--- ---  # What to Know About the Murder and Suspects in _Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery_ by [Esther Zuckerman](https://time.com/author/esther-zuckerman/) ## Esther Zuckerman Zuckerman is a contributor for TIME. Updated: Sep 8, 2025 9:25 PM UTCPublished: Sep 8, 2025 2:01 AM UTC  Josh O'Connor and Daniel Craig in Wake Up Dead Man. Josh O'Connor and Daniel Craig in Wake Up Dead Man.Courtesy of Netflix by [Esther Zuckerman](https://time.com/author/esther-zuckerman/) ## Esther Zuckerman Zuckerman is a contributor for TIME. Updated: Sep 8, 2025 9:25 PM UTCPublished: Sep 8, 2025 2:01 AM UTC Before the premiere screening of [_Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery_](https://time.com/6983345/knives-out-3-cast/)at the Toronto International Film Festival, [director Rian Johnson](https://time.com/5739679/knives-out-rian-johnson-making-of/) warned that it wasn't going to be exactly like the previous two installments of the franchise. "We're going back to church," he said. The new film from Johnson is a bit of a swerve from [2019's _Knives Out_](https://time.com/5739463/knives-out-review/)and [2022's _Glass Onion_](https://time.com/6221822/knives-out-glass-onion-cameos/). Whereas _Knives Out_ was cozy and [_Glass Onion_](https://time.com/6235978/glass-onion-knives-out-review/)had a glamorous, eat-the-rich vacation sheen, _Wake Up Dead Man_ is a retreat into the gothic. It's still quite funny, but more malevolent in spirit with serious musings about the meaning of faith. It also lets Daniel Craig's beloved southern sleuth Benoit Blanc take a back seat. Here's what to expect from the film, which will get a theatrical release in November before hitting Netflix on Dec. 12\. **Read more:** [_15 Whodunnits to Watch After_ Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery](https://time.com/6240295/mysteries-watch-after-glass-onion/) ## **What's the set up?** _Wake Up Dead Man_ is centered around a Catholic parish in the fictional town of Chimney Rock in upstate New York called Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude. That's where our narrator Father Jud Duplenticy ([Josh O'Connor](https://time.com/6971016/challengers-review/)) is sent after he punches a deacon at his previous posting. Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude is run by the virulent and mischievous Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin). (In his first confession to Jud, Wicks talks about his constant masturbating.) Wicks inherited the church from his grandfather, who shamed Jefferson's mother calling her a "harlot whore." Father Jud and Monsignor Wicks immediately clash: Jud sees faith as redemptive, having turned to it after causing the death of a fellow boxer in his youth, while Wicks uses shame in his preaching. Wicks also has a loyal group of followers, who hang on his every word. And then, of course, Wicks turns up dead on Good Friday, causing Benoit Blanc to enter the scene.  Josh O’Connor and Daniel Craig John Wilson/Netflix ## **Who are the suspects?** Naturally, there is once again an all-star cast of potential killers. O'Connor's Jud and Brolin's dueling priests are in the mix, but there are also a host of Wicks devotees. [Glenn Close](https://time.com/collection/100-most-influential-people-2019/5567858/glenn-close/) is immediately creepy as Martha, who has been a servant of Perpetual Fortitude since she was a young girl and now wears all black and does the church's filing. She is adored by Samson, the loyal groundskeeper, played by Thomas Haden Church. Then there are Wicks' groupies. Jeremy Renner is Nat Sharp, a doctor whose wife left him, and in whom Wicks encouraged a burgeoning misogyny. Kerry Washington is Vera Draven, a lawyer whose father was close with Wicks. Her father also burdened her with looking after his illegitimate son Cy (Daryl McCormack), a wannabe GOP star who will spout any rhetoric to get ahead. [Andrew Scott](https://time.com/6962630/ripley-review-netflix-andrew-scott/) is hilarious as Lee Ross, a once beloved sci-fi writer who moved to this remote corner to get away from the "liberal hivemind." Finally, Cailee Spaeny plays a prodigious cellist wracked with chronic pain. She turns to Wick thinking he can grant her a miracle. ## **How does Benoit Blanc figure in?**  Craig as Benoit Blanc in Wake Up Dead Man Courtesy of Netflix Blanc is called into town to solve the murder, but the film quickly becomes a two-hander between Craig and O'Connor. In fact, Blanc has a smaller part to play than he does in any of the previous installments. If anything, _Wake Up Dead Man_ is O'Connor's movie. Blanc largely stands on the sidelines as Father Jud drives the action. And it's his moral journey with which Johnson's script is preoccupied. He is a man who earnestly believes in his faith, yet has deeply recognizable struggles with anger and hatred. Whereas Wicks uses fear to manipulate, Jud recognizes how humans need belief as solace. Yes, Blanc helps solve the mystery, but the character you care about above all is Father Jud. ## **What are its influences?** During his introduction, Johnson explained that _Wake Up Dead Man_ pays tribute to a hero of the mystery genre: Edgar Allan Poe. Later, in a post-screening Q&A, Johnson acknowledged his debt to the Father Brown mysteries by G. K. Chesterton. "I think it's a really great kind of peanut butter and chocolate fit, the notions of human grace and fallibility and all of those things in the murder mystery genre," he said. The movie itself also provides a syllabus of sorts. Blanc specifically acts out moments from John Dickson Carr's _The Hollow Man_ to illustrate the impossibility of the crime. That is on a parishioners' book club reading list that also includes a number of titles by Agatha Christie, a frequent touchstone for these films. ## **Why this swerve?** _Wake Up Dead Man_ is a little less breezy than the other _Knives Out_ films, drawing its audience into genuine meditations on why humans choose to dedicate themselves to religion. At the Q&A, Johnson said that at the London premiere of _Glass Onion_ he and Craig started discussing how it would be fun to do something for their third collaboration "with this darker tone and something a little more grounded." It's an attempt to show the range of these films, though this is perhaps the last one for a while. Netflix bought only two sequels to [_Knives Out_ in its 2021 $450 million deal](https://variety.com/2021/film/news/netflix-buys-knives-out-sequels-450-million-1234941995/). In July, Johnson told _Rolling Stone_ that he doesn't have an idea for a fourth in [his head, but](https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-features/rian-johnson-poker-face-last-jedi-knives-out-1235379849/) "I would keep doing them as long as I can." 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