# Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [September 8, 2025, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wake-up-dead-man-a-knives-out-mystery/1022866 "2025-09-08T22:53:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2025, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wake-up-dead-man-a-knives-out-mystery/1022866/1 "2025-09-08T22:53:24Z")
The next installment of the Knives Out franchise is coming out in November. > **[Benoit Blanc goes full Gothic in Wake Up Dead Man trailer](https://arstechnica.com/culture/2025/09/wake-up-dead-man-trailer-teases-classic-locked-room-puzzle/)** > > “To understand this case, we need to look around the myth that’s being constructed.”… > **[Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery | Official Teaser | Netflix](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHM1K1JByBI%2F)** > > In select theaters November 26 and on Netflix December 12.Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) returns for his most dangerous case yet in the third and darkest chapte... I liked the first two installments. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2025, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wake-up-dead-man-a-knives-out-mystery/1022866/2 "2025-09-08T22:55:54Z")
So did I. I think I liked _Glass Onion_ more. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2025, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wake-up-dead-man-a-knives-out-mystery/1022866/3 "2025-09-09T19:45:49Z")
Radiohead, Beatles, U2…Rian Johnson does like his musically-referential titles. We liked the first two well enough, and will watch this one when it pops in December. The cast is quite good. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2025, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wake-up-dead-man-a-knives-out-mystery/1022866/4 "2025-09-09T22:16:14Z")
I thought the second one had potential and didn’t live it to it. After the Big Reveal™ at the halfway point, nothing in the first half made much sense and the second half made even less. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2025, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wake-up-dead-man-a-knives-out-mystery/1022866/5 "2025-11-18T04:20:09Z")
Official trailer is out: > **[Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery | Official Trailer | Netflix](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hc8yz5-d5Y%2F)** > > In select theaters November 26 and on Netflix December 12.Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) returns for his most dangerous case yet in the third and darkest chapte... ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2025, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wake-up-dead-man-a-knives-out-mystery/1022866/6 "2025-12-01T13:55:54Z")
So it’s currently showing in a few hundred theaters: anyone seen it? ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2025, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wake-up-dead-man-a-knives-out-mystery/1022866/7 "2025-12-01T13:57:55Z")
One of them is quite near me but no, I’m not enough of a fan to need to be in the vanguard of viewers. But I’ll watch it eventually. ---
**Author:** ![De\_La\_Rue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@De\_La\_Rue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/De_La_Rue)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2025, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wake-up-dead-man-a-knives-out-mystery/1022866/8 "2025-12-08T17:08:06Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > anyone seen it? I did, yesterday. After two movies in which it becomes gradually obvious who the murderer is, it was nice to see it revealed in this one without the build-up (even when it was the person I suspected from the beginning). I was also glad it didn’t go where I was hoping it wouldn’t go when I saw the book club reading list, but was more of a traditional mystery without any big twists to the form to make Rian Johnson feel clever. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2025, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wake-up-dead-man-a-knives-out-mystery/1022866/9 "2025-12-13T22:22:14Z")
Well it’s on Netflix now. I liked it, but I have the feeling I missed some plot points. An interesting interview about the cinematography: > **[A study in contrasts: The cinematography of Wake Up Dead Man](https://arstechnica.com/culture/2025/12/a-study-in-contrasts-the-cinematography-of-wake-up-dead-man/)** > > Ars chats with cinematographer Steve Yedlin about bringing Rian Johnson’s Gothic vision to life. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2025, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wake-up-dead-man-a-knives-out-mystery/1022866/10 "2025-12-13T22:32:28Z")
I haven’t seen it yet, but it has a good rating and I’m looking forward to it. I really enjoyed the first two. Glad to see Daniel Craig return as Benoit Blanc. ---
**Author:** ![De\_La\_Rue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@De\_La\_Rue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/De_La_Rue)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2025, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wake-up-dead-man-a-knives-out-mystery/1022866/11 "2025-12-14T03:31:59Z")
After seeing the movie I was wondering about Johnson’s religious background, and not surprisingly he was raised in an evangelical Presbyterian church, with youth groups and Christian rock, although he says now he’s not a believer. He went with Catholicism in the movie for the aesthetic (the churches he went to “looked like Pottery Barns”). ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2025, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wake-up-dead-man-a-knives-out-mystery/1022866/12 "2025-12-14T03:56:52Z")
We just watched it, I thought it was about 30 minutes too long and not as funny as the previous movies. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2025, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wake-up-dead-man-a-knives-out-mystery/1022866/13 "2025-12-14T11:05:31Z")
I liked it (the cinematography was really great, especially the use of light), the cast was good and O’Connor was very good, but I felt it had not enough Blanc. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2025, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wake-up-dead-man-a-knives-out-mystery/1022866/14 "2025-12-14T15:41:53Z")
I agree with that, most of the movie is spent with the fairly boring priest character and when we do see Blanc, he’s strangely muted. He’s a campy absurd character doing a bad Foghorn Leghorn impression, but not in this film. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2025, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wake-up-dead-man-a-knives-out-mystery/1022866/15 "2025-12-14T15:48:57Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > most of the movie is spent with the fairly boring priest character What the what? I LOVED the priest; it’s the most interesting and nuanced and positive portrayal of a priest I ever remember seeing. I somehow doubt that’s going to make this movie the darling of the religious right, though. The actor was incredible, and the script was so, so good in the scenes where Jud debates both Wicks and Blanc. We can talk spoilers here, right? I’ll spoil this just in case: I’m curious about the timeline, because it seems rushed. Can someone help me fill it in? 1. Martha confesses the diamond’s location to Wicks. How soon is this before the murder? 2. Cy finds out he’s Wicks’s son. Does Wicks tell him, or does he figure it out some other way? How soon is this before the murder? 3. During Holy Week (what day?) Wicks gives his “I’LL DESTROY YOU ALL” speech to his cult, and Martha decides to murder him. How much lead time does she have? 4. During that lead time, she recruits the groundskeeper and the doctor, and the doctor obtains an entire vat of ultra-strong acid along with a system to fill a tub. This is the least realistic part of the movie IMO–I don’t know that such an acid exists, and if it did, I think the fumes would be lethal to anyone in the cellar, and it probably wouldn’t be green sludge. Scooby Dooby Doo indeed. Building the trick coffin in this time frame would also be difficult, but not impossible. [edit: I just realized that if you took the mask off of the ghost, it’d be the groundskeeper. Chef’s kiss, Rian Johnson!] 5. Jud yeet the wolf’s head through the church window–when does he do this? The two-wolf’s-head switcheroo plan has to follow the yeet, and since that was key to the whole murder plot, didn’t everything have to follow that act? I thought it was the night before the murder, but I could be wrong. Maybe it was the same night as the I’LL DESTROY YOU ALL rant? ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2025, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wake-up-dead-man-a-knives-out-mystery/1022866/16 "2025-12-14T16:10:38Z")
Midway through the movie I commented to my wife, “The first movie goes after useless rich racists, and the second goes after techbros, and this one goes after the religious right. I think I understand what ‘Knives Out’ means.” ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2025, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wake-up-dead-man-a-knives-out-mystery/1022866/17 "2025-12-14T16:43:43Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > What the what? I LOVED the priest; it’s the most interesting and nuanced and positive portrayal of a priest I ever remember seeing. I somehow doubt that’s going to make this movie the darling of the religious right, though. The actor was incredible, and the script was so, so good in the scenes where Jud debates both Wicks and Blanc. None of that is what I want from a Knives Out movie, it’s supposed to be campy fun. It’s a silly murder mystery, not a rumination of the nature of faith, for which it is ill-equipped. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2025, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wake-up-dead-man-a-knives-out-mystery/1022866/18 "2025-12-14T16:52:16Z")
It is supposed to be what the writer/ director suppose it to be. You were looking for something else, which is fine, but that’s not a criticism of the film. I thought that the script was brilliantly equipped to handle these questions, and I love what the director/writer did with it. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2025, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wake-up-dead-man-a-knives-out-mystery/1022866/19 "2025-12-14T17:19:59Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > It is supposed to be what the writer/ director suppose it to be. You were looking for something else, which is fine, but that’s not a criticism of the film. It actually is a criticism of the film, one you might not agree with, but one which I made. I don’t think that the genre is capable of the subtlety and nuance required for its theme and I do not think that it pulled it off. Blanc is a cartoonish character, complete with a cartoonish voice, the campy over the top character, along with the over the top performance of Close undermine the themes of the movie. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2025, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wake-up-dead-man-a-knives-out-mystery/1022866/20 "2025-12-14T17:37:27Z")
Fair enough. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wake-up-dead-man-a-knives-out-mystery/1022866.md?page=2)