For the past five years, the first name in action cinema has been John Wick. Aside from a few rare gems like The Raid and Mad Max: Fury Road, the action genre had gone downhill over the years.
It was tough to find compelling fight choreography or even cohesive editing. And then Keanu Reeves, writer Derek Kolstad, and directors Chad Stahelski and David Leitch came along to shake things up with a stylized neo-noir about a legendary, widowed ex-hitman going on a violent rampage through the criminal underworld to avenge his puppy. So, here are 10 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About The John Wick Movies.
Keanu Reeves does the majority of his own stunts
Let’s get the one everyone knows out of the way first. Keanu Reeves does the majority of his own stunts in the John Wick movies. According to the actor himself, he did 90% of his own stunts in the first movie and 95% in the second movie.
This has allowed the editors more freedom in the cutting room, as they aren’t beholden to making a cut to accommodate a stunt double’s takes, because, most of the time, there isn’t a stunt double. Chad Stahelski, the director of all three John Wick movies (although he was a co-director on the first one, technically), was Reeves’ stunt double in The Matrix trilogy, so they already have a strong rapport in this field.
The original script described John being in his mid-60s
In the initial screenplay for John Wick written by Derek Kolstad, which was then titled Scorn, the title character was described as an elderly man, in his mid-60s. This was to explain the character’s legendary reputation in the assassin community.
However, the casting team decided, instead, to go with an actor who wasn’t physically older but did have a storied history on the screen. Hence, Keanu Reeves. When Reeves agreed to star in the film, it was his idea to change the title from Scorn to the character’s name. On The Q&A with Jeff Goldsmith, Kolstad said that he named John and Helen Wick after his maternal grandparents.
The rooftop garden in Chapter 2 is the same one from Spider-Man
In John Wick: Chapter 2, there’s a scene set on the Continental’s gorgeous rooftop garden in which John and Winston have a conversation. This is the rooftop garden in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the same museum that John supposedly “leaves for” in the following scene).
It’s the same rooftop garden that was featured in Sam Raimi’s first Spider-Man movie, starring Tobey Maguire. In that movie, the setting was used for a much more action-packed beat in the story – it’s where Spidey rescues Mary Jane from the Green Goblin. Both films are set in New York, so it’s good to know they were also shot there.
Halle Berry trained extensively with Parabellum’s attack dogs
Halle Berry was a huge John Wick fan before signing on to appear in the third movie, and she was determined to match Keanu Reeves’ commitment to the training. It was no easy feat, but she nailed it. And not just in the fight choreography – she did such a great job with the dog training that the dogs responded to her like she was their own trainer.
Usually, when animals are involved in a movie, the featured animal’s trainer will be just out of frame, calling commands to the animal. But because the dogs responded to Berry herself, the filmmakers working on Parabellum had a lot more freedom with where they could put the camera.
Keanu Reeves performed the nightclub fight sequence with a 104° fever
When the cast and crew behind the first John Wick movie were all set to shoot the nightclub fight scene, according to the directors’ commentary, their star Keanu Reeves was suffering from the flu and he had a fever of 104° Fahrenheit. But they didn’t call off the shoot. He still managed to nail the scene.
The actor also reportedly had to learn and memorize all the stunt work and choreography required for the scene – which, by the way, is one of the longest and most complicated action set pieces in the movie – on the day that it was filmed.
The mirror-room sequence was director Chad Stahelski’s first idea for Chapter 2
When director Chad Stahelski first started thinking about a sequel to John Wick, the first idea he came up with was to recreate Lee and Mr. Han’s mirror-room fight sequence from Enter the Dragon. As John Wick: Chapter 2 was gradually put together, Stahelski kept this idea in his head, and it became the film’s climactic sequence.
As it appears in Chapter 2, this sequence is a pretty clear nod to the scene from Enter the Dragon, but it also takes some stylistic motifs from the maze scene in the unusually zany James Bond movie The Man with the Golden Gun.
The Adjudicator was rewritten for Asia Kate Dillon
Originally, the Adjudicator character in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum was written as a bulky man, bald with no eyebrows, featuring very masculine qualities. However, the character was changed when Keanu Reeves and director Chad Stahelski were told about non-binary actor Asia Kate Dillon.
They looked into Dillon’s work, which includes roles in Billions (the first non-binary main character in a North American TV show) and Orange is the New Black, and found them to be ideal for the role. So, the role was rewritten to suit them. Being a huge John Wick fan, as soon as Dillon received the offer, they instantly accepted the role without seeing a script.
There were many alternative story ideas for Chapter 2
2017’s John Wick: Chapter 2 managed to satisfy fans of the original by going bigger and bolder while maintaining the unparalleled intensity and the focus on the title character from the first one. But it didn’t come together overnight. The sequel was the result of extensive discussions among the creative team.
In an interview with Screen Junkies, Chad Stahelski and David Leitch mentioned some of the alternative story ideas for the sequel. One had John protecting his daughter (how that would’ve played out isn’t exactly clear – would she also be Helen’s daughter?), while another saw him rescuing a love interest.
The rough cut of the first movie was 140 minutes long
According to directors Chad Stahelski and David Leitch’s commentary on the first John Wick movie, the rough cut of the film clocked in at 140 minutes (two hours and 20 minutes). The final cut is 101 minutes long.
The 39 minutes that got cut out apparently consisted mostly of the title character walking around: “There’s a ton of great shots on the cutting room floor that’s just Keanu Reeves walking in cool environments,” said Leitch. Plus, the fight scene between John and Viggo was longer. It was cut down when the filmmakers realized Viggo wouldn’t be that difficult for John to defeat. Producer Basil Iwanyk also claims that the opening scene was originally three times longer.
Chapter 2 has John’s highest kill count
John Wick kills a lot of people in all three of his movies. But he kills the most people in the second movie by a pretty wide margin. In the first one, he killed 77 people; in Chapter 2, he killed 128 people; and in Parabellum, he killed 94 people.
Based on the middle ground found in the threequel, the filmmakers seem to be finding the right balance between non-stop action and mass murder as they get used to the rhythm of these films. Either way, all three of these kill counts rival the numbers attributed to John Rambo, “Tequila” Yuen, and the Bride.