Commentary: ‘Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery’ Benefits From Mythology
by Frank Martin
It always helps a story when characters have a mythology built up around them, especially if audiences are familiar with that mythology. It doesn’t do the audience any good for a brand new character to say they have a mythology. The groundwork actually has to be laid for that mythology to exist outside of that specific universe so the audience can be familiar with it. The first two entries into Rian Johnson’s murder mystery series featuring famed detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) didn’t really benefit too much from the character’s mythology. However, by the third installment, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, Blanc has become a more mythical figure.
Wake Up Dead Man is about a priest named Father Jud Duplenticy (Josh O’Connor) who is assigned to a church run by Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin). The two men do not get along and have very different styles of preaching, Wicks resorting to a more aggressive and violent demeanor. During a service, he is killed in a storage room, a seemingly impossible crime that puts Jud in the crosshairs as the prime suspect. Benoit Blanc eventually arrives on the scene and, through meticulous detective work, uncovers the real killer.
With the first entry in this series, Knives Out, fans were unfamiliar with Blanc and had no frame of reference for his detective skills. Although the second installment, Glass Onion, adds to his allure, this is merely a sequel featuring a reoccurring character. It isn’t until this third installment, which makes the series a trilogy, that fans are acquainted enough with Blanc to understand the allure he brings to every case. Characters within the universe recognize his name, and now audiences know that once he shows up, the real detective work begins. So Wake Up Dead Man is a film that got to benefit from a mythology that its predecessors could not.
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is now streaming on Netflix.
