Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery - "It’s a very early decision," director Rian Johnson explains how he chooses the killer

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is already becoming one of the best mystery films this year. In fact, fans are opining that it's the best one in the franchise yet. This is the third installment in Rian Johnson’s Knives Out franchise. The film brings back Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc for another clever murder mystery. This film is just as sharp and playful as the rest of them.

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery had a lot of expectations created by Knives Out and Glass Onion. Both films satisfied audiences' cravings for good whodunnits. Johnson managed to revive the genre by doing a simple thing. He focused more on the characters than other elements. The approach is once again successful as Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is being well-received by audiences across the world.

Director Rian Johnson has been open about his creative process that goes into developing the Knives Out films. Johnson has repeatedly said that his mysteries are not some crossword puzzles. They are meant to be movie rides. This philosophy plays a major role in how he makes his movies. Especially when it comes to one of the most important decisions in any whodunnit - choosing the killer.

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery - How Rian Johnson chooses the killer

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery has the same storytelling rule that Johnson has been using since the first film. He decides who the killer is very early in the writing process. He does not believe in a twist just for mere shock value. It is about understanding what kind of story he is telling. Johnson figures out who the killer is and then he knows how the movie should move. He knows where the emotional points must be placed. He believes that the final act should not just surprise the audience. They must feel it.

He shared in an interview with Entertainment Weekly:

"It's a very early decision, and it's very important why it's an early decision. It's one of the guiding principles for me in writing all of these movies: I try to constantly remind myself that first and foremost, these have to be movies, and that means they have to be propulsive. They have to be a rollercoaster ride. They can't just be a puzzle that I'm presenting to the audience. They need to be emotionally involving, and they need to have a story arc. And you can't mistake the reveal of information for a dramatic turn. So that means that for them to have a satisfying ending, the notion of who'd done it is not just, "Oh my God, it was that person!"

One of the main reasons why Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery is made a certain way is because Johnson opines that a mystery should be driven by momentum. Only clues aren't enough. He has often said that he is not trying to outsmart the audience. He assumes the audience is already smart.

"I come into the process with the assumption that the audience collectively is much smarter than I am, and that I'm not going to be able to mislead them or purposefully get them thinking one thing so I can surprise them with another. That's never gonna work."

He also talks about Agatha Christie in the same interview:

"Personally, I think this is the case with the best of Agatha Christie's books. I think you can generally guess who did the crime, not because it's the least likely person, but because if you stop before the final chapter and ask yourself, "Who would it be most dramatically satisfying for the killer to be?", nine times out of 10, that'll be the answer because she's a good writer. Because ultimately, if you get a surprise out of the audience of, "Oh, I didn't know it was that person," then that's only three seconds of pleasure. But if you really land, "Oh my God, it was that person - of course it was!" - that's when you get a full impact at the end."

We see Martha consumed with guilt towards the end of Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. The reveal that she is the culprit is not what Johnson focusses on. It's the consequences and how his characters are forced to face what they have done. Choosing the killer early lets him meticulously create those emotional moments.

There is also a thematic reason behind Johnson’s approach in Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. The film is reportedly inspired by classic impossible crime stories and it also has ideas around belief, truth, and faith. The killer cannot just be a clever answer for those themes to resonate. They have to be the right answer. Johnson ensures the mystery serves the theme instead of overshadowing it by making the decision early. Hence, the film is not really about solving the murder. It is about what happens to the characters when the truth is exposed.

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