Wake Up Dead Man Delivers Shocking First For Knives Out Series

Don’t cross the threshold of the church if you haven’t seen “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery” – because massive spoilersincluding the identity of the killer(s), follow! (Actually, spoilers for the three “Knives Out” films in front!)

For films that bill themselves as murder mysteries, there’s a surprising lack of murders in the “Knives Out” franchise – but the third film, “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery,” doesn’t just provide a pile of corpses. It is also kill the killers. Let me explain.

In writer-director Rian Johnson’s clever 2019 debut “Knives Out” starring Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc, it turns out that the death of crime novelist Harlan Thrombey, played by the late, great Christopher Plummer, was by his own hand. That’s not to say that Harlan’s grandson, Hugh “Ransom” Thrombey (Chris Evans, fresh off his role as Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe) hasn’t done it. to try however, taking his grandfather to try and claim this guy’s enormous literary fortune; changing his medications in an attempt to fool Harlan’s nurse, Marta Cabrera (Ana de Armas). Alas, this is not actually the case. work, and Harlan actually commits suicide.

That’s what makes it at least a little shocking when, in Johnson’s first follow-up with Netflix — 2022’s “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” — Dave Bautista’s Duke Cody drops dead after, we eventually learn, he is poisoned by pineapple juice (Duke has a life-threatening allergy). Duke isn’t the only victim of “Glass Onion” either; We Also learn that tech billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton) killed his former colleague Andi Brand (Janelle Monáe) before the story begins. “Wake Up Dead Man” goes much further, however; not only do four people end up dying, but two of them are murderers.

Here’s roughly how it happens in “Wake Up Dead Man.” After getting into a physical altercation with a member of the congregation, Reverend Jud Duplenticy (Josh O’Connor) transfers to Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude, a Catholic church run by the somewhat infamous Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin). Wicks spends most of his time absolutely tormenting Jud before Jud freaks out and the two argue, but the bottom line is that it all seems really terrible to Jud after Wicks’ death. Stranger still, it’s unclear how anyone, much less Jud, killed Wicks; while taking a sip from his illicit flask in a small cupboard near the main pulpit, he falls, apparently stabbed to death by no one. Dr. Nat Sharp (Jeremy Renner), the congregation’s medical professional, pulls a knife from the man’s back, seemingly proving the cause of his death.

What In fact However, it was Wicks’ right-hand woman, Martha Delacroix (Glenn Close), who slipped a paralytic into Monsignor’s vial, because she, Nat and her romantic partner – the church gardener, Samson Holt (Thomas Haden Church) – conspired to steal a precious and expensive jewel from the Wicks family tomb. Samson ends up dead at Nat’s hands when the “good” doctor attempts to steal the jewel for himself, but Martha discovers Nat’s heel trick and kills him with the same paralytic before he can use it to poison her as well, setting up a scene that makes it look like Wicks killed Nat in a vat of acid. Finally, when Benoit Blanc and Jud make Martha confess, he gains the upper hand. even paralyticand she dies too… leaving Jud to take the jewel and hide it for good as it falls from his hand.

Now that I’ve clarified that Jefferson Wicks, Nat Sharp, Samson Holt, and Martha Delacroix are the four corpses in “Wake Up Dead Man,” let me be incredibly clear: This is the darkest film in the series so far. Not only do the bodies really pile up in “Wake Up Dead Man”, but the deaths are much more visual and violent – Nat kills Samson by stabbing him in the heart, and even though Wicks isn’t actually stabbed to death as well, the way Martha attempts to cover up her own crimes by arranging Wicks and Nat’s corpses in a bathtub full of acid is particularly grotesque (this is definitely the grossest thing I’ve seen in a Knives Out movie, and I know that franchise very well).

“Wake Up Dead Man” isn’t just dark because it’s horrible. The only reason these four people end up dying is a deadly combination of greed and pure vitriol; the fervor surrounding the gem dates back to Wicks’ grandfather and mother, who hid and fought for the gem, respectively, and the sheer desire for this massive gem is the root cause of all the bad deeds in the film. It is therefore particularly remarkable that Jud decides to hide the jewel forever. Instead of keeping empty the place where a cross should hang to “honor” Wicks’ wayward mother, Jud hand-carves a sculpture of Jesus Christ on the cross and hides the jewel in his heart, hopefully ending this deeply troubling cycle. Still, this is a first for the “Knives Out” franchise: not only do the murderers pay for their crimes, but they also die in the process.

“Wake Up Dead Man” is now available to stream on Netflix.