Warning: Spoilers from Wake Dead: The Mystery of the Knives Out.
Benoit Blanc stumbles upon a scornful congregation hiding a murderous secret in his latest detective story. “Wake Dead Man: The Mystery of the Knives Drawing.”
The third installment in the Knives Out franchise, directed and written by Rian Johnson, takes place in a small town in upstate New York. It's about religion, false prophets and, of course, a twisted murder.
The film, now streaming on Netflix, is largely told from the point of view of a young priest named Jud, played by Josh O'Connor, who is sent to help run a modest parish led by Monsignor Jefferson Weeks, played by Josh Brolin. After meeting Weeks and developing a tense relationship with him, he also meets the monsignor's loyal flock: Weeks' right-hand woman Martha (Glenn Close), Dr. Nat (Jeremy Renner), lawyer Vera (Kerry Washington), struggling writer Lee (Andrew Scott), a chronically ill concert cellist Simone (Cailee Spaeny) failed politician Cy (Daryl McCormack) and gardener Samson (Thomas Hayden Church).
During one service, the monsignor delivers a dismissive and chaotic sermon, his specialty, before entering a small side room to gather his strength while Jud briefly takes over. Seconds later, Jude and the congregation hear a loud bang and discover Weeks lying dead on the ground. Puzzled by how the killer carried out his plan, local police chief Geraldine (Mila Kunis) enlists the help of renowned detective Benoit Blanc, played by Daniel Craig, to solve the case.
Compared to previous films, Wake Dead has a darker tone and more violence. Johnson told TODAY.com that he wanted to “ground” the third film and its themes in a theme that was “very personal to me.”
“I grew up very Christian. I'm not a believer anymore, but it's something that gives me a lot of difficult feelings,” he shares. “So the challenge is to see if we can make a big, interesting and fun mystery and at the same time look at these issues of faith and Christianity in America right now in a complex and generous way, rather than just finger-wagging.”
He adds: “It seemed like a worthy challenge.”
The main reason he succeeded: Craig's portrayal of Blanc. Johnson says the actor's performance, while fun and exciting, is rooted in basic human decency and empathy. He also notes that in each of his Knives Out films, he paired Blanc with a good-hearted protagonist who leads the film. In Wake Dead, the relationship between Blanc, a non-believer, and O'Connor's Jud, a devoted priest, is at the center of the film.
Johnson says Jude was the hardest character to cast when he was working on the script because of his storyline.
“I hope the film brings emotional satisfaction to the audience… that was definitely the biggest challenge. But I'm very, very proud of the result,” he says.
Every film in the Knives Out franchise is named after a song. Johnson teases that “Wake Up Dead Man,” the title of a 1997 U2 song from the group's Pop album that always plays in his head, is perfect for the film's twist.
“For reasons that will become clearer when you watch the movie, it makes a lot of sense for this movie,” he shares.
Read on to find out how Blanc pieces together the clues to unravel Wake Dead and how the film's clever title came to life.
How will Wake Dead end?
Wake Dead features the most on-screen deaths in the Knives Out franchise, as Weeks isn't the only character to be brutally killed off. On a stormy night, the Weeks family tomb, where Monsignor was buried, miraculously opens from the inside, and a man resembling Weeks emerges. (Hence the film's title.) The revived man follows the hooded figure into the forest. Jud, watching from afar, follows the two. He passes out and wakes up to find Samson impaled on a garden hook. Meanwhile, another hooded figure meets Nat at his house in the middle of the night.
Blanc discovers a disheveled Jud, who believes he is responsible for Samson's murder and must confess. But before Jud can give in to Geraldine, he and Blanc go to Nat's house. There they find the doctor's body disintegrated in a bathtub filled with toxic chemicals, leaving only bones.
Overcome with guilt, Jude goes to talk to Geraldine. When he tries to confess, Blanc interrupts him and tells Jud, Geraldine and the rest of the Monsignor's followers that he knows who the killer is.
The detective explains in his delicious Southern accent that the monsignor passed out after drinking a poisoned flask after the sermon. He says that when the rest of the congregation joined Jud to examine the body, the killer's accomplice Nat secretly stabbed Weeks, who was already dead.
While handing over the evidence, Blanc suddenly pauses and says that he cannot continue. He would prefer that the criminal admit his sins. After most of the congregation leaves the church, Martha remains and confirms that she is the killer. She recalls that when she was a little girl, Weeks' father, Prentice, swallowed his family's inheritance, a rare treasure, before he died to prevent his children and the church from being corrupted by greed. She was the only one who knew the truth about the location of the gem and chose to keep it to herself for decades.
But when Jude arrived at the parish, she decided to share her secret with the monsignor during confession. She instantly realized that she had made a mistake and planned to kill Weeks so that he could not get the gem. She teamed up with Nat as he had access to drugs they could use to puncture Weeks' flask. Their convoluted plan included one more important step: they removed Weeks' body from the coffin, and Samson, Martha's husband, would take his place instead. The switch allowed the garden caretaker to remove the gem from Prentice's corpse and lie in the coffin until he received a signal. He then performed the “miracle” of emerging from Weeks's tomb, attracting more parishioners and increasing the prestige of the church.
However, the plan went awry when Samson met Nat in the forest after leaving the tomb. Nat hit Samson with a garden tool and stole the gem. Martha discovered Nat's betrayal, went to his home, quietly snatched the gem and pushed the doctor into the toxic bath, killing him.
Having revealed how she committed her crimes, Martha dies in the arms of Jud and Blanc, having voluntarily ingested the same poison Weeks drank.
While talking with TODAY.com On the subject of the killer reveal, Kerry Washington, whose character is one of the few to have a happy ending, says she didn't expect it when she first read the script.
“When I got to the end, I couldn’t figure it out,” she says. “I tried while I was reading this, but I would never do it.”
