An actor's tribute to two towering kings of cool, a running joke through the franchise,
and oh so many references. The John Wick franchise? Yeah, we're thinking it's back.
The "John Wick" series has always had a penchant for paying tribute to other movies,
and "Chapter 4" continues this trend.
First up is "Lawrence of Arabia," and the 1962 epic's memorable shot hailed by some as the
greatest single cut of all time, jumping from Peter O'Toole blowing out a match to the desert
horizon at sunrise. "Chapter 4" replicates the transition by having the Bowery King
blow out a match before cutting to the desert horizon where John is engaged in a horse chase.
Later on, there is a reference to Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill," with Caine telling
Akira he will be waiting for her to take revenge after he kills her father. It's the
same message The Bride delivers to Vernita Green's daughter after killing her mother.
"If you still feel raw about it…
I'll be waiting."
What's more, Caine's character, a blind assassin who fights primarily with a sword,
is in the tradition of the Japanese "Zatoichi:
The Blind Swordsman" series, which ran for 25 films with its mainline entries alone,
not to mention other films and television that has incorporated the character.
There is also subtle homage to Walter Hill's wild 1979 classic "The Warriors;" both movies
have a radio DJ tracking the heroes as they work their way through a city of enemies.
Both films shoot the DJ in extreme close-ups, rendering them both intimate and anonymous,
with only a mouth and microphone visible. Tarantino similarly cribbed the shot in
"Pulp Fiction" when Mia Wallace talked to Vincent Vega through her house intercom.
John Wick takes plenty of damage, but he also seems nearly indestructible throughout
the series. While he can come out on top in almost every scenario, he has always had one
significant weakness: Cars. More specifically, cars crashing into him from his right side.
On the commentary track for "John Wick: Chapter 2," director Chad Stahelski and
star Keanu Reeves joke about how John's only weakness is getting hit by cars on
his right side. He somehow never sees or hears them coming from this blindspot,
despite otherwise having seemingly supernatural spatial awareness.
Getting struck by a car from the left is how John winds up captured and bound
to a chair back in the first movie. After it happened a few other times,
Stahelski noticed the trend. He has since turned it into a running joke throughout
the series. This continues in "Chapter 4", as John is struck by multiple cars on his right
side in the span of just a few minutes, all in the Paris portion of the film.
If you're in the know, it's a funny callback. For John,
he really needs to get better at looking both ways.
The so-called "Elder" is one of the more mysterious figures in the entire "John
Wick" universe. First introduced in "John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum," John made an
arduous trek through the desert just to reach him. At different points, The Elder has been
described as being the head of the High Table, even perhaps above the High Table altogether.
"I seek a meeting with the one who sits above the table"
He calls the shots, makes the rules for the entire assassin underworld, and holds a position
of extreme importance — which makes it extra noteworthy that he was replaced between movies.
In "Chapter 3," The Elder was played by Saïd Taghmaoui, veteran of films like "La
Haine" and "Wonder Woman." For "Chapter 4," the role was recast with George Georgiou.
With this recasting, The Elder's presence has gone from minor supporting character in "Chapter
3" to an even smaller presence in "Chapter 4"; the character only has a couple of lines before John
kills him. The appearance is so brief, in fact, that many may not even realize the recasting.
"Chapter 4" does actually include a quick line of dialogue about how the current Elder replaced
the former one, but there is no clear reason for why this changing of the guard occurred.
Skilled martial artist and action movie veteran Scott Adkins plays the role of
Killa in "John Wick: Chapter 4." But unless you are a hardcore action movie fan and regularly
view Adkins' frequent direct-to-video movies, you might not recognize him.
Killa is John's assassination target in Berlin: An obese,
card-dealing nightclub gangster with asthma. John needs to kill him in order to secure the
support of the Ruska Roma and use their crest to challenge the Marquis to a duel.
For the role, the fit Adkins was hidden behind extensive prosthetics and even adopts a German
accent. Another eye-catching design element of Killa is his gold teeth, perhaps a reference
to the gold-toothed character Atkins played in 2019's "Avengement." Getting even more granular,
this is the second time that Adkins has been at odds with Donnie Yen in a fourth
installment of an iconic action series. He first fought Yen's main character in "Ip Man 4:
The Finale" in 2019, playing the main villain, a racist American Army sergeant.
Perhaps the most iconic scene from the original "John Wick" film came via an
extended action sequence in the Red Circle nightclub. "Chapter 4" brings the beat back.
The first part of that sequence took place in the bathhouse below the club, scored by the
Kaleida song "Think." Once the shootout progressed upstairs to the dance floor, the soundtrack kicked
into high gear, as the Le Castle Vania song "LED Spirals" took over. The song was named after the
swirling black and white imagery displayed on the nightclub's LED screen and composed for the film.
Three movies later, the same needle drop gets a reprise in "John Wick: Chapter 4."
In a soundtrack filled with memorable songs, "LED Spirals" once again stands out, pulling off the
impressive feat of being the only track to become a musical highlight of multiple "John Wick" films.
The big, show-stopping action sequence at the end of "John Wick: Chapter 4" involves the
titular character's deadly ascent up a massive staircase. John needs to meet the Marquis at La
Basilique du Sacré Cœur de Montmartre at sunrise for a duel. But to get there, he first needs to
fight his way past dozens of armed thugs and climb the 222 steps to the top of the hill.
That staircase is real, and it really does consist of 222 steps and leads directly to the Sacré-Cœur
Basilica, just as it does in the movie. The staircase is big enough to be considered its
own street in the Montmartre district of Paris and is known as Rue Foyatier. The location is a
popular tourist attraction, a frequent subject of acclaimed photographers, and has been featured in
other movies including the 1984 French film "Les Ripoux"." Parts of the steps and the Sacré-Cœur
Basilica were also home to an important sequence in "Amelie," and a matching staircase on the
opposite side of the hill was used for the opening scene of the John Frankeheimer flick "Ronin."
In real life, there are cable cars that go up and down the hill right
beside the staircase. These were, of course, hidden from view in the film, as John's ascent
would have been made significantly easier if he could have just hailed a cable car.
"John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum" was the first movie in the series to introduce the
heavily-armored soldiers who work for the High Table. These enemies
were not just highly skilled and equipped with high-powered weaponry,
but they were also practically bulletproof, requiring John to get creative to take them out.
"We may have to consider our choices carefully."
"Why?" "Much has changed during your time away."
These heavily-armored High Table soldiers make a welcome return in "Chapter 4." This time, however,
they show up in Osaka, Japan and their bulletproof armor has now been altered slightly to better
suit the Japanese setting. They now more closely resemble the armor worn by Samurai warriors back
in the days of feudal Japan, particularly in the new design of their face masks.
While the NYC High Table soldiers wore blank ballistic helmets, the masks of their
Osaka counterparts more closely resemble Menpo — traditional, intricate half-masks worn by Samurai.
If "John Wick: Chapter 4" feels distinctly different from the previous films in a big way,
it might be because it was written by different people. From the director,
to the producers, to the stars, the same creative team has remained largely consistent
throughout the series. The one major creative fluctuation, however, has been Derek Kolstad.
Kolstad was the original screenwriter of the first movie, back when it was just
a spec script titled "Scorn." He was the lone screenwriter on "John Wick:
Chapter 2" as well. When "Chapter 3 — Parabellum" rolled around, Kolstad remained involved,
but other writers began getting their hands dirty as well. He retained sole
"story by" credit but was now just one of four screenwriters contributing to the screenplay.
By "Chapter 4," Kolstad was out of the picture entirely. Kolstad has been open about the fact
that it wasn't his decision to leave the series, saying the studio simply didn't
invite him back. Kolstad has kept busy in the meantime, however, with the "John
Wick"-flavored action movie "Nobody," as a member of the writing team on "The Falcon
and the Winter Soldier," and as co-creator of the Quibi/Roku series "Die Hart." The extent of his
involvement in the upcoming "The Continental" spin-off TV series remains to be seen.
Long before he made the transition to English-language films, Donnie
Yen was a legend within the Hong Kong action film industry. He has always called Bruce Lee his idol,
and he saw an opportunity to take influence from and pay tribute to Lee in "John Wick:
Chapter 4." As mentioned in the official Lionsgate production notes for "Chapter
4," Yen chose Caine's wardrobe himself. He based the look on an outfit worn by Lee,
out of character, in an old interview: A black and white suit and shirt with a skinny black tie.
Since he had already played a blind fighter in "Rogue One," Yen was on the lookout for ways
to separate the two characters and help them stand apart. Plenty of distinguishing detail
was in the script and choreography already, but Yen chose to play up Caine's personality as a
cross between Bruce Lee and American actor Steve McQueen, who had a reputation as the King of Cool.
"You believe what you want. You work your side of the street and I'll work mine."
The Lee influence can be seen in the wardrobe, along with some of Caine's mannerisms. The
McQueen influence can also be seen in Caine's relaxed, nonchalant attitude, even as bullets
are flying and swords are swinging. As Caine takes his time to calmly eat and drink in the
middle of an action sequence, it's hard not to be reminded of those two legendary tough guys.
The massive set piece at Rue Foyatier serves as the action climax of "John Wick:
Chapter 4" before the story comes to a close with the slower-paced duel at La Basilique
du Sacré Cœur between John and Caine. After John painstakingly fights to the top of the
222-step staircase, he's greeted with a kick that sends him tumbling all the way back down.
The fall is so long and drawn out that it becomes hilarious, even as you feel
bad for John's pain and struggle. Die-hard fans of the "John Wick" series will recall
that this is actually the second time the series has used a prolonged fall down a huge
staircase for a joke in the middle of a big action sequence. The previous iteration was
back in "Chapter 2," during the portion of the film set in Italy. As John and Cassian fight,
they repeatedly tumble down several flights of steps in comically exaggerated fashion,
finally winding up in a courtyard below where they continue to duke it out. For a series as kinetic
as "John Wick," it feels fitting for its version of a callback to be based on a physical stunt.