John Wick Franchise: Good to Evil Script by: James Centers
Action movies are always a lot of fun; but few have become as popular as the John Wick
franchises. This is especially shown with the recent release of John Wick:
Chapter 4, the fourth film in the Keanu Reeves-led franchise
that has done incredibly well at the box office. With Chapter 4 currently trending,
we thought it would be fun to give the series the Good-to-Evil treatment. In this world of hitmen,
criminals and assassins; who are the most righteous and who are truly scum?
I’m Caleb with WickedBinge and this is The John Wick Franchise: Good to Evil.
Before we get down to business let’s give out the major spoiler warning for the Fourth Film,
we will be discussing most of the events from the film as well as the ending,
so if you haven’t seen the fourth film and are interested, go check that out first.
As usual, we’ll be starting with out most noble character and working our
way down to the most evil. This first category of characters are The Good.
Earning our gold medal of good is Helen Wick. Helen is a major character in the franchise
despite her extremely limited screen time. Helen is John’s deceased wife who died due
to a disease and was the one thing keeping John unconnected from his assassin life. Helen kept
John calm and happy, but after her death she still continued to be a helpful force for him,
gifting him Daisy and telling him to stay strong and hopeful. Helen pops up once in
every movie and she is always the one helping John work through what he needs to do. Helen
is unequivocally good and while her death is a kicking off point, she deserves this spot.
Taking the silver medal of good is Charon. Charon is the concierge for the New York Continental
hotel and a good friend to both Winston and John Wick. Charon takes his job very seriously
as he tries to handle any grievances that come about, such as when John had his fight with Ms.
Perkins. He handles every situation with grace and makes sure that John is patched up apporirately,
that those in the hotel are very happy in their positions and is willing to die for the people he
cares about. In the fourth film he goes with Winston when his hotel is decommissioned and
ends up killed, happily accepting his fate for Winston. Charon is an all around good person,
and the only reason he’s worse than Helen is because he does help criminals on the regular.
Bagging the bronze medal of good is The Bowery King. The Bowery King is a homeless man who runs
The Soup Kitchen, a homeless shelter that doubles as a place where assassins can come together
staffed by homeless people and vagrants. Despite crossing paths with Wick in the past and getting
severely harmed, King works with Wick happily. He supplies him with the gun needed to kill Santino
and in the fourth film gives John the bulletproof suit he wears at the beginning of the film. Now,
it’s heavily implied that prior to the series he was less of a good guy since Wick cut him twice,
but that isn’t the case nowadays. King isn’t a bad guy all things considered, hence his ranking.
Ranking next on our list is our first John Wick 4 character,
Koji Shimazu. Koji was the manager of the Osaka Contininetal and a friend of John Wick from his
past. During the events of the fourth film, despite Wick being excommunicado he allows
Wick to stick around despite the illegality. Koji cares deeply about his friends and says
that friends are one of the most important things in the world. Koji goes as far as to
die for John Wick and his daughter, fighting against Caine so that John can escape. His
death proves just how good of a guy he really was, hence why he ranks so high.
In a very similar boat is Sofia Al-Azwar. Sofia is the manager of the Casablanca Continental and
an old friend of John Wick. However, unlike Koji she initially refuses to help John,
not until she is reminded about the marker that the two of them shared and therefore
she essentially owed him. Despite this, Sofia helps to the best of her abilities,
taking John to the desert to find The Elder and even helping him deal with
her old boss Berrada. Sofia also does what she does for her daughter, and while she
initially refuses to help John she helps him in the end, hence why she ranks below Koji.
The man himself, John Wick AKA ”Baba Yaga” Is up next on our list. John Wick is an assassin and
ex-military man who is the main protagonist of the series. He was an orphan in the Soviet Union who
was adopted and trained by the Ruska Roma crime family into becoming the eventual emissary of
death and Baba Yaga we know today. When his wife died, she left behind a young puppy named Daisy
for him, and after being assaulted, a man named Iosef killed Daisy, the last piece of hope that
John had. The destruction of his hope ended up causing him to turn back to his life of
assassination. John then went on a cascade of revenge, killing anyone in his path, including
those from his past who intend to abuse him and the high table who excommunicates him and tries
to kill him. By the end of the franchise he ends up getting away from being under the High Table’s
thumb, only to die shortly after, finally at peace. John Wick is a sad man with a bad past, but
Wick deserves his spot because in all reality he was forced into this life and tried to leave it.
Rounding out the good section of our list Winston Scott. The final continental manager
we’ll be talking about, Winston runs the New York Continental. Winston has been an
on-and-off ally of Wick’s since the first film where he has fought by the man’s side with very
few complaints. He does shoot Wick off the roof of the Continental in the third film but this
is because he was essentially forced to. In the fourth film he acts as Wick’s second, being the
one who would die if Wick loses his duel with the Marquis. Winston is a good friend and ally
but considering he did shoot John in the chest, he’s definitely the least good of the heroes.
In a franchise about murder, assassins and moral gray,
we have to talk about the middle section, this is The Gray Area
Starting off the gray area of our list is The Director. The Director is the leader of the
Ruska Roma and the adopted mother of John Wick. During the events of the third film,
The Director is harassed by The Adjudicator and stabbed through the hands as recompence. Now,
she seems to be a relatively good person as she happily adopted and trained Wick,
but she still leads a pretty substantial crime family and sits at the relatively
villainous High Table, hence why she has to sit in the gray.
Moving further down our list, we have Caine. Caine is a blind assassin who is an old friend
of Wick’s and a man who wanted to get away from the High Table. Caine initially refuses to hunt
down Wick and it isn’t until he’s threatened that he ends up hunting down Wick. Caine gives
out more chances than any man should, as even after stabbing Shimazu he gives him
the chance to leave. At the end of the film he helps Wick up the stairs for the duel and
inadvertently kills him during it. Caine is a good guy doing what he does for his daughter,
luckily he does the right thing at every opportunity he isn’t being threatened to kill.
In a similar vein we have Cassian. Cassian was the bodyguard of Gianna D’Antonio and
an old acquaintance of John Wick. Cassian took his job very seriously and tries to kill John
for the death of Gianna. Cassian does follow the rules of the Continental and stops fighting Wick
when asked, but does hunt him down once his bounty is increased. Cassian is a man of honor and does
what he thinks is the right thing at every chance, especially when it comes to protecting his ward.
Moving onto a set of characters from the third film we have The Shinobi Twins. The
Shinobi Twins are a pair of assassins who work for The High Table and more
specifically the Adjudicator. The two of them leave a trail of bodies behind them,
and whilst they do this, the fight they have with John proves a lot of interesting things.
The Twins continually let John get back up to fight especially considering how tired
the fight had made him. They claim to be big fans of his work and want a duel of honor,
and while they are swiftly defeated, at the very least they’re on the better side of assassins.
From student to Sensei, up next we have Zero. Zero is an assassin for the High Table and the
man who trained the Shinobi Twins. Zero also runs a sushi restaurant and is implied to have
been assassinating people for quite a while. Zero runs an army of assassins and hunts down
Wick on the orders of the Adjudicator. Zero is a man who cares deeply for fair fights and
honor. He also claims to be a fan of Wick’s and he is a dealer of death, upon his death,
he says it was an honor to fight him. Zero doesn’t rank any lower because like a lot of other people,
he was just doing his job, although he seemed to enjoy it more than most.
Up next on our list is another bodyguard, none other than Ares. Ares is a bodyguard to Santino
D’Antonio and a mute woman who protects him with her life. Now, Ares, like Cassian long before her,
cares deeply for her ward and lays her life down to protect them. However, this means she’s leading
an army of assassins to hunt down one of the most feared men in the world. Seeing as she
communicates purely through sign language, she seems not to despise Wick much as she tells him
“be seeing you” a reference to the first film. However, considering who exactly she guards, she
can’t rank much higher on our list, seeing as she happily kills those in her way when necessary.
Rounding out the Gray Area of our list is Tracker/Mr. Nobody. Mr. Nobody is an
antagonist in the fourth film, someone who tracks down people for a living and then
assumedly kills them. Through the movie he makes it clear he only cares for the money,
as he won’t kill Wick until the man’s bounty is at an “acceptable” level. This leads to him even
helping the man on and off. However, he does attempt to murder him more than once and only
really stops because Wick saved his dog, and he truly appreciated that. Tracker is also a
very secretive man as he never reveals his name, which in all honesty is probably a good thing.
But, now we have to talk about the bad guys,
this is the worst of the worst, these are The Bad to Evil.
Starting off our bad section is the man who started it all,
Iosef Tarasov). Iosef is a mafia member and the son of the infamous Viggo Tarasov,
he starts the franchise off by making a real ass of himself, beating up and stealing from
John Wick only to subsequently kill his dog and start John’s infamous quest for revenge. Iosef
is a snivelly little coward who continually proves that he doesn’t deserve to have power,
and he gets his comeuppance in a rather satisfying way. Iosef may have given us one of the most
interesting and cool protagonists of all time, but Iosef himself is little more than a roadblock.
Jumping all the way to the third film, up next we have The Adjudicator. The Adjudicator is a
woman who works for the High Table, working to make sure those who are Excommunicado are not
helped by anyone who may have helped them prior. She hires Zero, has him stab Wick’s
adopted mother through the hands and gives the Bowery King seven slashes across his body. She
even tries to make Wick’s friends betray him and continually calls Winston a liar and a crook.
The Adjudicator seems to be working mostly on orders and seems to hold no ill will to Wick,
and claims to be someone who cares deeply for rules and regulations. She manages to escape
the bottom three simply because she doesn’t have as much of a problem with Wick as them.
Bagging the brutal bronze medal of bad is Viggo Tarasov. Viggo is the main antagonist of the
first film and a brutal mob boss. He Seems to care deeply for his son…up until the point that
Iosef pisses off the Baba Yaga. Viggo initially tries to calm Wick and solve things peacefully,
which is a first and only for the series, and that’s one of the reasons he doesn’t fall that
far on the list. However, after Wick refuses, he instantly goes to protect his son in every
way we can think possible. Viggo sends armies after Wick, hides Iosef in a place
he wouldn’t be found and even kills his own subordinates to try and kill the man. Viggo
is a seemingly good dad but he’s a terrible person and a very good start to the series.
Now real quick, before we get to our last entries… If you’d
like some more John Wick content - check out our brand new video:
Sentencing John Wick Villains for Their Crimes over on CinemaSentencing. We’ll be doing lot of
sentencing videos for other live action movies and TV shows too. So check it out - link below!
Sneaking from the first film to the sinister sequel this script stems from and snatching the
silver medal of evil is The Marquis Vincent De Gramont. The Marquis is the main antagonist of
the fourth film where he proves to be a massive threat while also being a whiny brat. Vincent
cares about rules and consequences and decides to hunt down Wick as part of this. However,
he acts as a puppetmaster, hiring others to do his dirty wick and a coward,
not even dueling Wick himself, sicing Caine on him instead. He then steps in at the last
moment to try and kill Wick and grab the glory but is quickly dispatched. The Marquis cares
little for the people under him and with full control of the High Table he tries everything
in his power to try and escape any consequences he may face, despite his supposed moral basis.
However, grabbing our gold medal of evil is the grim grandmaster Santino D’Antonio. Santino is
the main antagonist of the second film and an person who hired Wick long in the past in
hopes to use him later. It seems initially in the past he was a good guy to some as he helps
Wick with his “impossible task” but it quickly proves he isn’t. Santino blows up Wick’s home,
the last refuge he had of his wife, simply because he denied Santino’s request. Essentially forces
Wick to kill his sister so he can usurp her spot and abuses his power pretty much
daily. Santino is also a snake because as soon as Wick succeeds in his task,
Santino sends several slimy soldiers to execute the man. Wick manages to survive,
and when Santino realizes this, he quickly hides in a Continental where no business can be done
and plans to hide there indefinitely. Santino deserves the bottom spot because everything he
does is evil, he doesn’t have a single solitary good bone in his whole body.
But let us know in the comment section if you agree with our ranking. And tell us what we
should cover next. Remember to hit that notification bell and binge our Good to
Evil playlist. Where we break down the morality of the characters in your favorite cartoons,
shows and movies. But most importantly, stay wicked.