John Wick: Chapter 4 saw John Wick (Keanu Reeves) travel the globe, but that creates a huge plot hole in the franchise and undermines a whole story arc in John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum. The fourth John Wick movie is the most epic in the series yet, as not only is it longer, and not only does it have by far the highest kill count, but it's the most globetrotting of the four too. John Wick travels across the whole world, as he steps foot in the U.S., Morocco, Japan, Germany, and France, and he leaves a whole trail of dead bodies behind him.
After hiding underground in New York for eight months, Wick travels to Morocco to kill The Elder. John then takes refuge in Osaka. The different settings make for a picturesque action movie while expanding the series' criminal underworld at the same time. However, that means that the assassin, who has a bounty of $18 million (and increasing) on his head travels between three different countries within the first five minutes, and while it's unclear how much time has passed in the movie, it only feels like a few days. This creates a huge plothole in the universe, especially when it comes to John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum's world travel.
John Wick 4's Quick World Travel Reverses A Crucial Parabellum Plot Point
In John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum, John went to great lengths to travel outside of the U.S. The character had to jump through hoops to meet with The Elder in Morocco, as he had to hand in his ticket to the Ruska Roma so the syndicate could smuggle him into the country. Even when he had made it to Casablanca, that was only half the job, as John had to wander through the desert for days before he finally found The Elder. In John Wick: Chapter 4, there's simply a cut forward to Morocco mid-action where John is gunning down The Elder's men and easily finds The Elder within seconds.
This is an ongoing problem in John Wick: Chapter 4, as the movie often cuts to a different country and John is already there. After the shootout in Morocco, the movie cuts to Osaka, where John is hiding out in The Osaka Continental. The movie then cuts back to New York where John is standing at Charon's grave, and not much time passes before John is miraculously transported to Berlin and then Paris after that. John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum expertly proved how difficult it was for John to travel, but John Wick: Chapter 4 undermines that, and it's like John has a cheat code for quick world travel.
The Bowery King Can't Fully Explain John Wick 4's Travel Plot Hole
The most obvious answer to how John travels the world so quickly is that he has the help of the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne). The character often provides Wick with items he needs, whether it's artillery, suits, or boats. When discussing the possibility of a John Wick spin-off with the Bowery King, producer Erica Lee explained, "He sort of runs the underground, and it's such an interesting world. How does he get the guns and the boats? He shows up everywhere. He's the leader." With that in mind, when it comes to transportation, he might not be limited to just boats and could have access to planes too.
While the Bowery King supplying John with ways to travel would answer how John gets around so easily in John Wick: Chapter 4, especially as the King essentially nurses John back to health over eight months, that answer still has some plotholes. If the Bowery King can help John travel the world in an instant, then it doesn't make sense why John sought the help of the Ruska Roma instead of the King in John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum when he needed to travel to Morocco. In John Wick: Chapter 4, the Bowery King also states when he arrives in Paris that he is only just expanding into France.
John Wick's Spinoffs Can Still Answer The Movies' Travel Inconsistencies
Tons of John Wick spin-offs are in development, and two are imminent. The Continental is a Peacock-exclusive prequel series set in the '70s that will follow a younger version of Winston (Colin Woodell), which could explain John Wick: Chapter 4's travel inconsistencies. Ballerina, a spin-off movie starring Ana de Armas, could reveal the answer too. In either project, a character who is a transportation expert for assassins could easily be introduced. Many characters have specific skills, whether it's the Bowery King, the doctor, or the tailor, so it wouldn't be out of the ordinary for the John Wick world to feature some kind of travel agent for assassins.