"I know he didn't commit suicide, so look me in the eye, and tell me what happened to my grandfather. Tell me everything." ― Ransom to Marta Cabrera, attempting to make her take the fall.[source]
Hugh Ransom Drysdale is the main antagonist of Knives Out. He is Richard and Linda's son, referred to as the Black Sheep of the family. His sly tactics lead to him almost avoiding capture for his crimes, although he inadvertently kills Fran and is arrested.
Biography[]
The eldest grandchild of Harlan Thombrey and the only child of Richard and Linda Drysdale, Ransom grew up to be the black sheep of the Thrombey family.
Plot to Kill Harlan[]
The night of Harlan's 85th birthday, Ransom and Harlan got into a heated argument in his study. The fight reached a climax when Harlan revealed that Ransom, along with the rest of the family, had been written out of his will in favor of his nurse, Marta Cabrera. After angrily and futilely protesting, Ransom stormed off.
However, as he was driving away, a twisted plan took shape in his mind: if Marta were to be found responsible in any way for Harlan's death, the Slayer rule would take effect, nullifying Harlan's changed will and granting Ransom his share of the inheritance. To enact this plan, Ransom snuck back to the mansion, avoiding being seen by the video security and the rest of the family, reaching Harlan's study on the upper floor via a hidden door. There he found Marta's bag, which contained the medicines Harlan would be injected with later that evening (morphine and keterolac). Ransom used Marta's syringes to switch the liquids in the medicine bottles, believing that the Marta would accidentally give Harlan a fatal overdose of morphine: as a final precaution, he took Marta's bottle of naloxone to prevent her from treating the overdose.
As he climbed back down the trellis, Ransom was spotted by Great Nana, although she did not alert the family.
First Hitch in the Plan[]
Ransom learned of Harlan's death in the paper the next morning: much to his surprise, however, the cause of death was a suicide rather than a medical error. Still needing to implicate Marta in Harlan's death, Ransom anonymously hired private detective Benoit Blanc to investigate the death.
Failure and Arrest[]
After Blanc shared his deduction with Marta, Ransom and the police, Marta received an update from the hospital on Fran's condition. Once Marta claimed Fran would survive, Ransom decided to confront Marta. He accused her of exploiting his family's kindness and trying to rob them of their birthright. Upon being ridiculed by Blanc over calling Harlan's mansion his "ancestral family home", Ransom lost his composure: admitting to "killing" Fran, Ransom ranted that the charges he could be convicted for (arson, attempted murder, etc.) would not garner him a long sentence, and he swore to wreak havoc upon Marta's life as soon as he got out. However, as he finished his threat, Marta vomited in his face Fran was, in fact, dead: Marta had lied long enough to trick Ransom into confessing to her murder, and Trooper Wagner had discretely recorded the entire confession on his phone.
Now facing life in prison, Ransom grabbed a knife from Harlan's collection and attempted to stab Marta in a last-ditch effort to ruin the woman who foiled his plans. However, the knife turned out to a harmless, retractable stage knife, leaving Marta rattled but unharmed. With his crimes exposed, Ransom is placed in police custody and taken to jail while his family is forced out of Thrombey Manor, which is now fully owned by Marta.
Personality[]
Ransom is an eccentric but spoiled brat, whose livelihood as a playboy is predicated on his family's wealth. This makes him arrogant and unpleasant in nature, but unlike the rest of the family, he does not hide this part and has no patience for that. However, while his family is indeed unpleasant and full of hypocritical jerks, Ransom is the only one who is truly evil because he is willing to do anything to have his part of the inheritance, including murder. He is overall a selfish, heartless, psychopathic and somewhat immature person, in addition to all his family's flaws. He behaves like a spoiled teenager, even though he is in his thirties. He claims to be seeking his "birthright," but does not care about the rest of his family as long as he gets his own share. He is fully aware of his disgusting nature and he takes pride in the hate his family has on him. That said, he can be charming, charismatic and polite when he wants to be, in order to have what he wants. This is seen when he succeeds in earning Marta's confidence to help him get to the bottom of the case. He is also lazy, as he refuses to work and has no intentions in doing so. But he is intelligent, as seen with his plan to frame Marta for the murder of Harlan. However, his plan has several failures. For example, he himself hired the detective Blanc, thinking he would not find the truth behind the affair and he underestimated Marta's good nature, thinking she would not try to save the life of Fran. He also displays remarkable stupidity in some areas, thinking that "stupid" is spelled with an "o" instead of a "u".The psychopathic part of his personality comes when he is cornered by his self-confession of Fran's murder, by trying to murder Marta with a knife, simply out of spite and refusal to accept his failure.
Trivia[]
- According to Chris Evans, he actually begged director Rian Johnson to cast him as Ransom Drysdale in Knives Out, telling him what he wanted to do with the role and what he could bring to the film.
- Rian Johnson has admitted that he regrets filming the scene in which Ransom eats Biscoff butter cookies with milk. Johnson explained that while the scene perfectly illustrates Ransom's character, he felt bad for Chris Evans, who had to eat the very buttery cookies during the whole day the scene was filmed.
- According to the screenplay of Knives Out, Ransom is in his early thirties.
- While explaining why would Linda and the rest of the Thrombeys not return in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Jamie Lee Curtis stated that following the events of Knives Out, Ransom learned to knit sweaters in prison and is now apparently in that business.
- The movie makes no secret that Ransom had something to do with the death of Harlan. What is clever about the movie's mystery is that it's revealed that Ransom only made a small contribution to the death of his grandfather. Harlan actually did commit actual suicide but there was still a real murder mystery going...not Harlan's but Fran.