Scene-Stealers, Surprises, Standouts: Every Knives Out 3 Performance Ranked

Rian Johnson is back twisting the knife with 'Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery' — and this one feels like a bigger, moodier swing that might also be the last Blanc case we get for a while. Daniel Craig returns, of course, but this thing is a true ensemble flex: Josh Brolin, Andrew Scott, Jeremy Renner, Cailee Spaeny, Glenn Close, Josh O'Connor, Mila Kunis, Kerry Washington, Thomas Haden Church — the works. I watched the whole crew do their thing and ranked the performances by a mix of acting heat and actual time on screen. Yes, the top spot is not Craig or Brolin.

"No, Daniel Craig is not #1."

Acting power rankings: 'Wake Up Dead Man'

1. Thomas Haden Church (Samson Holt) — Low-to-moderate screentime, but always lurking in the edges of frames: digging here, pruning there, watching from the treeline like a man who knows where the bodies are buried. He only gets three substantial dialogue scenes, yet he supplies the movie's rustic creep factor. A late-night, cryptic run-in with Blanc is a standout, and he functions as an A+ red herring. The role is deliberately stoic, though, so he misses out on the big group blowups. Effective, just not a showcase.

2. Kerry Washington (Vera Draven) — Barely in it, but sharp. She plays a tightly wound lawyer with one hell of an explosive clash with her stepson (played by Daryl McCormack) that hints at a lot of range. Early reactions called her "wasted" due to the limited screentime, and honestly, hard to disagree. Good work, too little of it.

3. Mila Kunis (Chief Geraldine Scott) — The local police chief, and she and Craig have fun prickly chemistry. She even gets a very on-the-nose "Scooby-Doo" gag that fits the script's wry self-awareness. The catch: her bright, modern, fast-talking vibe occasionally clashes with the film's candlelit, gothic mood. Not a disaster, just a bit of a tonal mismatch.

4. Cailee Spaeny (Simone Vivane) — Not a lot of screen time, but she gives the suspect lineup a beating heart. The character's wheelchair adds a smart physical constraint to Johnson's locked-room mechanics, and he uses it for a nifty mid-movie set piece. She has one big emotional beat and then, in a cast of 15, gets swallowed up a bit.

5. Andrew Scott (washed-up sci-fi author) — Not Moriarty-level fireworks, and not meant to be. He's a delicious send-up of online outrage culture and creative pretension, and he gets some of the film's funniest stingers. The downside: the movie doesn't give him enough runway. For an actor this nimble, you feel the underuse, especially as the story tilts toward the clergy.

6. Jeremy Renner (the doctor) — A quiet, wrecked, frequently drunk physician who keeps his cards close. There's a superb, almost wordless moment with Jud in the morgue that plays completely against his Marvel-era persona. The character is intentionally underwritten to keep him a muted suspect, which means fewer fireworks than some of the bigger turns.

7. Josh Brolin (Monsignor Jefferson Wicks) — The victim, and a big presence even in fragments. His sermons are magnetic, menacing, and grimly cynical — the kind of odious target that makes you briefly suspect literally everyone and feel fine about it. Because Wicks dies early, Brolin mostly exists in flashbacks, and you can feel the absence of present-day sparring with the rest of the cast.

8. Glenn Close (Martha Delacroix) — A devoted, slightly terrifying church assistant who starts slow and then detonates. Once the film pivots into its back half, she takes over with a confession scene that is both darkly funny and genuinely wrenching. She's the only suspect who really goes toe-to-toe with Craig on presence alone. The tradeoff: for roughly the first 40 minutes, she has comparatively little to do, so the big swing can feel abrupt.

9. Daniel Craig (Benoit Blanc) — You'd assume the crown automatically, right? Not this time. Blanc's screentime is hefty overall, but Johnson keeps him off the board until the end of the first act, and Craig plays him more restrained than in the first two movies. The payoff is a surprisingly affecting buddy dynamic with Josh O'Connor's Jud, including a faith-vs-logic exchange that gives Blanc his most emotional moment in the series. He's excellent — just not the MVP.

10. Josh O'Connor (Father Jud Duplenticy) — The movie belongs to him until Blanc shows up. He effectively carries the first 45 minutes as a former boxer turned priest who can flip from panicked breathlessness to quiet, sincere prayer without breaking the character's spine. It's the most human performance in the franchise so far. Paired with Craig, he forms a crisp good-cop/bad-cop rhythm that anchors the story's moral tug-of-war. Career-best stuff and the clear #1 here.

So what is this thing, in a sentence?

'Wake Up Dead Man' is a chilly, gothic-tinged ensemble mystery where Johnson and Craig push into darker shades, then hand a surprising amount of the heavy lifting to Josh O'Connor — and it works.

The basics

Directed by: Rian Johnson

Main cast includes: Daniel Craig, Josh O'Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Andrew Scott, Jeremy Renner, Cailee Spaeny, Mila Kunis, Kerry Washington, Thomas Haden Church

Release date: November 26, 2025

IMDb: 7.7/10

Rotten Tomatoes: 92%

Worldwide box office (limited run): $1.6 million

Production: T-Street Productions

Where to watch: Netflix

Do you agree with the order or did I absolutely misread your favorite? Sound off below — I will read it, even if you put Craig at #1 out of principle.