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If you’re looking for some great 2025 releases to watch while you’re home for the holidays, look no further than Netflix. Warner Bros.’ (almost) new owner has several fantastic original movies streaming, from Guillermo del Toro Frankenstein and the film with George Clooney Jay Kelly to Jyn Erso and Owen Lars (Felicity Jones and Joel Edgerton) in Form dreamsas well as Demon Hunters KPop and more.
But the best of the group, could be Rian Johnson’s third At loggerheads movie, Wake up dead man. Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) returns to solve another murder, with an all-star cast and more twists and turns than ever. It’s our favorite of the bunch, and part of it is a perfect Star Wars joke that occurs halfway through the film.
We won’t give away the ending of the film, but it does involve a reveal in the middle of the film.
About halfway through the film, we learn that Cy (Daryl McCormack) is the son of Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin). In a flashback, we watch social media expert Cy explain to his father how they can use social media to make him a celebrity. Maybe even the president. “Together we can build a true empire, as father and son,” Cy tells Wicks. We then cut to the present, where Father Jud (Josh O’Connor) says what the audience is thinking. “As in Star Wars” Cy then says, “Yeah, exactly, like the Rebels.” And Jud gives him this look: “I think you mean Empire, but we’ll let it go.”
In the context of the film, the joke works because it’s funny and tells us a little more about Cy, Wicks’ plan, and Jud’s understanding. But it also works on another level.
Before the At loggerheads films, writer-director Rian Johnson made a short film called Star Wars: The Last Jedi. This film has been, in some circles, extremely misinterpreted. People were furious that Luke Skywalker sacrificed himself, even though it was the most Jedi thing he could have done. People were crazy about the long Canto Bight scene, even though it was crucial to Finn’s journey. People were angry about Snoke’s death, even though it was exactly the type of bold storytelling that made The Empire Strikes Back everyone’s favorite Star Wars movie. The list is long.
And so, Johnson made a joke about this man completely misinterpreting Star Wars feels very sharp. Maybe even cathartic. Cy is an idiot, and maybe Johnson feels the same way about others. Or maybe, Star Wars just works differently depending on who’s watching it. Either way, having such a quick aside become so complex is pure Rian Johnson.
See this joke, and many more, in one of the best films of 2025, Wake Up Dead Man: A knife-edge mystery, streaming on Netflix.
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