London film premieres

John Wick Chapter 4 London film premiere 2023

Condemned by the tyrannical High Table to be on the run for the rest of his life, deadly assassin maestro John Wick (2014) embarks on a Sisyphean mission of suicidal fury to decide his fate after the merciless carnage in John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019). At last, John's violent journey, fuelled by vengeance and grief, ultimately leads him to a fateful confrontation with his former employers, the crime masters that forced him into exile. And as the blood-stained vendetta to destroy those who pull the strings continues, old companions face the brutal consequences of friendship, and all-powerful, well-connected adversaries emerge to bring Wick's head on a platter. But talk is cheap--now guns have the final say. Can Baba Yaga, the grim messiah of death, make every bullet count in this bloody, once-and-for-all struggle for freedom?

John Wick Chapter 4 poster

John Wick Chapter 4 London Premieres null

  • Status: Confirmed
  • Date: March 6, 2023
  • Location: Cineworld Leicester Square, London
  • Attended by: Keanu Reeves, Rina Sawayama, Ian Mcshane, Natalia Tena And Director Chad Stahelski
  • Release in Cinemas: 2023-03-24
  • Runtime: 169 minutes
  • directors: Chad Stahelski

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Did you know ... ?

  1. The Paris subway station where John Wick meets the Bowery King and Winston is "Porte des Lilas." It's often seen in films, as this particular station has a disused platform that's still kept fully functional, so it can be rented to filmmakers who wish to shoot in the Paris subway without having to disrupt regular traffic.
  2. Lance Reddick's final completed film role before his tragic passing on March 17, 2023, just one week before the film's release. This is not set to be his final appearance as the character, as he is confirmed to have filmed scenes for the Ballerina (2024) spin-off. At the premiere, Keanu Reeves and other stars of the film wore blue ribbons to honor the late Reddick. The filmmakers have confirmed that a dedication card to Reddick is to be added to the end of the credits.
  3. The scene at the beginning of the film in the desert was done without digital enhancement. The place where John Wick meets the Elder is an actual rock where Lawrence of Arabia (1962) was filmed.
  4. Keanu Reeves gifted each stunt worker with a personalized t-shirt detailing how many times that performer met their demise in the film. His five-person stunt team also received Rolex Submariner watches, each costing around $10,000, with a personalized message on the back of each one when filming wrapped.
  5. John Wick says only 380 words throughout the film. Almost a third of Wick's dialogue consists of just one word like, "Yeah." Chad Stahelski revealed that Wick doesn't have a lot of dialogue because "Mr. Reeves stripped out roughly half the dialogue written for his character in the initial script." The longest line of dialogue that Wick has is in a scene with Shimazu Koji where he says, "You and I left a good life behind a long time ago, my friend."
  6. According to director Chad Stahelski, the inspiration for the top-down action scene featuring the dragon's breath shotgun was from the video game The Hong Kong Massacre (2019).
  7. Fight coordinator Jeremy Marinas thought when faced with the prospect of staging a fight scene on 222 steps leading up to the Sacré-Coeur Basilica was: "My quads and hammies are going to kill me." At the same time, he wasn't exactly surprised when the director Chad Stahelski presented him with the concept. "It's like, of course that's what you want," Marinas said. "You want 100 guys falling down the stairs and you want me to make every reaction and fall different. Of course you do. It was like we were just another day at work."
  8. Keanu Reeves went through 12 weeks of training in martial arts and stunt driving to do as many of the action sequences himself.
  9. According to star Keanu Reeves and director Chad Stahelski during a post-screening Q&A, it is ultimately up to the audience to decide whether John is really dead at the end of the film. When they asked the audience if they believed he was still alive, the audience almost unanimously agreed that he is.
  10. While Keanu Reeves was always game, Chad Stahelski did sense a weariness when his star confronted the stairs. "That look John Wick gives when he looks at his watch and actually looks up the staircase, I think that's maybe 50 percent John Wick and 50 percent Keanu Reeves going, 'Ugh, Stahelski did it to me again,'" he said. But, Stahelski added, the effort makes the character who he is: "You got to suffer. That's what's fun about John Wick. He suffers and he keeps going."
  11. In an interview, director Chad Stahelski confirms that John deliberately chose not to kill Caine and sacrifice himself so that Caine could live for his daughter, something bigger than both of them.
  12. Unlike the previous films that take place a few weeks apart, eight months have passed between the end of John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019) and the start of this film, allowing John to recover from all the abuse he suffered in the first three films.
  13. Filming the stair fight took place over seven sometimes wet nights, during which the crew occasionally had to wait for the Sacré-Coeur's funicular, carrying tourists up the incline, to pass. There were 35 stunt people involved, some of whom were felled by Wick multiple times in the course of his ascent attempts. Fight coordinator Scott Rogers estimated that one man was probably "killed" five or six times on the steps. "He was like Gumby," Rogers said. At the end of the shoot, Keanu Reeves made T-shirts for the stunt performers emblazoned with the number of times they were slain over the course of the entire movie. Some had more than 20 deaths.
  14. The movie quotes the famous Match Cut from Lawrence of Arabia (1962), with the Bowery King blowing out a match cutting to a shot of the desert sun. And immediately after that, distant figures on horseback emerge from the horizon, also like Lawrence of Arabia.
  15. According to Chad Stahelski, Keanu Reeves performs everything on the steps himself, except for the "really big stair fall." That task fell to the stunt double Vincent Bouillon, whose second take, captured with a cable camera, was the one that was used. (During the first take he got stuck on a railing.)
  16. Chad Stahelski has cited The Warriors (1979) as the primary inspiration for this film. The DJ who relays Wick's whereabouts in Paris is a very clear homage to a nearly identical character in The Warriors. David Patrick Kelly, who played Charlie in the first two films, played Luther in The Warriors.
  17. Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Keanu Reeves revealed that he would be willing to return for John Wick 5, but only if franchise director Chad Stahelski was involved. He said: "I don't know, I guess I'm going to have to lean on never say never. I mean, I wouldn't do a John Wick film without Chad Stahelski. We'd have to see what that looked like. For me, it feels really right that John Wick finds peace."
  18. Chad Stahelski knew nothing about Rina Sawayama and randomly came across her on YouTube and figured that because she was a pop star and she danced she would fit the role perfectly. Within 24 hours Stahelski got on the phone with her and offered her the role of Akira.
  19. For added protection, some of the steps had hidden padding that could be removed with visual effects, but in certain cases the performers had to take the impact without that cushioning. Fight coordinator Scott Rogers said that he was proud that "outside of some bumps and bruises, there were no concussions" among the stunt team.
  20. According to director Chad Stahelski, production shot an alternate ending which left John Wick's death much more mysterious, but it was heavily rejected by the audience of the one test screening it was shown in, leading them to go with the initial ending seen in the final film.
  21. The film's credits song, "Eye for an Eye," is performed by Rina Sawayama (Akira).
  22. Scott Adkins donned prosthetics and a sizable fat suit for this film and had to endure everything becoming waterlogged and heavy while shooting fight scenes.
  23. Sven Marquardt, who plays Klaus, is a photographer and the bouncer of Berlin's most famous Techno nightclub, Berghain.
  24. Chad Stahelski confirmed that the joke of the Roma henchman who only says "I am Klaus" was a direct play on "I am Groot," a personal tribute to James Gunn and his Guardians of the Galaxy series.
  25. Scott Adkins is a huge fan of Keanu Reeves and the John Wick films and was over the moon in having the chance to fight Reeves himself in one.
  26. The radio station's call sign spells "wuxia." Wuxia is a genre of stories dealing with Chinese martial arts heroes.
  27. According to Chad Stahelski, the whole "I am Klaus" gag was penciled in the script as a placeholder, as the character hadn't been cast yet and the writers couldn't think of proper dialogue for him at the time. After a while, they decided "Oh that's kind of funny, we'll just keep it."
  28. Keanu Reeves just speaks 380 words in this movie. This is one of the lowest word counts ever spoken by a main character in a movie.
  29. Donnie Yen's character was initially named "Shang or Chang" and had a costume with a mandarin collar, traits which Yen felt were Asian stereotypes. He and the director subsequently rewrote the character, who is named "Caine" in the finished version of the film and wears a suit like the majority of assassins in the film.
  30. The series was supposed to be a trilogy during or shortly after John Wick (2014) was made. Seeing its growing success, the filmmakers wanted to make sure to continue to expand the universe in which the films take place.
  31. At 169 minutes (2h 49m) of runtime, this is the longest John Wick film, being over a full hour longer than the 2014 original.
  32. It's implied that Caine's blindness was part of his deal for retirement, similar to how the Marquis Vincent de Gramont forced Mr. Nobody to maim his own hand as part of their deal. When asked about it, Caine states that the High Table didn't take his eyes, but rather that Caine gave them to the High Table. It's also implied that he made the deal with Vincent, thus making him responsible for Caine's blindness. This would also explain why he warned Mr. Nobody before he went to negotiate with Vincent, as he understood how the Marquis would twist any deal made.
  33. This is, markedly, the first film of the franchise without any involvement from Derek Kolstad, the first film's screenwriter and "creator" of the franchise (hence all films and John Wick projects having a "Based on characters created by Derek Kolstad" credit).
  34. In the first film, John's video of his wife Helen ends with her saying "Come on, John, let's go home" (and at the very end of the film, hearing those words is what gives him the strength to carry on). Wick's final request to Winston before collapsing is to "take him home."
  35. While Scott Adkins has played villains before, they tend to be fairly stoic, straightforwardly menacing, and physically fit. Killa, however, is an obese large ham who gleefully chews the scenery and is the most openly comedic of the series's villains.
  36. Chad Stahelski remembers explaining his idea for a one-take shot to Keanu Reeves. "Okay, that means I can't mess up," he recalls the actor saying. "He just looks at me and goes, 'Cool, I got to go to the gym. I better practice more.'" Demianoff spent three weeks on the scene's choreography, while the stunt team put together a proof of concept that Laustsen used to coordinate the lighting and the Spidercam's exact route through the apartment. The stunt actors playing Wick's enemies were tasked with executing complicated choreography with painstaking precision. "Every time one person messes up, you're back to the beginning, and it wasn't an easy reset," Stahelski says.
  37. The negotiations between Winston and the Marquis are backdropped by several paintings by Eugene Delacroix. Their placement relative to the characters is no coincidence: Throughout the entire conversation the Marquis lingers in front of The Death of Sardanapalus, which depicts a Middle Eastern monarch watching disinterestedly as his subjects are murdered around him by his own guards, perfectly mirroring the Marquis' arrogance, self-destructive incompetence, and cowardice, given his refusal to directly engage John in combat, instead nominating Caine as a substitute when challenged to a duel to the death by John. In contrast, Winston wanders between Liberty Leading the People and The Raft of the Medusa, symbolizing his situation as man orchestrating an insurgency against a tyrant, a struggle where not everyone will survive and where it will all ultimately end with the death of a cruel French aristocrat. For his part, John is shown in a separate scene next to Caravaggio's The Incredulity of Saint Thomas, symbolizing his role as everyone's savior. Furthermore, the painting depicts Jesus' stigmata, paralleling the various injuries John receives throughout the film, including getting a blade put through one hand and receiving a fatal gunshot wound in his side in the finale. And, if the chairman of Lionsgate's comments are anything to go by, this will presage his eventual "resurrection" in subsequent John Wick films.
  38. John Wick kills 151 people in this movie. So total kill count in all four movies is 438 people. John Wick kills 77 in the original film, then he killed 116 in second part and 94 people in third part according to Rotten Tomatoes.
  39. The Bowery King opens the film quoting Dante's Inferno. The previous film also had Ernest quote Dante's Inferno in the film's first action scene.
  40. The DJ in Paris that puts out the call to stop Wick from reaching the church for the duel is an homage to Walter Hill's "The Warriors" in which a DJ puts out a call to all gangs in New York to stop the Warriors from reaching Coney Island. The parallels to that movie include: 1) The DJ being filmed as a close-up of just her mouth and the microphone 2) the DJ referring to the listeners as "Boppers" 3) After the DJ's first announcement to stop Wick, she plays the song "Nowhere to Run" 4) The DJ giving running updates to the Boppers about the failure to stop Wick's progress 5) The DJ describing an assault-team's failure as "dropping the ball."
  41. Keanu Reeves accidentally pulled Scott Adkins' lip during the first take when John extracts a gold tooth after killing Killa. The second take is shown in the finished film, and it gave Adkins' the idea of doing a funny dead man's look.
  42. Towards the end of the movie when Winston's sleeve rides up a couple of visible tattoos are seen which indicate that, at some point, he may have been a member of the Ruska Roma just like John Wick.
  43. Klaus is played by Sven Marquardt, a real-life bouncer in Berlin. All of those piercings and face tattoos aren't a result of hours in the makeup chair, as that's Marquardt's real, distinct look, and it's what has helped him become one of the most infamous bouncers in Europe. Though Marquardt doesn't have any major acting credits, lack of experience wasn't an issue for his cameo. He is the bouncer of the Berghain, a monolithic building on the outskirts of Berlin that used to be a power plant. It was converted into a club in the 2000s and has since become one of the most famous and renowned techno clubs in the world. It's an impressive building housing multiple floors with different music and featuring a maze of staircases. Marquardt is arguably as well known as the club itself, and he's a big part of the novelty of visiting the Berghain. The bouncer is brutally strict, and he can deny entry into the club for dressing wrong, talking wrong, or even smiling wrong. There are countless articles online about how to impress him and gain entry, and there's even an online simulator to test getting into the Berghain. Everyone from Conan O'Brien to Elon Musk has been denied entry by Marquardt. That's what makes the cameo so great, as it's ironic that Klaus is essentially the catalyst for John's huge fight in a very Berghain-influenced techno club.
  44. Scott Adkins said his performance was inspired by actor Ronald Lacey in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). Chad Stahelski has stated that the character was inspired by Signor Ferrari (Sydney Greenstreet) from Casablanca (1942) and Sammo Hung.
  45. Not much is revealed about the mysterious Marquis, which was one of the draws for Bill Skarsgård when he was considering taking on the role. In an interview with Moviefone, he explained, "They don't go into any detail as of who this guy really is or where he comes from. He just appears in the movie. I just wanted to play him because there's no real backstory and I can invent whatever I want with it". Skarsgård wasn't given any information about the backstory of the Marquis but instead of finding that lack of information frustrating as an actor, he reveled in it. Explaining why he took on the role, Skarsgård said that he liked the script and director Chad Stahelski from the get-go, as well as the idea of playing a role that seemed to be intended for an older actor. And above all, he was ecstatic to get the chance to come up with his character's history. Revealing what he came up with for the Marquis, Skarsgård said, "I had a bunch of ideas going into who he is and there's quirkiness, strangeness and delicious sinister moments. I was like, 'Okay, he's in Paris. He's called the Marquis Vincent de Gramont. Is he French or is he from a French colony somewhere?' I mean, I just went with it and created." It also gave Skarsgård the opportunity to work alongside an actor he truly admires: Keanu Reeves. Skarsgård told Moviefone, "I've been a fan of his since I was eight when the first Matrix came out. It was truly an honor to be a part of his movie and his franchise, and he couldn't be a nicer guy, it was surreal acting opposite him, but just the nicest, sweetest guy and such a hard worker, and a genuinely caring actor, and a caring individual. It was just a treat."
  46. Chad Stahelski shared clips from The Hong Kong Massacre (2019) with the crew, and together they began brainstorming how to apply its camera approach to Chapter 4. Two components were key to making the sequence work: the top-down perspective that lets viewers see the foes before Wick does and the flammable destruction of the Dragon's Breath rounds, which provide a dazzling layer of tension and chaos. A crucial detail of production designer Kevin Kavanaugh's plan for the seven-room apartment set (built at Studio Babelsberg in Potsdam, Germany) was its height. The walls had to be tall enough for the camera to track Wick up a stairwell into the first room and then continue floating and settling above him. "You want it to feel natural so you're not all of a sudden just in this weird top shot," stunt coordinator Scott Rogers says. "That really became our biggest challenge: the lack of height." The production team worked for a month to build a space with 12-to-14-foot walls, though "if we had a ceiling that was 20 feet higher," Rogers adds, "everything would have been easier." Meanwhile, as French stunt coordinator Laurent Demianoff choreographed the scene's hand-to-hand and firearms action, Stahelski, Laustsen, and Rogers ran through "probably a dozen different concepts" of how to get the shot in one (seemingly) uninterrupted take. ("There's only one seam in there, and that's before we light the guys on fire in the kitchen," Stahelski explains. "The rest is all one take.") All that prep came up against a tight deadline. "The set was literally built and finished on a Sunday night, and we started shooting Monday," Stahelski remembers. To film the scene, the crew used a Spidercam system designed and operated by Laustsen and his team. Often employed to film professional sports, the Spidercam is suspended between four wires attached to different corners of the set and is remotely controlled by an operator with a joystick. It can tilt and pan at the same time, allowing it to move down closer to the actors as necessary -and when Wick steps into the apartment's entryway, the action properly begins.
  47. Five different takes were filmed when John finally slumps at the end. One take had Keanu Reeves simply slumping down, another had several bodyguards of The Table covering him in a blanket, while the take that John removes his mag pouch belt that eventually used in the finished film is the fourth take. This take was chosen it as Chad Stahelski observes, it symbolically represents the end of his journey from the first film.
  48. Was initially set to be released on the same day as The Matrix Resurrections (2021), which also stars Keanu Reeves, but moved to May 27, 2022 due to the COVID pandemic. In December 2021, the film was pushed back once again to March 24, 2023 to give more time for post-production and to spread out the time between feature films from the distributor. This also meant that Top Gun: Maverick (2022) would come to IMAX and premium screens before Wick.
  49. It is briefly mentioned "The Tarasovs" are seeking an audience with the High Table (presumably to discuss the John Wick situation). This faction is presumably headed by Abram Tarasov, Viggo's brother whom we last saw in John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017) making peace with Wick (and never even considering breaking that peace afterwards). With that in mind, The Tarasovs are probably trying to convince the High Table to follow Abram's lead and just leave Wick alone.
  50. During his very first scene, the Marquis makes it very clear to Winston that he doesn't believe in second chances, and that is why he is punishing Winston for something he has already receive a pardon for. This foreshadows the revelation later in the movie that he has ordered the death of the leader of the Ruska Roma for their previous assistance to John, despite the fact that they had already been punished for it and accepted back into the fold, and had nothing whatsoever to do with Wick's activities after that.
  51. In an interview with Director Chad Stahelski, he states that in an alternate post-credits scene, Akira actually managed to kill Caine. This was scrapped due it being "too much" and Stahelski preferred the cut to black.
  52. Chad Stahelski was asked about a showy wind-up punch that Caine throws during the film's first action sequence. The filmmaker gave Donnie Yen full credit for the move, which was a homage to one of Yen's favorite pugilists. "That's all Donnie, he's a huge Sugar Ray Leonard fan; he's put that in Flash Point (2007), and he's put that in a lot of his films. Funny thing, a lot of his hometown audiences don't really know who Sugar Ray Leonard was in China, so they don't get that cool reference."
  53. The film series opened with Helen's funeral, and this film ends with John's burial alongside her. John's first scene in the first film is of him anticipating his own death after a seemingly fatal injury from a duel, reflecting on his late wife before slumping over. His final scene in Chapter 4 plays out in much of the same way, though this time, John supposedly doesn't get back up.
  54. When Winston and the Bowery King discuss why the Marquis spared the former when he destroyed the New York Continental and personally executed Charon, Winston suggests that he wanted to set an example, as killing Winston would have turned him into a martyr for defying the High Table. John eventually accomplishes this when he dies in a way that takes the Marquis down with him in the final duel.
  55. Second time that Donnie Yen plays a blind master in martial arts after Chirrut Îmwe in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016).
  56. The piece of paper Winston provided John to present to the Bowery gatekeeper represents the symbol of "shelter" or "roof over head." The symbol itself might also indicate the place is armored (or armed) due to its cross. It was, and still is, common among elderly homeless across the world to mark and show areas where there can be shelter, good service for food, warmth, community, gambling, etc., for other traveling homeless unfamiliar with the area. This also translated into the tattooing community. Three dots forming a pyramid pattern can mean killer or, as in Sweden, it can mean hope, faith, and love. In this case, the symbol is pretty universal as "shelter."
  57. When playing five-card draw with Killa, Tracker, and Caine, John's hand is two black Aces and two black Eights, a Dead Man's Hand. Killa deliberately dealt this to John as a threat, but it's also foreshadowing.
  58. For the fight on the steps leading up to the Sacré-Coeur Basilica the plan was to make it a "whole John Wick metaphor," Chad Stahelski said in a phone interview, where the hero beats up people and then gets beaten up and has to start all over again.
  59. Caine is the only assassin who manages to complete what other assassins failed to do: (presumably) kill John Wick. However, as noted by Caine himself, if John had actually fired during the last round of their duel, Caine most likely would've been killed instead. Caine survived because John chose not to fire and to instead save his bullet for the Marquis Vincent de Gramont, his true enemy, when the Marquis tried to perform the coup de grâce himself.
  60. It was originally intended for this film to be produced as a Movie Multipack alongside Chapter 5, but for various reasons it was decided to just film Chapter 4 as a standalone project. The initial cut was 225 minutes, and it took extensive trimming to bring it down to the final length, a still-hefty 169 minutes.
  61. Even adjusting for inflation, it took John Wick: Chapter 4 just 2 days to surpass the entire domestic gross of the original, $55.24M to $54.43M ($43.08M before the adjustment). Sources: Box Office Mojo, CPI.
  62. Vincent Bouillon, a French stuntman who landed the "dream job" as Keanu Reeves's stunt double for the film, shared some of his favorite moments on set with the star that truly showcase his genuine kindness. During one intense fight scene, Keanu thought he accidentally hit one of the stuntmen. As Vincent recalled: "At some point on the (fight choreography) he had to punch someone. He didn't really touch the guy, really, didn't touch, but he felt like he touched him. He was like: 'I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!', he was so hard on himself, but the guy was just like: 'All good!'" Keanu "wants to protect all the guys around," a sentiment that was plain to see for Vincent, as he revealed that even during training the star would constantly go out of his way to ensure the stunt team had the best possible catering to keep them in tip-top shape, a necessity when their daily tasks include jumping off buildings and hand-to-hand combat. The stuntman continued: "He's amazing. Honestly, he's really so sweet but it's not just with stunt people, he's caring of everyone." He explained that every time the cast and crew landed in a new filming location, Keanu would make time to have a personal introduction. Vincent recalled some memorable moments of genuine kindness from the star. He continued: "(He would) gather all the stunt people just to introduce himself like: 'Hi, welcome on the movie, I'm Keanu Reeves. Thank you very much for being here today.' He doesn't HAVE to say that, but he does every time. He's very sweet. Lovely person." Once seven months of filming and training wrapped, Vincent took some time himself to reconnect with friends and family and get his "feet back on the ground" after living the "John Wick life." A year and a half later, he got a surprising text message out of the blue: "I knew one of the premieres was supposed to be in Paris and I got a message from Keanu: 'Hey Vincent, Keanu here. There is the premiere in Paris, I don't know if you want to join but I'd like to invite you.' This is just like 'What?!' he's incredible." Vincent did join Keanu at the Paris premiere, along with director Chad Stahelski and stunt choreographer Laurent Demianoff, who had a pivotal role in getting Vincent on the film. The stunt industry doesn't quite work in the same way as acting when it comes to getting work, as Vincent explained it's more reliant on "word of mouth" and impressive stunt reels than auditions, adding that only a few movies will actually audition stunt men at all. Vincent had previously worked with Laurent on a different film, and that experience got his name tossed in the ring when they were looking for Keanu's stunt double. He shared: "It was like an international casting because they tried to find someone who can fit with Keanu and fit the skills and all the things he has to do. A lot of different names, people from Spain, USA, and my name comes up."
  63. The idea for a fight set on these steps came to Chad Stahelski during a trip to Paris to scout shooting locations. The director, who has worked as a stuntman, was a big fan of Jean-Pierre Jeunet's "Amélie" and was eager to look at locations used in that film. That brought him to the Sacré-Coeur, which seemed like a good spot for the final showdown. But he wasn't impressed by the steps that directly face the structure. "It didn't look that terrifying to the stunt team I had with me at the time," he said. Then they walked around the left side of the church and saw the more daunting climb. "You never saw three stunt guys smile faster when we saw those stairs," Stahelski said. "Everybody instantly knew what we were going to do. There was no verbal communication. It was just big smiles." In addition to the Buster Keaton of it all, Stahelski had a spaghetti western in mind for the final alliance between Caine and Wick, who must team up to make it to the top before they can turn their guns on each other. The stunt coordinator Scott Rogers described Stahelski as like a "kid" thinking about what he could engineer at the location. "I'm thinking, mechanically, a guy's got to go down these steps," Rogers said. "He just turns, and goes, 'Yeah, that would be great.' But it's not something he wouldn't have done in his prime."
  64. Sakura (cherry blossoms) are used as a symbol of death in Japan in certain contexts. The Osaka Continental is rife with sakura trees and decorative motifs, indicating the slaughter about to take place. This is perhaps also a hint towards viewers as to John's ultimate fate.
  65. Director Chad Stahelski explained about the signature set piece. "We took every precaution we could, but we're smart enough to know things can go wrong," Stahelski told Rolling Stone regarding the Arc de Triomphe fight, which shifts from the titular character driving around the Arc's circle to battling henchmen in the circle while they evade incoming vehicles. "There isn't a time when he's driving that car that I'm not praying to the movie gods, 'Please let us get this one.' Then you get your cast members on the cars, and I've got to trust twenty or thirty of my top stunt drivers to not hit Keanu and Marko Zaror while they're running through traffic," he added, citing the pressure of directing multiple stunt drivers, stuntmen and trained dogs while at the same time supervising Keanu Reeves dodging a bus. Additionally, Stahelski revealed that, for practical reasons, background Arc de Triomphe shots were added to the fight - which actually took place at Berlin's Tegel Airport - in post-production. "During COVID we went to Paris, and because the whole city was shut down, we got all our aerials, lidar, and photography done on the practicals, and we rebuilt it digitally with the actual Arc, which took eight months of slowly putting it together," Stahelski continued. "The most we could've gotten if we shot at the actual Arc was four hours a night and it just wasn't enough."
  66. The film is called "John Wick Chapter 4: Baba Yaga" in some territories.
  67. Prep work for the shoot began in both Berlin and Paris before cameras rolled, but the team kept rehearsing and altering movements even while Chad Stahelski was filming on another part of the staircase. According to the stunt coordinator Stephen Dunlevy, the scene was "no more complex than any other fight" on a "John Wick" film but fight coordinator Scott Rogers added that the very act of scaling the stairs had its challenges. "There's probably more of a physical toll on it because you are fighting in the middle of steps," he said. Keanu Reeves had to ascend during each take, then reset the cinematic version of a StairMaster, and while charging up flights is exhausting, not to mention a great workout, Reeves had to do that while executing the choreography, which Marinas said is a mix of Wick's regular "gun fu," judo and jiu-jitsu. He also had to find what little cover there is, ducking behind bodies and trees. "We all know how hard it is just to walk up stairs when we don't want to," Marinas said, adding, "Just to think about how well Keanu, not John Wick, Keanu was able to do shooting upwards while stepping. It's hard enough to be a marksman on flat ground."
  68. Caine and Wick sharing a heartfelt conversation about death and redemption in a church lit almost entirely by candlelight is shot in a similar fashion to Ah Jong and Lee Ying doing the same in The Killer (1989) (fitting the franchise's stylistic debt to John Woo).
  69. The process for John to get back in with his "family" involves placing his forearm on a hot metal pot and letting the marks brand him (and the family head). It's remarkably similar to the Shaolin graduation process in Kung Fu (1972). Which was actually historically accurate, incidentally.
  70. During Caine's (Donnie Yen) first fight with the Continental soldiers he performs his signature chain punches from the Ip Man (2008) movie franchise.
  71. Keanu Reeves accidentally "cut a gentleman's head open" while making the movie.
  72. Chad Stahelski described a longer version of John Wick: Chapter 4, which runs for 225 minutes, as "screwed" because the expanded worldbuilding of its title character and the introduction of new characters made their screen time increased. Editor Nathan Orloff performed more substantial cuts, bringing the film down to 169 minutes. According to Stahelski, a number of scenes were removed including a section set in Berlin before John meets with the Ruska Roma family; several little gags at the Arc de Triomphe sequence; more of the Tracker's dog attack at the nightclub sequence and several logistic and funny gags of John alone. Also, there were also several exchanges between the Tracker and John that were considered too long and removed at Keanu Reeves's request.
  73. Despite all of the shooting, explosions and vehicle chases in the John Wick franchise, the police only appear on two occasions, both just one solitary officer who shows up at John's house first after a gun fight, then after an explosion. He is friendly with John and appears fully aware of John's previous occupation.
  74. Hiroyuki Sanada was initially courted to portray Zero in John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019) but dropped out in favor of appearing in Avengers: Endgame (2019).
  75. Shamier Anderson revealed that one of the characters and performances he looked to for inspiration was Heath Ledger's Joker from The Dark Knight (2008). Although Tracker and the Joker are quite different on the surface, they both clearly have very mysterious pasts, which is one thing that Anderson latched on to. He stated: "I looked at the Joker and studied a lot of what Ledger did, how exciting that character was; you just knew that guy had a robust past. Like, why did he get those scars? And, for me, why do I have this canine? Why do I have this knapsack? Why am I dressed like this? This guy's transient. He has pockets because he travels so much; he doesn't really change. That notebook you see in the film, I took that home and wrote a lot in there. That knapsack that he had on, I had a lot of personal items, like dog toys, dog treats, lighters engraved with my name. I just had to put my DNA on this. And I think it's translating, as people are infatuated with the Tracker."
  76. The notable scene featuring Wick wiping out thugs with a weapon discharging explosive rounds, making it one of the film's standout sequences, was nearly scrapped, as the scene without completed visual effects wasn't nearly as impressive. Luckily, Chad Stahelski fought for the scene to be completed, with its inclusion making for one of the most talked-about action scenes of the year. The director stated: "When you see the top shot without all the cool effects and you don't see any of the Dragon's Breath coming out with the muzzle flashes, what do you think is on the cutting table? Until pretty much the end, that was on the list that a lot of other people thought we should cut," Stahelski confirmed with Vulture. "It wasn't until we put in the temp visual effects that people go, 'Oh, f-ck. We didn't think it was going to be anything like that.' And I'm like, 'Good thing we didn't cut it.'" Stahelski himself detailed how the original approach to the sequence was really underwhelming, until he earned some inspiration from an unlikely source. "The staircase I knew I could own because it was a metaphor for Sisyphus rolling the boulder up the hill and being knocked down. We had that dialed in; we had the Arc de Triomphe dialed in," Stahelski confirmed. "The apartment fight wasn't clicking. It was just a fight in an apartment. And I'm like, 'How do we shift perspective?'" After admitting that the video game The Hong Kong Massacre (2019) provided the "special sauce" on how to bring the scene to life, Stahelski continued, "There was a visual there that shouldn't have made sense but did... It was part video game, part anime, part cinematic experience."
  77. The Marquis has a bladed weapons motif, from the fencers at his estate to using a knife against Mr. Nobody. When he requests blades for his duel with John, it suggests a hidden combat skill, but he was clearly planning on having master swordsman Caine fight in his place no matter what.
  78. Among John's opponents are the same kind of elite High Table soldiers who stormed the Continental at the climax of John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019), this time in regionally apt samurai armor and Menpo masks.
  79. Shimazu's fatal duel with Caine at the back exit of the Osaka Continental takes place in the shadow of a funerary bell.
  80. Rather fittingly, the film features similar set pieces, action beats, and homages to the previous three entries, albeit bigger and (arguably) improved upon. For example, Chapter 4 has a shootout in a Continental, a dog incorporated into the action, and a memorable sequence featuring a shotgun, all moments that also feature in John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019). In the case of John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017) nods, the fourth entry has an action set piece on a flight of stairs, a bounty being placed on John, someone describing a gun's specifics to John, and Winston referencing his line, "Rules... without them, we live with the animals." Finally, moments lifted from the first John Wick (2014) film include a shootout in a club, a scene with John and a priest who's actually a gangster (whereas in the first one John unexpectedly shoots the priest, in the fourth film the roles are amusingly reversed), and the same flashback of John and his late wife Helen kissing once again being shown.
  81. The climactic gun duel (appropriately enough) includes a few notes lifted from "The Ecstasy of Gold" from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966).
  82. Tyler Bates and Joel J. Richard return to compose the score for the film, after doing so for the previous three films. The soundtrack album will be released by Lakeshore Records on March 24, 2023.
  83. Every time The Tracker is prompted for a name, he only responds "Nobody". To fortify the allusion, The Tracker is shown to be a Quick Draw with a revolver much like the titular character.
  84. On one of the steps leading up to Charon's tomb is inscribed the phrase "Oderint Dum Metuant." A favorite saying of the Roman Emperor Caligula, it means "Let them hate, so long as they fear."
  85. Chad Stahelski: A guest at the Osaka Continental, nodding at John.
  86. The Marquis is shot in the head by John after arrogantly failing to realize John never fired his third round at Caine. Interestingly, this continues a pattern of John defeating the main antagonist with a headshot in the even-numbered entries of the series, and lethally stabbing the villains in the odd-numbered ones.
  87. To capture every detail of the shootout, every Wick reload, Dragon's Breath ember, and Tracker's dog racing across the furniture, as vividly as possible, Laustsen changed the cameras and lenses to "bigger format, bigger sensor" options from those he had used in the second and third John Wick films. "It's shot much wider and tighter. We took all the middle sizes out," Laustsen says. "We were thinking a lot about Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)," the Sergio Leone Spaghetti Western famous for its sweeping shots of Utah's Monument Valley and its close-ups of stars Charles Bronson and Henry Fonda. Finally, late in the German production schedule, it was time to go from rehearsal to reality. It was bumpy at first. "The camera guys have rehearsed, the stunt guys have kind of rehearsed, Keanu's kind of rehearsed, but we've never done it all together," Stahelski says. "So the first day was by far the roughest. But then you kind of get your rhythm and everybody comes in sync."
  88. De Gramont nominates a reluctant Caine to fight in his place in a duel using enhanced 20th century Thompson/Center Contenders in the sunrise scene at Sacré-Coeur. The rounds they are used with appear to be custom nickel plated or silver cast .45-70 Government cartridges.
  89. Caine carries a pocket watch with his daughter's photo that plays a melancholic tune in a fashion very reminiscent of Mortimer's watch and its tune in For a Few Dollars More (1965).
  90. Director Chad Stahelski spoke with USA Insider about how he thinks about having to expand the universe with each new installment as well as how he successfully tops himself every time. "I don't think it's much a conscious thought," he explained. "I don't write them that way, we don't try to design them that way." He previously noted that he prefers to think of the movies as love letters and homages to the things he loves. They're each kind of a hodgepodge of all the things he wishes existed in films but don't. For example, he likens the "John Wick" franchise to a present-day fantasy that simply isn't out there in any other form. "If I said name a present-day fantasy film, what would you say?" he asked. "So we're like, 'OK, well we're going to do our own version of that with our own mythology.' So now I have to keep expanding the world and the way to do it is not with longer action sequences or big explosions." While the movies do have longer action moments and massively violent spectacles, Stahelski explained that it's the complicated mythology of things like The Continental hotels and the many families and factions who sit under the mysterious High Table that hooked viewers and keeps people coming back for more. That's why they're poised for their own spin-offs. "I'm fascinated by the Japanese concept of the art of dying," he explained. "Only a samurai can know a samurai, only a warrior can know a warrior, only a John Wick can know a John Wick. So, no matter what side of the line you're on, these people all bond together and it was that bonding that we thought was really interesting." ''You read reviews of how ridiculous it is or how extreme or hyper-real. We know, we're very very self-aware," he said of the movies' escalating violence. "So when I throw somebody down not one, not two, not three, not four, not five but six sets of stairs, I'm letting everyone know, we're with you guys. We're in on the gag." He added: "That's why we don't shoot ten people, we shoot 400 people. We want you to know we're making fun of the genre, we're making fun of ourselves. Sit back, have a laugh. If you get some themes out of it and if you love some of the characters, sit back and enjoy!" The director concluded by noting that the people who work behind the scenes on the "John Wick" movies know exactly what they're making and take great pride in putting their character through punishment that's closer to a cartoon character's antics than a traditional action hero. "It's a Bugs Bunny cartoon, it's Wile E. Coyote, it's Buster Keaton, it's Harold Lloyd, it's Jackie Chan. It's everything we love about movies, and we try to share that with everybody to inspire or get a laugh out of," Stahelski said. "We also know what we're doing. You don't have to come into a 'John Wick' writer's room and go, 'you guys are crazy.' Yeah, we already know it. We're well aware."
  91. Shamier Anderson has said that, at least in his mind, the Tracker needs the bounty money to help his mother in some way.
  92. Killa's characterization evokes the depiction of Le Chiffre in the novel version of Casino Royale, who (unlike how the movie adaptation depicted the character as slim and suave) is an overweight gambler who uses an inhaler. Also fitting the Bond homage, Killa's bigotry towards John for being a Cossack brings to mind GoldenEye and Zukovsky's similar attitude towards Trevelyan.
  93. The Osaka Continental use bows and swords, in contrast to the rest of the assassin world. Whilst it could just be chalked up to rule of cool (and it certainly is that as well), there are a few pretty good reasons why they might use more traditional methods. Guns in Japan are notoriously hard to come by, heavily controlled and policed. It's entirely possible that most assassins and related High Table organizations that operate there just can't get them reliably, and the use of them is under such greater scrutiny that they can't use them on a regular basis as their weapon of choice. Thus, there's little point in training and becoming an expert with firearms when you so seldom are able to use them. Swords and bows, however, are much easier to acquire and use. Bulletproof suits have become standard issue amongst most of the High Table underworld, with the Elite Mooks of the High Table being nigh-invulnerable outside a few spots that are hard to properly exploit for anyone without John Wick's training and skill. However, a key weakness of such bulletproof material, demonstrated in previous films by John himself, is that they're not at all resistant to bladed weapons and piercing projectiles. Swords and arrows could, therefore, be part of the assassin world reacting to the introduction of the bulletproof suits, by turning to methods that will more reliably get past the protection they offer. The Osaka Continental is also run by Shimazu, a character who's defined by his old-fashioned sense of honor and obligation, which could also account for the similarly traditionalist choice of using swords and bows.
  94. On the 4K Blu-ray Steelbook edition of the film, if you look carefully inside the sleeve that goes over the steelbook, you will see John's name as well as his epitaph of 'Loving Husband' that is included on his grave at the end of the film.
  95. Based on an accidental leak by Shamier Anderson, the film was originally going to be subtitled Chapter 4: Hagakure, but the final release saw no subtitle.
  96. Aimée Kwan, the actress who portrays Mia, considered quitting acting before landing a role in this movie.
  97. The Bowery King theatrically rattling off the description of the gun he's giving Wick is reminiscent of The Sommelier doing the same in John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017), complete with similar usage of the deadly euphemism.
  98. At one point John uses a shotgun with "Dragon's Breath" ammunition. In the movie Constantine (2005) the title character (also played by Keanu Reeves) uses actual Dragon's Breath as a weapon.
  99. The introductory scene was filmed in a Parisian "sunken cathedral," La Défense Cathedral.
  100. Caine is a blind swordsman who wields a Sword Cane with a very specific Reverse Grip style, calling to mind the famous Zatoichi.
  101. Last words, epitaphs and other ways to eulogize the dead are discussed in conversation several times. Winston reflects on Ned Kelly's last words, "such is life," after the condemnation of the New York Continental, and repeats the phrase quite a few times throughout the film. Koji quotes one of the main creeds of Hagakure: "A good death comes after a good life." John asks Winston if he has any last words prior to the duel at sunrise. John, Winston and the Bowery King discuss gravestone epitaphs in the wake of Charon's death, with John deciding his should read "loving husband." He gets his wish by the end of the movie. "Rules" and "Consequences", repeated in particular by the Marquis and Winston in reference to the foothold the High Table has on the underworld. John uses the latter as his Pre-Mortem One-Liner shortly before executing the Marquis.
  102. Hagakure is a Japanese term and refers to The Book of the Samurai. The phrase can mean either "In the Shadow of Leaves" or "Hidden Leaves." The Book of the Samurai is a publication written by Yamamoto Tsunetomo, and started to gain popularity in the 1930s.
  103. A Mad Pig Customs modified Marlin Model 1894 with a Midwest Industries M-LOK handguard, Slate Black Industries rail panels, "slate stop" and XS sight top rail is used by Mr. Nobody. The rifle is a takedown model specifically modified for the movie and the Tracker carries it disassembled and reassembles it when pulling it out of his DEVCORE Plate Carrier Backpack styled to look like a hiking ruck backpack. Its muzzle device is a SilencerCo ASR 3-port muzzle brake and he attaches a suppressor to the rifle at multiple points in the film. A total of 13 duplicate rifles were specially made by Mad Pig Customs for the film. The takedown mechanism is a custom project option, and not offered as a factory option by Marlin.
  104. Another example of the Marquis's short-sightedness in accepting the duel with John Wick is the fact that both of them have to decide the rules of engagement before the duel with the Harbinger as the arbitrator first (of which the Marquis would have the knowledge of), and there's a possibility that he and John would have to duel right then and there rather than at sunrise if John had the upper hand when deciding the time of the duel. Even if the Marquis had assigned Caine to be his champion just as he would originally, John would fight that duel in a much better shape and much more likely to win it and survives to kill the Marquis later after the duel is over.
  105. Much like the Adjudicator before him, the Harbinger appears to be one of at least several with the title, as Charon refers to him as "a Harbinger" when informing Winston of his arrival, similar to how the Adjudicator identified themself as "an Adjudicator." His title presumably refers to how his job is to be the bearer of bad news for the High Table and to oversee duels, as in a Harbinger of Death.
  106. The movie features EDM tracks from widely-known artists in the genre, like Gesaffelstein and Justice. Most of the artists featured in the soundtrack are French, and therefore fit with the majority of the third act of the movie taking place in Paris, France.
  107. Dragon's breath rounds for shotguns against a single man, even someone like John Wick, may seem like overkill, but considering how prevalent body armor is in the assassin world, setting someone aflame would be an effective countermeasure.
  108. There is a post credits scene showing Caine, now free of the High Table, holding a bouquet of flowers heading towards his daughter when Akira appears with a knife in her hands, presumably to avenge her father, before the screen fades to black.
  109. Lionsgate initially scheduled the film for a May 21, 2021 release date, which would have put it in a Dueling Works situation with none other than an installment of Keanu Reeves's other iconic franchise, The Matrix Resurrections (2021) (which was moved to December). The film's release was then delayed to May 27, 2022 due to the pandemic delaying production, and was delayed again to March 24, 2023 to avoid going up against Top Gun: Maverick (2022).
  110. From the moment the Marquis looks at the giant clock until sunrise (6.03 a.m), exactly 20 minutes of action elapsed in real time. Given of the time, this suggests that the Sacre-Couer finale takes place either on May 19th or July 17th.
  111. The High Table is compared to the Hydra that is slain by Heracles, except that John Wick lacks his version of the cauterizing flame to deal with the replacement heads. It comes in the form of the duel. At the end of this story, just like Heracles, he dies after completing his labor (the duel) and becomes a deity among the criminal underworld. And Heracles' final labor was bringing Cerberus, the three-headed dog.
  112. Chidi is never referred to by his name in John Wick: Chapter 4. His name is only revealed in the credits.
  113. Several French crew, including the Location Manager, described filming in Paris as "hell"; due to a two-week delay filming in Germany, Chad Stahelski had less time to scout Paris and would improvise and change locations last minute.
  114. Given the sheer numbers and resources at their disposal, the Marquis, and by extension the High Table, making the decision to bring in Caine, a retired assassin, might seem odd. However, quite simply, they were desperate. John had already ripped his way through hundreds of their men, and the High Table no longer had faith that any of their existing resources could stop him, so they had to bring in Caine. Not only was John tearing them apart physically, he'd utterly broken their belief in their own power.
  115. The PATH doubles as the Osaka Metro in the brief scene we see of it.
  116. Donnie Yen's character Caine is loosely inspired in the also fictional Zatoichi. Created in 1948 in an essay written by Kan Shimozawa, he is an itinerant blind swordsman from the Edo period (1830s-1840s), who (as Caine in the movie) uses his cane as sword. He was played by Shintarô Katsu in 26 movies from 1962 to 1989, in addition of the TV series Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman (1974) until 1979. Takeshi Kitano played him in The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi (2003), and TriStar Pictures made an American version of the character in Blind Fury (1989) starring Rutger Hauer as Nick Parker, a Vietnam vet blind after an explosion during the war who was rescued and trained as sword-fighter by a Vietnamite local tribe.
  117. According to Chad Stahelski and Keanu Reeves, Abdullah II King Of Jordan is a John Wick fan, and lent the crew a helicopter to fly to an otherwise inaccessible location to film the sunrise shot.
  118. The DJ playing during the concert is 'Le Castle Vania'. He provided 3 songs for the club scene in the first movie. The song he's playing during this scene called "John Wick Mode"
  119. A Smith & Wesson M&P with a fiber optic front sight is used by the Marquis.
  120. According to producer Basil Iwanyk, Keanu Reeves wanted John Wick to be killed off in this movie, "After the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th movie, making these films is so exhausting and it destroys Keanu, physically and emotionally. By the end, he's always like, 'I can't do this again,' and we agree with him. The guy is just a shell of himself because he just goes off and goes for it. He was like, 'I wanna be definitively killed at the end of this movie.' We were like, 'You know, we'll leave a 10% little opening.'"
  121. Jason Mantzoukas, who played the Tick Tock Man in John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019), jokingly announced on Conan (2010) that the title of the fourth film would be "John Wick Chapter 4: Wick and the Tick". He said the plot would revolve around John Wick and the Tick Tock Man getting into "high jinks", and at the end of the film he would kill John Wick and the fifth film would be "Tick Tock Man Chronicles".
  122. Caine uses a custom SIG-Sauer P365 SAS (evidenced by the lack of sights) with a barrel weight/compensator that resembles the Strike Industries Mass Driver as his sidearm.
  123. Most of the weapons used in the film were chosen from stock and custom weapon design firms and were already in existence before filming.
  124. The dreaded yet comical scene of John staring at the 222 steps he needed to climb several times over during the last part is a dead ringer for Po's similar hatred for stairs in Kung Fu Panda (2008).
  125. At the start of the film, Wick uses a Glock 34 customized with the Taran Tactical Innovations Combat Master Package. He later receives a Taran Tactical Innovations Pit Viper from the Bowery King, who describes it as a "9mm Pit Viper, 21-round capacity magazine with a built-in compensator for virtually no muzzle flip. Fiber optic front sight, ambidextrous safeties, flared magwell for faster reloads, 2-pound extreme trigger."
  126. Fire, especially candle flame, represents death. The film's cold open ends with the Bowery King blowing out a lit match, just before John sets out to kill the Elder. Candles are lit by characters to remember the dead, John lighting one for Helen in the church the night before the duel and Winston lighting one for Charon at his grave. The penultimate battle heavily features shotguns loaded with incendiary Dragon's Breath rounds, which set fire to its victims upon impact.
  127. Wick uses a Taran Tactical Innovations Dracarys Gen-12, which is a Genesis Arms Gen-12 with various modifications including BCM furniture and a KeyMod handguard. It is used by some French assassins, loaded with Dragon's Breath rounds, before John commandeers one for himself.
  128. Filming was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
  129. The writing of the film was placed in the hands of Shay Hatten and Michael Finch. In an interview with Finch by Looper magazine, he stated that there were several previous films that influenced his writing, stating: "A lot of this begins with Chad being inspired by other films, other genres of film, be it Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), or be it Bullitt (1968) or Dirty Harry (1971) or a Zatoichi film."
  130. Caine says to John Wick at the ending duel "See you in the next life" as Bodhi (Patrick Swayze) says this to Johnny Utah in Point Break (1991). Keanu Reeves played Johnny Utah.
  131. Winston echoes his dialogue from the first film, mentioning he warned John about dipping a "pinky" back into the waters of the underworld. This has added effect because he's doing so while they're boating along a literal "under-world" (subterranean) river.
  132. Likely as an apology for Hiroyuki Sanada needing to drop out of John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019), he is cast as a new character in this film.
  133. Cherry blossoms: The "Foreshadowing" entry implies that their presence foreshadows John's death at the end. This film is also Chapter 4, and there is a "Four Means Death" superstition in Japan, based on how both "four" and "death" are pronounced as "shi" (e.g. hotels won't have a room number four). With all this, the cherry blossoms may signify "ephemerality."
  134. The second half of the fight in Killa's nightclub once again sees a character played by Keanu Reeves fist fighting several mooks in suits under torrential, pouring water, lit by harsh green lighting with the action being slowed down to highlight the ferocity of each physical blow, seemingly channeling the ultimate battle of The Matrix Revolutions (2003).
  135. Both Donnie Yen and Scott Adkins were both in Ip Man 4: The Finale (2019) three years earlier.
  136. While driving about in a black muscle car, there's a rousing cover of the Rolling Stones' Paint it Black. The song has been used in numerous shows and movies, with standouts being Full Metal Jacket (1987) and Ramin Djawadi immortalizing it in Westworld (2016). More recently, it was heavily featured in Black Adam (2022).
  137. Has a short post-credits scene.
  138. In the opening sequence, John briefly goes back to Morocco to hunt down the Elder (who's the successor to the previous Elder seen in John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019)), riding a horse and chasing down three of the Elder's men. The way the scene is shot with sunrise in the distance, with four housemen gradually showing up against the backdrop of a sunrise, most likely intends to evoke the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
  139. The oner is set to "LED Spirals" and "Shots Fired," the Red Circle fight's music from the first film.
  140. Wick at one point rides a Aprilia Tuono 660 motorcycle.
  141. During the third act, some of the mooks have tactical, modernized, Thompson SMGs.
  142. First John Wick film that Daniel Bernhardt has not worked on (he starred in the first and performed stunts on the first, second and third).
  143. Just like the original, this film was released on Friday the 24th. The first film was released in theaters on October 24, 2014, while this film was released on March 24, 2023.
  144. Clancy Brown and Ian McShane have both had roles in SpongeBob SquarePants (1999) as Mr. Krabs and the Viking Gordon, respectively. Keanu Reeves has also appeared in the franchise, in The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run (2020), the third film based on the series, as Sage. All three share scenes in this film.
  145. Keanu Reeves and Hiroyuki Sanada both appeared in 47 Ronin (2013).
  146. Ian McShane's appearance as Winston in this film comes 61 years after his first film appearance in Young and Willing (1962), a remarkably long career in feature films by any standard.
  147. The discussion of epitaphs between John, Winston and the Bowery King suggests that one of them will soon need one.
  148. Near the start of the film, Caine is shown handling an opulent gold watch from the jeweler Carl F. Bucherer with an image portrait of his daughter inside of the gold case closure lid.
  149. The full name of Sacré-Coeur, the duel site chosen by John Wick, is Basilique du Sacré-Coeur de Montmartre. In English: Basilica of the Sacred Heart of the Mount of the Martyr (the hill is named for St. Denis, patron saint of Paris, who died there). In sacrificing himself to kill the Marquis, who wanted to kill "the idea of John Wick", Wick dies a martyr's death.
  150. Producer Basil Iwanyk compared Chad Stahelski and Keanu Reeves to John Lennon and Sir Paul McCartney, "We've all become such good friends and we all like each other so much and we're all so tickled by the success of these movies, critically and commercially that we all think to ourselves, 'Okay, how do we get the band back together, in a way that merits a good story in the next evolution of John.' At this point, it's Keanu and Chad getting together to figure out what that story is. The way I describe it is that they're like Paul McCartney and John Lennon, and I'm Ringo. They'll call me and let me know, 'All right, we're showing up. Here's where you show up, and here's what our story is.'"
  151. In a 2023 interview on the Roger Ebert website, Chad Stahelski spoke about meaning of the tracking shot with Ian McShane in the Louvre: "...that's a director ego shot. I'm not gonna lie to you, it's 'I'm shooting in the Louvre', you know? But after the tension of the last scene, that whole scene in the Louvre is about Winston rebalancing power. It's Winston's comeback, it's the power shift dynamic. And I want you to feel power, his character and with me, to have the confidence to let that play out. To show you he's entering into the world of Gods, he's coming into this world of deities, and he's coming in to shift the balance. But yeah in the back of my head it's the 'F*** you, I'm shooting in the Louvre. Look how cool that is.'"
  152. John has two major conversations on an underground train that passes through a dark section, and a boat in an underground river. Both obviously hint at the story of John Wick approaching its end.
  153. During one of the fight sequences the radio DJ plays a cover version of "Paint it Black". The original version of the song by The Rolling Stones is played at the end of The Devil's Advocate (1997), which also stars Keanu Reeves.
  154. Donnie Yen's character's name is Caine. all throughout the movie he's trying to kill john wick. at the end, he calls him 'my brother' . john eventually dies from Caine's bullet. this is a reference to the biblical characters Cain and Abel.
  155. Lance Reddick, Hiroyuki Sanada and Clancy Brown previously starred together in Lost (2004).
  156. Surpassed its predecessor John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019) as Lionsgate's highest-grossing release domestically outside Twilight and Hunger Games. Worldwide, it's the second highest-grossing after La La Land (2016).
  157. During a conversation between John and Kouji at the rootop of Osaka Continental, Kanji(Chinese character) Neon sign is visible. It says Sho-Shi-kan-tetsu, which can be translated as "carrying out one's original intention".
  158. In the Kitchen of Osaka continental, Noren(curtain) with Japanese written on it is visible. it says"Mei ha shoku ni ari", which can be translated as "Life is maintained through meal.".
  159. The National Art Center was used as an Exterior shot of Osaka Continental. The Building in real life is actually not located in Roppongi, Tokyo, not in Osaka.
  160. (at around 1 min 50 seconds) A woman DJ showing only her lips that announces John Wick's bounty says the word Boppers. This is a nod to the movie The Warriors (1979), where another woman DJ went announcing the travel of the protagonists across New York City trying to back home.
  161. Charon dies early in the film.
  162. As mentioned earlier, while the movie did indeed have beautifully and well-done, Oscar-worthy original music, the movie did a lot of recycling of music from the previous movies. Aside from the Red Circle music which is shown at one point in the movie, during the beginning of the showdown between Koji and the Spaniard henchman and his men, the music used from "John Wick 2" when John fights Santino's right hands, is also used, demonstrating that recycling (and to a default using edited footage) can be an acclaim-worthy thing. UPN, which was more popular than The WB, started that trend. It was also used in syndicated shows like "DS9." Whether it was done in this movie for nostalgia or not, remains to be seen.
  163. Keanu Reeves and Lawrence Fishburne appeared together in The Matrix.

Genre

Action,Crime,Thriller

Cast

Keanu Reeves profile
Keanu Reeves
as John Wick
Laurence Fishburne profile
Laurence Fishburne
as Bowery King
George Georgiou profile
George Georgiou
as The Elder
Lance Reddick profile
Lance Reddick
as Charon
Clancy Brown profile
Clancy Brown
as Harbinger
Ian McShane profile
Ian McShane
as Winston
Marko Zaror profile
Marko Zaror
as Chidi
Bill Skarsgård profile
Bill Skarsgård
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Marco Gomes

I'm Marco, love to post about new film, movies, premires in london, actors and everything relate with movie release

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