A Knives Out Mystery Ending Explained

Put down your magnifying glass, old-timey pipe, and Sherlock Holmes-style hat if you have not seen “Wake Up Lifeless Man: A Knives Out Thriller.” Full spoilers to observe; you’ve got been warned!

Ever since the first “Knives Out” movie released in 2019 — which was, presumably, meant as a standalone undertaking earlier than it grew to become a full-blown franchise — writer-director Rian Johnson and star Daniel Craig have been blowing audiences away with their homicide mysteries. 2022 brought “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” which sees the return of Daniel Craig’s Southern-fried (and good) detective Benoit Blanc and assembled an all-star forged that features Edward Norton, Kate Hudson, Dave Bautista, Janelle Monáe, and Kathryn Hahn, amongst others. Now, in 2025, we have “Wake Up Lifeless Man: A Knives Out Thriller,” named for a U2 observe (following “Glass Onion,” clearly after the Beatles track, and the unique title “Knives Out,” which deploys a Radiohead observe title).

So what occurs on this homicide thriller, and maybe extra importantly, how does it finish? Properly, for starters, Johnson introduced collectively one other assassin’s row (pun very a lot meant) of performers for “Wake Up Lifeless Man” to star alongside Craig, together with Josh O’Connor, Josh Brolin, Glenn Shut, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Cailee Spaeny, Mila Kunis, Andrew Scott, Thomas Haden Church, and Daryl McCormack. Set at a Catholic church that is within the thrall of its monsignor, Jefferson Wicks (Brolin), “Wake Up Lifeless Man” has simply as many pleasant twists and turns as its two predecessors … so let’s unpack the complete film, what occurs in it, and what the ending actually means.

Most likely the largest “distinction” between “Wake Up Lifeless Man” and its two predecessors is that Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc does not even make a full-fledged look till about an hour into the film’s runtime, letting Josh O’Connor’s Reverend Jud Duplenticy take heart stage as he explains the entire occasions that result in the film’s first huge loss of life. After getting right into a bodily altercation at his unique church, Jud is transferred to Our Girl of Perpetual Fortitude within the fictional New York city of Chimney Rock, which is run by Monsignor Jefferson Wicks with an apparently iron fist. After stepping into the behavior of confessing to Jud frequently (nearly completely about illicit self-pleasure), Jefferson ensures that Jud at all times is aware of his place, however the friction between the 2 males of religion hits a serious low level after Jud tries to rearrange a secret prayer circle with the church’s constituents.

Let’s discuss these constituents for a second, truly. In no specific order, you’ve got acquired the church’s lawyer Vera Draven (Kerry Washington), her ward of kinds and aspiring right-wing politician Cy Draven (Daryl McCormack), washed-up sci-fi author Lee Ross (Andrew Scott), former star cellist Simone Vivane (Cailee Spaeny), the small city’s lately divorced dentist Nat Sharp (Jeremy Renner), Jefferson’s religious right-hand girl Martha Delacroix (Glenn Shut), and her associate and the church’s groundskeeper Samson Holt (Thomas Haden Church). (We additionally be taught that Jefferson routinely drives away newcomers to the church by personally attacking their existence throughout his speeches, from same-gender {couples} to single moms.) Throughout a service — and after the 2 publicly battle — Jud briefly takes over for Jefferson because the monsignor steps right into a small closet off the pulpit after which falls, useless of an obvious stab wound. Factor is, there was no one in there with him.

As Benoit Blanc observes when he lastly arrives, that is an “inconceivable” crime, largely as a result of no one was behind Jefferson Wicks within the small closet the place he goes to take a swig out of a fortifying flask after passionate sermons (a undeniable fact that infuriates Jud, realizing that the monsignor is underneath the affect kind of the entire time). There isn’t any scarcity of suspects, particularly as a result of, because of Cy Draven’s weird behavior of recording actually every little thing for his YouTube web page, Jud and Benoit discover out that the congregation had a gathering with Jefferson the evening earlier than he died the place he instructed them he was going to show all of their secrets and techniques and go away the church.

Additionally, Jefferson’s late grandfather Reverend Prentice Wicks (performed in flashbacks by James Faulkner) claimed, to a younger Martha and Jefferson, that he hid an unlimited fortune from everybody, particularly his wayward daughter and Jefferson’s late mom Grace (Annie Hamilton). The fortune, we ultimately be taught, is a large single jewel, and Prentice swallowed it. To realize entry to it, Jefferson plans to open the household tomb and pluck the jewel from Prentice’s skeleton, however Martha figures this out. 

Here is the way it goes from there. There is a paralytic in Jefferson’ flask, however even with that, Nat Sharp, who enters the small room in his capability as a health care provider, removes a faux, staged knife and stabs Wicks for actual, killing him. When Jefferson is “resurrected” and leaves the tomb in an explosion later within the movie, it is Samson in disguise; a frightened Jud encounters him within the woods, however Nat kills Samson and plots to kill Martha, hoping to steal the jewel for himself. Martha, once more, will get forward of her opponent, switches their espresso cups so Nat poisons himself, and levels Nat and Jefferson’s our bodies to make it seem like the latter drowned the previous in a tub stuffed with acid. After Martha confesses, it is revealed that she poisoned herself too, and she or he dies — after confessing every little thing to Jud (whereas Blanc listens). 

Although Jud is framed because the potential assassin for many of “Wake Up Lifeless Man” — which is helped by the truth that the man has some fairly apparent anger points he generally expresses with violence — there is no query that the monstrous phrases and perspective of Monsignor Jefferson Wicks poisoned the minds of his constituents, making all of them worse individuals absolutely able to horrible issues. They’re all, additionally, grappling with inside demons; for instance, Vera Draven is deeply resentful of Cy, whom she was initially instructed was her youthful half-brother (damaging her late father’s status) solely to be taught, inside the narrative of “Wake Up Lifeless Man,” that Cy is Jefferson’s illegitimate son. (Equally, Martha loses her religion in Jefferson when she learns about Cy’s parentage.) In the end, each single common constituent at Our Girl of Perpetual Fortitude has a respectable motive to expertise a disaster of religion, particularly as they be taught that the person in whom they put all of their belief is a corrupt, grasping, and downright evil man who does not truly stay by the phrase of God.

The greed for that jewel is, in the end, what drives each character — even together with Martha, kind of, who finally ends up arranging one loss of life (Nat’s) and inflicting others (Jefferson, Samson) — and Nat’s want to maintain the jewel for himself is what makes him attempt to kill Martha. Martha, for her half, has been holding the key of the jewel’s location for years and dies with the valuable gem in her hand. To completely honor the Wicks household and maintain the jewel away from every other money-hungry constituents, Jud, who modifications the church’s title to Our Girl of Perpetual Grace after Jefferson’s late mom, hides the jewel within a picket determine of Jesus Christ that hangs over the altar, hopefully reflecting a brand new path of peace and quiet for the church.

Past greed, there’s one thing else that causes rampant rot inside Our Girl of Perpetual Fortitude, and that is the de facto cult that Jefferson Wicks is operating. As he utterly controls his constituents and makes certain that no newcomers enter the church with out getting so upset and harm by his sermons that they go away instantly, Jefferson creates a flock to whom he teaches horrible classes of hatred, prejudice, and intolerance. (Additionally, like I stated, he is stuffed with it; he is fathered a minimum of one illegitimate youngster and insults Cy’s unknown mom when he is known as out on it, engages in sufficient “illicit” self-pleasure that he is always confessing it to Jud, and he is additionally simply an overtly horrible man in each sense.) 

Jefferson’s cruelty infects each single member of his flock as they gleefully take part in his cult — and it is actually vital to notice that Dr. Nat Sharp, whose spouse leaves him earlier than the story correctly begins, might be the largest “sufferer” of this, despite the fact that Nat goes on to kill Samson and makes an attempt to kill Martha. Nat grows offended and remoted after his divorce, and it is clear that he blames his ex-wife for something that goes incorrect in his life; Jefferson encourages this hatred, simply as he does with different constituents like Lee (who has turn out to be a right-leaning conspiracy theorist) and Cy (who posts movies of Jefferson’s sermons on-line utilizing techniques clearly meant to deal with a right-wing viewers of extremists, and Cy completely is or a minimum of aspires to turn out to be an extremist himself). This kind of groupthink will be extraordinarily harmful, particularly when it is utilized by males like Jefferson to vilify others, and I actually suppose that is one other huge takeaway from Rian Johnson’s script.

Look, I will be sincere right here: if Rian Johnson and Daniel Craig wish to make 1,000,000 “Knives Out” motion pictures till the day one or each of them shuffles off this mortal coil, I believe that might be actually nice. Apparently, Johnson feels the identical approach. Throughout the BFI London Movie Pageant, Johnson instructed Variety, “I do not really feel burnt out doing these in any respect. If something I really feel energized after doing this one.” He continued: 

“So so long as audiences wish to maintain seeing it, and Daniel and I are nonetheless having enjoyable making them and nonetheless really feel like we are able to provide you with stuff that feels not simply recent, however a recent problem for us, I believe that’ll translate to a brand new expertise for the viewers. For now, I might be thrilled to maintain making these for the remainder of my life.”

After the primary “Knives Out” film grew to become a shock blockbuster in 2019, Netflix made a deal with Johnson for two sequels; each “Glass Onion” and “Wake Up Lifeless Man” had been made with the streamer. Whereas I believe it will be horrible, silly, and infuriating for Netflix to chop Johnson off after simply two “Knives Out” sequels, I assume it is not inconceivable, however the motion pictures constantly earn good evaluations and generate income during their frustratingly short, Netflix-mandated theatrical runs, so I do suppose that Johnson and Craig will most likely get clean checks from somebody, whether or not it is Netflix or not, to maintain making “Knives Out” motion pictures. The underside line is that Benoit Blanc reveals up in “Wake Up Lifeless Man,” investigates against the law, and solves it … and the method remains to be as robust as ever.