Wake Up Dead Man (marketed as Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery) is a 2025 American mystery film written and directed by Rian Johnson. It is the third film in the Knives Out series. The film stars Daniel Craig, who reprises his role as master detective Benoit Blanc as he investigates the death of a divisive Catholic priest against the backdrop of a missing inheritance. The ensemble cast also includes Josh O'Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeny, Daryl McCormack, and Thomas Haden Church.
| Wake Up Dead Man | |
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 Release poster | |
| Directed by | Rian Johnson |
| Written by | Rian Johnson |
| Produced by |
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| Starring |
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| Cinematography | Steve Yedlin |
| Edited by | Bob Ducsay |
| Music by | Nathan Johnson |
Production companies |
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| Distributed by | Netflix |
Release dates |
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Running time | 146 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $151.7 million[better source needed] |
| Box office | $2.5 million |
The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 6, 2025, and was released in select theaters on November 26, 2025, before streaming on Netflix on December 12, 2025. Like its predecessors, it received generally positive reviews, with most praise for the performances, in particular those of Craig and O'Connor.
Plot
Jud Duplenticy, a former boxer turned Catholic priest, punches a rude deacon and is reassigned as assistant pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude, a small-town parish in upstate New York led by Monsignor Jefferson Wicks, the grandson of Reverend Prentice Wicks. Jefferson's troubled mother, Grace, had remained at the church in hope of receiving Prentice's sizable inheritance; but when the fortune disappeared after his death, she ransacked the church and destroyed its crucifix, which Jefferson refuses to replace. Wicks' incendiary preaching has driven away all but his most loyal and corrupt parishioners, and Jud soon clashes with him. During a Good Friday service, Wicks collapses in a closet adjoining the chancel; a knife fashioned from a red devil's-head lamp finial is found in his back, and he is pronounced dead. The crime seems impossible, but when the community learns that Jud had drunkenly pilfered a matching finial from a bar after threatening Wicks to "cut [him] out like a cancer", suspicion falls on him.
Police chief Geraldine Scott summons private detective Benoit Blanc to investigate. He recruits Jud to assist him, convinced of his innocence. After Wicks' entombment in Prentice's mausoleum, Jud and Blanc question the congregation. They learn that, in a meeting just before his death, Wicks claimed to have found Prentice's fortune, stating that he would use it to pursue a career in politics with Cy Draven, his illegitimate son, and publicly shame his other followers. Tired of Blanc's dogged pursuit of justice, Jud quits the investigation.
Returning to his rectory at night, Jud apparently witnesses Wicks exit the mausoleum and embrace groundskeeper Samson. He is knocked out while pursuing them and wakes up next to Samson's corpse, believing he has killed him. Blanc stops Jud from turning himself in, and takes him to parish member Nat Sharp's house, where they find Nat's corpse dissolving in a tub of acid alongside Wicks' body. The following morning, the police and parishioners convene in the church for Jud's confession, only for Blanc to explain how Nat killed Wicks: he attached a decoy finial to Wicks' matching red vestment and spiked Wicks' flask with sedatives; as Wicks routinely imbibed during service, he passed out and was found with the finial on his back; Nat then feigned examining the body and switched out the decoy to fatally stab Wicks. At this point, Blanc appears to have an epiphany, and abruptly declares that he cannot explain what happened. The congregation leaves.
Blanc explains that he was inspired by Jud's example to allow the killer to come forward on their own. Martha, the church's longtime secretary, returns to confess: she knew Prentice had converted his fortune into a diamond he called "Eve's Apple". When he took his own life by swallowing it, Grace ransacked the church in search of it. Martha had witnessed Prentice's final deed but kept silent until her last confession with Wicks. Terrified by the realization that Wicks would recover Eve's Apple from Prentice's corpse, she conspired with Nat to murder Wicks before he could act.
After Wicks' death, Martha had Samson entombed in Wicks' place to retrieve and destroy Eve's Apple. After finding it, Samson left the tomb dressed as Wicks, staging a resurrection to preserve Wicks' legacy and the church's reputation. Nat dressed as Samson and waited outside the tomb, but when Jud arrived, Nat killed Samson to keep Eve's Apple for himself. Nat then poisoned Martha's coffee, only for her to swap their cups around unnoticed, killing him. Finally, she reveals that she has taken the poison herself, and collapses. With her last breath, she prays for forgiveness from all victims, including Grace. Jud absolves her, before she dies and drops Eve's Apple.
One year later, Jud has carved a new crucifix and is about to reopen the church, now renamed Our Lady of Perpetual Grace. Most of the parishioners have moved on with their lives, though a disgruntled Cy, convinced Jud is hiding Eve's Apple, says he will closely monitor Jud's finances for any traces of it. As new parishioners enter for Jud's first Mass, Eve's Apple is seen concealed within the chest of the new crucifix.
Cast
- Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc, a private detective
- Josh O'Connor as Jud Duplenticy, a young priest and former boxer who reformed after killing a man in a match
- Glenn Close as Martha Delacroix, a devout church lady and Wicks' right-hand woman
- Josh Brolin as Jefferson Wicks, a charismatic and domineering monsignor who serves as the congregation's leader
- Mila Kunis as Geraldine Scott, a local police chief
- Jeremy Renner as Nat Sharp, a town doctor who struggles with alcoholism after his divorce
- Kerry Washington as Vera Draven, Cy's adoptive mother, a tightly wound lawyer
- Andrew Scott as Lee Ross, a formerly best-selling author trying to recover his career
- Cailee Spaeny as Simone Vivane, a disabled former concert cellist hoping to be cured by a miracle
- Daryl McCormack as Cy Draven, Vera's adoptive son, an aspiring politician and conservative influencer
- Thomas Haden Church as Samson Holt, a circumspect groundskeeper and Martha's lover
- Jeffrey Wright as Langstrom, a bishop who assigns Duplenticy to Wicks' church
- Annie Hamilton as Grace Wicks, Jefferson's mother, branded the "harlot whore" by Jefferson and the community
- James Faulkner as Prentice Wicks, Jefferson's grandfather and founder of the local church
- Bridget Everett as Louise, a construction company employee
- Noah Segan as Nikolai, a bar owner
- Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a baseball announcer
Production
Development
Before the release of Knives Out (2019), Rian Johnson said he would like to create sequels with Benoit Blanc investigating further mysteries, and already had an idea for a new film. On March 31, 2021, it was reported that Netflix bought the rights to two Knives Out sequels for over $400 million.
Influences
Johnson said his key influences were works of Edgar Allan Poe and John Dickson Carr, as well as elements of works of Agatha Christie, especially her novel And Then There Were None (1939). Carr's The Hollow Man (1935) is repeatedly referenced within the film. The flashback scenes depicting Grace Wicks destroying the church were influenced by Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992). Johnson also drew from his own religious upbringing in Evangelicalism, with the atheist Blanc reflecting his feelings on organized religion. However, he chose to have the film focus on Catholicism for aesthetic reasons, saying the churches he grew up in "kind of looked like Pottery Barns" and would therefore serve as a poor visual basis for the film.
Writing
In June 2022, Johnson revealed Knives Out 3 was a working title with his intent being each film has a distinct title, citing the works of Agatha Christie as his inspiration for the films and the individual titles. In November 2022, Johnson said he was preparing to work on writing the third film. By January 2023, Johnson confirmed he had started writing the script for the third film, stating it will be tonally and thematically different from the previous installments. Johnson later stated though he had approved the subtitle of A Knives Out Mystery for the previous installment, he would like to rename the series and add A Benoit Blanc Mystery as subtitles to future installments.
In October 2023, following the resolution of the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike, Johnson announced he had started working on the script for the third film. The filmmaker stated he had the premise planned, and could begin writing again. The film's title Wake Up Dead Man comes from a phrase in the folk song "Ain't No More Cane on the Brazos", though Johnson notes that it is also "kind of" derived from the title of the song of the same name by U2.
Casting
Daniel Craig acknowledged interest in returning to the role early on during the project's development. Craig was paid $100 million for his involvement in the two Knives Out sequels. In May 2024, Josh O'Connor, Cailee Spaeny,Andrew Scott,Kerry Washington,Glenn Close,Jeremy Renner,Mila Kunis, and Daryl McCormack joined the main cast. Renner's likeness had previously been used in Glass Onion, although he had not been featured otherwise. The role marks Renner's first major feature film production since his near-fatal snowplow accident in January 2023. The following month, Josh Brolin and Thomas Haden Church joined the cast.
The end credits of the film feature a series of portraits of the main characters, for which the cast posed in costume for English painter Isabella Watling.
Filming
Johnson's regulars Steve Yedlin and Nathan Johnson returned as cinematographer and composer, respectively.Principal photography began on June 10, 2024, in London. First-look photos from the set revealed Craig's character, Benoit Blanc, with a noticeably different, longer hairstyle than in previous films. On June 19, 2024, Close revealed she was "really hit hard" with both COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which was also revealed to have resulted in her being able to only participate in two days of filming by that point in time. Filming was completed on August 17.
Church exteriors, set in New York state, were shot in England at the Church of the Holy Innocents, High Beach, Epping Forest. Additional exterior footage was shot in September 2024 in Cold Spring, New York, which served as the setting of Chimney Rock in the film.
Music
The official soundtrack, titled Wake Up Dead Man (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), scored by Nathan Johnson was released on November 28, 2025.
Release
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 6, 2025. The film had its international premiere at the BFI London Film Festival on October 8, 2025. It was released in select theaters on November 26, 2025, and on Netflix on December 12.
Reception
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 92% of 337 critics' reviews are positive. The website's consensus reads: "Giving Benoit Blanc a worthy mystery with its genuinely soulful fixation on faith and a scene-stealing Josh O'Connor performance, Wake Up Dead Man is another Knives Out puzzle that comes together splendidly."Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 80 out of 100, based on 59 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.
Damon Wise for Deadline wrote that the film "may be the best one yet" in the Knives Out franchise due to its more introspective nature. On the German arthouse portal Programmkino.de, Dieter Oßwald wrote, "this sequel also offers everything a Knives-coup needs: perfectly quirky characters, superb tension, witty twists, star power, and a brilliant Daniel Craig with a screen presence that exudes effortless cool." Alissa Wilkinson of The New York Times wrote that what makes the film work is that "Father Jud and Benoit Blanc are two peas in a pod, when it comes right down to brass tacks."
Some reviewers responded to the movie's use of Catholicism with enthusiasm, while others found aspects unbelievable.
Accolades
| Award | Date of ceremony | Category | Nominee(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AACTA International Awards | February 6, 2026 | Best Supporting Actress | Glenn Close | Nominated | |
| AARP Movies for Grownups Awards | January 10, 2026 | Best Ensemble | Cast of Wake Up Dead Man | Nominated | |
| Astra Film Awards | January 9, 2026 | Best Supporting Actor – Comedy or Musical | Josh O'Connor | Nominated | |
| Best Supporting Actress – Comedy or Musical | Glenn Close | Nominated | |||
| Best Cast Ensemble | Cast of Wake Up Dead Man | Nominated | |||
| Astra Creative Arts Awards | December 11, 2025 | Best Casting | Bret Howe and Mary Vernieu | Nominated | |
| Best Second Unit Director | Katie Swain | Nominated | |||
| Kansas City Film Critics Circle | December 21, 2025 | Best Film | Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery | Nominated | |
| Robert Altman Award for Best Director | Rian Johnson | Nominated | |||
| Best Supporting Actor | Josh O'Connor | Nominated | |||
| Best Supporting Actress | Glenn Close | Nominated | |||
| Tom Poe Award for Best LGBTQ Film | Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery | Nominated | |||
| National Board of Review | December 3, 2025 | Top Ten Films | Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery | Honored | |
| New York Film Critics Online | December 15, 2025 | Best Supporting Actress | Glenn Close | Nominated | |
| Best Ensemble Cast | Cast of Wake Up Dead Man | Nominated | |||
| Savannah Film Festival | November 1, 2025 | Outstanding Achievement in Directing Award | Rian Johnson | Won | |
| Saturn Awards | March 8, 2026 | Best Thriller Movie | Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery | Nominated | |
| St. Louis Film Critics Association | December 14, 2025 | Best Adapted Screenplay | Rian Johnson | Nominated | |
| Best Supporting Actress | Glenn Close | Nominated | |||
| Toronto International Film Festival | September 14, 2025 | People's Choice Award | Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery | 2nd Runner-up |
Future
In September 2022, Johnson confirmed his intention to make more films in the series. Later that month, Craig and Johnson separately said they would continue making further films, as long as they were both involved. In October 2025, Johnson stated that he had nothing planned for a fourth film in the series, though he did express a willingness to make another film as long as he and Craig have fun doing them and audiences enjoy them. He said he finds them challenging to make, especially in terms of developing new plots.
It was announced in November 2025 that Johnson and Craig were "starting to formulate ideas" for a potential fourth Knives Out movie. In January 2026, Johnson said that he had "some basic, elemental, conceptual ideas".