Another John Wick movie? Yeah, we're thinking he's back. But where's he back from? Here's
the full timeline of John Wick's life as far as we know it so far. Warning:
spoilers ahead for John Wick: Chapter 4.
Not much is known about John Wick's early life,
but we do learn in the series' third movie that "John Wick" is not his real name. When he's
desperate for assistance after being declared excommunicado, he goes to see the Director,
and during their meeting John's real name and heritage is revealed to the audience.
"Speaking in Belarusian."
John's status as the last of his particular tribe,
is enough to ensure him safe passage from New York City to Casablanca.
Beyond that, the only thing we can reliably say about John Wick's early life is that at some
point he may have entered the United States Marine Corps, which we can guess because of
the tattoo across his upper back. It reads "Fortis Fortuna Adiuvat," which is Latin for
"Fortune Favors the Bold," the motto of the 3rd Marine Regiment stationed in Kaneohe Bay,
Hawaii (which itself is likely a nod to Reeves' own Hawaiian heritage).
The John Wick films don't tell us exactly when or how John became a killer for hire,
but they do suggest certain things — namely that Wick's chief mentor may have been Marcus,
his friend and fellow assassin who takes a contract to kill him in the first film. It's quite
possible they served in the military together, and that Marcus took up the hitman life first,
paving the way for his slightly younger friend to eventually join up. However their bond developed,
Marcus seems to have taught John quite a few of his tricks.
What we do know for sure is that John was a natural hitman, and quickly developed a reputation
that earned him the nickname "Baba Yaga." He was the boogeyman for the most dangerous people in
the world, and he could kill with tremendous efficiency in just about any way he had to.
"I once saw him kill three men in a bar with a pencil."
At some point during his career as a sought after and feared assassin,
John did some kind of favor for his friend Sofia,
which called for her to offer him a blood oath marker which he could later cash in.
At some point in his career as an assassin, Wick came under the employ of Viggo Tarasov,
a mob boss with big ambitions. Then, though the life he'd chosen was supposed to be permanent,
Wick approached Tarasov and "asked to leave" because he was in love with a woman.
"So I made a deal with him. I gave him an impossible task."
Tarasov does not go into specifics in the films, but Wick's legendary "Impossible Task"
was apparently a series of assassinations, and "the bodies he buried that day" paved
the way for Tarasov and his family to rise up through the ranks of organized crime.
Having accomplished his impossible task, Wick was allowed to retire from his life
as a contract killer, and Tarasov became one of the most powerful men in the crime world.
During the "Impossible Task," though, Wick also sought the help of his friend
Santino D'Antonio, who secured a blood oath marker from Wick for his trouble.
"What the hell were you thinking giving a marker to a man like Santino D'Antonio?"
"It was the only way I could get out."
After the Impossible Task was completed, Wick left the world of crime, going so far
as to bury his guns and remaining gold under concrete in his basement. He married Helen,
and the two settled into a happy life together. That happiness, unfortunately, was not to last.
At some point in the course of their marriage, Helen fell ill. The illness was terminal,
and she died shortly before the events of the first John Wick film. The films
rarely elaborate on Helen or her illness, but we know that her death greatly impacted John,
to the point that he's willing to stay alive if only to remember her.
To ease his pain, at some point before her death she arranged for
a puppy to be delivered to his doorstep to help him move on.
The main events of the first John Wick film begin just days after Helen's death,
when several years have apparently passed since John's retirement as an assassin. We
can infer this because Viggo Tarasov's young son, Iosef seems to be the only person in the
criminal underworld who doesn't know who John is. Iosef and his friends decide,
after seeing Wick's classic Ford Mustang, to stage a home invasion and steal the car. They also kill
Wick's new puppy, Daisy, in the process... and make the mistake of leaving Wick alive.
"It's not what you did, son. It's who you did it to."
When Iosef takes the Mustang to a chop shop to have its VIN changed,
word begins to spread in the underworld of the sin he's just committed, while John digs up his
guns and gold and prepares to go on a quest for vengeance. Viggo Tarasov berates his son
for what he's done, but still prepares to go to war with Wick, even taking out a contract
to have Wick killed in the process. Some of the most talented assassins in the world try and
fail to stop Wick as he burns through the Tarasov family, eventually killing both Iosef and Viggo.
Eventually, the vendetta ends at the chop shop of Viggo's brother Abram where Wick retrieves
his car and makes peace. He returns home and buries his guns once more.
John returns home with a new, unnamed dog and tries to move on with his life,
but his peace is quickly interrupted by Santino, who arrives to cash in on the marker John had
given him years before in exchange for Santino's assistance with the Impossible Task. John
initially rejects Santino's demand that he honor the marker, and Santino retaliates by destroying
John's home. John journeys to New York City once again and, after encouragement from Winston,
the owner of New York's Continental, he agrees to meet with Santino.
Santino wants to hire John to assassinate his sister Gianna, who is about to ascend
to a seat at the High Table, a council of crime lords that rules over the whole underworld. With
his sister out of the way, Santino could claim the High Table seat for himself,
but he can't kill her, because that would spark a war among assassins.
"That's why I need you."
John reluctantly agrees and travels to Italy to kill Gianna. When he arrives and meets Gianna in
secret during her coronation festivities, we learn that the two are old friends,
though we don't learn much about their history. Knowing that John is bound by
a blood oath to carry out the hit, Gianna slits her wrists in an effort to die on
her own terms. As she loses consciousness in a bath, John puts a bullet in her head.
Even as he was honoring the Marker by killing Gianna, John was under surveillance
from Santino's chief bodyguard, Ares. In the catacombs beneath Gianna's compound,
Santino's henchmen attack John. Santino always intended to double cross his old
friend and tie up all possible loose ends connected to his coup against his sister.
John fights his way out and returns to New York City, where he learns that Santino has
taken out a $7 million contract against him as a public show of vengeance for his sister's death.
Gianna's loyal bodyguard, Cassian attempts to cash in on this contract and avenge her, but John
defeats him in combat and ultimately seeks refuge with the Bowery King.
"Somebody please get this man a gun."
He gives him a gun with seven bullets which he can use to seek vengeance against Santino.
John fights his way through Santino's guards, but Santino himself seeks refuge in the Continental,
where one of the chief rules is that no blood can be spilled on company grounds.
John breaks this cardinal rule and shoots Santino in the head in the hotel's lounge,
forcing Winston to declare him "excommunicado." In honor of their friendship, Winston grants
John one hour to flee before a contract on his life takes effect. John's response is simple.
"Tell them all. Whoever comes, whoever it is, I'll kill them."
Even before his hour-long grace period is up, other assassins are determined to kill
John Wick. Seeking refuge, John retrieves a crucifix and one last
marker from a dummy book in the New York Public Library, and visits the Director.
"You are bound! And I am owed."
She "tears his ticket" and brands him with the crucifix, signifying
that all of his favors have been used up. This is enough to get him to Casablanca,
where he finds Sofia and uses the marker she gave him to ask for a favor.
That favor — after first battling the assassin Berrada over one of Sofia's
dogs — is ultimately a journey to find the Elder, the only person left who can
restore his status with the High Table and allow him to continue living his life. John
explains that he wants to keep living so that he can carry on the memory of his wife Helen,
and the Elder offers him a deal. If John will show his loyalty by killing Winston and continuing
to serve the High Table as an assassin, he can go on living. John agrees to this deal,
severing his own ring finger and giving his wedding ring to the Elder as a sign of devotion.
While John is overseas attempting to restore his status with the High Table,
an Adjudicator arrives in New York to dispatch justice on behalf of the High
Table for the wrongs done in John Wick: Chapter 2. To carry this out, the Adjudicator recruits Zero,
a loyal assassin, and they begin their work. For his role in giving John a one-hour head start,
the Adjudicator tells Winston that he has seven days to get his affairs in order.
"At such time, your successor will be named. There are rules, they are the only things that separate us"
"From the animals."
The Adjudicator then goes to the Director and, in retribution for her role in letting John escape,
has Zero plunge a sword through both of her hands. They then visit the Bowery
King. As punishment for providing the gun and seven bullets John used to kill Santino
on Continental grounds, the Adjudicator orders Zero to give the Bowery King seven
cuts with his sword. The Bowery King is severely wounded, but survives.
John returns to New York City after his meeting with the Elder, but his restoration to service
with the High Table will not be complete until he kills Winston. With Zero's men in pursuit, both
John and Winston decide to deny their orders from the Table. Winston refuses to step down as manager
of the Continental, and John refuses to kill his old friend. In response, the Adjudicator declares
the New York Continental to be deconsecrated, and a squad of High Table enforcers arrive to
kill Winston, John, and everyone loyal to them, including the Continental's concierge, Charon.
Though they initially struggle to fight off the SWAT-like enforcers with their bulletproof armor,
John and Charon defeat the squad with armor piercing rounds. John then goes on to battle
Zero and his men, narrowly walking away victorious. Winston, meanwhile,
uses his defeat of the High Table enforcers as leverage to parley with the Adjudicator,
who decides to frame the defense of the Continental as a "show of strength" from
Winston. To prove his loyalty to the High Table, Winston shoots John, who falls off the hotel roof.
The Adjudicator agrees to reconsecrate the Continental and restore Winston to power, but
when they look for John's body in the alley, he's gone. The Adjudicator makes it clear that John
remains a threat to both Winston and to the High Table, which Winston is all too aware of himself.
John, severely wounded but alive, is transported to the Bowery King by his servants. The King,
still suffering from his sword wounds and struggling to walk,
makes it clear that he does not accept the punishment of the High Table. The
Bowery King declares that he's ready to wage war against the Table for their attempt to
remove him from his territory, and asks John if he's also ready to fight back.
"Yeah."
We don't know exactly how much time passes between "Chapter 3"
and "Chapter 4" of the "John Wick" saga, but as "Chapter 4" picks up,
enough time has passed that both John and the Bowery King have recovered from their wounds,
and John declares himself ready to take the fight to the High Table once again.
John's out for revenge after the Table betrayed him at the end of "Chapter
3," and the Elder tells him that no matter what he does at this point,
he's marked for death. Killing the Elder will not make a difference, but John does it anyway.
Following John's murder of the Elder, High Table member Marquis Vincent de
Gramont gathers the signatures of the other Table members and applies his vast resources
to taking out Wick's allies one by one. He starts by murdering Charon and detonating a
bomb inside the Continental. The Marquis also tasks a bounty hunter calling himself Nobody
and John's old friend and retired assassin Caine with locating and killing John Wick.
Meanwhile, John hides out at the Osaka Continental in Japan, under the care of another old ally,
Koji Shimazu and his daughter Akira. The Marquis' chief lieutenant arrives with his men and informs
Koji that the Osaka hotel will be deconsecrated, but Koji is not about to go down without a fight.
Koji and his men engage the High Table's forces in battle, and as John battles
through the assassins, he learns that Caine has arrived with orders to put him down,
lest Caine's own daughter be harmed by the Table. In order to buy John some time,
Koji engages Caine in a duel while John himself heads out the back of the building,
fighting through more High Table killers along the way. Meanwhile at the Continental,
Caine reluctantly kills Koji, and tells Akira that he will be waiting should she ever want revenge.
Soon after that fight, Caine is able to track John's whereabouts in the bowels of the Osaka
Continental. They begin a duel, only to be interrupted by Nobody, who tries to shoot
John and creates an opening for him to flee. On a train, John reunites with Akira, who promises
him that if he doesn't kill Caine, she will. They part ways, and John heads to New York.
John reunites with Winston at Charon's gravesite and learns that his old friend is
hungry for revenge against the Marquis. While John views the situation as an endless fight,
Winston has a better idea -- challenge the Marquis to a single-combat duel in the tradition of the
High Table's old laws. There's just one problem -- John is no longer a member of
a Table-sanctioned family, having "torn his ticket" with the Ruska Roma in "Chapter 3."
"I don't sit at the table."
"Your family does."
Hoping to earn his way back into the Ruska Roma fold, John travels to Berlin,
where current family leader Katia orders him to kill a man called Killa,
who murdered the previous head of the Ruska Roma. Though it's a struggle, John fights his
way through Killa's club and finally escapes back to the Ruska Roma with proof of Killa's
death. Katia keeps her promise and brands him with the Ruska Roma crest, thus allowing him
to issue a challenge to the Marquis. The Marquis reluctantly accepts the challenge, but there is
one twist -- rather than fight John himself, the Marquis names Caine his stand-in for the fight.
Once both the Marquis and John are in Paris, the duel is set to take
place the following day at sunrise at the Sacré-Cœur under the watchful eye of the
Harbinger. In an effort to subvert this, the Marquis increases the bounty on John's head,
ensuring that every killer in Paris will spend the entire night before the duel trying to snuff
him out. If John doesn't make it to the church by sunrise, he will forfeit the duel and be executed.
Luckily for John, the Bowery King arrives in Paris just in time to give him a new
weapon and a new Kevlar-infused suit. John then fights his way toward the church with dozens
of assassins on his trail. While fighting his way through a house, John saves Nobody's dog,
thus winning Nobody over to his side. But even that's not the end of the battle. John
has to ascend more than 200 steps to get to the church and falls all the way down
them until Caine and Nobody intervene, setting the stage for the showdown with the Marquis.
"Just have fun out there."
The terms of the duel are simple -- John and Caine are each given a single shot pistol,
told to walk out 30 paces, and then fire. If they're both still capable of continuing,
they'll move forward 10 more paces and fire again, and again, until one of them goes down.
Eventually, John and Caine move in for the 10-pace faceoff, both bleeding heavily. On the third shot,
Caine strikes John in the torso, knocking him down. The Marquis steps in and takes the pistol,
but John reveals that he never fired his weapon a third time and shoots the Marquis in the head,
winning the duel. John is freed from all High Table obligations,
as are Caine and his daughter, while Winston is reinstated as head of the New York Continental.
John says his goodbyes to Caine, then makes his way down to the steps of the church, still
bleeding profusely. There, with images of his wife in his head, he says her name, and seemingly dies.
Winston and the Bowery King return to New York, where they resume their roles within the city's
criminal network. They visit John's grave, right next to his wife's, and pay their respects,
while Winston implies a connection to the Ruska Roma and calls John "my son" before leaving.
Though it's clear that John is meant to appear dead,
"Chapter 4" leaves certain aspects of his passing somewhat ambiguous. Whatever the case,
John Wick is well and truly gone ... at least for now.
"You're going to die." "Maybe not."
In a post-credits scene, however, the film reveals that some conflicts remain ongoing. While
Caine walks around a city listening to his daughter play the violin for a crowd
of onlookers on the street, Akira approaches with a box cutter in hand, determined to make
good on her promise to kill Caine if John did not. Both of their fates are left ambiguous.
While we don't yet know for sure if we'll see a continuation of the "John Wick" story,
we do know that the franchise lives on in the form of two more upcoming projects. A prequel
series titled "The Continental," set at the hotel of the same name,
is headed to Peacock soon, while a spinoff movie titled "Ballerina," co-starring Keanu
Reeves as John Wick, is slated to hit theaters in the coming years.