John Wick has become one of the gold standards for the action franchise with its incredible fight choreography, which should be of little surprise considering the movies are directed for a former stunt coordinator, Chad Stahelski. In particular, fans have delighted in some of the inventive and bad-ass ways that John Wick (Keanu Reeves) has disposed of his enemies.
As John Wick: Chapter 4 arrives, we're taking a look back at the violent path the Baba Yaga has trod thus far and highlight our favorite John Wick kills.
Like Wick himself, we won't waste too many words before getting down to business.
The club scene (John Wick)
While we see John Wick in action before this, it's the first movie's club scene when we truly get the sense of what kind of force he is. Here he is on the warpath, dispatching opposing thugs with a violent grace with what we come to realize is his signature shooting strategy — two to the chest and one to the head.
Just about every John Wick movie has a similar scene, but we have to tip our cap to the original.
Shooting a guy through a car roof (John Wick)
In the climactic fight scene, John Wick comes in like a bat out of hell with a muscle car, using the vehicle as a weapon about as much as he is using his gun. But it's one instance where he uses the two in tandem that sticks out to us — hitting a guy with the car and then shooting at him through the roof as he rolls over it. It's so simple but so enjoyable to watch John Wick multi-task like this.
Empty guns can still be useful (John Wick: Chapter 2)
A small detail in the franchise fans have truly loved is that John Wick does not have an endless supply of bullets like other action heroes. We often see him need to reload or switch out a gun. However, for someone like John Wick, an empty gun is not entirely useless.
In the catacombs fight sequence in Chapter 2, John runs out of ammo. Exposed and with enemies all around, he doesn't have the time to reload, so instead he tosses the gun at a goon, stuns his enemy, giving him the time to finish him off with a brand new weapon.
It's a move he repeats from time to time, but it never becomes any less enjoyable.
Two guys, one pencil (John Wick: Chapter 2)
In Chapter 2, John Wick is forced to get a bit more inventive with his killing methods. When dealing with a pair of fellow assassins who have him tied up, the only thing he has in reach is a pencil. John Wick stabs his assailants multiple times with the pencil to get them off with him, then delivers two tantalizing kill moves with the writing utensil — stabbing one through the ear and then pounding the back of the other guy's head into the sharpened pencil.
They say the pen is mightier than the sword, but a pencil clearly can work in a pinch.
Hall of mirrors (John Wick: Chapter 2)
We're going to cheat a bit and go for a full series of kills with the hall of mirror sequence in Chapter 2, where John Wick eventually has a fight and dispatches Ares (Ruby Rose). It's a great location for a final fight, allowing John to use the mirrors to confuse his enemies as he takes them out. It's also likely a reference to the iconic ending to the Orson Welles' movie The Lady from Shanghai, which has its own shootout in a hall of mirrors (though not quite as action-packed).
Using a book to kill Boban Marjanovic (John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum)
At 6-foot 1-inch, Keanu Reeves is not small, but he looks down right petite next to NBA player Boban Marjanovic (7-feet 4-inches), who plays an assassin named Ernest. The size dynamic gives Ernest an advantage until John is able to grab hold of a book and use that as a weapon, ultimately breaking Ernest's neck with it. Even then, like any good library patron, John returns the book from where he got it.
Throwing knives (John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum)
We know John Wick is an expert marksman with a gun, but he's equally deadly throwing knives. When a multitude of assassins descend on John to try and claim a $14 million bounty, he thankfully finds himself in a place with a large assortment of knives. John puts them to good use, skewering his various attackers with a dizzying flurry of blades. The coup de grace, however, is when he throws an axe into one of their heads from what looks like a good 30 feet away.
Horse play (John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum)
This is another one of John Wick's inventive kills. In this case, he stumbles into a stable of horses and uses the trusty steeds to his benefit, first by goading them into kicking the hitmen after him, then riding off, where he pulls off some acrobatic kills on horseback.
Motorcycle sword fight (John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum)
Later in Chapter 3, switching out horses for motorcycles, John gets into another mid transport fight, this time against a group of assassins with swords. But John manages to get a hold of one of their swords and creates havoc with it, including cutting off a guy's arm, which then falls back into his back wheel and causes his bike to flip. A fortuitous chain of events.
Underwater kill (John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum)
Another bit of real-life logic you have to love in these movies comes when John and an assailant fall into a pool. The enemy tries to shoot at John while he is a few feet away, but as physics would inform us, the bullet immediately slows down and fails to reach John. Whether knowing this upfront or taking the lesson to heart, John swims over to his enemy and makes sure there is no distance between them so when he shoots his gun the bullets deliver killing blows.
John Wick: Chapter 4 releases in movie theaters on March 24. You can watch John Wick, John Wick: Chapter 2 and John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum on Peacock in the US and Prime Video in the UK.
