John Wick is back. Refreshed in body and what remains of spirit, the legendary-killer with the legendary-nickname Baba Yaga lived under protection in the realm of the King of the Bowery, waiting to have his revenge. And the opportunity arrived: the Grand Table, unanimously, gave full powers to the Marquis de Gramont to restore order in its enclaves, and as a first act he established the dismissal of Winston and the demolition of the Continental. Thus begins Wick’s latest circumnavigation, along which he will meet old and new names, such as the blind assassin Caine, Ruska Roma, Shimizu the director of the Continental in Osaka, the Regent and other more or less lethal friend-enemies. And after losing his wife, dog and car, the ending can only be one…
Maybe there will be a fifth chapter, maybe not, it depends on the legs of Keanu Revees, the eye of Chad Stahelski and the faith of the legend of Baba Yaga.
John Wick’s Gospel of Bullets & Knives is on the last pages. An apocryphal gospel, placed on some shelf without numbering in an anonymous library of city folklore, furrowed with notes and hints on Judges, Messengers, Hunters, and then Rules, Order, Consequences. The parable of our Baba Yaga, who does not live in a house that rests on two crow’s feet but in a Big Apple, is dipped in the blood of his nemeses and in the torment of his mourning.
Yet it is a formidable talisman, this John Wick, like so many of the coins and medallions that are exchanged in all four films: what is, in fact, the first chapter of the saga, if not getting up after falling, again and again, how does Wick do after each slaughter? It was so for his interpreter, Keanu Reeves, at the time mired in second-rate projects; and it was like this for Derek Kolstad (writer), who couldn’t place the scripts he wanted, Basil Iwanyk (producer), in his first experience as an independent, Chad Stahelski and David Leitch (directors, with only the first credited), debutants behind the camera after years as a double and stunt coordinator.
Almost blocked due to lack of funds two weeks into filming, without the necessary budget for reshoots and additional cameras, patched up in the editing room by Elísabet Ronaldsdóttir, the first John Wick gave birth to a franchise with three other chapters, almost 600 million dollars in global receipts and two upcoming spin-offs (Ballerina in theaters and The Continental on TV). Pure gospel.