cancelled (deliberately or not)

[@fredtheilig2710]

I think a revealing point was made when Helen says to Benoit "you must really be great at Clue, huh?" and he replies with something like "I'm very bad at dumb things". This is Benoit's blind spot. Early on he says "I don't need puzzles or games" and that he needs "a great case".

[@MelissaWickersham-k4o]

Benoit was deceived by the metaphorical glass onion because he assumed that it was more complex than it actually was. He didn’t see what was in plain sight at first because he thought that what was in plain sight couldn’t be the solution to the mystery.

[@squamish4244]

The painting of himself all jacked in the background is hilarious.

[@YourXavier]

I love what Edward Norton does with his eyes, whenever Miles is out of his depth.

[@shraka]

He's mostly lucky. He's clearly good at marketing himself, not easily ruffled, savage, and sociopathic. He is fast though. He does dumb unethical things faster than those around him because most of them - even the awful people he hangs out with - would have at least hesitation and feel some guilt about doing the things he does.

[@wowlsj]

One other "Mile's dumb" point I've not seen (perhaps I missed earlier commenters) is that Miles gave Blanc the Klear, but he NEVER ASKED FOR IT BACK! So what he hands out Klear like party favor or what. Blanc wisely held on to it, much to Helen's benefit.

[@johandrytenias1725]

Yeah, I don't think the point of the movie is that he's dumb, but that he's not the genius everybody is expecting him to be just because he's a succesful entrepreneur. Other than that, he's just as smart as any regular person

[@iamcitizen38]

Except that Blanc specifically says that Miles is dumb over and over. And PoG specifically said it over and over in his previous videos. This video was actually a bit of a walk-back

[@johandrytenias1725]

@@iamcitizen38 yeah, but that's Blanc, the character, insulting Miles, another character, just because he makes up words and he's not that clever to get away with murder. I'm talking about the movie itself, we can put together all the pieces the movie gave us and come up with this conclusion. As for PoG using the term before, sure, this video feels like a walk-back but it is also a response to those who consider Miles making smart moves at times a sort of contradiction.

[@iamcitizen38]

@@johandrytenias1725 I think you're right and I think PoG has it right in this newest video. But those comments were on to something because a lot of analysis of this movie buys into Blanc's assessment of Miles as a complete idiot.

[@theshazerin]

3:34 I just realized there's a Kanye mural on his wall... this movie has so many details

[@MGEX8206]

Having just seen Glass Onion last night, I wouldn't call Miles "stupid", rather I'd call him "cocky". I've known enough people with raw intelligence who thought they were bulletproof and it turned out...not so much.

[@samuelrogers1765]

I thought the movie made it pretty clear that he didn't send Andi the box intentionally. He has placed the order well ahead of their falling out, and simply forgot that he had one made for her. When he talks about the boxes he mentions that the artisan only just had enough time to make the 4 boxes, forgetting that he had in fact ordered 5.

[@dreamlandnightmare]

Yeah, Miles isn't a complete knuckle-dragging neanderthal, but, in the end, he's not terribly bright either. It's almost as if his character is written to be dimensional and realistic.

[@BlazeMakesGames]

Yeah some people seem to think that characters can only make the correct choice 100% of the time, or if they’re meant to be dumb, that means they have to be 100% dumb and any move that isn’t blatantly stupid is this “out of character” Like you said the point isn’t even really how smart the move miles makes is, it’s just that everyone else around him is assuming that he’s way smarter than he actually is, it’s all about idolization and overestimating someone just because they’re rich. The level of intelligence he has in each of his moves individually don’t matter, as long it’s lower than what everyone expected him to do.

[@tamartin64]

I think the reason Glass Onion got so much hate is that colleges and universities churn out Miles Brons by the hundreds of thousands every year. It's called schools of business, and it beats Bro Country as the worst thing to happen to America ever, and the people who have these degrees know that, and hate it when they're called out on it.

[@JohnnyTheWolf-d3p]

I suspect it has more to do with some very reactionary people still being very upset about The Last Jedi.

[@MelissaWickersham-k4o]

Why couldn’t it be *both* ? Someone could be upset that the villain in the story reminds that person of their own self and their own attitude towards life. And the same person could be upset because the Last Jedi wasn’t their ideal Star Wars film.

[@nelestegemerten6125]

love that when you say "clear a few things up" it's a shot of Helen holding Klear in her hand nice detail!

[@jonreese7066]

Maybe I am alone but killing Duke by Pineapple could have been passed off as an accident. He even manages to manipulate everyones memory by saying Duke might have taken his glass by accident

[@ladynoluck]

His overconfidence is also why, even in the first act, you can actually see him do every step to kill Duke and get the gun to kill “Andi.” You actually see him on screen, after Duke just blackmailed him and in front of Duke and Birdie’s eyes, lean into Duke, grab his gun, and stash it in the back of his pants. As viewers who don’t get the best angle in Act 1, it’s understandable that we could mistake the gun grab and stash as a dude hug and just adjusting his shirt, but the reason he did it in front of Birdie and Duke AND got away with it is his overconfidence. His overconfidence made him do something impulsive, but his overconfidence also made his actions around the pickpocketing seem natural and not suspicious.

[@grapeshot]

The Dunning Kruger effect.

[@MCAPrince]

The Mona Lisa was the perfect painting to use in the movie too. It is not one of the best paintings of all time, people just think it is because it got famous after it was stolen once. It's not that special, there are literally better paintings in the same room as the Mona Lisa, but the line of people there is literally only paying attention to the Mona Lisa itself. It is overrated/overestimated.

[@sd659]

I wouldn't say MIles is dumb or a genius, obviously, I just consider him unimaginative. He doesn't have ideas just knows how to capitalize on other peoples ideas and does that well. For everything else he seems normal, arrogant, but also confident which worked out great for him until the moment he faces "the worlds greatest detective"

[@kathrynvincent1563]

Miles reminds me of Winston Deaver from Incredibles 2. He isn’t the ideas guy, his sister Evelyn was. The inventions and ideas were Evelyn’s genius but needed someone to sell them so they’d receive support. But Winston knew he wasn’t the inventor. If he thought he was both roles, he’d be Miles Bron

[@syedmuhammadtaqipervaiz7846]

I agree with this explanation. This is one of my all-time favourite movies, and it pained me to see people argue how Miles was suddenly portrayed as an idiot after proving to be a genius before that. It's clear from what Blanc said that everyone, including Miles, over estimates him. His Dock doesn't float, his fuel is explosive, his plans are childish, and he makes up words. He is just a confident idiot who makes others take fall for his mistakes

[@lewsmith9708]

I was today-years-old when I realized that Miles in the flashback was dressed exactly like Tom Cruise's character in _Magnolia._ Excellent touch! 🤣

[@vit.budina]

I feel like nobody is stupid as long as they know their limits. A uni graduate who overestimates themselves can come off more stupid than someone who is objectively less intelligent, but who knows where their limits are.

[@DanAvenell]

He's not an idiot, he's not a genius. He is very sneaky though.

[@Redacted2525]

The thing about miles is he barely has an original idea. He poisoned andi which is the most basic idea of how to silantly kill somebody, uses poison again on duke, his puzzle boxes and murder mystery game was made by someone else he paid for, and literally copied Blancs Idea to distract everyone. And that’s ignoring the actual stupid things he did like thinking filling a highly flammable substance to power a place that stores the actual Mona Lisa, not connecting that she was destroying stuff for a reason, and somehow believing he could bounce back from the damage caused by the explosion.

[@TheforeverPigeonKing]

I don’t think miles thought he killed andi and knew she was resurrected or that she wasn’t real. But that he thought he didn’t kill her. The more likely scenario is that he just thought that the drugs didn’t work and he is less shocked and more disappointed. That’s mainly why he try’s and kill her later, because he doesn’t know that this isn’t andi, so he try’s again to kill her.

[@samfisher6606]

That was my take. He wasn't a total idiot. It takes some brilliance to think on the fly the way he did, even it he did it by stealing ideas. There's something to be said for his ability to enact a plan or get something accomplished. Getting all of his friends their opportunities takes some semblance of brains. Being "not as smart as people think you are" doesn't mean you're an idiot. He's not Ed, Edd, and Eddy stupid.

[@geminia999]

Yet that is what the movie presents him as. "He's dumb", Blanc can't solve simple things and thus misses parts because of it. The movie presents him as being dumb and that being the twist. The twist isn't, He's just kind of average, it's that he's stupid, which does not align with what he is actually shown as accomplishing

[@Crushanator1]

I think the counter example to this is Blanc getting called a dumbass by all his friends online, VS Bron getting told he's a genius by both the world and his friends. Even if they're both perfectly average intelligence, the idea that Blanc is humbled often enough that he strives to be contemplative and work things out speaks volumes vs Brown's nearly nonstop declarations of his own greatness and instant ideas he's stolen and then already decided are optimal. There are ways he could have murdered Andi, Duke or Helen more successfully, even in his limited window to kill Helen. If he had worked out the situation even briefly he would have. Like, Blanc prompts him with the "turn off the lights with a loaded gun" comment and as far as I could tell, Bron spends the next five seconds remembering he had already set the lights to turn off, then spends the next several hours basically on vacation. Even if he didn't have the lights planned, that's like, one minute of work? He had literally no plan for how to kill her *and get away with it* until he learned he needed to kill Duke. He's not the dumbest person on the planet, but he doesn't have to be. He's just kinda dumb because he's well educated (maybe?) but doesn't think about the consequences of his actions in any way other than the praise he'll receive. Vs the genius persona, it doesn't feel out of place for Blanc to be shook that "he's just dumb!"

[@onezerotwo]

100% hoped this video to just be the word "Yes" and then 9 minutes of spoiler padding. XD

[@sandrafaith]

You can be stupid and still be able to recognize when an opportunity to take advantage of a situation presents itself.... Edit: As Andi's arrival goes, it is possible that Miles thought she survived the poisoning attempt...

[@SpottedHares]

I mean miles did the classic fail to confirm the kill means of murder that is so popular in film. Granted it works unless it’s the main chanter but still walking away and just assuming your murder plan worked out perfectly being stupid is a class critique of the trope.

[@sydneylynskey7587]

I always took the movie saying that what makes someone smart is the ability come up with original ideas. It’s like you said in this video everything that Miles did that would have been considered genius moves where taken from someone else.

[@Drudenfusz]

The interesting things is that personally I think that being capable to build on the ideas of others is actually rather intelligent. That is why the idiom about standing on the shoulders of giants always rang tue for me. Of course just plagiarising an idea is not enough, people have to be transformative about it, to expand the older idea and that is where Miles fails in the film.

[@brokencandy1797]

I don't think he's entirely stupid, I think he's been elevated to a level that is beyond his depth and is unaware of his limitations, thus not taking care to work within and around him. He could be very successful working within his element and seem very intelligent, and may even be up to a point- but he's hit a wall in terms of his ability.

[@shraka]

Did we watch the same movie? He's thick as a brick on most levels and demonstrates only mid level competence a few times. What he is is extremely confidant, instinctively two faced, vicious, and extremely lucky.

[@user-NameName]

@@shraka You did a great job of explaining why he shouldn’t have made any smart decisions in the movie.

[@brokencandy1797]

@@shraka Andi's very intelligent. He must have been highly confident in his initial capacity for her to have chosen him as her business partner. It's one thing to surround oneself with tools like Duke and Birdie socially so you can always be the smartest person in a room, another thing to stake your finances and reputation on empty charm.

[@shraka]

@@brokencandy1797 ... You're confusing intelligence with confidence and charisma.

[@brokencandy1797]

@@shraka I'm not. The character had areas of competence but was now working outside of them in such a way that his shortcomings were more apparent then they would have been in his previous role. Furthermore, social-emotional intelligence IS a form of intelligence. There are different types and they aren't necessarily consistent across the board. Think of somebody like say for instance Ben Carson. He's a brain surgeon so obviously he's not stupid, but place him in the political realm and let him talk about general things and he sounds like a complete tool. Because he's out of his depth in that respect- but you'd get a different story looking at his MCATs.

[@nobody4248]

Honestly, the docoy invitation might be a bad idea. If someone is murdered and you are famously at bad terms with them and they receive an invitation to your private island right aftewards, that seems kinda suspicious.

[@sunnyta1990]

Everything about Glass Onion makes perfect sense. You can not like the movie, but it's not as flawed as it's portrayed by a certain group of people who... also have opinions on new Star Wars projects.

[@ethansimon2568]

I feel as though the pineapple juice murder was also extremely stupid because if Duke had an Epipen or some sort of medication, something most people with dangerous allergies have, he would have survived and Miles would have been screwed. I mean it worked out for him, but mainly because of his luck.

[@samuelfischman6949]

The fact that you missed this opportunity to have the thumbnail asking "IS HE STUPID?" is an absolute travesty.

[@hanumaniam]

Your pronunciations of ayahuasca and kibosh are currently making me think you did them in a Bron style on purpose!

[@kavyntar2194]

i find it fascinating how miles “poisons” duke with the pineapple, saying that someone tried to kill him. once the police investigated it an autopsy would have found traces of pineapple, so the poison idea would make miles pretty suspicious. everything would be traced to him

[@jasminetea8232]

Basically, Andy is a type of person to write the script, but miles will be the producer making things work

[@Ngamotu83]

It's actually stated by Miles that he had someone else make and send out the invites, the implication being that it was all done before he killed Andi. So the question surrounding why he would send an invite to someone he killed, is answered within the film.

[@NothingIsKnown00]

If you’re ruthless enough you generally have a leg up on most normal people. They expect you to have empathy like they do so you can stay one step ahead.

[@AlexMax2742]

It's not contentious that Bron is stupid unless you are desperate to reframe the movie in a way that carries water for billionaires.

[@Alex-cw3rz]

If you think sending a decoy box is intelligent it says a lot more about you than the movie

[@normtrooper4392]

In knives out, harlan was quite smart (successful mystery writer) but a terrible father (bad social skills). In glass onion, Miles is an idiot but very good at social skills. In the third movie, will the villain be both of these traits or none of them?

[@tyrrhus5248]

Andy making the mistake to come see miles is really important in my opinion because she also needs to show to have flaws: the message of the work would have been lost a bit she were all perfect

[@Jan-gh7qi]

I think it's perfectly in character. Yes, she was clever, but she was also very arrogant. "For future biographers". I think a) she always saw him as second to her and to big of a whimp to really harm her. (Arrogance) But also believed him to be smarter. "He wouldn't kill me, He must know, that he will never get away with it". Which was right, Hehe just was to stupid to know.