Title – Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (2025)

Director – Rian Johnson (Brick)

Cast – Daniel Craig, Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Cailee Spaeny

Plot – Famed private investigator Benoit Blanc (Craig) takes on his toughest case yet when he is called into a small-town community rattled by the death of their local priest Mons. Jefferson Wicks (Brolin).

“I kneel at the alter of the rational”

Review by Eddie on 17/12/2025

Rian Johnson’s third Knives Out venture since first launching theatrically in 2019, before moving into a partnership with Netflix for the second outing Glass Onion in 2022, Wake Up Dead Man acts as another excuse for Johnson to channel his modern-day Agatha Christie alongside Daniel Craig’s thickly accented private investigator Benoit Blanc.

Clocking in just under two and a half hours in runtime, Dead Man has a lot to say and a lot to do and even bravely shuns Blanc for an extended period in its early half, where Josh O’Connor’s boxer turned priest Fr. Jud Duplenticy finds himself preaching in a small American town, leading him to be embroiled in the mysterious murder of Josh Brolin’s intense Mons. Jefferson Wicks.

Again overloading his Blanc affair with a star-studded cast that includes industry veterans like Thomas Haden Church, Jeremy Renner and Glenn Close as well as rising stars such as Aussie ex-pat Cailee Spaeny and Daryl McCormack, Johnson is clearly having a lot of fun here and Dead Man is a fun film for the most part, even if it drags at times in its indulgent length but while entertaining, this third Knives Out venture does show signs of wear and tear raising the question of Johnson and Netflix doing the right thing and having a longer break between drinks.

Enlivened by Josh O’Connor’s brilliant central turn with some notably fun performances from a bearded Brolin and another fun turn from Craig, there’s some great components found within Dead Man and it’s always a good time investigating and offering up your theories on culprits as a viewer for this type of mystery offering but there’s a lot of arguably unneeded additions to Johnson’s tale and a large portion of the supporting cast feel as though their wasted in roles that are never fleshed out or given the time to shine like you might expect.

When weighed up against the first Knives Out (still the best in my opinion) and its enjoyable sequel, films that allowed the likes of Edward Norton, Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis or Janelle Monáe to really shine, Dead Man doesn’t get a lot out of its key plays such as Renner, Church, Andrew Scott, Mila Kunis, Washington or Spaeny (who has shown so much previously in features Civil War and Alien: Romulus) and you wonder if Johnson has tried to do too much with what’s at his disposal, rather than focusing in on the basics.

Taking a downturn in its comedic stakes, even if Brolin brings in some great moments of levity and laugh out loud scenes, Dead Man threatens to unleash a masterclass of genre mash ups and character interactions on us as viewers but the potential of this is never realised and you’re left with a film that’s enjoyable and eminently watchable but instantly forgettable, leaving Blanc with work to do in the future should he be called back into action for another go around of murder, intrigue and Cats cassettes.

Final Say –

A perfectly fun time filler that also showcases the continued growth of Mr. Potential New James Bond James O’Connor, Wake Up Dead Man acts as a decent new addition to the Knives Out cannon but also one that is beginning to show signs of wear and tear.

3 “rocket ships” out of 5