Wake Up Dead Man Wasted Its Supporting Cast (& Saved The Knives Out Franchise)

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Warning: Spoilers for Wake Up Dead Man ahead!Ahead of Wake Up Dead Man‘s release, a Benoit Blanc murder mystery had already come to mean something specific. In the grand tradition of the genre, these Rian Johnson movies surround Daniel Craig’s detective with an ensemble of famous faces, each getting to play a distinct and memorable character. One of them will emerge as that movie’s true protagonist, often someone with a strong reason to solve the case: Ana de Armas’ nurse Marta in Knives Out, or Janelle Monáe’s grieving twin Helen in Glass Onion. The others will swirl around Blanc as potential suspects, each getting a chance to stir the pot.

In Wake Up Dead Man, that protagonist is Father Jud, a young Catholic priest played by Josh O’Connor, and he’s surrounded by a typically stacked cast. Unlike in the previous two movies, however, most of them hardly make an impact. We do meet them and learn their shticks, and they do indeed each prove to have motives. But the film simply isn’t that interested in them. There aren’t that many with enough of a presence that revealing them as the killer wouldn’t have felt cheap, as if the movie resorted to hiding them from us to keep us guessing.

For some viewers, I imagine this came as a disappointment. Part of the joy of watching Knives Out and Glass Onion was seeing talented actors given roles they could sink their teeth into, not to mention discovering which stars Johnson chose to highlight most. But I found it quite exciting. As much as I enjoy this series and would gladly watch them for years to come, this significant shift against our expectations convinced me that Benoit Blanc mysteries have a lot more creative life left in them than I had given them credit for.

Wake Up Dead Man Proves How Varied The Knives Out Movies Can Be

Benoit Blanc stands dramatically at the altar as the congregation watches in Wake Up Dead Man

Across these three installments, one of the defining characteristics of this franchise is the way Johnson plays with the conventions of murder mysteries. His approach is more complex than mere subversion – he fiddles with the game in a way that makes us think the rules are broken, only to circle back around and reveal he was playing by them all along. Knives Out especially tricks us into watching the movie as a thriller rather than a mystery, and in the process takes our eye off the ball.

Wake Up Dead Man is essentially a double-fake. After Father Jud lays all the pieces out on the board in a lengthy section before Blanc is even introduced, the movie starts to show more interest in his struggle with faith and this parish than the mystery itself, something we expect will eventually fall away. But it doesn’t. The murder is eventually solved, of course, and we still get to experience the glorious feeling of all the pieces suddenly fitting together when presented in the right order. But after a scene-busting phone call that goes from humorous fact-finding to a deeply felt plea for help, figuring out the “impossible murder” never seems as important as the film’s spiritual and political themes.

And so, the supporting cast largely take a back seat. Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, and Cailee Spaeny hardly have anything to do. Certain details may come as a surprise, but Glenn Close’s Martha Delacroix being the ultimate mastermind hardly is – aside from Josh Brolin’s Monsignor Wicks, the victim, she was the only one aside from Jud that we really got to know.

But, for me at least, the reveal was just as thrilling as the previous two, because Johnson succeeded in his usual subversion/reversion tactic. When it comes to the central case, the pressing question isn’t really how the impossible murder happened, or even why Wicks was killed. What eats away at Blanc throughout Wake Up Dead Man is why Wicks’ murder happened in such an over-the-top way – which is why the list of true suspects is ultimately more limited. In Johnson’s hands, that proves just as riveting to have dramatically revealed in the final act.

I would have always been interested to see how the latest Benoit Blanc mystery played with the genre, but Wake Up Dead Man proved these movies are just as willing to subvert themselves to break with our expectations. If Johnson keeps that up, the storytelling opportunities available to him within this franchise are truly enough to sustain as many of these as he’s willing to make, for as long as he’s willing to make them.