We all fall down but John Wick always seems
to get back up. Is his suit magic? And who's listening in on Assassin Radio,
anyway? Spoilers for John Wick 4 As surprising as it may seem especially for
a franchise as successful and lucrative as the "John Wick" series is, everyone's favorite
dog-loving assassin appears to die at the end of "John Wick: Chapter 4." After Wick refuses to shoot his old friend
Caine in a duel, both to protect Caine's daughter and to take out the arrogant Marquis Vincent
de Gramont, Caine's bullet wounds John critically. "You come here thinking there is a way out
for you, Mr. Wick. There is not." Though the wound doesn't kill John immediately,
it seems to be the final blow to John as he succumbs to the many other injuries that he's
gotten across the rest of the film. From there, the movie cuts to the Bowery King
and Winston. They look over John's tombstone, laid to rest
next to the grave of his wife, Helen. But is John actually dead? After all, we don't see him being buried. Furthermore, Winston could've helped fake
John's death so he could finally live in peace. And they could use the Bowery King as a legitimate
witness. Maybe his "goodbye" is knowing that John wouldn't
be able to see him again. To be fair, we're hoping Wick gets to find
peace one way or another. It makes sense narratively and thematically
to kill him off, and frankly, more franchises could use definitive endings. At the end of "John Wick: Chapter 4," right
before the ending credits roll, we see the Bowery King and Winston pay their last respects
to John. Before leaving, however, Winston puts his
hand lovingly on John's gravestone, tearfully stating "goodbye, my son," while showcasing
a tattoo of John's family crest on his finger. Does this mean that Winston was John Wick's
biological father? "I don't sit at the table." "Your family does." Winston and John's being related by blood
seems unlikely. For one, John is canonically an orphan, and
nothing implies that Winston gave him up as a baby. It's more likely that Winston simply saw John
as an adopted son rather than just another faceless assassin. Perhaps Winston even raised John, which, if
so, could be a subplot for the upcoming "John Wick" spin-off series "The Continental." We know that John was raised by the Ruska
Roma, but since Winston's tattoo is of the same crest, he could've been a part of his
upbringing as well. However, it is most likely Winston saying
"goodbye, my son" was a sign of respect and mourning. But John's mysterious parentage is still intriguing
to think about nonetheless. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has had a profound
and lasting effect on Hollywood. One of the things it helped popularize is
the inclusion of a post-credits scene. Obviously, the MCU didn't invent these little
teaser moments, but Marvel has certainly helped popularize their inclusion regardless. After the credits roll on "John Wick: Chapter
4," we see Caine about to be reunited with his long-lost daughter after John Wick's sacrifice
during their climactic duel. This led to the High Table sparing Caine and
Caine's daughter's lives. However, earlier in the film, while Caine
was still chasing Wick down, the blind assassin got into a deadly sword fight with another
one of Wick and Caine's old allies, the manager of the Osaka Continental Hotel, Shimazu Koji. Caine ended up killing Koji in front of his
daughter, Akira. As a result, In the final scene, Akira finds
Caine and attacks him before he can reach his daughter. We don't see the fight itself, so several
questions remain. Did she fight and kill him, or will something
or someone intervene? Is she or Caine the new face of the "John
Wick" franchise? Only time will tell. One of the main appeals of the "John Wick"
series, besides its crazy action, stunts, and surprisingly intricate lore and world-building,
is the fact that the cast is always full of great actors playing the colorful and eccentric
assassins that John encounters, both as friend or foe. This includes Willem Dafoe, Halle Berry, Anjelica
Huston, and Lawrence Fishburne. And "John Wick: Chapter 4" is no exception. Besides Hong Kong legend Donnie Yen and current
horror icon Bill Skarsgård, the sequel also introduces the Harbinger, played with intriguing
intensity by Clancy Brown. What's interesting about the Harbinger, is
that one of the first things we see of him is his finger's been cut off, similar to what
happened to John Wick in "John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum." In that film, Wick cuts off his finger to
create a blood oath to the High Table which frees him of the bounty on his head. He was also supposed to kill Winston, which
he ultimately refused to do. But is Brown's Harbinger someone who fulfilled
his oath to the High Table? Maybe that's why he's so obsessed with the
rules, especially "the old ways," and often talks back to his apparent superior, the corrupt
Marquis. Because of this detail, it seems like the
Harbinger is a foil for John. His path seems like a route John might've
taken had he not left the assassin lifestyle behind. At the end of the previous film, Winston betrays
John, who had just risked his life to protect Winston and his hotel against an army of highly
trained, armor-wearing High Table gunmen. Nonetheless, when all is said and done, Winston
takes out a small pistol and shoots John multiple times and knocks him off the rooftop of the
Continental. This is because the Adjudicator deconsecrated
Winston's hotel. "Gentlemen, this institution has now been
deconsecrated. Business may now be conducted on Continental
grounds." The menacing voice of the High Table gave
Winston the choice to get his hotel back if he killed John first. Luckily for John, after falling multiple stories
off a rooftop, he miraculously survives. He's saved by the Bowery King and the two
plot revenge. However, when John meets Winston again in
"John Wick: Chapter 4," there seems to be little bad blood outside of oblique references
to the past film. Wick even comments that Winston "always has
an angle." John seems to trust Winston enough to agree
to his plan to set up a one-on-one duel with the Marquis to escape the High Table and "coincidentally"
get the Continental back. There's definitely a bond between the two
and maybe even some understanding from John about the tough situation Winston was in,
but it makes little sense why he wouldn't be angrier, and possibly vengeful, about Winston's
act of betrayal. "John Wick: Chapter 4," like most of the other
films in the series, is an intense globe-trotting action thriller. Wick travels from New York to the Middle East
to Japan to New York again to Berlin to Paris, all in an effort to escape the High Table
and kill anyone who gets in his way. The problem is, the High Table is nigh-omnipresent
and incredibly wealthy and well-connected. It seems extremely unlikely that Wick could
easily board a transcontinental plane or ship without being identified immediately. Or at least it wouldn't be so easy that he
could do it multiple times throughout the film without any trouble. Wick is a highly trained assassin, but that's
because he's extremely proficient at fighting, marksmanship, and using improvised weapons. He's renowned for his prowess at killing,
not disguises, deception, or subterfuge. In fact, like James Bond, he's always pretty
easily recognized by fellow assassins, despite that being quite an occupational hazard. Obviously, airports are awash in surveillance
and security measures. Even if Wick has the requisite fake passports
and other falsified documents, the "John Wick" series has shown time and time again that
assassins are everywhere and that their tech and resources rival that of world governments. All that being said, it's quite possible that
in "John Wick: Chapter 4," John's last ally, Koji, grants him one last favor and gives
him safe passage back to New York. Toward the end of "John Wick: Chapter 4,"
before the climactic duel between Wick and Caine, there is an extended action scene that
pits John against a throng of thugs throughout Paris. This includes a car chase where Wick drives
a door-less muscle car, engages in a fistfight during the middle of high-speed traffic at
the Arc de Triomphe, and a continuous shot of John Wick blowing away thugs with a shotgun
in an abandoned building. In fact, John encounters the most foes at
once in the entire film during this section. That's because the Marquis has arranged for
a radio station to send a broadcast out to all the assassins in Paris about the incredible
bounty on John's head. The radio station itself is located in the
Eiffel Tower, with a DJ somehow keeping tabs on Wick's whereabouts throughout the fight. This does raise the question, is this an assassins-only
broadcast? Or is it something a random person could tune
into if their antenna got the right frequency? While it's safe to assume the station is only
for assassins, that isn't ever made explicitly clear in the film. The members of the guild seem to use special
radios that could be encrypted, but it's never addressed specifically. If the radios aren't encrypted, there's the
possibility the station is normally a standard broadcast that is sometimes forced to do the
bidding for the High Table from time to time. The organization certainly has its fingers
in many pies, after all. John Wick is best known for his prowess at
killing. He spends most of the series' runtime killing
countless goons and other highly trained assassins with ease. The only thing that gives away his humanity
is that he sometimes seems a bit winded afterward, with a few bloody scratches on his face and
blood stains on his suits. After all, that's why we go to movies like
"John Wick." Audiences want to see badasses be badasses
and kill people in increasingly violent and clever ways. However, movies, even over-the-top action
films, need a sense of stakes. How is it, then, that John Wick seems relatively
unharmed from so many falls? It's not one time either. You could chalk up his survival in "John Wick:
Chapter 3 — Parabellum" to dumb luck and perseverance, but it happens a couple of times
in "John Wick: Chapter 4." We don't mind when this happens to say, Batman
or a "Looney Tunes" character, because surviving great falls makes sense for them. It's not so easy to brush off in the "John
Wick" series, though, where gunshots, stab wounds, and car crashes all do real damage. The only way it'd make sense is if Wick turns
out to have superpowers, or is secretly a cartoon after all. The "John Wick" films obviously aren't going
for realism. First and foremost, these are over-the-top
action films, where one man can take on seemingly hundreds of goons and only get slightly winded
by the end of it. Audiences are always going to be expected
to suspend their disbelief to enjoy a film like this. One of the influences of "John Wick" is the
spy flick, where suspension of disbelief is paramount. This is why we see John wear a cool suit,
practice all manner of martial arts, and use specialized tech. In this case, his tech includes his impenetrable
black kevlar suit jacket. "And what style?" "Italian." "How many buttons?" "Two." "Trousers?" "Tapered." "How about the lining?" "Tactical." It's fun action-movie logic that a slick,
tailored suit can be made of kevlar and still be lithe and mobile. However, why doesn't it cause recoil from
bullet hits? It would, on a stunt and narrative level,
make the fights more interesting if it didn't feel that John had practically a force field
protecting him in every fight. The shoot-out scenes are still awesome and
fun, but the film does lose a sense of danger in many of the fights. Still, for all our complaints about the kevlar
suit, Reeves makes it look good. "John Wick: Chapter 4" isn't a spiritual or
supernatural film, and neither were any of the other films in the series. In fact, at one point, while Caine and Wick
both reminisce in a church before their duel, Caine asks John a pointed question "Do you think your wife can hear you?" "No." So it's surprising at the end that while John
slumps on the steps of the church, bleeding to death from his injuries and Caine's bullet,
he sees visions of his late wife, Helen. "Maybe I'm wrong." And given all the religious imagery throughout
the film, such as the final duel happening at a church and all the religious terminology
the assassin underworld speaks throughout the franchise, it seems like there could be
a religious connotation to Wick's death after all. By sacrificing his life to save Caine's daughter,
he is absolved of his past sins to live in eternity with his beloved. Of course, the most likely answer for these
intercut scenes of his wife is that John's just remembering her. They're simply the last things he's thinking
about as he finally dies. But who can really say?
