The Legend begins.
With the release this week here in the UK of the fourth instalment in the story of the supposedly retired hitman John Wick (and tickets secured for an eagerly awaited trip to the cinema this coming Monday), I thought it high time that I revisited the beginning of the legend.
A badly damaged black 4X4 vehicle inches into the first frame of the film on a rain soaked New York night before crashing gently and abruptly into a concrete pillar. With a neon lit backdrop of the city in the distance, “John Wick” (Keanu Reeves) emerges stumbling from the vehicle, bloodied and badly bruised with a severe gunshot wound to the stomach. Unsteady on his feet, he rests against an adjacent pillar as he reaches for his mobile phone in his inside pocket, leaving bloody fingerprints across the screen as he watches a video of his smiling, joyful wife on a beach. Near death, he collapses slowly and horizontally on his side on the rain sodden concrete.
Cut to a simple black background and the opening title “JOHN WICK”.
Cut to a screeching alarm clock showing 6am in a lavish, spacious and window filled modern apartment. As John makes his first coffee of the morning, the film appears to have a green washed tint made ever more apparent by the bright and colourful flashbacks of happier times with his wife as he now sighs at the sight of himself in the bathroom mirror and the green tint returns as in the present day he kisses his wife’s forehead gently as she lays motionless in a hospital bed. This is the signal, the final signal, for the life support machine to be switched off, the only sound the flatline emanating from the nearby machine.
We cut to John carrying his wife’s necklace as he whispers “It’s an anniversary”, the first words of the film, before more colourful flashbacks and an abrupt colour change back once more to present day, a green tint again, and John reversing his car from the garage and into the pouring rain. As the car exits the frame the next cut shows an overhead shot of numerous black umbrellas shielding a crowd from the relentless downpour of rain before a further quick cut now sees John, all in black and all alone at the graveside of his wife. Only he’s not alone.
With a slow camera move, the reveal is of another singular man shielding beneath an umbrella from the incessant rain. “Marcus” (Willem Dafoe) can only solemnly offer his condolences to which John replies “I keep asking why her?” before asking why Marcus has waited behind after the funeral. “Just checking up on an old friend” he replies before several rumbles of thunder join the pouring rain as the scene ends. A quick cut immediately sees John now staring crestfallen through a window of his home at the ensuing post funeral wake as the camera slowly pans toward him before dissolving to end the scene.
With everyone having left, John is now alone as the doorbell rings. He signs for a package, a beagle puppy named “Daisy” who is happily and quietly sprawled out inside a travelling crate. As the heartbroken hitman cannot contain the tears of sadness filling his eyes, he reads the accompanying card which becomes a continuing narration from his wife urging him to find peace and “You need someone, something to love”. Quick cuts follow with John and his new puppy at bedtime, Daisy enthusiastically waking him just before the alarm at 6am once more before they both enjoy a quick breakfast. Heading to the car, John reverses out of the garage into a bright, clear day rather than the pouring rain of the day before.
We now cut to John filling his Mustang car with petrol at a local service station as three men alight from a car to do likewise. It’s quickly established all three are Russian with “Iosef Tarsov” (Alfie Allen) impudently and ignorantly tapping repeatedly on John’s magnificent car. He compliments John on the car before asking how much he wants for it. With a slight smile of annoyance John replies that his car isn’t for sale but before he can drive away Iosef leans into the car, smoking and stroking the dog. There’s a real air of aggression from the young Russian who says indignantly and in Russian “Everything has got a price, bitch” to which John replies, in the Russian language too, “Not this bitch” and the young Russian is pulled away from an even uglier confrontation by an older companion.
Rattled and full of rage fuelled grief at the death of his wife, John now screams his Mustang around a deserted airfield, spinning the car into ever more dangerous turns before heading at high speed toward three huge tankers. He stops barely inches away from a life changing and possibly life ending high speed crash. A final cut now sees John in bed late at night with Daisy before hearing something downstairs, the dog scoots away to investigate. Following her, John is brutally beaten to near unconsciousness by an unseen intruder as it’s quickly established that this is one of the three Russians he met earlier that day. As another searches for the keys to his highly valued car, another horrifically kills Daisy before Iosef Tarsov leans over John’s bloodied body as he brutally knocks him unconsciousness as he also signs his own upcoming death warrant with a final “sleep tight bitch”.
They’ve picked on the wrong retired hitman!
Welcome, to the legend of John Wick!
It may only be a car and only a dog but that “nobody is John Wick” and he’s not only on a bloody and brutal rampage of revenge but he also “kills people with a fucking pencil” and a “boogeyman” that is the most feared of all, the “Baba Yaga” from tales of yore, and a “man of focus, commitment, and sheer fucking will”. Forced out of retirement and still grieving the loss of his wife, this hitman will stop at nothing, let alone an enormous and heavily armed gang of Russian Mafia, to wreak his revenge, and from the opening fifteen minute salvo described above, he proceeds to do so, be it via hand-to-hand Kung Fu combat, a spectacular shoot-out within his own home, a massacre at a New York bathhouse, a safehouse or the first in this series of films of murderous rampages on a dancefloor.
Written by Derek Kolstad (who has subsequently written all three following chapters in this series as well as the recently released Nobody and Die Hart), this was also Chad Stahelski’s debut film as a director following a long career as a stunt co-ordinator and so unsurprisingly, the stunts and action sequences here are quite outstanding and, whisper it, they get even more daringly spectacular as the series progresses.
What also impressed me on this second viewing, and nearly a decade on since I originally watched it, is the establishment of so many factors that make this cinematic “world” so compelling. Together with the stunts and action sequences is a firmly constructed backstory that also contains so many richly drawn characters. Some may come and some may go, but John Leguizamo cameos brilliantly as an indispensable friend, confidant and owner of a garage repair shop who also returns in chapter two in the series alongside local policeman and cover man for his friend in the guise of Thomas Sadoski. Two huge continuing roles are reserved for the calm and helpful hotel manager of the infamous Continental in the shape of Lance Reddick and of course, this series wouldn’t be the same if it didn’t have the enigmatic presence of Ian McShane, the owner of the sacred ground upon which the Continental stands, and who simply cannot resist calling our anti-hero “Jonathan”.
I take film (and life) a little too seriously so John Wick is the perfect antidote in many ways. Add a thumping soundtrack to the already heady mix of incredible action sequences and stunts involving an array of bad guys, enigmatic story tellers and an anti hero on a revenge mission, and you have the beginning of a legend as well as a whole heap of fun.
Roll on Chapters two and three and the latest in this legend on Monday at the cinema!
Thanks for reading. Just for larks as always, and always a human reaction rather than spoilers galore. My three most recently published film articles are linked below or there’s well over 250 blog articles (with 500+ individual film reviews) within my film library from which to choose:
“Bones and All” (2022)
Fancy a cannibal horror love story?medium.com
“Wrath of Man” (2021)
Highly impressive revenge thriller from Guy Ritchie.medium.com
“Cocaine Bear” (2023)
Fantastically surprising comedy horror.medium.com