Critics love it, audiences love it — heck,
everybody loves it. But there are still a few John Wick moments
that have fans baying for blood. Warning: spoilers ahead for John Wick: Chapter
4. John Wick: Chapter 4 ups the stakes early
on by killing off a fan-favorite recurring character: Charon, the cool, collected concierge
of the New York Continental. "How good to see you so soon, Mr. Wick." What makes this moment even more shocking
is the fact that Charon is coldly executed in retaliation for a problem that is entirely
outside of his control. He essentially dies to make sure we understand
our new villain, the Marquis Vincent de Gramont, is a really bad dude. After years of faithful service in the name
of the High Table, Charon goes out as collateral damage — and it's all because Winston doesn't
hit John Wick with a fatal shot at the end of the last movie. It's harsh, to say the least. This death hits especially hard, as John Wick:
Chapter 4 landed in theaters right on the heels of Lance Reddick's sudden death at the
age of 60. This adds an unfortunate "too soon" cloud
over the story beat. As with many of Reddick's best roles, the
actor brings a calm and clear-eyed gravitas to Charon that cements the Continental as
an authoritative edifice of power and meaning. He also plays fantastically off the expressive,
wry tones of Ian McShane's performance. It's a tremendous shame that John Wick: Chapter
4 will be his last appearance as the character: Reddick had been set to reprise the role in
the franchise's Ballerina spin-off movie. The first two sequels to John Wick basically
begin in media res. If you're not familiar, this is story-speak
for "mid fight scene"; these action-packed features pick up the moment the prior movies
leave off. John Wick: Chapter 4, by contrast, starts
remarkably slow, and it takes the movie a ponderous half-hour to set the table for the
first big fight scene at the Osaka Continental. Relative to the quick pace that's made the
franchise successful so far, this is a bold gamble for the fourth movie to take. "Just have fun out there." It's bolder still because it requires the
audience to have a better-than-cursory recall of the John Wick timeline thus far. As some fans have pointed out, it's actually
kind of hard to recall the details of the Wick-verse's archaic plot mechanics, even
for devoted fans. The first three movies primarily focus on
a multi-sensory barrage of fight scenes that just don't leave much RAM in your mind to
grasp all the markers, tattoos, clans, and odd bits of Latin. And, despite how long it takes to get going,
John Wick: Chapter 4 doesn't work too hard to explain what's going on. Some viewers might have to Google who the
dude in the desert John kills in the beginning even is to understand what's at stake. The villains of the John Wick franchise take
many shapes and forms. Chapter 4 takes the path untrodden with the
Marquis, its main antagonist, who is mostly frightening because of what he represents. Just like John Wick himself, the High Table
— of which the Marquis is a senior member — is more of an idea that can't be killed
than an actual group of mortal people. The Marquis cements this by acting as the
sadistic personification of ancient forces like greed and power. John Wick: Chapter 4 finds a particularly
brutal way to let us know the Marquis is more twisted than usual: The vicious villain subjects
Mr. Nobody to a horrific test of will. Stabbing the bounty hunter through the hand,
the Marquis essentially demands that he pulls his hand out through the knife's blade instead
of pulling the blade upwards. Mr. Nobody, apparently willing to do anything
for a shot at the John Wick contract, complies in a squeamish bit of realistic effects work. Though it's a moment that fits perfectly with
the over-the-top John Wick style, it's more visceral and intense than the franchise's
normal fists-and-guns melees — prompting at least a few groans of disgust in theaters. In general, the John Wick movies rely more
on the poetry of their action sequences than the dramatic tension of the narrative. This approach shows the most strain in John
Wick: Chapter 4, which slows down between action set pieces to give us time to think. What this means, of course, is that audience
members are a lot more likely to think, "Wait, what's actually going on here?" For example, Caine and Mr. Nobody follow John
Wick around the entire movie. They're sort of trying to kill him, but they
always manage to let him go. At no point is this more confusing than when
they interrupt his face-off with Killa Harkan, a ruthless crime lord who killed his former
mentor. "You want to kill him, I want to kill him… What about you, Mr. Wick?" It's unclear why either mercenary is waiting
so long to kill John Wick, or why John himself is acting so coy about attacking Killa. In truth, the whole scene really just seems
like a thin excuse for him to end up with the famous "dead man's hand" of aces and eights
during a poker game. It also contains one of the most confusing
Caine-related moments: Despite being blind, he can tell exactly what his hand is. Star Wars fans might at least enjoy this unintentional
callback to Rogue One, in which actor Donnie Yen also plays a blind character who can still
sort of see — but everyone else will be more than a little lost. Perhaps in tacit acknowledgement that the
audience might be getting somewhat desensitized to human-on-human violence after four movies,
John Wick: Chapter 4 throws in a very different sort of heart-skipping moment, late in its
runtime. This scene goes back to the first movie's
potent well by placing a dog in jeopardy — although this time, it's a thankfully brief moment
of canine peril. Mr. Nobody's faithful companion has more than
won us over by the time he gets rudely tossed into a windshield by the Marquis' top henchman,
Chidi. Despite the fact that he all but shatters
the glass and bounces into the street, the dog gets right back up and barks to let us
know he's okay. It's a sudden shock delivered during an otherwise
surreally choreographed scene set beside Paris' Arc de Triomphe, and it hits hard. Some fans, perhaps still scarred from the
first movie, have even taken to platforms like Reddit to make sure the dog lives before
they actually see the movie. Money makes the world go 'round, and that's
especially true in the John Wick universe. How do we know this? By the fact that, as the bounty on John Wick
grows, hundreds upon hundreds of people decide that the price is suddenly right to take him
on themselves, even though the many previous attempts on the life of Baba Yaga have failed. Yet, there are still exceptions to this rule. For most of John Wick: Chapter 4, it seems
like Mr. Nobody is the rare character to realize this. He seems content to simply track John from
place to place and try to bilk the Marquis for a finder's fee. But, late in the game, we learn that even
Mr. Nobody has a price: $40 million dollars; after this, he goes all-out in an effort to
bag John. This happens after he gets the drop on the
unkillable protagonist multiple times — sadly, Mr. Nobody loses a fair amount of intrigue
when we realize that he's just like people who only play the lottery when it gets over
$1 billion. When he changes his mind again after John
saves his dog's life, it endears him to us, but it doesn't make his character any more
coherent. "You ready, John?" "Yeah." Even before the release of John Wick: Chapter
4, fans pointed out that its 169 minute runtime is seriously lengthy. This is a serious departure for the franchise:
The first three movies in the series endeared themselves to fans, in part, by being sprints
instead of marathons. Even the biggest John Wick fan might feel
like the fourth installment needs to be shorter. It doesn't help that this feels like part
of a pernicious trend in modern cinema. All kinds of recent movies seem to be pushing
three hours these days, and the John Wick formula doesn't lend itself too well to a
bloated runtime. The movie's length really puts a strain on
the scenes between action sequences, which mostly consist of characters explaining made-up
High Table rules that are kinda hard to follow. Besides, who wants to miss a killer action
scene because their bladder just can't take it? Give us an intermission next time! Yes, you'd better believe it: John Wick dies
at the end. The same John Wick we've watched kill thousands
of people in a few days over the course of the first three movies. The same John Wick who easily survived getting
hit by four cars and falling down 500 concrete steps. The unconquerable, merciless Baba Yaga, whose
name is in the title of every movie. Our protagonist's death in what might be the
final chapter of the main franchise has fans shocked and divided. Some feel like it undermines the whole story,
while others are hoping it's a total fake-out. After so much violence and death, it really
does feel like John Wick's defining character trait is his ability to survive in spite of
impossible odds. In a way, he exists more as a force of nature
than a man. It's mildly satisfying that his actions help
Caine become free of the High Table and allow Winston to get the Continental restored — but
for John, the outcome is no different than if he'd died at any of the hundreds of earlier
points in the saga when someone has tried to kill him. With no one left to avenge, there's a strange
and potent kind of beauty in John Wick surviving for his own sake. His apparent death, in contrast, seems to
support the Marquis' more nihilistic view. He sees John as essentially defined by death,
and according to this movie, that may be true — and it could be the final word on the
matter. John Wick: Chapter 4 attempts to come full
circle as John sits dying on the steps of the Sacré-Cœur. His life flashes before his eyes, and we see
him with his wife as he lingers on their brief and lovely marriage. But, as some fans have been quick to point
out, Daisy, the adorable beagle his wife left him after her death — the dog whose murder
draws him back into the assassin world in the first place — is nowhere to be seen. "Yeah, I'm thinking I'm back!" Now, we mean no offense to the memory of Helen
Wick. John loved her immensely. But Daisy deserves to be in the montage as
well. John cared so much for her that he kicked
off an entire cinematic saga in response to her untimely demise. Seeing her fail to appear in the montage is
kind of like watching the Oscars snub people by leaving them out of the "in memoriam" segment. John Wick: Chapter 4 is the first film in
the John Wick franchise to feature an after-credits scene, much to the consternation of many fans
who, not expecting one, left the theater early. It's disappointing, from a certain angle,
to see a movie franchise once confident enough in its own appeal to eschew such ending teases
of future events suddenly bow to the trend. It's also kind of a big ask to make of an
audience that just sat through the longest John Wick movie yet. Moreover, the fans who do make it all the
way might be disappointed, as the scene itself is maddeningly brief. Akira, unsurprisingly, has tracked Caine down
to avenge her father's death. In a public square, she approaches a seemingly
oblivious Caine and whips out a knife — but the screen cuts to black, leaving both of
their fates unknown. This is frustrating enough on its own, but
John Wick: Chapter 4 also disappoints grief-stricken fans who might have hoped that a post-credits
scene would hint that John Wick isn't really dead after all.
