Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery takes the franchise away from the foggy Thrombie mansion of Massachusetts to more pristine, exotic environments.
Warning! This article contains spoilers for Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery features a complete switch of story, characters, and location from the first movie, leading many to wonder where it was filmed. In the sequel, Benoit Blanc is invited to a murder mystery party at billionaire Miles Bron’s mansion that naturally evolves into something more sinister. Like the original, Glass Onion places Daniel Craig’s Blanc among a cast of colorful characters that are all suspect of foul play.
Notably, the most significant difference from 2019’s original Knives Out is the location in which the film takes place. The first film is set almost entirely in Harlan Thrombey’s Massachusetts mansion after the mystery writer was killed by someone in his family, with the whodunit hilarity that ensues ranking Knives Out among Rian Johnson’s best films. Glass Onion, however, switches locations drastically, taking the franchise across the Atlantic to the shores of Europe.
Spetses – Greece
One of the few Greek locations where Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery was shot was Spetses, a Greek island in the Peloponnese. There are a few different locations used for the film in Spetses, which appear across Glass Onion’s plot. The first main location is the port of Dapia on the northeast shore of Spetses. The main section of the film in which the port is used is when the core cast converges to be transported to Miles’ private island. This makes for one of the film’s most amusing scenes, with each character turning up to Dapia’s pier in their own distinct style to board Miles’ private yacht.
One thing that is undoubtedly better about Glass Onion than Knives Out is its beautiful scenery. Nothing exemplifies this more than the port of Dapia’s Poseidonon Grand Hotel. This hotel can be seen in the opening shot of Glass Onion’s official trailer. While not playing as big a role as the pier, it is always visible in the backdrop of Dapia and provides the setting for a scene later in Glass Onion. After it is revealed that Blanc and Helen – Andi’s twin sister – traveled to the island together to find Andi’s murderer, the two have a scene outside the Poseidonon Hotel the night before traveling to Miles’ mansion.
Porto Heli – Greece
Another of the Greek locations used for the filming of the Glass Onion movie was Porto Heli. Porto Heli is known as a getaway for the wealthiest of Greek citizens and is located on the mainland just north of the island of Spetses. While Spetses and its port of Dapia were the main shooting locations for one or two of Glass Onion’s scenes, Porto Heli houses the location where the majority of filming took place. That location is the titular Glass Onion, Miles’ private mansion on his very own island in which the cast of the film stays for their brief vacation before the murderous mayhem begins.
Porto Heli is the home of Aman Resort’s Villa 20, a luxurious vacation spot that Johnson used as the setting for Miles’ mansion after finding it on a scouting trip. Villa 20 became the Glass Onion, explaining the film’s title, thanks to Johnson’s production crew building the giant structure on the villa’s roof. The Villa consists of six pools, a spa, a beach cabana, and various accommodation rooms, which meant that Johnson, the cast and crew of Glass Onion, and their families all stayed in the compound while filming. Johnson likened this experience to the crew simply being on vacation where they just so happened to make a movie.
Belgrade – Serbia
One of the final shooting locations for Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is listed on IMDb as Belgrade, the capital city of Serbia to the north of Greece. While it may be unclear where the filming in Belgrade fits into the movie, this is likely because the city was used to shoot interior scenes on a stage. This could include the scenes at the start of the film, with each Glass Onion character in their respective homes. Regardless, it is clear that the locations of Greece were more central to the shooting process of Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, which helped differentiate the sequel from its 2019 predecessor.
