John Wick: Chapter 4 is finally here, and we've got some questions: Who is the Harbinger?
What's the deal with Winston?
And could this really be the end for everyone's favorite assassin?
The shocking end of John Wick: Chapter 3 saw Winston shoot John Wick right off the roof
of the Continental.
When John sees Winston again in Chapter 4, however, he doesn't seem to have a problem
with him.
So here's a question: when Winston shot John, was he really shooting to kill?
Winston knows the High Table doesn't pull its punches when it comes to punishment, so
it tracks that he really did try to kill John to meet the Table's demands.
Of course, it also tracks that Winston knows his way around a bullet-proof suit — he's
also more than aware that John can take a hit and fall off a building without going
down for the count.
"Very well, gentlemen.
The Continental will now be reconsecrated."
There is also a clear bond between the two men, and Winston even seems paternal towards
John at times.
You can't help but think that he shot John Wick to save his life rather than end it,
High Table be damned.
For all of Winston's talk about rules being what keeps a man separate from the animals,
he can't help being a man of instinct himself.
While he defers to top dogs like the Adjudicator, Winston stops at nothing to protect the rest
of his pack, even if he isn't always successful.
John Wick sets out to bring down the High Table in John Wick: Chapter 4, but he doesn't
start in New York.
Instead, he heads to Morocco to chase down the new Elder.
But why does John kill this Elder?
In the third installment of the John Wick franchise, John spends an eternity walking
through the desert to find the Elder.
John's hope is that this mysterious figure will reinstate him to the assassin's guild.
The Elder demands John's ring finger in exchange for removing the price tag on his head.
In Chapter 4, John is back in the desert, ready to kill this second Elder for not being
able to give him back the wedding ring the old Elder took.
The new Elder clearly doesn't know how to read the room and tells John he'll only know
peace when he's dead.
This leads to John killing him and sends the High Table into punishment hyperdrive.
While this kill shot sets off the events of the movie, it also speaks to the series' tragic
arc of revenge.
The Elder has been replaced by a new Elder.
The Marquis de Gramont will be replaced by a new Marquis.
No matter how many Hydra heads or henchmen John Wick takes down, new ones will spring
back up in their place, ready for a new fight with the same old John Wick.
The John Wick films are stuffed with symbolism pulled from Greek and Roman mythology.
It's a little weird, then, that Winston recalls the mythic last words of a legendary Australian
outlaw in John Wick's last ride.
Winston tells Charon that, after hearing he was to be executed, the infamous Australian
bandit Ned Kelly said:
"Such is life."
Clearly, these words mean something to Winston.
To him, Ned's acceptance of his fate was noble yet unsettling.
Winston isn't ready to accept the fate handed to him and his beloved Continental from the
High Table, however, nor does he accept that John Wick should go down without a fight.
Charon then utters the same phrase to Winston before accepting his own fate.
Even if audiences are shocked to see the Marquis finish Charon off, this moment makes Winston
realize that the High Table will always take more than he can give.
When the Harbinger rolls up to the NYC Continental, he is clearly ready to get down to business.
But why is he missing a finger?
And why does that missing finger's nub suspiciously twin with John Wick's?
Did the Harbinger try and fail to get out of the High Table game, just like John Wick?
Is there some other reason he needed to cut off a finger to prove his loyalty to the Table?
The Harbinger doesn't seem to take much pleasure in enforcing the rules, unlike the smugly
evil Marquis.
However, he doesn't back down from his duties or try to get creative with the rules, unlike
Winston himself.
So what's the story?
This man's backstory is one of the biggest unanswered questions in John Wick: Chapter 4.
The Harbinger's secret is all in his name.
"Harbinger" is another word for a warning of what is to come.
Basically, he is John Wick's Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come made flesh, here to show John
what he could become if he can't escape the High Table.
The Harbinger was likely once an assassin just like John Wick, one who, judging from
his demeanor and tell-tale finger, lived through a similar story — yet suffered a very different fate.
Obsessed with maintaining the supremacy of the High Table, the villainous Marquis de
Gramont agrees to John Wick's terms for an "old rules" duel and then quickly begins to cheat.
He ups the bounty on John Wick's head and sends his own assassins after him.
The Marquis obviously has endless riches at his disposal, but what's his story?
Why does he have so much power and so little integrity?
The Marquis de Gramont represents how the High Table's absolute power leads to absolute corruption.
He worships the etiquette and ceremony of the High Table.
He is happy to exact the pounds of flesh and pints of blood from those underneath him when
they break the rules, but when it's his time to face the music, he chooses a proxy to fight
for him — and still tries to cheat his way to victory.
The Marquis is both a delightfully hateable villain and a cautionary tale in the Wickverse.
His power is orderly but ultimately corrupt, superficial, and hollow.
He demonstrates the dangers of standing on ceremony instead of principal and favoring
excessive shows of power over actual skill.
And that, in the end, is his downfall.
"They gave you my name."
"Yeah."
In Chapter 4, the blind assassin Caine is pressed into service to the High Table by
the Marquis de Gramont.
Caine will do anything to keep his daughter alive, well, and playing violin in the public
square — even if that means killing old friend John Wick.
So how does he actually manage this?
Okay, so this is less a statement of confusion than it is an appreciation of Caine's creative
and relentless fighting style.
For example, the slice of Caine's cane against glass and steel is a compelling indicator
of the pain he's about to rain down on his opponents.
Meanwhile, Caine's heightened sense of hearing helps him locate John Wick using the crunching
glass in the gallery scene at the Osaka Continental.
However, one of Caine's most unique techniques involves the use of cleverly placed doorbell sensors.
At first, it's puzzling to see Caine slap a bunch of electronic rectangles on various
surfaces in the Osaka Continental's dark kitchen.
It almost looks like he's setting bomb charges, but he isn't — he's just setting traps.
When the High Table stormtroopers invade the kitchen, they set off the doorbell sensors
and give Caine a precise audible target.
What a badass.
After John Wick kills the Elder, he seeks refuge at Osaka's Continental.
In the neon-lit night, John Wick seeks help from yet another stern but loving assassin
hotel manager, Shimazu Koji.
John Wick: Chapter 4 implies that John, Shimazu, and Caine are old assassin friends.
So why does Caine attack John Wick while Shimazu risks everything to protect him?
The answer is simple: For Shimazu, friendship is a matter of the heart — and when you're
in his heart, you're family.
Caine draws the line between friend and family to protect his daughter.
His daughter means more to him than his friendship with John Wick, and he refuses to defy the
High Table because he knows they will kill her if he doesn't kill John Wick.
Shimazu, meanwhile, knows the Table will come for him and his daughter Akira merely for
harboring John Wick in their hotel.
Shimazu fights just as hard for John Wick as he does for his daughter, but his choice
to be loyal to his loved ones ultimately costs him his life.
Then again, considering the movie's post-credits scene, it's possible that Caine's choices
will do the same for him.
There are two things the Marquis loves more than anything in this world: sparkly suits
and sending messages.
The Marquis sends plenty of the latter after John Wick defies the High Table, including
killing Pyotr, leader of the Ruska Roma, to punish the crime family for John's actions.
Pyotr might not ring any bells with viewers.
Although he is an off-camera adoptive father figure to John from back in his Jardani Jovanovich
days, the Director is the Ruska Roma character that audiences are more likely to remember.
Still, the death of Pyotr has left a bad taste in the Ruska Roma family's mouth, and John's
adoptive sister Katia won't help John by sponsoring his duel with the Marquis unless he kills
an enemy of hers: Killa Harkan.
"It looks like we have ourselves a genuine conundrum."
Killa is the baddie who pulled the trigger on Pyotr.
If John kills this boss, he gets branded back into the Roma family for a seat at the Table
and a sanctioned shot at freedom by way of dueling the Marquis.
Mr. Nobody is one of the franchise's mysterious newcomers, appearing out of nowhere as a fully-fledged
adversary to Mr. Wick, but is this man with a plan John Wick's friend or foe?
At first, Mr. Nobody appears to be yet another long-lost friend of John, emerging from the
shadows to pledge his sword and attack dog to the cause.
He fires a shot that saves John's life, but it isn't because he shares Shimazu's brotherly
love for John.
Nobody is trying to drive the price up on John's head, not save it from rolling.
While you can totally imagine a universe in which Mr. Nobody and John buddy up — or
even one where Nobody finds a fistful of reasons to take up John's fight against the High Table
— by the end of the film, Nobody is pursuing a $40 million payday.
That would pay for a whole lot of cargo pants, sure, but why does he really need that much?
Well, Shamier Anderson recently told Inverse it isn't Nobody that needs the cash at all.
He said:
"Not to give away too much, but it was for his mother."
John Wick: Chapter 4 seems to kill off John Wick for good.
After taking hit after hit and stair fall after stair fall, John seems to meet his end
on the steps of Sacré-Coeur.
He slumps to his side in the sunrise, enjoying one last vision of the wife he lost.
Later, the Bowery King and Winston visit John's grave.
He's buried next to his wife, and even though the two visitors are a little lighthearted
with their farewells, John's stone is inscribed as he requested.
So is this a clever set-up for an impossible beginning in John Wick: Chapter 5, or is it
really the end?
The John Wick movies are such stunning spectacles that it's easy to forget how much effort,
time, and talent they take to make.
Four years passed between the release of John Wick: Chapter 3 and its follow-up film, and
Keanu Reeves and Chad Stahelski have plenty on their plates aside from the world of Wick.
The collaborators have been working together in one way or another since their Matrix days.
Who knows what their creative partnership might yield if this is the end of John Wick's road?
Although it seems like the character will make an appearance in the Ballerina spin-off
movie, it really does seem like everyone's favorite dog-avenging, grief-stricken husband
might be gone for good.
Such is life.