In Knives Out, a novelist leaves everything to his nurse, his grandson frames her so the slayer rule will cut her out, and the plan fails

Knives Out is a 2019 mystery film written and directed by Rian Johnson. Harlan Thrombey, an 85-year-old crime novelist, dies the morning after his birthday party at his Massachusetts mansion. His children and grandchildren each have strained ties with him and a motive. His nurse, Marta Cabrera, believes she gave him a fatal overdose of morphine by mixing up his medicines, and Harlan sets up an alibi for her before he dies. At the will reading, the family learns Harlan has left his entire fortune to Marta. They press her to give it up. The detective Benoit Blanc finds that Harlan's grandson Ransom Drysdale swapped the medicine vials so that Marta would kill Harlan without knowing it. Under the slayer rule, a person who kills cannot inherit from the victim, so Marta would lose everything and the family would inherit. Marta escapes the blame, Ransom is arrested, and Marta keeps the house. Estate lawyers from Perkins Coie said slayer statutes are real and vary by state, and that a sudden will in favour of a caregiver is a classic sign of undue influence. They also said real estates have no will readings. The film cost $40 million and earned $312.9 million worldwide.