How To Create A Terrifying Protagonist

with almost every story comes a villain of sorts and with that villain a conflict a cruelness which must be endured an evil purged but the way John Wick introduces our villain is far different from what we normally see typically you'll get a show of their strength their dominance and formidability as a foe and have written well a sense of dread too here however all of that is instead focused onto John because this is not a story about a hero a knight in shining armor who defies All Odds to kill the dragon and save his people no this is the story of a dragon and you just got in its way a character doesn't have to be inherently good to be loved and when working with someone like John Wick it's very important to humanize him first before showing his strength and prowess immediately giving opportunities for the audience to sympathize with him before he goes and kills like 50 people is pretty W hey and so the very first thing we see in the film is John dying crawling out of a car injured seeing his vulnerability before his strength is a pretty smart move yet instead of Desperately crawling towards his salvation he first pulls out his phone and watches a video of his wife maybe this is a story in end of itself maybe she was his one hope at being a different person a man known not for bringing death but instead the opposite as a father whatever the case and however you interpret it this scene is very important for establishing not just Jon's character but also solidifying a reason as to why you don't like the bad guys soon we get to see a bit of John's daily life both before and after he got the puppy little comparisons between his normal schedule and what's probably a glimpse of what life was like when his wife used to be around like for example him having two coffee cups next to the machine even though he only pours coffee in one compared to now where he's making two bowls of cereal and we specifically see a shot of him pouring milk for two it's quite clear the film is telling us that this puppy is once again making him somewhat whole but these little details don't stop there if you don't believe me when I say the shot is filled to the brim with symbolism and storytelling well he also takes exactly seven steps down the staircase he once was an associate to ours oh would you look at that look at all the different important meanings for the number seven fullness or completeness from the Bible the seven principles and Promises in marriage oh yeah this dude is [ __ ] the first John Wick movie did such an incredible job at not just introducing us to the world of John Wick but also establishing his character while doing so instead of individually explaining and showing each character and what they do they use this opportunity to show the audience more about how John Wick's World works as well as to build up the reputation of John in the process every single person we come across has the exact same view of Mr Wick an Unstoppable killer that can do the impossible so I made a deal with him a job no one could have pulled off the bodies he buried that day laid a foundation of what we are now like come on look at this scene every time we see this kind of a shot in the movie where some guy in a suit is looking at a city From A Balcony or some sort of high ground with their back turned to the camera you already know they're a level 99 mafia boss okay I heard you struck my son sure I did may I ask why this is as I'm the one who runs things as you can get so to have a character like him immediately transition from a position of dominance power and authority to this in 2 seconds flat is absolutely hilarious cuz you stole John Wick's car sir and uh killed his dog oh but of course the characters and their interactions with JN don't stop here there's plenty of other scenes that also do this like the car shop where without hesitation he lets John take a ride or the Continental Hotel and everyone knowing him like Harry going from I'm going to kill this guy who's making all this racket to oh never mind it's it's John wig hey John hey or how the hotel literally gives him a car as a gift because of the the inconvenience the fact that even the police don't want to get involved in any way and just let some be is part of what makes the introduction of John Wick's character so fun and entertaining evening John evening Jimmy good night John good night Jimmy instead of having the audience sit through a pile of exposition which is really really boring it shows us a lot of backstory for this character in a very interesting Manner and so when we eventually see someone mess with him and take the two things he still values we all know exactly what's about to go down and oh boy what happens is precisely what people wanted because it didn't try to cater to everyone and make the mistake of being a movie that tries to do too many things instead it focused on being the best version of itself and that is why it worked they absolutely nailed what a film like this should be it's as if they went oh well people like cars right so don't just make him drive one car give him multiple cool cars people like well choreographed hand-to-hand combat so let's do that but also have them use guns in the process people like it when the main character is gearing up great let's do that but also throw in a really cool British guy dessert dessert suits they're also bulletproof secret underground Society give them a unique style we don't typically see and then they go hm what do people usually not care so much about in action movies ah yes having us sit through 20 minutes of relationship stuff in the beginning of the movie just to have that character die later so the main character has a reason to do things instead let's establish all of that with a dog because that's different from what we normally see and also dogs are cute don't shot my dog I get it so that's basically the John Wick formula gentlemen take all the good stuff you like and amplify it and then take all the boring stuff you don't like and just not include it and as a result you get gorgeous action for almost 2 hours straight while having characters that you like but of course with all this fighting going on it's extremely important to make it feel somewhat realistic somewhat possible otherwise people wouldn't be as invested in what's happening and so this is where I really have to praise the insane Dedication that went into this movie part of what makes a crazy action film like John Wick feel more realistic is the fact that you can see action sequences unfold without the camera cutting 2 billion times as well as having the cameraman have a seizure in the middle of filming in John Wick a lot of fights happen in one take and Not only was this extremely refreshing to see when it came out it makes it more believable because what you see happened had to actually happen the actors had to physically perform and choreograph all of this without the aid of camera Cuts in between every other move and this is where training comes in a lot of of training Pio has spent over a thousand hours with Taran Butler one of the best three gun firearm champions in the world the fact that he legitimately spent thousands of hours practicing not just martial arts but also weapons training shows the dedication he has towards each of the roles he plays now aside from the fact that the actors are real life badasses who play the role of fictional badasses I also want to talk about the intentional and Perfections in John Wick well I lightly touched on this before but a big part of what makes something fictional feel real is that it can't be perfect in fact you almost never want something to be perfect and in John Wick this is exactly the case despite being the most insane assassin ever and having his character written in a way where he's essentially the stuff of Legends he still runs out of ammo and has to reload even if that's in the middle of a fight he still eventually takes a bullet when put against overwhelming odds and after making small mistakes like missing shots he can still lose this character is designed to be the most in Ane assassin ever but he's not designed to be God he still has to approach each dangerous situation with Extreme Caution and I'll use his attack on the red circle as an example from the very beginning he uses everything he has at his disposal to his Advantage like using his reputation for example as leverage to sneak into the club instead of taking out the security guard he lets him know what's about to go down are you here on business sir great so Francis why don't you take the night off thank you sir now now with no alarm strip he isolates his targets and takes them one by one he doesn't just run into the open and start freaking blasting fighting 10 guys at once you can see him trying to put the overwhelming odds in his favor by making each fight a 1 V one instead of a 1 V10 fight one guy block line of sight from the others using cover then fight the next guy and do the same rinse and repeat and when put up against opponents of Greater physical strength while in a position where his Superior skills can't help him much he loses [Music] and I also want to mention even the craziest weapons he uses actually exist in real life like this fire shotgun in chapter 4 shooting shells called dragon breath and I watched a couple videos of this thing it's freaking awesome but anyways going back to John Wick allowing the audience to see details like him having to reload throughout the fights makes it so that you as a viewer are more likely to not question what's happening and instead simply sit back to enjoy the show that is until you see him slowly roll down 2,000 STS of stairs I'm not going to lie this part was pretty goofy [Music]

Channel: Film Junkie

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Keywords: john wick, John Wick, john wich chapter 1, john wick chapter 2, john wick chapter 3, john wick chapter 4, john wick new movie, john wick movies, john wick movie review, john wick review, john wick best movies, best movies to watch, new movies to watch, good movies to watch, best movies 2024, best action movies 2024

Id: aiJyq6H24Vc

Length: 10min 11sec (611 seconds)

Published: Sun May 12 2024