“Wake Up Dead Man” Movie Shows What It Means to Be a Christian
- Tom Faletti
- 6 days ago
- 4 min read
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery was not written by or for Christians, but it shows an ordinary Christian trying to be a channel of God’s grace – something every Christian is called to do.
I saw a movie last night that, although it was not made by Christians or for Christians, presented what a Christian life really looks like when a person is truly committed to following Jesus.
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is the third movie in the Knives Out franchise, which focuses on the crime-solving efforts of a blunt but compassionate atheist detective named Benoit Blanc (played by Daniel Craig). Father Jud Duplenticy (played by Josh O’Connor) is a young priest with a temper problem. He is assigned to a parish led by an older priest, Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (played Josh Brolin), who is domineering and unbalanced.
What makes the film a Knives Out movie is that a murder is committed in the parish church in the middle of a service. It’s a good story for mystery buffs. It seems impossible that anyone could have committed this murder without being seen.
But this is not just a murder mystery.
Wake Up Dead Man is a reflection on the meaning of the Christian faith
The film’s director and screenwriter, Rian Johnson, is not a Christian, but he decided he wanted to make a movie about faith and the church. Until his 20s, he was a practicing Christian with a relationship with Christ. But that was a long time ago. Now, he says, “I would say I’m just nonreligious. I’m not a Christian anymore.”
Yet his new movie is not just set in a church; it devotes extended time to the struggle over what faith is and how to live it out.
This film probes the meaning of the Christian faith as a central element of the story. The two priests present radically different visions of what it means to follow Christ, and the rationalist Blanc is always ready to probe for the irrational underpinnings of both views.
The young priest, Father Jud, is neither impossibly saintly nor tritely modern.
He is a flawed human being, and not always in control of his emotions. But he knows who he is and he has made a deep commitment to try to be like Christ: loving, forgiving, merciful, willing to die on a cross rather than betray his calling to live in God’s grace.
What does the grace of Christ look like?
Since grace is what Father Jud tries to bring to every situation, it is worth pausing for a moment to clarify what grace is.
Grace is the unearned love that God offers to every one of us, a mercy and kindness that is based on the love of the Giver, not on whether the receiver is worthy of it.
Father Jud tries to bring that grace to those around him.
At a key point, Father Jud must make a choice: to focus on pursuing the investigative threads that could absolve him of a crime everyone thinks he committed, or to spend time with a distraught woman – not even a member of his parish – who has unexpectedly asked him to pray for her and needs to tell him a story that will clearly take a long time.
At that moment, Father Jud must decide who he is. His choice demonstrates to believers and nonbelievers alike what it means to be a Christian who has decided to live for God.
The calling for the Christian is to bring God’s grace to others whenever the opportunity arises. Sometimes, there is a cost in doing so. Father Jud demonstrates what Christianity is all about in his response to this seemingly random person God has placed in his path.
This is not a “Christian” movie, but it shows us what it looks like to follow Christ
If what I have written makes you interested in the movie, there are some caveats I should offer. Because this is not a “Christian” or “faith-based” movie, it has many of the characteristics of any other Hollywood film. There is a lot of strong language, including both profanity in the secular sense of using four-letter words and in the religious sense of taking the Lord’s name in vain. There are several conversations with tawdry talk about sexual activity. Some people will be troubled by elements of the movie that reinforce stereotypes about some versions of Catholicism. Also, in addition to the murder at the heart of the plot, there are scenes of physical violence inflicted on a child.
But if you can handle those elements, this is a film that can renew or re-frame your vision of what it means to be a Christian.
Jesus tells us to “love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you” (Luke 6:27-28, NABRE). Father Jud tries to do what Jesus taught and modeled, despite his personal flaws.
The Gospel of John describes Jesus as being “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Father Jud seeks to be a conduit for God’s grace and truth.
Saint Paul encourages the Ephesians to use only words that “may impart grace to those who hear” (Eph. 4:29). Father Jud shows his true colors in situations where his words might impart God’s grace to others.
Regardless of whether we see this movie or not, all of us can be channels of the grace of God and bring mercy, forgiveness, and God’s love to those around us. We don’t need to wait for a murder, or see a murder mystery, before we begin. We can do it any time.
Where can you be a channel of God’s grace today?
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is in theaters as of this writing and can be streamed on Netflix. PG-13. 144 minutes.
