From Mission Impossible to The Warriors, passing through the western, John Wick 4 celebrates the saga and genre cinema for an epic and immersive conclusion. Now in the cinema with 01 Distribution.
John Wick 4now in the cinema with 01 Distribution, has closed (at least for the moment) the action adventures of the protagonist played by Keanu Reeves. Looking forward to the spin-off film with Ana De Armas titled Dancer and the prequel series centered on The Continental hotel, which we will see in Italy on Prime Video, this fourth chapter proves to be a sort of concentrate to the nth degree of what made the saga successful, of how it was able to build its own universe narrative and what it leaves to posterity (in addition to the upcoming titles mentioned, by now if you don’t have a shared audiovisual universe you are nobody). In doing so, he paid homage to the genre cinema, definitively breaking any prejudice one might have as spectators and bringing the quotes back into the narrative fabric of the film. Let’s see them together.
A duel to the last… western
The western it cloaks the whole film, in the locations, in the camera movements, in the styles and characteristics perfectly applied to the situations that are created. The genre opens and closes the film: at the beginning with the sequence in the desert on horseback and the killing of the Elder, the only individual above the Great Table. At the end of the film, we instead witness the duel announced much earlier between John and the Marquis Vincent de Gramont (Bill Skarsgård), a senior member of the Grand Table and the main “villain” of this fourth chapter. The duel has all the characteristics of the case: the possibility of choosing a person to fight for the two challengers, a pre-established number of steps before turning around and a number of bullets inserted in the gun. The final twist leaves no way out. The same type of work is done with the genus wuxia in a painstakingly precise sequence set in Osaka in which Chad Stahelski leaves nothing to chance, starring Shimazu Koji (Hiroyuki Sanada) and his daughter Akira (Rina Sawayama) directors of the local Continental, invaded by people looking for John Wick.
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The Arc de Triomphe: an impossible mission
Also this fourth chapter travels around the world, respecting the trappings ofaction and of spy story, and in Paris we witness one of the most daring and thrilling sequences of the entire film. For the occasion, Chad Stahelski, as a former stuntman, wanted to be even more daring and go around the Arc de Triomphe, a notoriously busy and particularly dangerous place. Especially if the protagonist is a car that hurtles in the opposite direction of travel without practically ever stopping. A similar madness had been done in Mission: Impossible – Fallout, the fourth chapter of the adventures of agent Ethan Hunt in which director Christopher McQuarrie had to ask for a special permit to close that part of the French capital to traffic and be able to shoot the reckless scene. Stahelski must have done the same and the homage to his predecessor is no coincidence because he has another very important point in common: Tom Cruise, or Hunt, and our Keanu Reeves who gave himself body and soul for John Wick, are among the few actors to do almost entirely their own stunts, even the most dangerous ones, and this dedication is all seen in the rendering of those sequences. this atArch of Triumph is a perfect example of this and doubles the playing time compared to Falloutmaking everything even more immersive for the audience.
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A deejay for… warriors of the night
In the final part of John Wick 4, which also includes the sequence at the Arc de Triomphe, there is all of John’s rush to be able to arrive in time at the Church of Sacré-Cœur, at the top of the steps where he will be held the duel with the Marquis, who by cheating unleashes anyone against the anti-hero protagonist. Timing the various attacks against Baba Jaga and narrating them in voiceover she is a mysterious deejay who seems to be rooting for the Marquis. The idea and staging are a tribute to The Warriors, a genre cult film directed by Walter Hill and inspired by the Sol Yurick novel of the same name which features the title gang who must return to their Coney Island neighborhood after being falsely accused of killing a well-respected ringleader who wanted a break.
On their way back, the Warriors are attacked several times by the various gangs of the neighborhoods they cross and the same happens in this film to John, who has to face various increasingly difficult levels like in a video game to get to the church for the duel, while the deejay, never seen in the face, narrates the presumed doom of the (super) man. L’shooter video game aspect has become more and more evident in the saga and there is a beautiful homage in a sequence shot from above in the interior of a house in this last film, just to come full circle and stage a declaration of intent for the cinema of type. Now it’s your turn fans: have you found any other quotes and tributes?