“John Wick” — Chapter 3 (2019)
“I have served. I will be of service”.
“I have served. I will be of service”.
Following the minimal or indeed non-existent opening credits during the first two chapters in this series, chapter three begins with a short, sharp burst of opening images that are so reflective of this growing hitman franchise, namely an array of blood stained guns, blood soaked coins, contracts and references to the infamous sacred grounds of the Continental Hotel. One further addition is the enigmatic sub-title for this particular chapter — “Parabellum”.
An immediate cut-away from these quick opening titles takes us to the Statue of Liberty via yet more staples in this blood thirsty revenge filled franchise as an overhead crane shot covers a beautifully illuminated New York City amid doom laden thunder and lightning and of course, the pouring rain soaking the American city below. This chapter immediately resumes from where we left the previous one with “John Wick” (Keanu Reeves), bloodied and injured, running through the streets of New York with his dog. Slowing to a halt as he reaches Times Square he checks his watch. He has just 50 minutes until the appointed and to be enforced witching hour of 6pm whereby he will officially become “excommunicado”, unable to seek anyone else’s help within the fraternity that spawned him, and which now spurns him, and with a bounty of $14,000,000 squarely upon his head.
We cut to “Winston” (Ian McShane) and “Charon” (Lance Reddick) walking through The Continental Hotel that Winston owns and Charon ostensibly manages on his behalf. Charon worries for John and the hell about to be unleashed all around him. Winston replies dryly that “every interested party in the city wants a piece of it” before continuing, in a fashion only Winston can “I’d say the odds are about even”. We now cut to an exhausted John sheltering in an alleyway from the physical and metaphorical storm brewing all around him as he ignores the suggestion from a beggar that he needs to visit a hospital. However, the beggar isn’t just down on his luck and living on the streets but yet another secretive, undercover assassin waiting for the 6pm deadline and a means of securing a bountiful windfall.
“Tick-Tock Mr Wick” he teases John. “Tick-Tock”.
A quick cut returns to an exasperated John running once more before hailing a yellow taxi to take both him and his still unnamed dog to the New York Public Library as well as an escape from the pouring rain. Stuck in traffic, he quickly has a change of mind and after passing the taxi driver a precious gold coin he requests the driver take his dog to The Continental Hotel and into the care of Charon, before he exits the car. As John resumes his run in the pouring rain, the first of numerous upcoming cuts transport us to the hub, nerve centre or operational command of “The High Table” with the hive of activity confirming that he now has just 20 minutes until he will officially be incommunicado and completely on his own.
Arriving at the library, John requests a book by a Russian author and after receiving directions from the receptionist, he locates the book. The middle pages of the book have been removed, leaving a perfectly square hiding space in which he finds a replica version of a treasured picture of his deceased wife, an ornate crucifix, a collection of gold coins and a blood oath medallion. John kisses the portion of the photograph containing his wife before returning this, and only this, to the centre of the book. Unknown to John, he’s been tracked to the library by “Ernest” (Boban Marjanovic), a man mountain of an assassin keen to scoop the entirety of the bounty on John’s head. “I have still have time” pleads John but a violent, vicious and intensely loud hand-to-hand combat ensues between the two assassins which is so incredibly loud (and amusing) that Ernest can often be found sarcastically telling John to be quiet or to “shush”. Ernest pulls a knife and stabs John deep in the shoulder as the combat continues. Ernest throws John through a selection of bookcases before our anti-hero gains the upper-hand by jamming a book first on his assailant’s throat and then ramming it into his mouth, violently and repeatedly smashing the assassin. Now discombobulated, John violently takes control of the fight to the death before using the same book to repeatedly club the assassin before breaking his neck over the side of a tall table.
Leaving the library, John winces in pain at the stab wound and realising he is bleeding profusely he begins running in the pouring rain once more. A quick cut returns us first to the control room of The High Table and “John Wick, excommunicado in 10 minutes” and then we see “The Bowery King” (Laurence Fishburne) for the first time, hidden away in his underground lair surrounded by several of his underlings counting mounds of cash. As he wanders through his domain, the underground King confirms he will “provide no help of any kind” to our desperate anti-hero.
With the clock ticking, John continues to run through the New York rain until he finds the hidden away location of “The Doctor” (Randall Duk Kim). Knocking desperately on the door, John proffers a gold coin through the visual slot of the door before stating “I still have 5 minutes” and reluctantly, the doctor allows him to enter his surgery. There are numerous cuts back and forth now, from first a desperate doctor racing against time as he tries to quickly stitch a “nicked artery” in John’s shoulder and neck region and the control room as first there is just a minute left and, with cuts back and forth to the wall mounted clock, it chimes 6pm. The doctor simply has to stop due to “rules” and as we cut back to the control room: “$14,000,000 contract in effect — All services suspended”. Further quick cuts jump from a desperate John now stitching himself and a multitude of assassins’ mobile telephones chiming with the news of the contract now officially on his head. As John finishes his own stitches, the doctor retrieves a gun from a desk drawer but not to shoot John and collect the bounty, but for John to shoot him as “they’ll never believe I didn’t help you”. John shoots the doctor in two non-life threatening bodily positions before announcing:
“Good luck Mr Wick”.
Welcome, to John Wick Chapter 3!
With John now “marked for death”, there are touches and call backs to the second film and the Bruce Lee inspired knife, samurai sword and Kung Fun fight inside another hall of mirrors, but the feeling I had when I watched this immediately at the cinema four years ago and during my recent re-watch ahead of seeing Chapter Four tomorrow at the cinema, is of The Matrix, and long before John announces that he needs “Guns. Lots of Guns”. Naturally we have the re-teaming of Neo and Morpheus (Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne) but there is a distinct ethereal, otherworldly feel to this particular chapter in the franchise and especially so to the character of “The Adjudicator” (Asia Kate Dillon), a beautifully androgynous, leather clad “Agent Smith” from The Matrix if you will. I also continually see The Continental Hotel as a kind of world between worlds or a world before re-entry into the matrix of mass killing.
New characters are once again introduced via the ever beautiful Halle Berry and the mercurial and majestic Anjelica Huston, and whilst all three of returnees Laurence Fishburne, Ian McShane and Lance Reddick have substantially larger roles from chapters one and two, Jerome Flynn particularly stands out as a new edition to the series.
Chapter Three takes the very best of the previous chapters and ramps up the violence, mayhem, revenge and bloody retribution several notches, and via the set piece stunts for which this franchise has become world famous. The first twenty five minutes or so is a continual blur of one bloody knife fight, car chase and even a Kung Fu fight inside a horses stables that is by far by the bloodiest and gruesome of the series so far. The finale sequence inside The Continental Hotel is another twenty or so minutes of an intense and repeated shoot-out followed by the Bruce Lee style showdown in a house of mirrors, and in between is an elongated joint fight with Keanu Reeves and Halle Berry that never relents and never seemingly wishes to end.
Breathless. Barbaric. Mayhem and Murder. Welcome once again to the world of John Wick.
Roll on Chapter Four!
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:
“John Wick” (2014)
The Legend begins.medium.com
“John Wick — Chapter 2” (2017)
The return of “Death’s very emissary”.medium.com
“In Bruges” (2008)
In retrospective praise 15 years on.medium.com