The Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery contains allusions to the growing distrust of electronic security. It’s obvious from the audience’s first introduction to Miles Bron that he is paranoid about privacy and security as it relates to electronic devices. In a conversation he has with Detective Blanc, he asks, “Is your phone turned off?” before continuing [2]. Over 60% of Americans today use a voice assistant either on their personal devices or in their homes [3]. These assistants are always passively listening to conversations as they await their activation command, but they also sometimes collect this data to personalize ads and other content. While this may be appealing to some users, this data is susceptible to breaches by cyberattacks, such as spyware installed in third-party applications [4]. So, Miles has good reason to be nervous, and his distrust is further exemplified by his use of fax machines. Emails are prone to many digital attacks, like phishing schemes and malware contained in malicious attachments; while they contain security measures such as encryption and login procedures, there is always a risk of a hacker gaining unauthorized access [1]. Fax machines are more secure than email due to their use of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), which is the point-to-point audio transmission used by landlines [1]. This direct line of transference makes communication less vulnerable to interception and hacking.
Today’s society relies heavily on electronics and personal devices to function. But there is always this data being intercepted or breached by malicious hackers. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery explores people’s perspective on this idea through seemingly trivial dialogue and analog technologies used throughout the movie.
GFI Software, “Are faxes more secure than email?” (GFI Software, 08/03/2021), https://gfi.ai/company/blog/2021/are-faxes-more-secure-than-email (04/24/2025)
Rian Johnson, “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” (Script Slug, n.d.) https://www.scriptslug.com/script/glass-onion-a-knives-out-mystery-2022 (04/24/2025)
Oliver Buxton, “Is my phone listening to me? Yes, here’s why and how to stop it” (Norton, 09/09/2024) https://us.norton.com/blog/how-to/is-my-phone-listening-to-me (04/28/2025)
Michael Quinn, Ethics for the Information Age, 9e (Pearson Education, Inc. 2025)