A detective teams up with an earnest young priest to investigate a perfectly impossible crime at a small-town church with a dark history. A film by Rian Johnson, starring Daniel Craig, Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeny, Daryl McCormack, Thomas Haden Church, Jeffrey Wright, Annie Hamilton, James Faulkner, Bridget Everett, and Noah Segan.
Wake Up Dead Man
Rian Johnson
(2025)
In a Catholic church in Albany, Father Jud Duplenticy (Josh O’Connor) punches deacon Clark (Kit Burden) for saying something out of line. He’s brought before a disciplinary panel made up of Reverend Delancy (Paul Hilton), Reverend Frank (Gavin Spokes), and Bishop Langstrom (Jeffrey Wright) to face judgment for his misconduct.
When Delancy points out that Jud is a fighter, suggesting he resorts to violence rather than diplomacy, Jud admits he was a boxer who lived on the streets in his former life. He still carries that fighting instinct, and today he gave into it. Jud appeals to the tribunal for forgiveness and another chance to prove he can be a good priest.
Believing in Father Jud, Bishop Langstrom vouches for him once again. However, he can no longer stay at this church. Jud is reassigned to a small parish in Chimney Rock. He seems eager about the prospect of becoming an assistant pastor. Langstrom explains that Jud will be going to Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude, which is led by Monsignor Jefferson Wicks. He admits that while Wicks has his supporters, Langstrom personally thinks he’s a bit off. Recently, Wicks’s flock has been dwindling and growing thin. Langstrom wants Jud to go there and help Wicks restore people’s faith in the church.
At Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude in Chimney Rock, Jud meets Jefferson Wicks. Their first encounter isn’t entirely pleasant, as Wicks is convinced that Jud has been sent here deliberately to take his church away from him, despite Jud’s denials. Wicks insists Jud address him as Monsignor Wicks and introduces him to Martha Delacroix (Glenn Close), a devout church lady and his right-hand woman, who spooks Jud by suddenly appearing behind him. (It’s hilarious watching Jud jump every time Martha seemingly materializes out of nowhere.)
Oddly, Wicks’s first task for Jud is to hear his confession right away. Wicks confesses his envy of others’ material wealth and the power of great men, particularly his grandfather’s influence as a priest. Things turn awkward when Wicks shares explicit details about masturbating multiple times since his last confession six weeks ago. Jud doesn’t yet realize this is Wicks’s opening move in a game of manipulation.
After settling in, Jud learns that the only other full-time employee is the groundskeeper Samson “Sam” Holt (Thomas Haden Church), who stopped drinking thanks to Wicks and Martha. Sam respects Wicks and is particularly fond of Martha. Sam mentions that Wicks used to drink as well. Martha’s responsibilities surprise Jud. She does everything around the church: the bookkeeping, managing donations, filing, laundering vestments, ordering supplies, feeding Wicks, and playing the organ. It’s the kind of workload that seems impossible for one person. Martha has been here since she was a child, long enough to know where all the skeletons are hidden.
Jud stumbles upon Sam cleaning Wicks’s crypt after someone vandalized with penis graffiti all over it. Curious, he asks about the entrance since he can’t spot one. Sam explains it’s a Lazarus door. It needs heavy construction equipment to open from the outside, but from the inside, it’s easy. One push and the whole door comes crashing down. Sam reveals that the crypt holds the body of Reverend Prentice Wicks, who founded Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude and was Jefferson Wicks’s grandfather.
The Lazarus door is a specially designed entrance to the Wicks family mausoleum near Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude church. Named after Lazarus from the Bible, whom Jesus raised from the dead. It requires construction equipment to open from the outside, making external entry impossible without tools, but swings open easily with a single push from inside due to its cantilevered mechanism.
When Wicks catches Jud measuring the empty space where a cross used to hang, Jud explains that he does a bit of woodworking and thought he could borrow some of Sam’s tools to make a new cross for the church. Jud is confused when Wicks stops him, insisting the space remain empty as a reminder of the harlot whore’s shameful sin.
When Jud asks Martha about the harlot whore, she tells him it refers to Jefferson’s mother, Grace (Annie Hamilton). She explains that when Prentice (James Faulkner) entered the priesthood and founded this church, he was a widower with a daughter named Grace. Grace had a taste for revealing clothes and luxury brands. As a teenager, she partied at bars and got pregnant by a drifter. Prentice had accumulated a vast family fortune. To protect his grandson, he promised Grace that if she stayed under his roof, she would inherit everything. But Prentice believed wealth and its accompanying power were like Eve’s Apple, and he was determined to shield his loved ones from its corruption at any cost.
When his time came, Martha witnessed his final communion as he died on the altar. Grace immediately went to Prentice’s attorney to claim her inheritance, only to discover his accounts were empty. Some say Prentice gave his fortune to the poor or threw it in the ocean, but the truth is it’s simply gone. All he left Grace was a custom-made Fabergé box with a tiny figure of Jesus inside and the words “L’Eveil Appel” (L’Éveil Appel is French for “the awakening call”) engraved on it.
The House of Fabergé was established in 1842 by Gustav Fabergé, a jeweler of French-Huguenot descent born in Estonia, who opened his workshop in Saint Petersburg, Russia. His son, Peter Carl Fabergé, took over in 1872 and brought the firm international fame with his imperial commissions, particularly the jeweled eggs. Today, the House of Fabergé still accepts bespoke commissions for custom pieces. Clients work closely with Fabergé designers on sketches and personalization, from simple engravings to fully custom creations like jewelry boxes.
Authentic Fabergé boxes from the original firm (pre-1917) have specific hallmarks: the firm’s oval stamp with “Fabergé” in Cyrillic (ФАБЕРЖЕ), often accompanied by an imperial eagle for pieces commissioned by the tsar, plus a workmaster’s initials (such as “KF” for workmaster Koch). Modern pieces from the revived House (post-1990s) feature updated marks like “Fabergé” with London assay marks and workmaster stamps (such as Victor Mayer).
In a demonic rage, Grace desecrated the holy place. That night, she stormed into the church and destroyed everything in sight: smashing statues of Jesus and Mary, ripping up Bibles and religious artwork, demolishing the altar. It was complete blasphemy. Grace climbed up and tore down the massive wooden cross with its carved Jesus figure, sending it crashing to the floor.
When she looked up, she saw young Martha (Cecilia Blair) standing there. Martha approached and whispered in her ear, “Sister Grace, God, your Father, will forgive you in His love.” Grace lunged at the girl and beat her savagely. Later, Grace died from a brain aneurysm after throwing herself repeatedly against her father’s tomb. Martha believes God struck her down in His mercy.
After serving as assistant pastor for a while, Jud gets to know the core group of regulars and what draws them to the church. The main followers include local attorney Vera Draven (Kerry Washington), whose late father was Wicks’s attorney and drinking buddy.
Fresh out of law school, her dad brought home ten-year-old Cy (Leo Abelo Perry)and told Vera she’d be raising him as her adopted son, though everyone in town knew Cy was her illegitimate brother. Now Cy (Daryl McCormack) has grown into a young man who can’t seem to connect with anyone.
There’s Nat Sharp (Jeremy Renner), a local doctor whose entire world revolved around his wife Dalia. When she left him for some guy she met on a Phish message board and took their kids to Tucson, Nat fell apart. Convinced he wasn’t successful enough, rich enough, or good enough for her, he’d do anything to win her back.
Lee Ross (Andrew Scott) is a sci-fi novelist and the closest thing Chimney Rock has to a celebrity since moving here from New York ten years ago. His book sales and reputation have steadily declined, but he’s spent the past year writing a massive book about Wicks. He can’t stand Cy, dismissing him as just another social media influencer, a parasitic millennial trying to exploit Wicks for personal gain.
Then there’s Simone Vivane (Cailee Spaeny), the newest arrival in Chimney Rock. She was a world-renowned cellist until she had to retire five years ago because of mysterious nerve pain that no doctor can diagnose. Believing Wicks can heal her through faith, she’s donated substantial amounts of money to the church. Learning this makes Jud despise Wicks for preying on someone’s desperation.
Wicks keeps this core group close. Jud has to admit there’s something undeniably seductive about Wicks’s charisma, even if his methods are questionable. Jud also notices that every week, Wicks singles out someone from the newcomers to verbally attack. What Jud can’t figure out yet is why Wicks seems intent on driving people away from his own church.
Jud invites Wicks’s devoted followers to join his prayer group so they can get better acquainted. He starts by sharing his story: he was a boxer at 17 and accidentally killed his opponent in the ring, and how Christ saved him from anger, addiction, and violence. Everyone seems frustrated, and Martha raises the question of why Wicks isn’t there. The mood shifts when they realize Wicks has no idea about this meeting. Jud tries to reassure them it’s just a prayer group, nothing secretive, but it doesn’t help. When Wicks finds out about Jud’s prayer group after Martha texts him, he’s furious. The attendees scatter almost immediately.
Tension between Jud and Wicks reaches a breaking point when Jud confronts him during confession. He calls out all the masturbation stories as lies, revealing he knows Wicks had a radical prostatectomy five years ago that left him physically incapable of getting an erection. The conversation erupts into a heated argument about Wicks exploiting his followers. Jud tells him he’s poisoning the church and vows to do whatever it takes to save it, to cut him out like a cancer. Then Jud spots Cy in the distance, phone in hand, recording the whole thing.
That evening, Jud returns to the church and discovers Wicks in a meeting with his core followers, fuming about how Jud has been undermining his authority. Jud overhears everything and bursts in. Wicks hurls a book at him, forcing Jud to leave. Jud realizes Wicks has declared open war on him. He heads to a local bar where, in his frustration, he breaks off a devil wolf ornament from a lamp. Drunk, he leaves with the metal wolf head in hand. Riding past the church, he stops, throws the ornament at the building, and shatters a window.
On Friday at the 3:00 p.m. service with the regulars, Jud senses something feels different but can’t explain what. As always, after Wicks drains himself emotionally and physically, he needs time to recover. He ducks into a small storage closet beside the sanctuary to rest out of sight. While Wicks pulls himself together, Jud keeps the service going until Wicks is ready to return and take over. Suddenly, a loud thud echoes through the church, followed by the clatter of falling objects. Everyone’s attention snaps toward the closet. When Jud turns to look, he’s startled to see the door hanging open and Wicks lying face down, completely still. Jud hurries into the closet to check on him. The others stand and move toward the doorway, where they spot Jud’s fingers smeared with blood. Dr. Nat notices something embedded in Wicks’s back.
As Jud reaches for it, Nat tells him to stop, warning him not to touch anything because this is likely a crime scene. Nat steps inside, pulls out his handkerchief, and carefully extracts a devil wolf ornament. It’s identical to the one Jud threw the night before, except now it’s painted red and the head has been attached to a blade driven into Wicks’s back.
Later, police arrive at the church. Wicks’s body is taken to the local morgue for autopsy. Jud and Wicks’s followers are brought to the station for questioning. Chief Geraldine Scott (Mila Kunis) tells Jud that without solid evidence and no apparent way for anyone to have committed the murder, there’s still a problem. Cy Draven uploaded a video of Jud’s confrontation with Wicks to YouTube this morning. She shows him the clip where he threatens to do whatever it takes to save the church. The whole town will think Jud killed Wicks, regardless of whether he did or how it was even possible.
Written and directed by American filmmaker Rian Johnson, Wake Up Dead Man is a mystery film that serves as a standalone sequel to Glass Onion and the third installment in the Knives Out series.
The film is filled with the sharp dialogue you’d expect from Johnson. I’m fascinated by the playful script. It’s entertaining, hilarious, and doesn’t insult the viewer’s intelligence.
I love how the director intentionally drops hints throughout for us to find. In some scenes, he practically puts them right in front of our eyes, but we still miss them because we’re too distracted by other details. It’s very clever.
The ensemble cast is amazing, even with so many characters who all have well-written backstories. Josh O’Connor particularly stands out. He perfectly captures his character as a young priest, making us believe there’s still goodness in this world and that some people can actually change.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt also appears in this film as the voice of a baseball announcer. At this point, I’m convinced Gordon-Levitt has become Rian Johnson’s secret cameo tradition. He’s like a hidden easter egg waiting to be discovered.
Rian Johnson proves himself a master of the modern detective film, a rarity in an era when most directors adapt existing novels rather than crafting original stories themselves.
Wake Up Dead Man premiered at Toronto International Film Festival on 6 September 2025. The film received a limited theatrical release in the United States on 26 November before streaming on Netflix on 12 December.
