To be fair, they didnt put the dog in front of him, it dragged itself over to him with its last bit of strength while he was passed out... which is much sadder
Purely true. Like, it changed action movies fundamentally. Just look at all the movies that copies its style afterwards. It probably changed the genre and the industry.
It's honestly the little scenes for me that makes this such a badass movie, Like Charlie and his clean up crew, and the execution of Ms. Perkins for breaking the rules of the Continental. It really shows how deep this universe is.
A lesser movie would've spoon-fed the audience and had a narrator explaining Aurelio's shop, the mob boss, the codewords, the coins, the clean up crew, and the continental instead of just letting the audience find out through character interactions. It's why I can't watch movies with people anymore because too many times has someone turned to ask me a question that's literally about to be answered if they'd just pay attention.
Did you know the dude that played Charlie was in the movies 48 hrs with Eddie Murphy & Nick Nolte, The Warriors, he was a gang leader that started gang war & Total recall with Arnold Swartz,
The bouncer was played by Kevin Nash, a former pro-wrestler. During an interview he said the exchange between him and Wick was code, and Wick thanked him by giving him the night off, ie not killing him.
I highly doubt Daisy was able to crawl, that hit was instantly lethal. It looked more like they kicked the body to John, leaving the blood trail while sliding over the floor. Yeah, that made them even more deserving for what they got. Anyone else thought 'headshot' on the guy playing the shooter game …?
Yeah, the poor fella seems to be unfortunately typecast into this sort of character. I just wanna see the kid play an HONEST character, that everyone likes, for once! lol
The part where John asks Francis how much weight he lost was actually him asking Francis about the amount of guards protecting Iosef. 60 lb = 27 kg, meaning there was 27 guards
No, he said 20 kg in Russian. They just did a horrid job of converting it. They could have said 45 lb in the subtitle and it would have been mostly accurate and not seemed out of place.
Hey, to make you and everyone feel a little bit better. The actor that killed the dog, for the rest of the filming day, he was cuddling the dog every chance he could because he felt so bad
It's not every day when a film has a protagonist that is FEARED by the antagonists, and this is done so well. The whole John Wick trilogy is a must-see.
@@marinebttlemechanic THIS. i love seeing the protagonist being feared for once, the only difference between the two is that on one hand John wick makes people shit their pants cause they know how much of a fuck up they did angering him. On the other hand in the equalizer the protagonist isn't really known so they expect for him to be a fairly normal individual but as the movie progresses they realize how much they too did fuck up.
Not me really, I saw the first one, and it was great, but he was lucky in the first one, the guy that was supposed to kill him after the opportunity was presented turned out to be on his side, meaning if it was someone else, he should have been dead. So when the 2nd or 3rd came out, I really didn’t care that much, and the story is no longer there, he is just someone who goes on rampage killing people for nothing. Even the first story make no sense to me, a very rich kid wants to show he is a gangster by stealing someone’s car and killed a puppy? Like, which part of it makes him worth more as a gangster, you can hire a boost team to get the car whenever he is outside, or just boost another similar car, or buy the damn car from a collector. His father had more common sense to go for bigger impacts, his son goes to downgraded version. Like a king goes to conquer lands, while a prince goes to steal a stallion. Da-fuq?
the reason why the action scenes are so well done is because the director is a long time hollywood stund co-ordinator! Great work throughout the series.
Daisy was played by Andy. Andy was chosen because of how brain meltingly adorable he was. The directors went after the most adorable dog they could find and insisted killing Daisy was necessary to the story, fighting producers who were against killing the dog. The producers fought it all the way to testing and finally gave in to allowing the killing to remain in the film when they saw the way the test audiences reacted. The directors knew what they were doing, that it would allow the average person to set aside guilt over what John would do for the rest of the film. It would help the audience empathize and cheer rather than feel more conflicted over the titular character. Andy got to walk on a few red carpets with the rest of the stars and apparently gave out some paw-tographs to some very eager fans. Even though it was just acting, the actor who (pretend) killed Andy really struggled with it. Every time they had a cut, he picked up Andy and held him. Andy had his time in the spotlight as a youngster, got to come visit Keanu and friends on the set of the Third film, and is now apparently happily in retirement. Not long after his stardom in the first John Wick film, Andy found his forever home and was renamed 'Wick' by the children of the forever family who adopted him.
@@thishandleisntavailable861 I don't know of a specific page/article that lists all of the information together. I got the information from various articles over time. You should be able to find it all with some searches. The choice of Andy as the dog was from a USA Today interview where the directors themselves spoke about it. Plenty of pictures of Andy on the red carpet if you do a quick search. There are multiple cast/crew interviews where they talk about the actor having a tough time with the killing scene. I don't remember where it was published, but the information about Andy being adopted was from Andy's trainer. The trainer personally knew the adopting family.
Two nice details form this film: - When John comments on the guard who has lost weight, the subtitles give the weight in Lbs, but he actually describes it in KGs, and the amount in KGs is the amount of people John kills inside the club (suggesting he was actually tipping John off about how many guards were inside). - The dog he takes at the end from the shelter had written on it's info that it was due to be put down, so John saved it's life.
John also lets himself get stabbed in the stomach which has a high chance of survivability, in return for stabbing Viggo in the main artery that sits right below the colorbone, which will kill you in a matter of seconds.
Another code some people miss is the "dinner reservations". 12 at John's house and the man at the hotel desk asking John if he will need a dinner reservation - for Perkins.
Keanu's status as a legit action star was already solidified a long time ago. Speed, Point Break, The Matrix, Johnny Mnemonic, etc. You couldn't blame anyone for thinking he had already peaked, then he goes and does this!
Re: the time with the dog. My opinion was that killing the dog quickly hurt John more, because John realizes that he was ROBBED of the opportunity to live with and love the dog. Daisy was his wife's LAST act of love toward him, and like John said, they "KILLED THAT FROM ME!" They robbed him of possibly 10 or so YEARS of that last gift. it would enrage me too.
@@AugustoEL its why i liked that he picked up another dog at the end of the movie., like he still tried to fill in the blank space by replacing it with another dog.(well that is just how i percieve it of course)
@@AugustoEL yup the gasstation scene it reminds like that scene from high plains drifter ruclips.net/video/Q_iFpchZe20/видео.html , dude just went to a bar to get a beer and a bottle of whiskey and a peacefull hour to drink it in... but yeah they couldn,t let him be..💀 ive seen enough such situations and shit stirring people in my life.(yeah sure go poke the bear why don,t ya?) and they all gonna meet someone someday that is the wrong person to be messing with, its like a universal law..
The "dinner reservation" that the front desk was asking about is if John needed the clean up crew. John also made a dinner reservation for 12 after he killed the guys in his house. So the clean up crew cleaned 12 bodies up.
Keanu Reeves actually can shoot like that. He also can do his own fight scenes. He trains like a mad man for these movie. On a human level he has seen plenty of tragedy. He is also an incredibly kind and generous man. He has more than earned my respect as a person and an actor. In that order.
If you're wondering about why they were putting so much emphasis on Francis' weight and emboldened the 'SIXTY', they're actually speaking in code. "You've lost weight." = "How many are inside?" "Over Sixty Pounds." = "Over Sixty men." A small but clever way of letting us know that these two have more history than just a simple exchange of names. EDIT: as jodonnell64 pointed out, the subtitles were incorrect. Francis actually says '27 kilograms' which almost rounds out to 60 pounds. So, spoken dialogue translates directly into '27 kilograms = 27 guards inside'. Thanks!
The "subtitle" was wrong... sort of. What Francis actually said was 27 kilograms, which works out to a bit over 60 pounds. There were 27 of Viggo's people in there.
Seriously. Those details are part of what makes this what it is. Along with the dedication and training that Keanu committed to. They didn't make him look good with camera angles, editing, and stunt men. He was just that good.
The John Wick house is out here on Long Island in a very exclusive town called Mill Neck.. I believe it's at the end of Horseshoe road.. -- The air field where John practices driving is Republic Airport in Farmingdale, NY..
The reason why john asked frances “hey you lost weight. How much?” Was to get an understanding of how many security guards were in there. Out of respect for john, the body guard let him know. john then returned the favor and let frances go.
The greatest "Oh" in movie history. In one syllable he said, "Thank you Aurelio, I understand the situation and of course you acted appropriately....shit." The arm swing at the end is also choice acting.
I’ve seen this movie and it only just now stuck with me the final scene when you had asked how John knew there was a kennel there. John knew where it was because in the next shot, he’s where his wife collapsed at the beginning of the movie. They would have had to walk past the shelter, and (myself theorizing) that may also be where she bought the dog for him.
And the end scene where he stabs himself in order to break Viggo's arm... he already had a stitched up wound there, so he wasn't really doing much additional damage. He merely re-opened the existing wound, then stapled it up a few minutes later. Small detail, but it shows his skill in quickly assessing damage versus reward and doing what needed to be done to win the fight quickly.
Exactly. The way he was stabbed you can see him controlling the entry point. He was also on pain killers from the doc to boot. In the scene where Perkins hits him in the wound he was prolly still feeling the effects of the local as well.
Winston is the manager of the Continental. In case you missed it, the Concierge is named Charon, as in the ferryman who takes the souls of the newly dead across the river Styx to Hades.
Really hope you watch the sequels. It only gets better. Hard to find anyone in Hollywood more grounded and awesome than Reeves. I met him, very briefly, at a 2-gun event while he was training for JW2. Absolute class act of a human.
I met Keanu (and Lawrence Fishburne and Carrie Anne Moss) during the filming of The Matrix Reloaded. I was Security Supervisor for a warehouse, and they used half of it as a sound stage. Keanu wanted to give me one of the Aprilia motorcycles they used in a chase scene. A true gentleman, and a wonderful human being.
I knew it reached a bigger platform when famous EDM DJ's used those lines in his intro before beginning his session at the major edm concerts some years ago.
@@Matej_Sojka I'm thinking that it was more than professional courtesy between Marcus and John. I'm thinking that it was personal. There's a brilliant backstory there that may come in a later installment (perhaps in JW4). Willem Dafoe is so awesome.
Someone on another reaction video noted that Viggo served his son, Iosef, the bottom shelf crap vodka in a cheap glass and even though he poured himself one, he never drank it WITH his son. Viggo just puts it back on the bar. Viggo punches his son, goes behind the bar, and then pours himself top end vodka in a top end glass and drinks it by himself. That's how low he thought of his son at that point. Point of contention: there are some dudes out there who will say, "It's just a dog. You can always get another dog." Right, and you can always replace the spark plugs on a classic Mustang. The movie distinctly made the gravity of Iosef's fuck-up when Viggo told him in the bar scene, "It was over a woman, of course. So I gave him an impossible task...the bodies he buried that day laid the foundation of what we are." That puppy was "over a woman." Yes, John got a dog at the end of the movie (and a rescued pit bull, no less), but it was for himself and wasn't a gift from his late wife.
I love how there was no way to justify this movie in the eyes of the audience, all the killing John does, without killing a dog. Killing his wife would have even been questionable to the audience, but because it's a dog, we're ALL on board to watch him tear them apart. Side note, this movie is one of the rare exceptions where the protagonist is vastly stronger than the antagonists, and it works. Normally you want the hero to feel like he's overcoming some great obstacle or challenge, but we just want to watch him find the dog killer and end him.
It’s not just because it was his dog it was the last gift by his wife to him and the dog represents his wife’s wish that John find some happiness after she has past.
Well, wife and kids worked for the Punisher. But I like the point, the revenge motivation has to be pretty strong for something like this. And the protagonist being stronger than the antagonists works because John is established early as a paragon type character who starts the movie as already the best of the best at what he does. The great obstacle is killing all of them, not killing one of them 😄
even tough john is stronger than his enemies, he still get his ass kicked a lot, its ok for your hero to be stronger than the vilain, as long as you pu your hero in a clear disadvantage, that shos that he has to use his wit, rather than his power, to overcome the odds, also, john doesnt do it alone, he has help, another thing that is good to show your hero's human side. about the dog, the thing is, a dog, specialy a pupy, is a pure thing, with no evil, is like killing a baby, you're killing something that never commited a sin, you're destroying a pure soul, so we're all on board with "divine punishment" for those who ruin pure souls.
My favourite thing about this move is that John is described as "The guy you send to kill the fucking Boogeyman" and the movie proves that this isn't just an exaggeration.
Hi, several things: - first when you are emotionally attached to someone, when you lose that someone the attachment transfers to what remains of that person. Losing the dog is like losing his love all over again. - as far as the continental is concerned - why do you think it doesn't already exist?
Honestly it is a genius plot. You make the audience absolutely hate the villains to remove any hint of sympathy. and then you set loose an unstoppable avenger to brutalize them. You get to have brutal action throughout without guilt
Yeah, there is nothing John can do to the bad guys that feels like it goes too far in light of what that punk did. Really important when you consider the amount of people he takes out and how brutally he does it. It's heartbreaking, but you kind of need something that harsh to justify it emotionally
I absolutely love how we get a movie where the villains are scared of the protagonist and you understand their fear, but likewise are happy to see them in fear.
Even moreso than the action, this series does incredible world-building in such efficient strokes and suggestions of complexity. Thoroughly enjoyed the reaction!
And not once do I remember a pointless never ending monologue of explanation or exposition, a lot of it is shown as it happens. And the few times things need to be spoken, it's done naturally, thanks to the actors being generally pleasing on screen and speaking like humans would.
I agree. It feels a bit like a world just beyond our perception, as if it's hiding in the shadows of our world. It gives it great texture, like it's just believable enough while stretching what the audience will accept as based in reality. There've been a couple of movies that also felt like they could somewhat fit into others corners of the world created in John Wick. "The Night Comes For Us" is one from Indonesia, and there was about a female assassin, I think it was Korean but I'm completely blanking on the title, that I think really fit. I'd love to see more even unofficial movies that fit the mold in that way, as I think it's a really interesting "crime world" they've come up with.
I think one of my favorite "world-building" scenes is the cop who comes to talk with John about the noise complaint. It's brief, but it says so much about the character and the world he's in with few words. "You working again John?" It tells you this is not a man to be trifled with. Even the cops know not to get involved. This underground world of serious assassins just gets better and better as we are brought along for the ride. We also get the pencil trick...the Joker ain't got nothing on John Wick.
This movie shamelessly uses the two most common tropes to get you to sympathize with the main character, lost a spouse, lost a dog, and yet, they do it so well, you don't care and you're so invested. They did a really good job at showing how to properly use tropes and I love it.
I found it fascinating how Winston "the management", calls him Johnathan, whereas everyone else calls him John. It teases at such a rich, well-developed world with all of these characters - the police officer, the guys at the airport gate, the guard at the club, the bartender, etc.
a pure case of "Show, don't tell". You get a lot of world building and character from seeing them interact with one another, instead of been told and fed the reasons why they know each others and why they act that way.
@@rc59191 Not so random. They're all called for a purpose, in all three movies -- to make a lot of money eliminating one of the most dangerous men in the world.
it's the side characters that really make the movie work. There is no exposition, everybody just talks and acts like this is how the world works, so even if you don't know the details, you believe it
The assassins in this universe have their own everything. Their own hotel which is the Continental, their own currency which are the gold coins and even their own services like a clean up crew and a doctor to stitch up wounds like you just saw.
I remember being sold on this movie like this: "You like dogs, right?" "Yes, of course..." "You want to see Keanu kill tf out of everybody?" "... YES, OF COURSE."
lmao, i was just told by my friend to watch it 2 days before part 3 , telling me to watch this and part 2 back to back to have part 3 next on the theatre
Hehe... This movie is made by stunt folk... and as far as I've heard, the actors they've cameo'd were all actors who were like "oh hell the stunt crew? They make ME look good, I wish t'hell I could do a tenth of what dey do" (and in many cases devoted part of their own salaries to them) over the years. So these guys (and gals but mostly guys) get together and say "we want some of the old school action movie stuff, today. We're all painted out, or replaced with CGI, and yet we STILL take the hits on the day and get less and less respect. We're people of focus, of commitment!" They made John Wick. A mortal god, a normal man with aimbot, a man who doesn't take anyone's shit because he's got so many No. 2s that he kills people with them. He's a reflection of them. It's also part of why incoming vehicles aren't part of his jutsu, his peripheral only sees fists and bullets. Jokes aside, most stuntmen are de facto martial artists of great skill, and their very job demands they endure pain. Like John, they get beat to pieces and get up repeatedly to finish the job. So these people, these hard ass crazy people, create this character and world that's a very respectful salute to their profession and the actors who have respected them... ...they take this man John, and go... "...so how do we ACTUALLY hurt this man?" They take away the only woman he has ever loved and has loved him, and the last gift she left for him in an attempt to save his soul. So the next time you wonder what real men are? They're the folk who love their family and their f*cking beagle puppies, and they WILL kill for both.
@@QuayNemSorr It's because the subtitles listed it in standard even though the guard actually says 27 kg. You can see the subtitles in that scene, if you don't blink.
I'm not surprised at all you cuddled your peppers after this! I refused to watch this on my own because of the dog, and I'm glad I got to see it for the first time with a dog owner and lover such as yourself, made it a little easier. This was so awesome!
FYI: When the security guy replied to John about the weight, he was actually replying about how many security personnel in the club. 60 pound = 27 kilograms. You can hear him replying in kilograms, not pounds. That's what I heard anyway.
Francis actually says 20 kilograms (DVATtsat') which would be 44 pounds. 27 would be DVATtsat' SYEM' and would have pretty much matched the number of security who were killed. The english translation is wrong and makes it harder to realise what information Francis gives.
The scene with Frances is also telling of how dangerous John Wick is. Frances is a mobsters body guard who happily leaves his post when faced with John. He's more worried about John than the lethal response he would likely get from his boss.
@@DrLipkin Kevin Nash was also in The Punisher with Thomas Jane He played a character called "The Russian." In one scene, a stunt went wrong and Thomas legit stabbed him with a dull knife. Kevin Nash, being a wrestler, no-sold it. Then pulled out the knife (which was dumb, you should let medical staff do it) and stitched himself up with super glue. That's the scene they used in the final film and you can see the look on Jane's face of horror of what he just did, but it works as it plays as shock on Frank Castle's face of "Oh, this guy isn't going to go down."
@@willdallas53 If you make the conversion of kg to lbs he would've lost 132lbs. That's a lot of weight to have lost and still look the way he did and is less believable than if he was informing John of how many guards are inside
Natalie: "Oh he was an assassin. Now he's coming out of retirement just for you" Also Natalie at the same moment: Sort of Sadistic smile and probably thinking "He is so FUCKED!!!"
I read a comment that read: When you leave out all the death and the violence, this is just a movie about a guy in a nice house who gets a dog and then goes adopt another one so the first dog has a friend :)
The most underrated part of the John Wick films, I feel, is the world building. It has such a living, breathing universe with interesting and visually stunning quirks. The characters feel like they exist outside of John's story and give the series a sense of history without having to do the annoying origin story stuff. I think the third film was the best yet, so I'm looking forward to Chapter Four.
When I watched the first movie I was pretty convinced it had to be based on a comic series or something. The world just seemed so detailed, like there had to be backstory there.
You should check out the videos showing Keanu training with guns - he's actually amazing. He trained with TaranTactical, and Taran was very complimentary about how good Keanu really was with the firearms training. And Halle Berry training for JW 3 also at Taran Tactical was also very good.
I’ve seen this so many times and the dog yelp gets me every time. The “where did you get this car” , “oh” and then Vigo’s monologue about who John are my favorite parts.
Nat: "Being an actor in that role must be the best." (referring to Jimmy at the front door) Great call. "You... ah... workin' again John?" is such a classic line. Such great delivery.
Two things about this movie: 1: The guy who played Viggo was a very famous Swedish actor, and this was one of his last movies. He knew that he was dying of cancer when filming but didn't tell anyone. 2: You could make a really cool short reaction video to the firearms training sessions that Keanu did for the role.
@@JamesDavis-sh9gh He was amazing in Girl With Dragon Tattoo, loved that series, not surprised but sad that the English remake sucked and failed to make more than one.
The puppy was probably one of the best character motivations I have seen in a long time. So, so many people shot in the face over that poor puppy. And I am all for it.
john wick has one of the greatest character introductions ever, after getting beat up and left its the reactions of all other characters that tell you how screwed these guys are. Car guy punches the bosses son and stares down a gun cause he knows whats worse, big bad mob boss calls and starts as a mysterious threat but as soon as he hears the name it drops all theatrics cause they know they cant play around, people already expect that the son is dead before Johns even finished digging up his tools
One of the best examples of 'show not tell' for the setting. You just see how people react to him. Get glimpses of how the gold coins and underworld operate rather than having it explained.
Exactly. They don't spell it all out for you with a bunch of exposition. They just drop some clues and trust the audience to be intelligent enough to piece it together for themselves.
The heavy who knocked John down twice is Daniel Bernhardt. Terrific stunt work. He was also in Atomic Blonde and a particularly violent episode of Barry. Usually plays the boss fight type
In the final fight with Viggo, when John lets himself get stabbed, he specifically guides the blade into his wound from earlier, so it doesn't do too much damage while giving him that advantage
One of the most awesome parts about this movie (aside from the incredible choreography and soundtrack) is the amount of world building that went into it. You get a sense of this world but no one ever really explains it, but it's consistent and feels real.
I agree. Skipping the origin story and going right into the world where he's already an established entity in the underworld was one of the things that made it great.
In the Comics and Lore of this universe the Assassins deal in the Gold Coins because Gold is untraceable, holds it's value better than cash, cannot be intercepted by Government agencies and they serve as a status symbol and proof of association with the Table.....
Keanu Reeves trained extensively with professional competitive speed shooters for this movie so his handling and reloads of the guns would look as fast and smooth as a professionals would be. He trained with some of the best in the world and they said by the time he was ready to shoot the movie he could complete 3 gun shooting drills they use in professional competitions with decently competitive times. Not enough to win, but well enough to hang in the pack.... not bad for an actor lol
For me it was less about the connection to his dog and more of what the dog represented. A gift from his wife after her passing. For John Wick the dog was a little piece of his wife still with him. So for me it was a lot more than "I loved this dog and now I'm going to kill everyone".
Exactly. Such brilliant writing and storytelling. It "shows" how much John loved his wife, and it also suggests that he retired for her. I love how these guys establish this world and that John walked away because he loved her.
Natalie talked about wanting him to have more time with the dog to establish how much of a loss it was when it was killed. But the 2 or 3 day span was actually perfect, because it was the very last part of his wife left. If, say, the dog died in transit, there would be a minimal amount of loss felt by him. And if he'd had Daisy for a few months when she was killed, he'd be heartbroken, but he would have spent those months processing and grieving for his wife with Daisy. But the fact that he was just *beginning* the process made it that much worse. It was the only hope he had left suddenly torn away before he could start.
The dog was the last thing his wife gave John. The sentimental value of this spoke to how much his wife meant to him. Someone took the last thing his wife gave him which enraged him because the puppy was the last vestige John had of the love of his life.
This movie is a perfect example of 'show dont tell' It would be easy to just say John wick is a badass, but letting it be unsaid and showing us what a badass he is... perfect
I'm pretty sure when John pulled the knife into himself in the final battle, it went into the same area he was previously wounded in earlier in the film to minimize the damage. 👍
Exactly, well noticed! John knew Viggo could beat him in strength alone, so he uses that strength and directs the knife to a part of his body that's already been damaged rather than having Viggo stab him somewhere that could do more damage, then breaks his arm to incapacitate him and use the knife against him. Obviously a crazy move but it ultimately wins him the fight, plus it's badass as all hell 🤣
Of all the videos I've seen, this one is magnificent. She uses it to cover up bad words for Daisy, and when the dog dies uses her grave. Haha I don't know whether to laugh or cry. I love you Nat.
I'm not even an action movie fan, but I feel like John Wick as a standalone film (the sequels are interesting for world building, too) is just so much fun and a very well done film. I think alot of people can enjoy this flick.
Fun fact: This film’s opening breaks every screenwriting rule in the book. Starts with a flash forward that’s starts at the end of the third act, flashes back to the MC waking up in bed and hitting their alarm, shows the monotonous morning routine, etc. The craziest part is that it FUCKING. WORKS. God I love this movie.
I'm confused. Why do you say it "breaks every screenwriting rule." One rule is to grab your audience's attention with something exciting at the start, and one way this is done if the first events (chronologically) aren't exciting enough is with a flash forward. (Another rule followed is to get your audience to root for your protagonist early by, for example, having him "save the cat" -- or, in this case, by having an antagonist kill his puppy.)
Flash-forwards have been used to great effect in a number of great movies and tv shows. Flashbacks, on the other hand, are usually considered a little bit hacky because they've been super overused and used poorly, and that's why beginning screenwriters are often warned against using them. The "showing the morning routine" issue I've never heard though I can imagine some screenwriting teacher might consider it cliche... BUT, like anything else, there are no hard and fast rules to screenwriting or storytelling. You do what's right for the story you're telling, period. If you know how to use flash-forwards or flashbacks properly and not as a crutch, there's nothing wrong with using them. If the morning routine is drawing a contrast between the action scenes around it and adding dimensionality to your character and/or world, it serves a purpose. Not sure where your "screenwriting rules" are coming from but any great writer will tell you that rules are there to be broken... as long as you're breaking them for a purpose and not simply because that's what other movies do or because you can't come up with a better way to communicate exposition. The "rules" are for beginners. Pros know when and why to break them.
@@johnplaysgames3120 I’m using “rules” loosely. I’m not at all saying these things can’t happen in good films. They were things I was taught in a screenwriting class from Richard Hatem.
15:30 I'm pretty sure the cop knows John is a retired mafia assassin and also knows he's in way over his head. He's just doing the bare minimum required for his job and hoping he makes it out alive.
I think it’s sadder that he lost the dog so early honestly. It was his ONE CHANCEat a normal life, he’d thought he’d have a friend for a decade before he lost someone else
17:58 My favorite detail! This is the guard subtly telling John that he can expect 30+ (60lbs/27kg) gunmen inside the club. It's the little details and conversations like this that make the Wick universe feel so full and interesting. The final kill count for wick inside the club is 28 people.
6:08 that's probably Keanus real crying face btw, I heard in an interview he channeled/remembered the emotions from losing is wife and child in a car accident. Happened party early into their marriage. Keanu has had a pretty tough life, and he turned out to be an absolute gem of wholeosme and breath taking.
I saw JW3 in a completely packed theater on opening night, and it’s the only time in my life I’ve heard several hundred people, myself included, yell “oh sh*t!” in unison spontaneously. It was amazing.
I made the mistake of binge watching all 3 films back to back. By the time I made it to the 3rd film, I was emotionally numb. It was like the rule of cool had left me with a concussion.
It wasn't about the dog. It was the fact he couldn't get vengeance for the disease that killed his wife. In the beginning, you can see he doesn't know how to handle her death. It why he goes into the airport to scream and do donuts. The act of killing the dog and stealing his car gave him an outlet.
Knife fights in the trilogy are handled up to real life standards. They’re not like you throw one where it isn’t vital, and instantly kills the person. I love they show the struggle of a real fight, still a bit Hollywoodized but hell of a series of 👊🏼 scenes
18:10 Francis is, literally, the smartest person in the whole series. He knows he's not match for JW, even if he hadn't gotten the drop on him, so when offered a chance to walk away he takes it!
The actor in an interview said, that when Wick asks him, "You've lost some weight." To which he replies, "Over sixty pounds" He was actually giving Wick the number of henchmen inside the club. Which is also why Wick told him to take the night off... for helping him.
Francis talking about losing weight is him telling John how many Guards there are , he gives John information and John let's him live because he did so and also didn't fight back.
The thing I like about this movie series is Keanu Reeves PERSONALLY made sure ALL animals on set where taken care of and where ok the man is literally Jesus Christ and nothing will change that for me lol
I would too. It's jarring to see animals killed in movies even if you know they aren't really killed. I would want to see to them myself because of my conscience needing to see them ok throughout filming
That's what he does. I mean damn, this dude took his girlfriend on set to visit Lance Reddick when he was on a day off. Keanu is like the best human being on earth
The John Wick house is out here on Long Island is in a very exclusive town called Mill Neck.. The runway he practices on is Republic Airport in Farmingdale, NY ..
She said that the first time talking as the guys working for Viggo, like she said if she was in their position she'd say "fuck this kid" not that Viggo himself would say that.
In an interview with the actor who played the bouncer Francis that John Wick let live at the entrance to the night club scene, he said the odd discussion about his weight loss and the emphasized "Sixty" was to let the audience know he was giving John code to let him know how many men were in the club protecting the son
They were emphasizing the amount of kilograms he lost because he was actually telling John how many bodyguards are in the club, instead of his actual weight loss.
That miniboss guy that John fought and lost to was actually the agent in the second Matrix movie, and the guy who directed these movies was actually a stunt coordinator in Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions and Keanu's stunt double in the first. You got a bit of everyone there!
Fun fact: the guy who was giving John the hardest fight in the club was also one of the upgraded Agents in the Matrix sequels, Daniel Bernhardt. The doctor is Randal Duk Kim, who played the Keymaker in Matrix Reloaded. And of course, the Bowery King in the next JW movies is Lawrence "Morpheus" Fishburne, it's like half a Matrix reunion, this series.
Also people are forgetting Daisy wasn’t the last someone he loved or loved him. Marcus was the only person would the assassins world who came to the funeral regardless of the point that Marcus wasn’t next to him he showed up anyway John thought he was just being nice. Throughout the movie Marcus has his back. After John killed Yuri he wasn’t going to go after Viggo Tarasov and his crew but when he found Marcus’ dead body he went on a second revenge quest cuz he finally saw that he actually had another person to love and love him he just didn’t see it. So John found out he was never going to be alone again and Viggo Tarasov took that from John like his idiot son did.
To be fair, they didnt put the dog in front of him, it dragged itself over to him with its last bit of strength while he was passed out... which is much sadder
Man I didn't know this until now...that hurts a lot
Would be super fucked up to heart this comment but it's true.
@@eXpriest please don’t heart it😢
It didnt look like that for me.
@@arno_nuehm_1
The blood trace is seen on the floor.
If it makes you feel better, Nat, NO ONE was prepared for this movie when it came out.
Truth.
I definitely wasn't
Purely true. Like, it changed action movies fundamentally. Just look at all the movies that copies its style afterwards.
It probably changed the genre and the industry.
Yeah I thought it sounded dumb I'm not gonna lie 🤣
@Diego Santos It was directed by a career stuntman, which is why all of the actions scenes are just so... perfect!
It's honestly the little scenes for me that makes this such a badass movie, Like Charlie and his clean up crew, and the execution of Ms. Perkins for breaking the rules of the Continental. It really shows how deep this universe is.
Not to mention the interaction with Jimmy 😂
A lesser movie would've spoon-fed the audience and had a narrator explaining Aurelio's shop, the mob boss, the codewords, the coins, the clean up crew, and the continental instead of just letting the audience find out through character interactions. It's why I can't watch movies with people anymore because too many times has someone turned to ask me a question that's literally about to be answered if they'd just pay attention.
Did you know the dude that played Charlie was in the movies 48 hrs with Eddie Murphy & Nick Nolte, The Warriors, he was a gang leader that started gang war & Total recall with Arnold Swartz,
Daisy actually crawled to him (denoted by the blood trail) in her last moments to be next to him
He said 27 kilograms, which is the number of bodyguards inside.
The bouncer was played by Kevin Nash, a former pro-wrestler. During an interview he said the exchange between him and Wick was code, and Wick thanked him by giving him the night off, ie not killing him.
I highly doubt Daisy was able to crawl, that hit was instantly lethal. It looked more like they kicked the body to John, leaving the blood trail while sliding over the floor.
Yeah, that made them even more deserving for what they got. Anyone else thought 'headshot' on the guy playing the shooter game …?
@@ShinoNC I wonder if the scene with John stabbing the big russian guy in the shoulder was an homage to Nash's accident in "The Punisher"?
@@Stephanie-es7wv Yeah the translated subtitles notoriously ruined the scene
Alfie Allen has really nailed the "sons who disappoint their fathers" roles.
Yeah, the poor fella seems to be unfortunately typecast into this sort of character. I just wanna see the kid play an HONEST character, that everyone likes, for once! lol
@@jacob4920 He was a pretty nice guy in Jojo rabbit!
Granted, he was also a Nazi. But let's not nitpick.
I've nailed that role in real life, too bad i can't get paid for it
@@theexiled3034 Same
He started early as a puppet. Check out the video for Lily Allen's song called Alfie lol
The part where John asks Francis how much weight he lost was actually him asking Francis about the amount of guards protecting Iosef. 60 lb = 27 kg, meaning there was 27 guards
Um, no. He said he lost 60 kilograms, not pounds. 60 guards on duty.
@@TheManlyVIK the subtitle says 60lb, but listen to the dialogue. He actually says in Russian "27 kilogram"
@@mallenwho Ah you're right. I guess I remembered what he actually said, "kilograma" so I thought in my head he meant kilograms.
My bad.
No, he said 20 kg in Russian. They just did a horrid job of converting it. They could have said 45 lb in the subtitle and it would have been mostly accurate and not seemed out of place.
Hey, to make you and everyone feel a little bit better. The actor that killed the dog, for the rest of the filming day, he was cuddling the dog every chance he could because he felt so bad
And then he adopted the puppy too
He did? I didn't know, that's pretty cool actually!
Also the dog didn't really die. He's just a great actof8
@@babayaga96792 And the poop was cgi
@@dr.burtgummerfan439 It's the little things we'll never forget.
It's not every day when a film has a protagonist that is FEARED by the antagonists, and this is done so well. The whole John Wick trilogy is a must-see.
4th movie coming next year
@@w1975b I can`t wait any longer, I want to watch it
That's why I like this and the Equalizer so much.
@@marinebttlemechanic THIS. i love seeing the protagonist being feared for once, the only difference between the two is that on one hand John wick makes people shit their pants cause they know how much of a fuck up they did angering him.
On the other hand in the equalizer the protagonist isn't really known so they expect for him to be a fairly normal individual but as the movie progresses they realize how much they too did fuck up.
Not me really, I saw the first one, and it was great, but he was lucky in the first one, the guy that was supposed to kill him after the opportunity was presented turned out to be on his side, meaning if it was someone else, he should have been dead. So when the 2nd or 3rd came out, I really didn’t care that much, and the story is no longer there, he is just someone who goes on rampage killing people for nothing. Even the first story make no sense to me, a very rich kid wants to show he is a gangster by stealing someone’s car and killed a puppy? Like, which part of it makes him worth more as a gangster, you can hire a boost team to get the car whenever he is outside, or just boost another similar car, or buy the damn car from a collector. His father had more common sense to go for bigger impacts, his son goes to downgraded version. Like a king goes to conquer lands, while a prince goes to steal a stallion. Da-fuq?
the reason why the action scenes are so well done is because the director is a long time hollywood stund co-ordinator! Great work throughout the series.
Daisy was played by Andy.
Andy was chosen because of how brain meltingly adorable he was. The directors went after the most adorable dog they could find and insisted killing Daisy was necessary to the story, fighting producers who were against killing the dog. The producers fought it all the way to testing and finally gave in to allowing the killing to remain in the film when they saw the way the test audiences reacted. The directors knew what they were doing, that it would allow the average person to set aside guilt over what John would do for the rest of the film. It would help the audience empathize and cheer rather than feel more conflicted over the titular character.
Andy got to walk on a few red carpets with the rest of the stars and apparently gave out some paw-tographs to some very eager fans.
Even though it was just acting, the actor who (pretend) killed Andy really struggled with it. Every time they had a cut, he picked up Andy and held him.
Andy had his time in the spotlight as a youngster, got to come visit Keanu and friends on the set of the Third film, and is now apparently happily in retirement.
Not long after his stardom in the first John Wick film, Andy found his forever home and was renamed 'Wick' by the children of the forever family who adopted him.
😭😍
@@thishandleisntavailable861 I don't know of a specific page/article that lists all of the information together. I got the information from various articles over time. You should be able to find it all with some searches.
The choice of Andy as the dog was from a USA Today interview where the directors themselves spoke about it.
Plenty of pictures of Andy on the red carpet if you do a quick search.
There are multiple cast/crew interviews where they talk about the actor having a tough time with the killing scene.
I don't remember where it was published, but the information about Andy being adopted was from Andy's trainer. The trainer personally knew the adopting family.
Two nice details form this film:
- When John comments on the guard who has lost weight, the subtitles give the weight in Lbs, but he actually describes it in KGs, and the amount in KGs is the amount of people John kills inside the club (suggesting he was actually tipping John off about how many guards were inside).
- The dog he takes at the end from the shelter had written on it's info that it was due to be put down, so John saved it's life.
That's really interesting I never would've caught either of those
yea i remember they explained it in a interview. i never knew why they emphasized it so much until that
Whoa, I never realized that first detail. He even puts emphasis on the word sixty both vocally and it's bolded in the captions. That's cool.
John also lets himself get stabbed in the stomach which has a high chance of survivability, in return for stabbing Viggo in the main artery that sits right below the colorbone, which will kill you in a matter of seconds.
Another code some people miss is the "dinner reservations". 12 at John's house and the man at the hotel desk asking John if he will need a dinner reservation - for Perkins.
Keanu's status as a legit action star was already solidified a long time ago. Speed, Point Break, The Matrix, Johnny Mnemonic, etc.
You couldn't blame anyone for thinking he had already peaked, then he goes and does this!
..uhhh..we don't talk about Johnny Mnemonic.
Re: the time with the dog. My opinion was that killing the dog quickly hurt John more, because John realizes that he was ROBBED of the opportunity to live with and love the dog. Daisy was his wife's LAST act of love toward him, and like John said, they "KILLED THAT FROM ME!" They robbed him of possibly 10 or so YEARS of that last gift. it would enrage me too.
Agree. She was also just a puppy and robbed of her full life but as you say John didn't get that time with her like his wife had wanted for him.
Not only living but it was also helping him cope and deal with the lost, not go back to what his previous live was.
@@AugustoEL its why i liked that he picked up another dog at the end of the movie., like he still tried to fill in the blank space by replacing it with another dog.(well that is just how i percieve it of course)
@@redsampler2017 oh yeah the poor dude does not want any shit, he just wanted to be left alone with his doggo, but shit had to happen.
@@AugustoEL yup the gasstation scene it reminds like that scene from high plains drifter ruclips.net/video/Q_iFpchZe20/видео.html , dude just went to a bar to get a beer and a bottle of whiskey and a peacefull hour to drink it in... but yeah they couldn,t let him be..💀
ive seen enough such situations and shit stirring people in my life.(yeah sure go poke the bear why don,t ya?)
and they all gonna meet someone someday that is the wrong person to be messing with, its like a universal law..
The "dinner reservation" that the front desk was asking about is if John needed the clean up crew. John also made a dinner reservation for 12 after he killed the guys in his house. So the clean up crew cleaned 12 bodies up.
and also, the guy in the door in the club says he lost 60kg and that the number of guards inside
Keanu Reeves actually can shoot like that. He also can do his own fight scenes. He trains like a mad man for these movie.
On a human level he has seen plenty of tragedy. He is also an incredibly kind and generous man. He has more than earned my respect as a person and an actor. In that order.
He went through a lot of specialized tactical training for the movie.
Dogs can't defend themselves like people can.
If you're wondering about why they were putting so much emphasis on Francis' weight and emboldened the 'SIXTY', they're actually speaking in code.
"You've lost weight." = "How many are inside?"
"Over Sixty Pounds." = "Over Sixty men."
A small but clever way of letting us know that these two have more history than just a simple exchange of names.
EDIT: as jodonnell64 pointed out, the subtitles were incorrect. Francis actually says '27 kilograms' which almost rounds out to 60 pounds. So, spoken dialogue translates directly into '27 kilograms = 27 guards inside'. Thanks!
The "subtitle" was wrong... sort of. What Francis actually said was 27 kilograms, which works out to a bit over 60 pounds. There were 27 of Viggo's people in there.
Searched for this before saying it...
@@jodonnell64 to be precise, he said "more than 20 kg", IIRC
@@jodonnell64 Ahhhh thank you, that helps put things a lot more clearly. I'll edit my comment with your correction!
@@jackhealy3328, You are all men of culture in this thread. Of course, Europeans speak "metrics" - so it is the English subtitles that lost the plot.
I love how this movie emphasizes reloading rather than having seemingly unlimited rounds. Weird detail that I enjoy
Reeves really works at that realism and his trainers say he could run the pro circuit.
Seriously. Those details are part of what makes this what it is. Along with the dedication and training that Keanu committed to. They didn't make him look good with camera angles, editing, and stunt men. He was just that good.
Oh. And the long takes during the action. No cuts, no breaks.
True!
Don't forget the bullet count, it's satisfyingly accurate
The John Wick house is out here on Long Island in a very exclusive town called Mill Neck.. I believe it's at the end of Horseshoe road.. -- The air field where John practices driving is Republic Airport in Farmingdale, NY..
One of my personal favorite lines in this series: “I once saw him kill three men in a bar…with a pencil. With a F*CKING…PENCIL.” So badass and scary.
Show me greatest line of exposition, without any exposition!
He's the one you send to kill the boogy man!
@@Smido83 damn straight!
I call BS on that, just trying to hype him up. No way you could kill more than 2 men in a bar with a pencil...
@@chrissheppard2150 there will be a callback to this line in the second film.
The reason why john asked frances “hey you lost weight. How much?” Was to get an understanding of how many security guards were in there. Out of respect for john, the body guard let him know. john then returned the favor and let frances go.
holy shit!! never noticed that thx!
Oh damn, i didn't realize that!
Lol no
@@brizzle711 watch the kevin nash interview on his role in jon wick
Yeah In Russian he doesn’t actually say 60 like the subtitles, he says the precise number of men that John fights inside
"It was so smooth..." A rule in shooting and reloading: "Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast."
The greatest "Oh" in movie history. In one syllable he said, "Thank you Aurelio, I understand the situation and of course you acted appropriately....shit." The arm swing at the end is also choice acting.
"It was at that moment he knew... his son fucked up."
R.I.P. Michael Nyqvist. Excellent Swedish actor who passed away in 2017 at 56 due to lung cancer. We miss him :'(
Willem Dafoe in John Wick: "You know, I'm something of an assassin myself"
Ok... you win the internets today! 🤣
"I understood that reference."
The look on John's face at the car outside the continental is actual suprise. The director had them bring Keanu's car in for the scene
He went through crazy firearms training and martial arts for these movies btw, he works very hard at it and we all appreciate it!
Yes he did. ruclips.net/video/Xii9_oWQ7HY/видео.html
Just like how he really learned martial arts for the matrix movies. Keanu takes method acting to another level lol
I like the directors quote about his training "The best way to fake being good at it is to just... be good at it"
I’ve seen this movie and it only just now stuck with me the final scene when you had asked how John knew there was a kennel there. John knew where it was because in the next shot, he’s where his wife collapsed at the beginning of the movie. They would have had to walk past the shelter, and (myself theorizing) that may also be where she bought the dog for him.
And the end scene where he stabs himself in order to break Viggo's arm... he already had a stitched up wound there, so he wasn't really doing much additional damage. He merely re-opened the existing wound, then stapled it up a few minutes later. Small detail, but it shows his skill in quickly assessing damage versus reward and doing what needed to be done to win the fight quickly.
Exactly. The way he was stabbed you can see him controlling the entry point. He was also on pain killers from the doc to boot. In the scene where Perkins hits him in the wound he was prolly still feeling the effects of the local as well.
@@Mr.Ekshin it's a cool scene but also massively idiotic.
Then that's even more brilliant, because the movie/story came full circle.
@@crankfastle8138 - If it were you, you'd have aimed it at your head... where it wouldn't damage anything critical.
Winston is the manager of the Continental. In case you missed it, the Concierge is named Charon, as in the ferryman who takes the souls of the newly dead across the river Styx to Hades.
They straight up introduced John Wick the way you normally introduce the terrifyingly powerful villain. And i LOVE jt
This has only been done in two movies I know of. This one and equalizer. Of course equalizer did it in a more low key way
Best thing about John Wick is that it's a story about grief. An amazing action movie with a deep heart.
Really hope you watch the sequels. It only gets better. Hard to find anyone in Hollywood more grounded and awesome than Reeves. I met him, very briefly, at a 2-gun event while he was training for JW2. Absolute class act of a human.
I met Keanu (and Lawrence Fishburne and Carrie Anne Moss) during the filming of The Matrix Reloaded. I was Security Supervisor for a warehouse, and they used half of it as a sound stage. Keanu wanted to give me one of the Aprilia motorcycles they used in a chase scene. A true gentleman, and a wonderful human being.
Also, his growling of, "But now, yeah! I'm thinkin' I'm back!!" is one of the most badass Keanu moments ever put to screen.
Without Marcus he would be dead, so that undermines the scene for me.
@@Matej_Sojka But Marcus wouldn't have been watching out for him if John wasn't the kind of person that he was.
I knew it reached a bigger platform when famous EDM DJ's used those lines in his intro before beginning his session at the major edm concerts some years ago.
@@Matej_Sojka I'm thinking that it was more than professional courtesy between Marcus and John. I'm thinking that it was personal. There's a brilliant backstory there that may come in a later installment (perhaps in JW4). Willem Dafoe is so awesome.
What's worse is that they didn't leave Daisy beside John, the puppy didn't die immediately, she crawled next to John before she died.
There are people on here disputing that, but they are over thinking idiots.
Someone on another reaction video noted that Viggo served his son, Iosef, the bottom shelf crap vodka in a cheap glass and even though he poured himself one, he never drank it WITH his son. Viggo just puts it back on the bar. Viggo punches his son, goes behind the bar, and then pours himself top end vodka in a top end glass and drinks it by himself. That's how low he thought of his son at that point.
Point of contention: there are some dudes out there who will say, "It's just a dog. You can always get another dog." Right, and you can always replace the spark plugs on a classic Mustang. The movie distinctly made the gravity of Iosef's fuck-up when Viggo told him in the bar scene, "It was over a woman, of course. So I gave him an impossible task...the bodies he buried that day laid the foundation of what we are." That puppy was "over a woman." Yes, John got a dog at the end of the movie (and a rescued pit bull, no less), but it was for himself and wasn't a gift from his late wife.
I love how there was no way to justify this movie in the eyes of the audience, all the killing John does, without killing a dog. Killing his wife would have even been questionable to the audience, but because it's a dog, we're ALL on board to watch him tear them apart. Side note, this movie is one of the rare exceptions where the protagonist is vastly stronger than the antagonists, and it works. Normally you want the hero to feel like he's overcoming some great obstacle or challenge, but we just want to watch him find the dog killer and end him.
Even worse, a puppy. Extra innocent. Right after that happens, the graves of those who were involved are already dug in your mind.
It’s not just because it was his dog it was the last gift by his wife to him and the dog represents his wife’s wish that John find some happiness after she has past.
Well, wife and kids worked for the Punisher. But I like the point, the revenge motivation has to be pretty strong for something like this.
And the protagonist being stronger than the antagonists works because John is established early as a paragon type character who starts the movie as already the best of the best at what he does. The great obstacle is killing all of them, not killing one of them 😄
Well, it is always good to watch a professional at work
even tough john is stronger than his enemies, he still get his ass kicked a lot, its ok for your hero to be stronger than the vilain, as long as you pu your hero in a clear disadvantage, that shos that he has to use his wit, rather than his power, to overcome the odds, also, john doesnt do it alone, he has help, another thing that is good to show your hero's human side.
about the dog, the thing is, a dog, specialy a pupy, is a pure thing, with no evil, is like killing a baby, you're killing something that never commited a sin, you're destroying a pure soul, so we're all on board with "divine punishment" for those who ruin pure souls.
My favourite thing about this move is that John is described as "The guy you send to kill the fucking Boogeyman" and the movie proves that this isn't just an exaggeration.
Exactly. Not just an assassin. But the assassin's Assassin.
Hi, several things:
- first when you are emotionally attached to someone, when you lose that someone the attachment transfers to what remains of that person. Losing the dog is like losing his love all over again.
- as far as the continental is concerned - why do you think it doesn't already exist?
Honestly it is a genius plot. You make the audience absolutely hate the villains to remove any hint of sympathy. and then you set loose an unstoppable avenger to brutalize them. You get to have brutal action throughout without guilt
Yeah, there is nothing John can do to the bad guys that feels like it goes too far in light of what that punk did. Really important when you consider the amount of people he takes out and how brutally he does it. It's heartbreaking, but you kind of need something that harsh to justify it emotionally
I absolutely love how we get a movie where the villains are scared of the protagonist and you understand their fear, but likewise are happy to see them in fear.
Even moreso than the action, this series does incredible world-building in such efficient strokes and suggestions of complexity. Thoroughly enjoyed the reaction!
And not once do I remember a pointless never ending monologue of explanation or exposition, a lot of it is shown as it happens. And the few times things need to be spoken, it's done naturally, thanks to the actors being generally pleasing on screen and speaking like humans would.
I agree. It feels a bit like a world just beyond our perception, as if it's hiding in the shadows of our world. It gives it great texture, like it's just believable enough while stretching what the audience will accept as based in reality.
There've been a couple of movies that also felt like they could somewhat fit into others corners of the world created in John Wick. "The Night Comes For Us" is one from Indonesia, and there was about a female assassin, I think it was Korean but I'm completely blanking on the title, that I think really fit. I'd love to see more even unofficial movies that fit the mold in that way, as I think it's a really interesting "crime world" they've come up with.
I think one of my favorite "world-building" scenes is the cop who comes to talk with John about the noise complaint. It's brief, but it says so much about the character and the world he's in with few words. "You working again John?" It tells you this is not a man to be trifled with. Even the cops know not to get involved. This underground world of serious assassins just gets better and better as we are brought along for the ride. We also get the pencil trick...the Joker ain't got nothing on John Wick.
This movie shamelessly uses the two most common tropes to get you to sympathize with the main character, lost a spouse, lost a dog, and yet, they do it so well, you don't care and you're so invested. They did a really good job at showing how to properly use tropes and I love it.
Fun fact:
The doctor at the Continental is played by Randall Duk Kim, who also played "The Keymaker" in the Matrix Reloaded.
I found it fascinating how Winston "the management", calls him Johnathan, whereas everyone else calls him John. It teases at such a rich, well-developed world with all of these characters - the police officer, the guys at the airport gate, the guard at the club, the bartender, etc.
a pure case of "Show, don't tell".
You get a lot of world building and character from seeing them interact with one another, instead of been told and fed the reasons why they know each others and why they act that way.
I think it's blown a bit out of proportion with the amount of random Assassins we see on the streets.
@@rc59191 Not so random. They're all called for a purpose, in all three movies -- to make a lot of money eliminating one of the most dangerous men in the world.
I think it’s the fact that Winston and a John are actually friends, just like the bartender called him Jonathan as well
it's the side characters that really make the movie work. There is no exposition, everybody just talks and acts like this is how the world works, so even if you don't know the details, you believe it
The assassins in this universe have their own everything. Their own hotel which is the Continental, their own currency which are the gold coins and even their own services like a clean up crew and a doctor to stitch up wounds like you just saw.
I remember being sold on this movie like this: "You like dogs, right?" "Yes, of course..." "You want to see Keanu kill tf out of everybody?" "... YES, OF COURSE."
Who ever said that too you is a horrible person
lmao, i was just told by my friend to watch it 2 days before part 3 , telling me to watch this and part 2 back to back to have part 3 next on the theatre
@@a.mseymour180 at some point you forgot to delete this horribel reply, but it's not too late.
Hehe...
This movie is made by stunt folk... and as far as I've heard, the actors they've cameo'd were all actors who were like "oh hell the stunt crew? They make ME look good, I wish t'hell I could do a tenth of what dey do" (and in many cases devoted part of their own salaries to them) over the years.
So these guys (and gals but mostly guys) get together and say "we want some of the old school action movie stuff, today. We're all painted out, or replaced with CGI, and yet we STILL take the hits on the day and get less and less respect. We're people of focus, of commitment!"
They made John Wick. A mortal god, a normal man with aimbot, a man who doesn't take anyone's shit because he's got so many No. 2s that he kills people with them. He's a reflection of them. It's also part of why incoming vehicles aren't part of his jutsu, his peripheral only sees fists and bullets.
Jokes aside, most stuntmen are de facto martial artists of great skill, and their very job demands they endure pain. Like John, they get beat to pieces and get up repeatedly to finish the job.
So these people, these hard ass crazy people, create this character and world that's a very respectful salute to their profession and the actors who have respected them...
...they take this man John, and go...
"...so how do we ACTUALLY hurt this man?"
They take away the only woman he has ever loved and has loved him, and the last gift she left for him in an attempt to save his soul.
So the next time you wonder what real men are?
They're the folk who love their family and their f*cking beagle puppies, and they WILL kill for both.
@@wren7195
Someone has a hard on for stunt people 😂😂😂
"Over sixty pounds." He was telling him how many guards there are.
27 kilograms. (so, 27 and not 60). But yes.
@@QuayNemSorr It's because the subtitles listed it in standard even though the guard actually says 27 kg. You can see the subtitles in that scene, if you don't blink.
Francis actually says 20 kilograms in Russian.
I'm not surprised at all you cuddled your peppers after this! I refused to watch this on my own because of the dog, and I'm glad I got to see it for the first time with a dog owner and lover such as yourself, made it a little easier. This was so awesome!
Natalie: "I get really scared with knives."
Me: "John Wick 3 is gonna be a treat for you." ;)
Thought the same 😂
Prop Guys: How many knives will we need for this movie?
Chad Stahelski: Yes.
@John Casamassa she would be scared of a pencil
@@anuragkshirsagar1589 a fuuuuking pencil
more like
Pencil: Am I a joke to you?
FYI: When the security guy replied to John about the weight, he was actually replying about how many security personnel in the club. 60 pound = 27 kilograms. You can hear him replying in kilograms, not pounds.
That's what I heard anyway.
The whole reason Francis was spared was because he gave that intel.
Yep this was confirmed by the actor who played Francis, Kevin Nash, in an interview.
Francis actually says 20 kilograms (DVATtsat') which would be 44 pounds. 27 would be DVATtsat' SYEM' and would have pretty much matched the number of security who were killed. The english translation is wrong and makes it harder to realise what information Francis gives.
Wow, I didn't realise that. I thought it was another example of everyone in this world knowing one another well.
The scene with Frances is also telling of how dangerous John Wick is. Frances is a mobsters body guard who happily leaves his post when faced with John. He's more worried about John than the lethal response he would likely get from his boss.
The reason they emphasize how much "weight" the guard lost is because they aren't talking about weight. He's telling John how many guards are inside
Bs. Nash made that up.
@@willdallas53 who the fuck is Nash?
Also call bs all you want, that's actually the reason
@@criseist9786 Kevin Nash is the name of the actor/retired professional wrestler that played said guard.
@@DrLipkin Kevin Nash was also in The Punisher with Thomas Jane
He played a character called "The Russian." In one scene, a stunt went wrong and Thomas legit stabbed him with a dull knife.
Kevin Nash, being a wrestler, no-sold it. Then pulled out the knife (which was dumb, you should let medical staff do it) and stitched himself up with super glue.
That's the scene they used in the final film and you can see the look on Jane's face of horror of what he just did, but it works as it plays as shock on Frank Castle's face of "Oh, this guy isn't going to go down."
@@willdallas53 If you make the conversion of kg to lbs he would've lost 132lbs. That's a lot of weight to have lost and still look the way he did and is less believable than if he was informing John of how many guards are inside
Natalie: "Oh he was an assassin. Now he's coming out of retirement just for you"
Also Natalie at the same moment: Sort of Sadistic smile and probably thinking "He is so FUCKED!!!"
I read a comment that read: When you leave out all the death and the violence, this is just a movie about a guy in a nice house who gets a dog and then goes adopt another one so the first dog has a friend :)
The most underrated part of the John Wick films, I feel, is the world building. It has such a living, breathing universe with interesting and visually stunning quirks. The characters feel like they exist outside of John's story and give the series a sense of history without having to do the annoying origin story stuff. I think the third film was the best yet, so I'm looking forward to Chapter Four.
When I watched the first movie I was pretty convinced it had to be based on a comic series or something. The world just seemed so detailed, like there had to be backstory there.
John Wick: The guys messed with the wrong guy.
John Wick 2: The guys didn't learn.
John Wick 3: Oh boy, here we go again...
John Wick 4: You really like pain, do you?
John Wick: You did this to you.
John Wick 2: I did this to me.
John Wick 3: We did this to us.
@@ZachLorton yeah consequences of our own actions aint it
John Wick: Fuck this glass
John Wick 2: Fuck THIS glass
John Wick 3: Fuck ALL this glass as well
john wick 5: ok you guys are you trolling me now
You should check out the videos showing Keanu training with guns - he's actually amazing. He trained with TaranTactical, and Taran was very complimentary about how good Keanu really was with the firearms training. And Halle Berry training for JW 3 also at Taran Tactical was also very good.
I’ve seen this so many times and the dog yelp gets me every time. The “where did you get this car” , “oh” and then Vigo’s monologue about who John are my favorite parts.
Apparently, the actor who pretended to kill the dog was real shook up about the whole thing, and spent the rest of filming playing with the puppy.
@@WisteriaDrake yeah Alfie Allen is a real sweetheart
Same here and Perkins's demise.
Nat: "Being an actor in that role must be the best." (referring to Jimmy at the front door)
Great call. "You... ah... workin' again John?" is such a classic line. Such great delivery.
They never say it in the movie but John’s “retirement” job is as a Book conservator.
Two things about this movie:
1: The guy who played Viggo was a very famous Swedish actor, and this was one of his last movies. He knew that he was dying of cancer when filming but didn't tell anyone.
2: You could make a really cool short reaction video to the firearms training sessions that Keanu did for the role.
Isn't he the same guy that Bruce Wayne gives his fancy overcoat to in Batman Begins?
@@ballybunion9 No.
He ws also the main villain in Mission Impossible 4. He was also the main lead in the original Girl With The Dragon Tattoo with Naoomi Rapace.
@@JamesDavis-sh9gh He was amazing in Girl With Dragon Tattoo, loved that series, not surprised but sad that the English remake sucked and failed to make more than one.
@@JamesDavis-sh9gh Yes, I know. Like I said, famous Swedish actor.
The puppy was probably one of the best character motivations I have seen in a long time.
So, so many people shot in the face over that poor puppy. And I am all for it.
Same, I'd kill the world for my dog. I get it.
john wick has one of the greatest character introductions ever, after getting beat up and left its the reactions of all other characters that tell you how screwed these guys are. Car guy punches the bosses son and stares down a gun cause he knows whats worse, big bad mob boss calls and starts as a mysterious threat but as soon as he hears the name it drops all theatrics cause they know they cant play around, people already expect that the son is dead before Johns even finished digging up his tools
The only character introduction that has this impact is the first appearance of Wesley Snipes in Blade. THAT was scene setting!
One of the best examples of 'show not tell' for the setting. You just see how people react to him. Get glimpses of how the gold coins and underworld operate rather than having it explained.
Exactly. They don't spell it all out for you with a bunch of exposition. They just drop some clues and trust the audience to be intelligent enough to piece it together for themselves.
“Dogs are god’s gift to the world, and people are not.” I laughed way harder at this than I should’ve
The heavy who knocked John down twice is Daniel Bernhardt. Terrific stunt work. He was also in Atomic Blonde and a particularly violent episode of Barry. Usually plays the boss fight type
"2 years ago, he killed 3 men in a bar with a pencil, a Fucking pencil."
That's one way of describing him.
If anything the story's have been watered down.
Seeing a movie with intense action scenes and no "shaky-cam" is like that first gasp of air after too long underwater.
In the final fight with Viggo, when John lets himself get stabbed, he specifically guides the blade into his wound from earlier, so it doesn't do too much damage while giving him that advantage
One of the most awesome parts about this movie (aside from the incredible choreography and soundtrack) is the amount of world building that went into it. You get a sense of this world but no one ever really explains it, but it's consistent and feels real.
Yep, love how they give it to you in small pieces.
I agree. Skipping the origin story and going right into the world where he's already an established entity in the underworld was one of the things that made it great.
In the Comics and Lore of this universe the Assassins deal in the Gold Coins because Gold is untraceable, holds it's value better than cash, cannot be intercepted by Government agencies and they serve as a status symbol and proof of association with the Table.....
Keanu Reeves trained extensively with professional competitive speed shooters for this movie so his handling and reloads of the guns would look as fast and smooth as a professionals would be. He trained with some of the best in the world and they said by the time he was ready to shoot the movie he could complete 3 gun shooting drills they use in professional competitions with decently competitive times. Not enough to win, but well enough to hang in the pack.... not bad for an actor lol
For me it was less about the connection to his dog and more of what the dog represented. A gift from his wife after her passing. For John Wick the dog was a little piece of his wife still with him. So for me it was a lot more than "I loved this dog and now I'm going to kill everyone".
Yeah, if you look during the "not for sale" scene, his back seat is filled with dog toys. He was about to spoil the crap out of this dog.
Exactly. Such brilliant writing and storytelling. It "shows" how much John loved his wife, and it also suggests that he retired for her. I love how these guys establish this world and that John walked away because he loved her.
Natalie talked about wanting him to have more time with the dog to establish how much of a loss it was when it was killed. But the 2 or 3 day span was actually perfect, because it was the very last part of his wife left. If, say, the dog died in transit, there would be a minimal amount of loss felt by him. And if he'd had Daisy for a few months when she was killed, he'd be heartbroken, but he would have spent those months processing and grieving for his wife with Daisy. But the fact that he was just *beginning* the process made it that much worse. It was the only hope he had left suddenly torn away before he could start.
Brilliantly said
With the dog gone John literally had nothing left to lose. The only place to put his grief was in revenge.
The dog was the last thing his wife gave John. The sentimental value of this spoke to how much his wife meant to him. Someone took the last thing his wife gave him which enraged him because the puppy was the last vestige John had of the love of his life.
This movie is a perfect example of 'show dont tell'
It would be easy to just say John wick is a badass, but letting it be unsaid and showing us what a badass he is... perfect
I'm pretty sure when John pulled the knife into himself in the final battle, it went into the same area he was previously wounded in earlier in the film to minimize the damage. 👍
Exactly - it was the same spot he was wounded by the bottle.
And he had taken the med to help
Doesn't make it any less idiotic. I love this film and it's a cool scene, but still.
Exactly, well noticed! John knew Viggo could beat him in strength alone, so he uses that strength and directs the knife to a part of his body that's already been damaged rather than having Viggo stab him somewhere that could do more damage, then breaks his arm to incapacitate him and use the knife against him.
Obviously a crazy move but it ultimately wins him the fight, plus it's badass as all hell 🤣
@@crankfastle8138 you ok little buddy?
Of all the videos I've seen, this one is magnificent. She uses it to cover up bad words for Daisy, and when the dog dies uses her grave. Haha I don't know whether to laugh or cry. I love you Nat.
I'm not even an action movie fan, but I feel like John Wick as a standalone film (the sequels are interesting for world building, too) is just so much fun and a very well done film. I think alot of people can enjoy this flick.
Fun fact: This film’s opening breaks every screenwriting rule in the book. Starts with a flash forward that’s starts at the end of the third act, flashes back to the MC waking up in bed and hitting their alarm, shows the monotonous morning routine, etc.
The craziest part is that it FUCKING. WORKS.
God I love this movie.
I'm confused. Why do you say it "breaks every screenwriting rule." One rule is to grab your audience's attention with something exciting at the start, and one way this is done if the first events (chronologically) aren't exciting enough is with a flash forward. (Another rule followed is to get your audience to root for your protagonist early by, for example, having him "save the cat" -- or, in this case, by having an antagonist kill his puppy.)
Breaking bad and better call Saul do this all the time
Flash-forwards have been used to great effect in a number of great movies and tv shows. Flashbacks, on the other hand, are usually considered a little bit hacky because they've been super overused and used poorly, and that's why beginning screenwriters are often warned against using them. The "showing the morning routine" issue I've never heard though I can imagine some screenwriting teacher might consider it cliche... BUT, like anything else, there are no hard and fast rules to screenwriting or storytelling. You do what's right for the story you're telling, period. If you know how to use flash-forwards or flashbacks properly and not as a crutch, there's nothing wrong with using them. If the morning routine is drawing a contrast between the action scenes around it and adding dimensionality to your character and/or world, it serves a purpose.
Not sure where your "screenwriting rules" are coming from but any great writer will tell you that rules are there to be broken... as long as you're breaking them for a purpose and not simply because that's what other movies do or because you can't come up with a better way to communicate exposition. The "rules" are for beginners. Pros know when and why to break them.
@@johnplaysgames3120 I’m using “rules” loosely. I’m not at all saying these things can’t happen in good films. They were things I was taught in a screenwriting class from Richard Hatem.
15:30 I'm pretty sure the cop knows John is a retired mafia assassin and also knows he's in way over his head. He's just doing the bare minimum required for his job and hoping he makes it out alive.
I'm imagining Natalie being an assassin - emoting and yelling out everything she's doing when killing someone, and crying over the body.
That's hilarious 😂😂😂 and true.
Oh no, not the knives, I hate knives more than guns.
proceeds to stab everyone in the room.
The bond between him and the dog was so strong even after a short time because it was the last gift and a memory of his wife.
I think it’s sadder that he lost the dog so early honestly. It was his ONE CHANCEat a normal life, he’d thought he’d have a friend for a decade before he lost someone else
17:58 My favorite detail! This is the guard subtly telling John that he can expect 30+ (60lbs/27kg) gunmen inside the club. It's the little details and conversations like this that make the Wick universe feel so full and interesting. The final kill count for wick inside the club is 28 people.
He says 60kg, not 60lbs
The subtitles are actually incorrect. In russian he says 27kg which translates to 60lbs.
6:08 that's probably Keanus real crying face btw, I heard in an interview he channeled/remembered the emotions from losing is wife and child in a car accident. Happened party early into their marriage. Keanu has had a pretty tough life, and he turned out to be an absolute gem of wholeosme and breath taking.
I saw JW3 in a completely packed theater on opening night, and it’s the only time in my life I’ve heard several hundred people, myself included, yell “oh sh*t!” in unison spontaneously. It was amazing.
"He was the one you sent to kill the f**king boogeyman."
That's such a bone-chilling line. Let's you know what kind of person you're dealing with.
It’s up there with Heisenberg’s “I’m the one who knocks.”
One of my all time favorite trilogies...you're in for quite the ride!
Same the John Wick movies are rad
I made the mistake of binge watching all 3 films back to back. By the time I made it to the 3rd film, I was emotionally numb. It was like the rule of cool had left me with a concussion.
it's not going to be a trilogy anymore next year, fourth one is coming
@@sebastianwiton2907 hell yeah and i'm excited. This time i'm gonna watch that one in theaters for sure.
@@duckway4733 I would hold off on that excitement...almost never does the 4th movie in a series land well...just saying.
It wasn't about the dog. It was the fact he couldn't get vengeance for the disease that killed his wife. In the beginning, you can see he doesn't know how to handle her death. It why he goes into the airport to scream and do donuts. The act of killing the dog and stealing his car gave him an outlet.
Knife fights in the trilogy are handled up to real life standards. They’re not like you throw one where it isn’t vital, and instantly kills the person. I love they show the struggle of a real fight, still a bit Hollywoodized but hell of a series of 👊🏼 scenes
The instinct that knives are scarier than guns is correct.
There's nothing fun about gun fights, but fighting with knives is just worse in every way.
How can you tell who won a knife-fight?
The victor bleeds to death in the Emergency Room, and not the alley.
@@thomashiggins9320 not Mr. Wick😎
Don't take a knife to a John Wick fight- CinemaSins
Rush a gun and run from a knife- prison yard wisdom
18:10 Francis is, literally, the smartest person in the whole series. He knows he's not match for JW, even if he hadn't gotten the drop on him, so when offered a chance to walk away he takes it!
The actor in an interview said, that when Wick asks him, "You've lost some weight." To which he replies, "Over sixty pounds" He was actually giving Wick the number of henchmen inside the club. Which is also why Wick told him to take the night off... for helping him.
@@mikelant6802 Still a smart move when up against John Wick
Francis and Jimmy are two of the smartest characters in cinematic history.
They know exactly who and what he is, and want no troubles.
Francis talking about losing weight is him telling John how many Guards there are , he gives John information and John let's him live because he did so and also didn't fight back.
The thing I like about this movie series is Keanu Reeves PERSONALLY made sure ALL animals on set where taken care of and where ok the man is literally Jesus Christ and nothing will change that for me lol
I know 😅
I would too. It's jarring to see animals killed in movies even if you know they aren't really killed. I would want to see to them myself because of my conscience needing to see them ok throughout filming
That's what he does. I mean damn, this dude took his girlfriend on set to visit Lance Reddick when he was on a day off. Keanu is like the best human being on earth
"Is he high?"
It's fairly subtle, but Vigo is steadily getting drunker and higher throughout the movie. By the end, yeah, he's completely wasted.
The John Wick house is out here on Long Island is in a very exclusive town called Mill Neck.. The runway he practices on is Republic Airport in Farmingdale, NY ..
Natalie: "In Viggo's position I wouldn't protect the son."
Also Natalie: "He sold out his son? What a great father."
Shows the weird mentality she has!
Classic Nat
She said that the first time talking as the guys working for Viggo, like she said if she was in their position she'd say "fuck this kid" not that Viggo himself would say that.
I think Jimmy the cop knew that if he had a problem, John could make a “dinner reservation” for him just as easily as the other guys 😂
The back story is that the police and the Assassin's Guild have an understanding and treat each other as fellow professionals.
In an interview with the actor who played the bouncer Francis that John Wick let live at the entrance to the night club scene, he said the odd discussion about his weight loss and the emphasized "Sixty" was to let the audience know he was giving John code to let him know how many men were in the club protecting the son
They were emphasizing the amount of kilograms he lost because he was actually telling John how many bodyguards are in the club, instead of his actual weight loss.
So he _didn't_ lose 132 pounds? 😁
That miniboss guy that John fought and lost to was actually the agent in the second Matrix movie, and the guy who directed these movies was actually a stunt coordinator in Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions and Keanu's stunt double in the first. You got a bit of everyone there!
Fun fact: the guy who was giving John the hardest fight in the club was also one of the upgraded Agents in the Matrix sequels, Daniel Bernhardt. The doctor is Randal Duk Kim, who played the Keymaker in Matrix Reloaded. And of course, the Bowery King in the next JW movies is Lawrence "Morpheus" Fishburne, it's like half a Matrix reunion, this series.
Also people are forgetting Daisy wasn’t the last someone he loved or loved him. Marcus was the only person would the assassins world who came to the funeral regardless of the point that Marcus wasn’t next to him he showed up anyway John thought he was just being nice. Throughout the movie Marcus has his back. After John killed Yuri he wasn’t going to go after Viggo Tarasov and his crew but when he found Marcus’ dead body he went on a second revenge quest cuz he finally saw that he actually had another person to love and love him he just didn’t see it. So John found out he was never going to be alone again and Viggo Tarasov took that from John like his idiot son did.