If you want to see a movie filled with realistic fight scenes, don’t pick John Wick 4. While the entire series is grounded in some sense of reality – there aren’t any triple-backflip-corkscrew-flying-kicks or catching bullets in midair – it’s a far cry from the realism similar action films like James Bo🉐nd aim for. Sure, 007 may have a laser watch and x-ray specs, but if someone shoots him, he tends to get hurt.
John Wick has his share of gadgets too, most notably a bulletproof suit. It’s Keanu Re🦂eves’ iconic look by now, but the fourth John Wick instalment takes the idea and runs with it. As John’s foes grow stronger (he’s challenging The Table now), they’re getting better equipped, and his fighting style has to adapt. It’s great to see John and his adversaries pulling their suit jackets up across their faces as a pseudo-helmet, and the film leans into the fact that being essentially bulletproof helps make Mr. Wick into a superhuman killing machine.
It may feel realistic – yes, a guard would hold their bulletproof jacket in front of their face to block bullets – but if you think about it for even a se✱cond, it’s the opposite. A Kevlar suit may block a bullet, but it’s sti💧ll a flap of cloth. The bullet’s velocity would simply push the upturned jacket out of the way before hitting you in the face, likely shattering your cheek and probably killing you. But, as I said earlier, if you’ve come to John Wick for the realism, you’re in the wrong place.
Early in John Wick 4, antagonist Marquis de Gramont says the icon🐷ic line, “the bloodshed is the point.” He’s sending a message to anyone who helps our protagonist, but also to the audience. This is a film about the coolest fight scenes and the most brutal deaths, realism be damned.
Wick is a man who regularly falls out of four-story windows or from balconies onto concrete floors and just stands up afterwards. This is a universe in which clubbers continue to boogie despite a brutal gunfight happening metres away. Why? Because it looks cool. John Wick’s fight scenes have always surpassed its peers’ in terms of lighting and shot composition, and loo💫king cool comes first. That’s why we love it.
John Wick takes a lot from video games in this regard. The bulletproof suit feels like an upgrade IO Interactive will put in its upcoming James Bond game. How c🍷an John Wick survive enough punishment to kill a regular man five times over? Is it his hardcore assassin training? No, it’s his plot armour. Rooting for John gives us the same power fantasy that running through a Call of Duty campaign does, albeit with a dead wife to flash back to every hour or so.
The gaming inspirations are most obvious during one scene where our protagonist fights his way through a Parisian townhouse. Instead of opting for a gun’s-eye view as many action films do to immerse you in the shootout, Director Chad Stahelski pans out to give us a top-down scene. It keeps the action fresh in a film that’s at least 75 percent fight𝔍ing, but gamers immediately saw a live-action Hotline Miami.
The scene is ridiculous in so many ways. John’s armed with a gun that sets his assailants on fire. No, not a flamethrower, a shotgun with flammable pellets🐻. The ceiling of the building is conspicuously absent so that the top-down shot can follow the action from room to room. It’s ridiculous. It’s 🤪brilliant. It’s fun.
Whether it’s falling out of windows, being hit by multiple cars, or scooping a pistol off the ground from a rapidly moving vehicle, John Wick 4 is completely unrealistic. But that’s the point. More films should prioritise looking cool over staying true to life, and more games should, too. I don’t want to see photorealistic wrinklღes, I want a bulle▨tproof suit and a flaming shotgun. John Wick has one, so why can’t I?