- Wake Up Dead Man is the latest Knives Out movie from writer-director Rian Johnson.
- The murder mystery is centered around a small town church with both clergy and congregants involved.
- Spoilers ahead!
Detective Benoit Blanc is back on the case. And this time, he's investigating a mystery involving a corrupt reverend, a boxer-turned-priest, and a precious jewel worths tens of millions of dollars. While the first two Knives Out movies, Knives Out and Glass Onion, were very much focused on wealth—a family eager to take its late patriarch's riches in the first one and a tech billionaire and his frenemies in the second—the major theme of Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is religion. But with that expensive jewel being part of the story, yeah, there's some greed involved, too.
Anyone who watched the first two movies knows that they end with Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) explaining exactly how the crime at hand was committed and how he figured it out. Wake Up Dead Man ends similarly, but with a different character's narration revealing everything.
If you've seen the movie and want to make sure you followed along with every twist and turn that went down, keep reading. And if you haven't seen the movie yet, well, go on! It's in theaters now and hits Netflix on Dec. 12. Having the mystery spoiled takes away the fun!
First, let's set the stage of the crime
Following his extremely aggressive Palm Sunday sermon, Msgr. Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin) enters a small closet to the side of the sanctuary. Suddenly, Rev. Jud Duplencity (Josh O'Connor) hears a thud and sees Wicks on the ground with a metal devil head in his back and blood pooling around him.
While the murder seems impossible—there were no other entrances to the closet—Jud becomes the prime suspect. He cooperates with Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) and police chief Geraldine Scott (Mila Kunis) to figure out what happened.
Who killed Wicks?
There wasn't just one killer working alone—three of the people in Wicks' orbit cooperated on a plan that went wrong.
Church organizer Martha (Glenn Close), Dr. Nat Sharp (Jeremy Renner), and groundskeeper Samson (Thomas Haden Church) devised a plan together to kill Wicks and keep the jewel, called Eve's Apple, for themselves after Martha found out that Wicks was planning to steal it from his deceased father Prentice's (James Faulkner) mausoleum after Martha confessed to him that she knew where it was. (She found out that Wicks rented machinery to open the mausoleum—a pretty clear giveaway that one is going to open a mausoleum.)
So, the group poisoned Wicks' flask, which he kept in the closet to sip from during his services, and planted a remote-controlled device that would release blood and reveal the metal devil head hidden in his robe. This way, Wicks would already appear dead when Jud heard the thud and when the churchgoers ran to the front of the church to see what happened. Nat was then able to stab Wicks with a knife attached to an identical metal devil head while the others weren't looking under the guise of examining him.
They would then put Samson dressed as Wicks in the mausoleum with Prentice, and he would take the jewel, and walk out of the mausoleum while caught on camera. This way, Martha would have "proof" that a "resurrection" had happened, which she hoped would lead more people to become Christians.
What was the problem?
Well, on top of Blanc figuring out that there were two devil heads and that some sort of remote control was used in the crime—among his other discoveries—the main issue was that Nat didn't stick to Martha's plan.
Jud happened to be there when Samson left the mausoleum and met up with Nat in a nearby forrest. Nat knocked Jud out with a punch and killed Samson, leaving Jud to believe he was the one who killed Samson when he awoke. Also, Martha realized Nat was planning to keep Eve's Apple for himself, and when she met up with him at his house after the "resurrection" she figured out that he was attempting to poison her tea. So, she switched their tea cups and killed him instead, leaving him with the body of the real Wicks in the basement of his home.
What happened to Martha?
Martha's confession is a deathbed one, because as Blanc figures out, she has already poisoned herself—her final sin. She dies in Jud's arms after sharing all of the information and clearing his name.
What happened with the jewel?
When she dies, Martha's hand opens and the jewel falls out. Blanc and Jud are like, "Oh snap! The jewel!" and Jud keeps it.
We flash forward to one year later. Jud has reopened the church and is now the head priest. He has replaced the crucifix in the church, and it secretly holds the jewel. Wannabe politician and Wicks' secret son Cy (Daryl McCormack) harasses Jud over telling him where the jewel is—since he believes he should be the heir to the Wicks fortune—but Jud doesn't give in. Jud decides to lead the church with peace and kindness in compete opposition to how Wicks operated, and the other people who were previously devout Wicks followers—Vera (Kerry Washington), Lee (Andrew Scott), and Simone (Cailee Spaeny)—move on with their lives, too. Case closed!
