John Wick
As all of my friends were talking about the new 2023 John Wick movie, I hung back. I have heard the name before, since the character is iconic, but I have never actually watched any of them. So, I decided to bring myself up to date, considering that the first John Wick movie came out in 2014. I will also give a summary here, for any of you that also haven’t watched but don’t have the time to.
The background story is that John Wick used to work with the mafia boss Viggo in New York. Because of his legendary hitman skills, his name became a known one, but even better known was his nickname “Baba Yaga”. Surprisingly, Baba Yaga does not actually mean the boogeyman, as the film suggests. In Russian folklore, she is a witch who lives in a disheveled home and lures children into said home to eat them. The correct Russian term for boogeyman would instead be “Babay”. When his wife was dying from terminal illness, John retired from his job to look after her.
The film opens with John mourning the loss of his wife, Helen. Shortly after her death, John receives a final gift from Helen, a beagle puppy named Daisy, as a way of helping him cope with his grief and loneliness. John and Daisy quickly develop a close bond, with John taking her everywhere he goes. One day, while filling up his Mustang at a gas station, John encounters a group of Russian gangsters led by Iosef Tarasov, the spoiled son of Viggo. Iosef takes a liking to John’s car and offers to buy it, but John declines. Later that night, Iosef and his men break into John’s house, beat him up, steal his car, and kill Daisy.
This was an important point in the movie. Killing John’s dog and stealing his car caused John to come out of retirement to seek revenge against the Tarasovs. John Wick’s powers were displayed in this scene without any bullets fired. The film flicks back and forth between Viggo’s place and John’s basement. Each descriptive word that Viggo says, such as “focus”, “commitment”, and “sheer will” were all emphasized by the camera switching to John swinging his sledgehammer at the ground. These three words are continuously used throughout the franchise and define who he is.
In fact, this scene showed that the protagonist is stronger than the antagonist, something very rare in movies. Of course, it won’t be that easy for John. Viggo is a powerful crime lord with a lot of resources at his disposal, and as John got closer to his son, he continued to send men to kill him. At this moment, Iosef is at a nightclub, protected by several of Viggo’s men. John Wick got there and killed almost all of Iosef’s guards, but Iosef managed to escape.
Later, in his suite, John was attacked by Perkins and Marcus, both of which had accepted Viggo’s contract to kill John Wick. Marcus was on a building with a sniper aimed at a sleeping John Wick. However, he missed and hit the pillow next to John. How could he have missed a sleeping target, considering that he was the one who mentored Wick? It turns out Marcus betrayed Viggo, which would later be shown in the movie. The shot did, however, wake John up just as Perkins entered and they started fighting. The result was a gun held to Perkins’ head, and Perkins told him about Viggo’s stash in a pretend church. John proceeded to raid it and burn down everything in it.
The final showdown happened at a safe house in Brooklyn, where Iosef was kept. John effortlessly took out the goons that were protecting the house, but failed to kill Iosef. John seems to have predicted this outcome, and he could be seen pressing a switch, causing explosions to the cars in the garage. When Iosef came down and saw the destruction, he had no choice but to run. He didn’t get far though, and his last words as John shot him in the head were “It was just a f*ckn” in Russian.
To summarize, John Wick 1 is a fast-paced action movie. Almost everything is well executed, but I think the plot had a lot more potential. However, having such a simple storyline also has its benefits, such as creating the saying “Don’t mess with John Wick’s dog”. Overall, it is a very solid movie and will definitely keep you on the edge of your seat.