Father Jud Duplenticy, a former boxer turned Catholic priest in upstate New York, is reassigned after punching a rude deacon. He is made assistant pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude, a rural parish led by Monsignor Jefferson Wicks. Wicks is the grandson of Reverend Prentice Wicks, who forced Jefferson's mother, Grace, to remain at the church with the promise of receiving his inheritance, only for the fortune to disappear after his death; Grace ransacked the church and destroyed its crucifix, which the younger Wicks refuses to replace. Jud comes into conflict with Wicks over his incendiary preaching, which has driven away all but his most loyal parishioners. During a Good Friday service, Wicks dies suddenly in a storage closet near the pulpit, stabbed in the back with a knife fashioned from a devil's head lamp adornment that Jud previously stole from a bar and threw through a church window. Though the evidence is inconclusive, suspicion falls on Jud.
Police chief Geraldine Scott summons private detective Benoit Blanc to investigate the death. He recruits Jud to assist him despite Scott's objections, assured of his innocence. After Wicks' burial in Prentice's mausoleum, Jud and Blanc question the congregation, learning Wicks had abruptly disavowed his followers at a meeting just before his death. Failed politician Cy Draven reveals that Wicks allegedly found Prentice's fortune and was planning to use it to pursue a career in politics with Cy, who he had learned was his illegitimate son. Jud drops out of the investigation, tired of Blanc's singular focus on the murder and the mystery of the fortune, choosing instead to focus on his ministry.
While returning to his rectory at night, Jud appears to witness Wicks exit the mausoleum and embrace groundskeeper Samson. He is knocked out pursuing them and wakes up next to Samson's corpse. Blanc stops Jud from turning himself in, having noticed a second adornment missing from the bar, stolen by town doctor and Wicks follower Nat Sharp. Blanc and Jud go to the doctor's house and find his corpse dissolving in a tub of acid alongside Wicks' body. The following morning, the police and the congregation convene in the church for Jud's confession, only for Blanc to explain how Nat killed Wicks: he spiked Wicks' private flask with tranquilizer and attached the second adornment to his vestment to fool Jud, covertly switching it out and stabbing Wicks whilst pretending to examine the body. Midway through his summation, however, Blanc has an epiphany and abruptly declares he cannot explain Wicks' resurrection nor Samson's murder, and the congregation leaves.
Before Scott can arrest Jud, Wicks' former assistant, Martha, reenters, ready to confess: before his death, Prentice swallowed a valuable diamond, the key to Wicks' fortune, which Grace sought in her desperation to escape the church. Jud's earnestness persuaded Martha to confess this to Wicks, but she soon realized he was plotting to retrieve the diamond from Prentice's corpse. To stop him from spreading his hate, she plotted his murder with Nat, persuaded Samson to be buried in Wicks' place to retrieve the diamond, and had the two stage Wicks' resurrection to restore faith in the church. When Nat killed Samson, framing Jud in the process, and tried to kill Martha to get the gem for himself, Martha tricked him into consuming a cup of coffee poisoned with pentobarbital meant for her. She collapses, having already taken the rest of the poison, which Blanc had realized during his denouement, hiding his final deduction to allow her to come forward on her own. With her last breaths, she prays for forgiveness from all victims including, at Jud's urging, Grace. Jud performs absolution before she dies, and she drops the diamond.
One year later, Jud is about to reopen the church, now renamed Our Lady of Perpetual Grace. Most of the former parishioners have moved on with their lives, while a disgruntled Cy, the presumed heir to Prentice's fortune, threatens to sue Jud, Blanc, and the church if the diamond is not returned, but they all proclaim ignorance. Blanc bids farewell as new parishioners enter for the first service of Jud, who hid the diamond inside the church's new crucifix.
Noah Segan as Nikolai, a bar owner. Segan, one of Johnson's main collaborators, previously appeared in Knives Out (2019) as Trooper Wagner and Glass Onion (2022) as Derol.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt cameos as a baseball announcer. Gordon-Levitt, one of Johnson's main collaborators, previously had voice cameos in Knives Out as Detective Hardrock and in Glass Onion as the Hourly Dong.
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.[7] On March 31, 2021, it was reported that Netflix bought the rights to two Knives Out sequels for over $400million.[8]
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.[12] In November 2022, Johnson said he was preparing to work on writing the third film.[13] 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.[14] 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.[15]
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.[16] 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.[17][18][19]
As with the previous two films, Steve Yedlin and Nathan Johnson returned as cinematographer and composer, respectively.[33][34]Principal photography began on June 10, 2024, in London.[22][35][36] First-look photos from the set revealed Craig's character, Benoit Blanc, with a noticeably different, longer hairstyle than in previous films.[37] 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.[38][39] Filming was completed on August 17.[40]
Church of the Holy Innocents
Church exteriors, set in New York state, were shot at The Church of the Holy Innocents, High Beach, Epping Forrest, 11 miles from the centre of London.[41] Additional exterior footage was shot in September 2024 in Cold Spring, New York, which served as the setting of Chimney Rock in the film.[42]
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 6, 2025.[44][45] It was released in select theaters on November 26, 2025, and was released onto Netflix on December 12.[46][47] The film had its international premiere at the BFI London Film Festival on October 8, 2025.[48][47] A trailer was released on November 17, 2025.[49]
Reception
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 92% of 250 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."[50]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 81 out of 100, based on 56 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[51]
Damon Wise for Deadline writes that this one may "be the best one yet" of the Knives Out franchise due to its more introspective nature.[52] On the German arthouse portal Programmkino.de, Dieter Oßwald says "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."[53] 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."[54]
In September 2022, Johnson confirmed his intention to make more films in the series.[63] Later that month, Craig and Johnson separately said they would continue making further films, as long as they were both involved.[64] 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.[65]
On November 18, 2025, it was announced that Rian Johnson and Daniel Craig were "starting to formulate ideas" for a potential fourth Knives Out movie.[66]
↑Josh O'Connor, Kerry Washington, Glenn Close and Josh Brolin and Rian Johnson talk "Knives Out". Variety Events. Toronto: YouTube. Retrieved December 3, 2025. I more know that phrase from this—I think it's originally a folk song that Pete Seeger heard from Lead Belly; I heard the recording of Pete Seeger doing it. And there's a phrase in this song, 'Wake up, dead man', so that's why it was originally in my head.
↑Fügmann, Lina (October 14, 2025). "Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery". Programmkino (in German). Retrieved October 19, 2025. diese Fortsetzung bietet alles, was ein „Knives"-Coup braucht. Vollendet schräge Figuren. Superbe Spannung. Witzige Wendungen. Star-Auftrieb. Sowie einen grandiosen Daniel Craig mit leinwandpräsenter Lässigkeit.
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