The Falcon & The Winter Soldier takes inspiration from the misadventures of John Wick in its latest episode. After a surprise encounter with a gaggle of super soldiers (or whatever the plural may be) in the series premiere, Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes find themselves seeking advice from Baron Zemo, exploiting his intimate knowledge of HYDRA to track down the new doses. These uneasy allies head for the lawless haven of Madripoor, where Zemo uses his criminal connections to propose a trade - information on the new super serum, in exchange for the "Winter Soldier" as a personal metal-armed butler. Bucky does his best to act brainwashed and angry, but the ruse is foiled by an ill-timed phone call from Falcon's sister, who refers to him by name.
Sam, Bucky and Zemo are forced to shoot their way out and, given the intricately organized criminal network at the heart of Madripoor, the news soon gets around. As the trio walk hurriedly through the streets, phones all around them ring with the same text message offering 1k in Bitcoin (just shy of $60 million at the current rate) for the bodies of two Avengers and their Sokovian friend. The shooting soon begins, and assassins pour from every dank corner.
It's a highly effective scene that gets across the violent culture of Madripoor, and ramps up tension as Zemo leads Sam and Bucky on a morally ambiguous goose chase. But the moment will feel eerily familiar to fans of the John Wick franchise. In 2017's John Wick: Chapter 2, Keanu Reeves' dog-loving assassin irks his former colleagues by refusing to honor a blood marker, and a contract is ultimately placed upon his head. The resulting scene is a close echo of the Madripoor sequence in Falcon & The Winter Soldier. A contract is opened offering "$7 million for John Wick" and phone notifications ring out from all sides as John walks briskly through a brightly lit street. A tense few steps later, the fighting starts. The motif is repeated again in the final scene when John is deemed "excommunicado" and runs through a park with his dog in tow.
A number of major parallels can be drawn between the John Wick 2 and Falcon & The Winter Soldier scenes. Both bounties are sent via mass text messages, and the targets are forced to walk through the streets hearing the buzz of cellphones all around them, the threatening stare of hidden assassins burning through their backs. Both scenes surprise the viewer by revealing the assassins aren't necessarily who you'd expect, with John Wick being assailed by a subway busker, and Team Zemo being clocked by street vendors. In each case, the ringing phones and walk through danger serve to build suspense, which is then paid off when the first assassin makes their move, whether that be Falcon & The Winter Soldier's gunman, or the innocent-looking violin player who shoots Keanu Reeves in the back. Importantly, the omniscient presence of such an efficient assassin network alludes to a higher power running the show. In John Wick, it's the High Table; in Falcon & The Winter Soldier, it's the Power Broker.
Falcon & Winter Soldier's Madripoor chase and John Wick 2's open contract scene are far too similar to be a coincidence, and it may not come as a huge surprise to see Derek Kolstad credited as writer on both. Kolstad penned all three John Wick movies, as well as the "Power Broker" episode of Falcon & The Winter Soldier, on which he also serves as executive producer. Since you can't plagiarize yourself, Sam, Bucky and Zemo's Madripoor bounty is perhaps intended as Kolstad's homage to his earlier work - a loving reference to the franchise that made his name, and an Easter egg for fans of John Wick to pick up on.
