John Wick’s most memorable fights ranked
Keanu Reeves' brooding assassin never runs out of fresh ways to take out bad guys. Here are the best punch-ups and shoot-outs from all four John Wick films
Film Features John Wick
Keanu Reeves’ John Wick isn’t a superhero, but he sure fights like one. Clothed in designer Kevlar suits and armed to the teeth with an arsenal that would make an ’80s action movie blush, Wick is a one-man war party, fueled by a dogged determination that is surpassed only by his endless supply of ammo.
For nearly a decade, this once-retired, near-mythic assassin-turned-avenging, ballistic angel (RIP, his dog) has helped redefine action movies with an emphasis on inventive practical stunts. With John Wick: Chapter 4 seemingly marking an end to John’s action-hero tenure, The A.V. Club is ranking his best, most memorable fights, from shootouts to fisticuffs.
Note: the following countdown includes spoilers for for anybody who hasn’t seen John Wick: Chapter 4 yet.
29 Comments
I haven’t seen 4, so I can’t comment on them, but the fight scenes with Common in 2 are my top.
That’s interesting, since another commenter said Common’s inexperience only hurt the film. Personally I love Common. I’ve always thought he was pretty cool, ever since I saw him in Smokin’ Aces. I was surprised that he didn’t come back for 3 or 4.
It’s interesting how the Top 3 fights are all from JW4, even though it was given a B- by the AV Club (the lowest grade of the 4 movies), in which none of them earned an A grade or above… What’s that about? How is the 4th the worst?Y’all just hate fun, don’t you?
I mean, the fights being good doesn’t mean the score could be lowered in other areas.
Honestly, the entire Japan sequence didn’t even make narrative sense. They try to make it seem like its about being a good friend but Wick could’ve easily slipped out the same way he slipped in.
Plus every encounter follows a video game formula in the movie. John kills 3-5 waves of normal enemies before having to deal with a boss enemy. It is pretty much how every action scene plays out in 4.Also, apparently everyone with Continental access except Akira and some street level hitmen has magic bulletproof clothing. It makes every fight turn into “shoot to stun, beat them up in hand to hand, shoot in the head”.
Don’t get me wrong, I loved the movie but they kinda gave up on even trying to keep the world subtle and just went all out with the action on this one. The scene with Killa being chased through the club has multiple people watch John kill goons and just keep dancing because they were the equivalent of NPCs. 3 raised the bar but still kept things subtle while 4 just outright turns the entire city against John with a reference to a cult classic film.
Also, while Mr. Nobody was interesting in concept, his most defining trait was that his dog was clearly a good boy. You never really get the feeling that he’s a threat to John because his on screen feats aren’t that great and he has no clout like everyone else. I mean, Halle Berry’s character could take him, she had two the dogs and hers at least wore body armor.
When it comes to everyone with Continental access having bulletproof clothing, I think it’s mostly the Marquis’ henchmen and the High Table army that have this other than John and Caine, which is fair considering the vast wealth and resources the Marquis and High Table have. Koji’s staff don’t appear to have any bulletproof clothing and no other Continental guests are involved in the action this time around, other than Mr. Nobody who doesn’t have the fancy magic bulletproof clothing and just has an improvised kevlar vest attached to his backpack.
Chapter 2 did show that John could simply purchase a bulletproof suit from the tailor at the Continental in Rome. Chapter 3 introduced the ‘super bulletproof’ armor for High Table troops while implying that they were cutting edge. Chapter 4 brought in the ‘literally magic’ bulletproof suits. You’d think Koji’s staff would have access to the grade of bulletproof clothing John wore in Chapter 2 at the very least since it seemed to be Continental standard.
If I’m remembering correctly did he not have to go outwith the Rome Continental in Chapter 2 to purchase the new suit (as well as the keys that would give him access to the catacombs), and it was instead the ‘Sommelier’ that he visited within the Continental to obtain the weapons for the job?At the very least the access to bulletproof clothing is likely available to Continental guests and staff, but not all might be able to afford the garments. I know Charon was shot in Chapter 4 an area not covered by his actual suit, but I can’t remember if he was taking any shots at the end of Parabellum that would show that Continental staff also have bulletproof clothing as standard. It wouldn’t make much sense for Continental staff to be outfitted in bulletproof suits anyway, because the grounds of each hotel are supposed to be entirely conflict free and a safe haven for all guests, so the staff shouldn’t require protection. John killing D’Antonio at the end of Chapter 2 on ‘company grounds’ and the New York and Osaka Continentals continuing to offer him services are the reason the High Table attacked each hotel.
“I mean, the fights being good doesn’t mean the score could be lowered in other areas.”That’s literally the bread and butter of John Wick. What else is there? And from my point of view, and the numerous views of others, JW4 had more action, heart, story, and supremely better pacing than the other movie…“Honestly, the entire Japan sequence didn’t even make narrative sense.”Yes it did. They addressed the whole thing in the scene prior when the Marquis forcibly hires Caine… The NY Continental is gone, and John doesn’t have many other close friends left to help him (and hide him) since he’s on the run and constantly being hunted. John could have slipped out the way he came in, yes, but why…? The Marquis was going to destroy the Osaka Continental even if John wasn’t there, and they needed John’s help. His presence was the reason things went sideways, so if he just decided to leave the way he came in and let everyone get slaughtered, then he’s not a very good friend, now is he?“Plus every encounter follows a video game formula in the movie. John kills 3-5 waves of normal enemies before having to deal with a boss enemy. It is pretty much how every action scene plays out in 4.”That’s not a problem. That’s how it works in every John Wick movie… Is it formulaic? Sure, but it does it better than 99% of all other action movies. You make it sound like the 4th movie was the only one to do this, but that’s no true, since every movie has been following the same formula.“It makes every fight turn into “shoot to stun, beat them up in hand to hand, shoot in the head.”This isn’t an issue, and it does change later when the street thugs of Paris attack (without bulletproof suits). Since you related it to a video game, just think of it like a Streets of Rage beat ‘em up, where eventually, the enemies you face get upgraded to match your skill, and that totally makes sense here.“They kinda gave up on even trying to keep the world subtle and just went all out with the action on this one.”They did this in the 2nd movie when it frequently revealed EVERYONE to be an underground assassin—even the homeless people.“The scene with Killa being chased through the club has multiple people watch John kill goons and just keep dancing because they were the equivalent of NPCs. 3 raised the bar but still kept things subtle while 4 just outright turns the entire city against John with a reference to a cult classic film.”Again, you really gotta recheck your memory and rewatch the other movies. That complaint happens in every movie. The first one has practically no one panicking in the big club shootout while most just continue to dance—things do change when he goes upstairs, but not much. The 2nd one has basically no one running away when John is killing people in the big crowd at the Roman ruins—but the mesuem crowd at the end does run away when John confronts Santino. The 2nd movie also has all these random hitmen stumbling into John in public and attempting to kill him after the contract is put out publicly—only to be saved by an underground network of homeless people. The 3rd movie literally starts with everyone around him trying to kill him and hunting him down after his hour of immunity… None of that was ever “subtle” and I really think that’s a misplaced criticism.What the 4th movie did wasn’t new, but it turn it up to 11, which narratively makes sense since the contracted money to kill him multiplied by quite a bit. A lot of the things you outlined are equally shared factors in the other movies, with the only difference being that the 4th film takes everything up a notch.
I’m shocked the fight with Zero, and John ascending the glass floored office of the Continental from the end of Parabellum isn’t on the list. I personally wouldn’t have put the subway fight or the Catacombs and subbed in the 2 end set pieces from 3 in those slots, myself. 2 was the worst of the series for me. Having Common and Ruby Rose instead of more trained actors or stunt performers hurt the fight scenes for me. The choreography was much more dynamic and varied in 3 and 4, IMO.
It helps that 3 and 4 dropped all pretenses of the masquerade of civility that the setting ran on. 3 lived up to its name and went all out war. 4 outright became a video game with multiple pop culture references.
If I were in charge there would be some shuffling on this list (everyone is entitled to their own opinion of course), but I would keep the top two right where they are.Let me just put it this way: Up until the Dragon Shotgun fight, I liked John Wick 4. That scene and the fights that followed made me love Part 4. The whole movie is good, but the action in the last hour kicks some serious behind.
The moment it became a massive homage to The Warrior is when I went from liking to loving part 4.
Would go Dragon Breathe over the steps. And the knife fight. Also loved the Arc de Triumph scene. The last two movies are some of the best action movies ever.
Is the arc de triumphe one not qualifying for some reason? That one was amazing.
Concur. An incredible sequence.
It was a demented take on Frogger and I’m all for it.
It was a demented take on Frogger and I’m all for it.Dogger?
It was next level and should be number 1. What the hell is going on here? I’d like to speak to the manager.
The stables fight was straight up Looney Tunes and I loved it.
The Dragon Breath top-down scene is something I’ve been wanting for YEARS. One of those ideas that I saw somewhere (I thought Appleseed, but Minority Report might be the thing)… But just allowing the camera to treat the set like a set, rather than a building, and giving the viewer the god’s eye look at the combat. I’ve wanted that for so long, it’s been pinballing around my psyche, my inner movie director thought he could make a career out of that shot. And they did it so well that it blew my mind anyway. I cannot overstate how much I love that scene. I was lucky enough to catch it in IMAX.
My mind went to Hotline Miami. It was so enjoyable.
I’ve got to ask, are they pressuring you to put out even more slideshows? I feel like we’ve had an even greater amount of them in the last week. If the Herb is listening, this is how you lose readers.
But he got you to comment, as well as me, and I feel the exact same way you do. We’re both fools! Fools, I say!
My issue with the hand-to-hand fighting in these movies is that they’re so heavily choreographed, they end up feeling more like dancing than fighting. Especially compared to things like Ong Bak, The Raid or, my personal favorite, The Man from Nowhere.
Speaking of The Raid, I was very disappointed to not see John’s fight with the two actors from The Raid franchise in JW3 on this list.
I kinda felt like the nun-chuck fight went on a bit too long. The swap from generic goons to Donnie Yen should’ve happened earlier because it was getting repetitive at that point. It was also in the same overall sequence as Rina Sawayama’s character going nuts on enemies with insane ground movement and knives. I think her choreography was the best part of the overall Japan sequence.
This entire comment is spot on. The nunchucks fight starts to drag, and you should never be bored when there are fucking nunchucks. Akira’s fight choreography was awesome and I wanted to see more of it. Sawayama’s dance background really paid off with the fluidity of her choreography.
I am glad the dragonbreath is in the top two cuz that hotel fight was amazing. My jaw dropped.Also the stair scene was so damn funny the theater laughed when he fell down the stairs, fought the dude a bit, then got kicked and we found out there were still more stairs for him to fall down. John Wick had a very bad dayHonorable mention should be the fight in traffic. Drifting around while shooting those dudes was cool
Boban Marjanovic completely fails to sell that fight. I have no idea why it would make the cut for this list. Keanu is visibly doing work to cover for Boban.