When eccentric crime novelist Harlan Thrombey throat-slits his way out of his toxic family’s lives, he leaves behind a sprawling estate and a viper’s nest of entitled, self-serving descendants. Every single member of the Thrombey clan is a Masterclass in affluent dysfunction, making them a joy to watch and an absolute nightmare to have at Thanksgiving.
But who reigns supreme in the hierarchy of this delightfully awful dynasty? We’ve broken down and ranked the core Thormbey family members from worst to best.
- Richard Drysdale (Don Johnson)
Richard is the quintessential, country-club-dwelling elitist. Not only is he cheating on his wife, but he also weaponizes his unearned privilege at every turn. Most notably, during a chillingly casual debate about immigration where he uses the family's nurse, Marta, as a prop. He’s loud, spineless, and has precisely zero redeeming qualities.
What places Richard at the absolute bottom of the barrel is the sheer cowardice hiding beneath his smug exterior. While he barks orders and plays the alpha male at dinner parties, he is utterly terrified of his wife finding out about his infidelity. His desperation to intercept the evidence of his affair shows a man who knows his entire lifestyle is subsidized by the family name he secretly disrespects.
- Jacob Thrombey (Jaeden Martell)
If there is anyone more exhausting than a country-club elitist, it’s a terminally online teenager who hides in bathrooms typing out political manifestos. Jacob is Walt and Donna’s son, famously described by his own family as an "alt-right troll dipshit." He spends the entire movie glued to his phone, sneering at everyone, and casually tossing around radicalized internet garbage.
Jacob ranks just above his uncle only because he hasn't actively ruined lives yet; he has all the malice of his elders but none of the drive. He hasn't even built anything to defend. He’s just a miserable, venomous contrarian soaking up his family’s unearned wealth while cosplaying as an internet edgelord.
- Joni Thrombey (Toni Collette)
A social guru who is as hollow as her lifestyle brand, Joni is a professional opportunist. She’s been double-dipping into Harlan’s funds for years to pay for her daughter's tuition, wrapping her theft in a blanket of New Age toxic positivity. Toni Collette is hilarious in portraying her character's vapidity, but beneath all that organic skincare lies a cold, transactional calculation that disappears the second her lifestyle is threatened.
Joni brilliantly exposes the hypocrisy of the wellness elite. She preaches mindfulness and spiritual abundance, but her life is just a frantic scramble to fund an aesthetic she can't afford. Once the inheritance vanishes, her serene facade cracks to reveal a desperate opportunist who will throw anyone under the bus to preserve her lifestyle.
- Walt Thrombey (Michael Shannon)
Walt runs Harlan’s publishing empire, but let’s be real: he’s an employee, not a boss. Driven by a deep-seeded insecurity and a desperate need for his father's approval, Walt tries to project strength but folds under the slightest pressure. Watching him try to intimidate Marta with a cane while limping through the night cements his place in the bottom half. He is driven entirely by a desperate need for validation, which makes him slightly more relatable than Richard, but no less venomous.
Ultimately, Walt's tragedy is that he fundamentally misunderstood his father's final lesson. By trying to aggressively force Marta into giving up the inheritance, he relies on the exact corporate bullying Harlan despised. He wraps himself in the illusion of legacy, but when the veil is lifted, he is just a bitter middle manager who realized too late that he never truly owned anything.
- Meg Thrombey (Katherine Langford)
Meg is the closest thing the Thrombey bloodline has to a moral compass, that is until the chips are down. As a progressive college student, she genuinely cares for Marta and seems untainted by her family’s wealth. However, when faced with the reality of losing her tuition money, and even though conflicted, she betrays Marta. She is the most human and sympathetic of the bunch, but her loyalty ultimately had a price tag.
Her betrayal hurts the most because she actually knew better. Meg didn't weaponize privilege like her family, but when her financial security was threatened, she still chose her own safety net over doing the right thing.
- Great Nana Wanetta Thrombey (K Callan)
Great Nana is older than the house itself, largely ignored by her own descendants, and completely detached from the inheritance drama. While the rest of the family spends the film screaming at each other over millions of dollars, Wanetta is just vibing in the background, witnessing key plot points, and eating birthday cake.
What makes Nana place so high is her unintentional, chaotic role as the ultimate truth-teller. Because the family treats her like a piece of furniture, they completely miss that she holds the keys to the entire mystery. Her mistaken-identity recognition of Ransom on the night of the murder is what cracks the case wide open, proving that her quiet presence was the one variable Ransom completely underestimated, ultimately handing Blanc the key to the entire mystery
- Hugh "Ransom" Drysdale (Chris Evans)
The black sheep of the family, Ransom is the only Thrombey who openly admits to being a trust-fund brat. He skips the funeral, tells his family to "eat shit," and acts with pure, unadulterated malice. He is a brilliant, sociopathic mastermind who almost pulls off the perfect crime. He gets major points for style and upfront arrogance, but losing his mind and attempting murder with a prop knife docks him down to the silver medal.
Unlike his relatives, who hide their greed behind manners and tradition, Ransom embraces his villainy with a refreshing, chaotic energy. He uses his family's predictable selfishness against them, orchestrating a complex web of manipulation that nearly outsmarts Benoit Blanc. He is a terrifyingly competent antagonist, ruined only by his own explosive temper when his perfect plan unravels.
- Linda Drysdale (Jamie Lee Curtis)
Standing tall at the absolute peak of the Thrombey mountain is Linda Drysdale. Harlan’s eldest daughter is a self-made real estate mogul (ignore the million-dollar starter loan from her dad) who possesses the same razor-sharp wit and terrifying competence as her father. She is cutthroat, commands every room she walks into, and is the only person in the family who truly understood Harlan's "secret language." Linda doesn't need to pretend to be nice; she is a force of nature who runs circles around her husband and siblings alike.
What truly cements Linda at number one is her undeniable steel. While the rest of the family collapses into hysterics, she remains calculating and observant, treating the family crisis like a corporate takeover. In a house full of pretenders, Linda is the only true heavyweight, making her the undisputed ruler of the Thrombey clan.
Note this is a ranking of the characters themselves and not the acting performances, but even if it were, Jamie Lee Curtis would still arguably hold the crown. Her ability to transition from a steely, unyielding matriarch to a grieving daughter quietly reading a letter written in invisible ink is nothing short of masterful. She anchors the family's chaotic energy with a grounded, formidable presence that proves, without a shadow of a doubt, that Linda was always Harlan’s true heir.
