The John Wick series has come very far from that one movie about a hitman exacting vengeance for the death of his dog that Lionsgate had so little confidence in they very nearly released it straight to home video. In the hands of stuntman-turned-director Chad Stahelski and executive producer and star Keanu Reeves it has become one of the defining action franchises of modern Hollywood, each installment getting a little bigger and more audacious -in terms of plot, creativity, and strong filmmaking style alike. Indeed these are by a comfortable margin the most exciting action movies out of Hollywood presently -even against their most high profile competitors in Mission: Impossible and Fast and the Furious. There’s just no matching their stunning set pieces and wildly spontaneous fight choreography, to say nothing of the fun characters and charming world-building.
John Wick Chapter 4 brings all of these things to their ultimate form and it’s right that it would be the last of this series (Stahelski has left some doors open and there is a spin-off Ballerina coming in the next year, but he and Reeves seem ready to put the series at least on pause). The themes and character arcs reach their apparent culmination here, which in addition to the movie being filled to the brim with thrilling moments and new avenues of drama and stakes that compliment the plot and these same themes, allows the movie to earn its genuine catharsis in a way so many film series don’t.
It takes a minute to get here though. The movie begins, as its predecessors have, picking up where the last installment left it, though with a greater time-jump; John Wick (Reeves) embarking on a mission to overturn the High Table, which governs the series’ international ring of elite assassins, from the underground lair of Laurence Fishburne’s Bowery King. His old friend Winston (Ian McShane), sees his Continental hotel destroyed by one of the Table’s members, the Marquis de Gramont (Bill Skarsgård), who the Table has put in charge of eliminating Wick, with all of the resources they can provide, before Wick can get to them.
Among these resources is the formerly retired Caine (Donnie Yen), a blind assassin and old friend of John’s, roped into this task by threat against his daughter, who is within the Table’s clutches. The addition of Yen is maybe the best of several really great choices this movie makes –or even this series for that matter. As one of the best-known martial arts stars in the world, his presence would elevate the movie anyway, but he is also given a richness of material to constitute the film’s most interesting character. And it’s not even that much, but he plays it so well –and plays off Reeves in extremely fun and interesting ways.
Both of them, as well as seemingly everyone else, do their own stunts through this film, and the action scenes are to no surprise magnificently shot and choreographed. With that intoxicating mix of martial arts and gun-fu, Stahelski and writers Shay Hatten and Michael Finch keep finding new ways of upping their intensity and ingenuity. The first major fight sequence, which runs about a solid fifteen minutes, pits heavily armed hitmen against katana-wielding assassins in Osaka, and plays through all the creative twists and moves you could think of for it. John fights several times with nunchucks, it’s awesome! Much of the third act follows several chapters of action through the Champs-Élysées, including a near single-take God’s eye view sequence through a dilapidated building, and a game of Frogger through the roundabout around the Arc de Triomphe. There are several great fight scenes through the movie involving stairs, the last of which is full of elaborate reversals and reinventions.
Crucial to some of these is the sense of humour employed. Stahelski forecast his Buster Keaton influence in the second movie, and that seems as much the tenor in several instances here as the more serious dramatic action beats. The John Wick series has always been able to play around with its tone and incorporate comic relief smartly –the running gag about the pencil comes to mind. And that consciously cheesy grandiosity to the dialogue and exposition that has run through this series attains charming new heights here. But it’s an uptick in clever physical comedy and slapstick that most stands out for this fourth entry, including in John’s fight with Caine and a handful of extensive, absurd falling sequences that poke fun at John’s durability, having survived a major plummet at the end of the third movie. John getting hurt has always been a staple of these movies, and Reeves and Stahelski are committed to not taking themselves too seriously by making that entertaining too.
Reeves is as cool and committed as ever, his genuine stunt-work still a thing of profound excellence. His reserved and quiet performance choices don’t allow the character quite the dimension expressed in the last installment, but when called upon for a modicum of pathos, Reeves can deliver. McShane and Fishburne are both as great as ever, the latter getting a couple more juicy moments of scenery-chewing, and in what is sadly now one of his last performances, the late Lance Reddick delivers stupendously in one of the film’s most soulfully effective beats. But it’s the new cast that most readily steals the show -most notably Yen, but also Shamier Anderson as a nameless Tracker with a killer dog interfering with the Table and keeping John alive until his bounty is high enough to his liking. The film also adds the great Hiroyuki Sanada as John’s ally at the Osaka Continental, who gets several standout moments, and Scott Adkins as a slimy German villain. Clancy Brown and Natalia Tena, for their small parts are perfectly cast; it’s only Skarsgård who makes for a bit of an underwhelming addition, as he is just a bland, arrogant rich boy -much as he does well with any scenes of frustration. I’d also note an oversight of the film pertaining to a lack of female action -which has always been a slight issue with this series, but this one most notably in that it consigns its only prominent woman character played by Rina Sawayama, to the first act. Which is especially a shame considering she’s one of the great highlights of the piece.
That isn’t nothing given how exemplary this movie is. And it is really a testament to Stahelski’s growth as a filmmaker across these four films that make up his entire directing catalogue, that he’s able to bring a visual and technical audaciousness back to the action movie. John Wick Chapter 4 looks amazing in just about every frame –Stahelski and cinematographer Dan Laustsen focusing entirely on strength of imagery, be it John’s fist colliding with a punching bag or a clashing of swords in a Japanese garden, cascading waterfalls in a rave club or a long shot of a showdown duel. The movie includes scenes at Versailles, the Louvre, and Sacré-Cœur -presented with immaculate grandeur and vibrancy, makes referential cues to Lawrence of Arabia and The Warriors, and approaches each action scene no matter how violent with the care of a dance. And for a series not known for pulling the heartstrings it goes into some emotionally rich territory as well.
This movie doesn’t ultimately play out the way the other John Wick movies have, its climax is notably measured and its ending conclusive. But they are no less compelling or cathartic for this, and in fact bring the series to a satisfying wrap-up, if that is so the plan (the movie’s major box office success may change that). Several of those overarching themes, the futility of John’s vendetta and the endlessness of violence, that desire for escape shared by many of this film’s characters, are resolved with grace and gravity. And the movie never feels the need to compromise for them. John Wick Chapter 4 is an unquestionable triumph of modern action filmmaking, stylistically, technically adept and creative, and even a lot of fun on its larger-than-life narrative and characters. If more blockbusters were half as passionately daring and aesthetically slick with twice the budget, we might be in a new golden age at the movies.
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