John Wick (2014)

John Wick (2014)

John Wick is a 2014 American neo-noir action thriller film directed by Chad Stahelski and David Leitch. Starring Keanu Reeves, Michael Nyqvist, Alfie Allen, Adrianne Palicki, Bridget Moynahan, Dean Winters, Ian McShane, John Leguizamo, and Willem Dafoe. The film stars Reeves as John Wick, a retired hitman seeking vengeance for the brutal theft of his vintage car and the killing of his puppy, a gift from his recently deceased wife. Stahelski and Leitch, both of 87Eleven Productions, directed the film together, though Leitch was uncredited.

The film was written by Derek Kolstad, who completed the screenplay in 2012 and further developed it for Thunder Road Pictures. The film was produced by Basil Iwanyk of Thunder Road Pictures, Leitch, Eva Longoria and Michael Witherill. It marks Stahelski and Leitch's directorial debut as a team after multiple separate credits as second unit directors and stunt coordinators. They previously worked with Reeves as stunt doubles on The Matrix trilogy.

Stahelski and Leitch's approach to action scenes drew upon their admiration for anime and martial arts films, and the film's use of fight choreographers and gun fu techniques from Hong Kong action cinema was additionally influential in the development of the piece. The film also pays homage to works such as John Woo's The Killer, Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Cercle Rouge and Le Samouraï, John Boorman's Point Blank, and the spaghetti western subgenre of Western films. The film was critically acclaimed by critics, who praised the performances, visuals and action sequences, and called it a welcome return to form for Reeves.

Storyline
John Wick is a mob hit man who, upon falling in love, quits. 5 years later, his wife dies and to make sure he's not alone she arranges for a dog to be brought to him after her death. Later, some men wanting his car break in and beat him up and kill his dog. When he recovers, he sets to get the ones who killed his dog. He learns that the leader is the son of his former employer. And the man wanting to protect his son, tries to take care of Wick but he's still as good as he was.

John Wick (Keanu Reeves), who has just lost his wife Helen (Bridget Moynahan) to an undisclosed illness, receives a gift from her posthumously in the form of a Beagle puppy named Daisy, along with a letter from her saying she arranged for him to have Daisy to help him cope with her death. Initially indifferent to Daisy, he eventually connects to the puppy as they spend the day driving around in his vintage '69 Mustang. At a gas station, he encounters a trio of Russian gang members, whose leader Iosef (Alfie Allen) insists on buying his car. John refuses to sell and greets Iosef's snide remark in Russian with a retort in the same language before leaving. The three follow John to his home, break in at night, and attack John, who is knocked unconscious just after seeing Daisy mortally wounded.

Iosef takes the Mustang to a chop shop run by Aurelio (John Leguizamo), a business associate, to have the VIN changed. However, when Iosef tells Aurelio how he acquired the car, Aurelio punches Iosef in the face and throws him out of his shop. John subsequently visits Aurelio, who tells him Iosef is the son of Viggo Tarasov (Michael Nyqvist)—the head of the Russian crime syndicate in New York—and also loans him a Chevelle SS 396 to replace the Mustang. Viggo, after being advised by Aurelio what Iosef had done, beats and berates Iosef for his actions. He then explains to Iosef who John Wick is: his former best assassin, nicknamed Baba Yaga ("the Boogeyman"), who earned a release from Viggo's employment (allowing John to get married) by killing all of Viggo's competitors in a single day, giving Viggo control of his syndicate.

Viggo, wanting to protect his son, attempts to talk John out of seeking retribution; John silently refuses. Viggo then sends a twelve-man hit squad to John's house to kill him; John kills all of them within minutes and pays an associate to dispose of the bodies. Viggo puts a $2 million bounty on John and personally offers the contract to Marcus (Willem Dafoe), a veteran assassin and John's mentor, who accepts. John subsequently seeks refuge at the Continental, a hotel that exclusively caters to assassins, with a rule that no business can be conducted on premises. When Viggo learns of this, he doubles the bounty for those willing to break the rules to kill John there. John learns from Winston (Ian McShane), the owner of the Continental, that Viggo has Iosef protected at his nightclub, the Red Circle.

John enters the Red Circle, where he kills Iosef's friend Victor and most of the security staff. Before he can kill Iosef, Viggo's henchman Kirill waylays John. John escapes back to the Continental to have his wounds treated. Ms. Perkins (Adrianne Palicki), an assassin and former acquaintance of John's, attempts to sneak into John's room at the Continental and kill him, but Marcus—who had been monitoring John's room with a sniper rifle—awakens John by shooting the pillow next to his head. After a brutal hand-to-hand fight, John subdues Ms. Perkins and forces her to reveal the location of Viggo's front. John leaves Ms. Perkins with Harry (Clarke Peters), a fellow assassin, to await her punishment for breaking the hotel rules. However, Ms. Perkins slips out of her restraints and kills Harry.

John travels to Little Russia, where he finds the church which serves as Viggo's front, kills all the guards, and incinerates Viggo's cache of money and blackmail material. When Viggo's team arrives at the church, John ambushes them, but Kirill incapacitates John by striking him with a Chevrolet Tahoe. At a safe house, Viggo taunts John for thinking he could leave his old life behind. He leaves John to be tortured and killed by Kirill and another henchman, but Marcus kills the other henchman, allowing John to break free and kill Kirill. John intercepts Viggo's car and forces him to reveal Iosef's location and also pull the bounty, which Viggo reluctantly does. John travels to the safe house where Iosef is hiding and kills all of the guards before killing Iosef.

Ms. Perkins sees that John and Marcus have been in contact and tells Viggo, who in retaliation has Marcus tortured and killed in his home. Viggo contacts John and informs him of Marcus' death, hoping to lure John to Marcus' home, where Ms. Perkins is waiting to ambush him. However, Ms. Perkins is called to a secret meeting with Winston, who revokes her membership to the Continental for breaking the rules and has her swiftly executed in a crossfire by four assassins. Winston calls John to inform him of a helicopter coming to the harbor to transport Viggo away.

John races to the harbor and executes Viggo's remaining henchmen before engaging Viggo in a fistfight on the dock. Viggo pulls a knife on John and as they fight, John forces it into his already wounded abdomen, startling Viggo. John then breaks Viggo's arm, takes Viggo's knife, and stabs him on the side of the neck. John leaves Viggo to die. John, wounded but still able-bodied, stops at a waterfront animal clinic where he treats his wound. He then rescues a pitbull puppy from one of the cages and is last seen walking away on the boardwalk where he had his last date with Helen.

User Review

Lesson learned: don't get on retired legendary hit-man John Wick's bad side. In the film of the same name, he goes back into action shooting up bad guys in a city where it seems that the cops have all simultaneously taken a vacation. Played by surprisingly youthful quinquagenarian Keanu Reeves, John Wick's style of shooting baddies is reminiscent of my days playing Whac-A-Mole, Duck Hunt, or any of those arcade games with the plastic guns. Wick is a vengeant superman, and this is the basis of the entire movie. Although he doesn't have a clear weakness that can be exploited like most heroes, Wick does get into enough trouble for the audience to be sincerely worried about him.

If you're planning on seeing John Wick because you like movies with clever or meaningful story lines, then you're going to be disappointed. If you are looking for raw well- choreographed action and machismo, then look no further. House Greyjoy's Alfie Allen stands out as villainous Russian mafia brat Iosef Tarasov, and Michael Nyqvist (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) plays Viggo, his mob boss father. Adrianne Palicki, Willem Dafoe, Ian McShane and Dean Winters round out a strong supporting cast.

Overall, I enjoyed John Wick as a pure action film. It doesn't have a storyline like The Matrix or Speed, but it was visually entertaining and the simplicity of the story allowed for appreciation of the action. This movie is manly and primitive, and proves that at the age of 50, Keanu Reeves can still mix it up as an action star.