John Wick: Chapter 4 (2024)

"Saying goodbye?"
"Saying hello."
"You think your wife can hear you?"
"No."
"Then why bother?"
"Maybe I'm wrong."
"The dead are gone. Only the living matter. After my daughter was born, I wanted to leave this life. I thought I did.
"But you didn't."
"We're damned, you and I."
"On that we agree."
"My daughter's not. If it's between you and her, you're going to die."
"Maybe not."

—John Wick and Caine

John Wick: Chapter 4 is the fourth installment in the film series, and a sequel to the 2019 film John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum. It was released on March 24, 2023, by Lionsgate in theaters and IMAX. Previously it was pushed back another year to avoid competing with Top Gun: Maverick.^[1]

Synopsis[]

John Wick uncovers a path to defeating The High Table. But before he can earn his freedom, Wick must face off against a new enemy with powerful alliances across the globe and forces that turn old friends into foes.

Plot[]

In New York City, John Wick prepares to exact his revenge against The High Table while hiding underground with the Bowery King. He travels to Morocco and kills The Elder, the "one who sits above the Table". In response, the Marquis Vincent de Gramont, a French senior member of the High Table, summons New York Continental hotel manager Winston Scott and his concierge, Charon.

Vincent advises Winston that the entire High Table has given him unlimited resources to find and kill John. He chastises Winston for his failure to assassinate John. As punishment, The Marquis strips Winston of his duties as manager, declares him "excommunicado", has the New York Continental destroyed, and executes Charon. De Gramont then travels to Paris and enlists Caine, a blind, retired High Table assassin and old friend of John's, to kill him, threatening to murder Caine's daughter otherwise.

John takes refuge at the Osaka Continental, run by his friend Koji Shimazu. The Myrmidons, led by his right-hand man Chidi, arrive with Caine to kill John. Akira, Koji's daughter and the hotel's concierge, orders the hotel evacuated and joins her father, John, and the hotel's staff in fighting off the High Table's assassins, leading to Akira being wounded. In his escape, John fights off another wave of assassins, followed by Caine. They are interrupted by a "tracker"—a term for a bounty hunter—who calls himself "Mr. Nobody". He lets John go after deciding the contract money to be insufficient. Akira also escapes, but Caine kills Koji.

John returns to New York and meets with a vengeful Winston at Charon's gravesite. Winston suggests that John challenge the Marquis de Gramont to a duel, as winning will free him of his obligation to the High Table. Per the Table's traditions, John can only request a duel on behalf of a crime family; as he previously severed his ties to the Ruska Roma, John travels to their headquarters in Berlin to rejoin the syndicate. His adoptive sister Katia agrees to bring John back in exchange for him killing Killa Harkan, a German High Table senior and a mob boss who murdered her father.

John infiltrates Killa's nightclub, but Killa, already informed of the hit on him by Caine, sets up an ambush via a rigged poker match. John escapes and kills Killa, taking one of his golden teeth as a trophy, and regains his status in the Ruska Roma. John then formally challenges Vincent De Gramont through Winston, who also requests the New York Continental rebuilt with him reinstated as manager should John win. In Paris, John and the Marquis decide the parameters of their duel in a meeting moderated by The Harbinger, a Table's emissary. De Gramont nominates a reluctant Caine to fight in his place. The duel is to take place with dueling pistols on the following sunrise at Sacré-Cœur; the Harbinger informs John that both he and Winston will be executed should he fail to appear on time. The Bowery King arrives in Paris to give John a weapon and a new ballistic suit.

Vincent attempts to prevent John from arriving at the duel by placing a $26 million bounty on him. John fights off hordes of assassins on his way to Sacré-Cœur, including Mr. Nobody, who negotiates the bounty with Vincent de Gramont up to $40 million but stops hunting John after he saves the Tracker's dog from being killed by Chidi. Caine aids John in fighting his way up the stairs leading to the Sacré-Cœur; Chidi nearly kills John, but is killed by a vindictive Mr. Nobody. John and Caine narrowly reach the summit in time for the duel, with Mr. Nobody also in attendance. Each inflicts serious wounds on the other through three rounds of dueling, with the third round ending with John being mortally wounded. With John unable to stand back up, The Marquis demands the right to administer the coup de grace and swaps places with Caine for the fourth round. However Vincent De Gramont failed to notice that John didn't actually fire in the third round allowing John, with his still-chambered gun, to shoot and kill him. The Harbinger grants Caine and John their freedom from the High Table, and reinstates Winston's position. John reflects over his marriage and life, before, apparently, succumbing to his injuries. Sometime later, Winston and the Bowery King bid farewell to John, having buried him next to his late wife, Helen.

In a post-credits scene, Caine returns to Paris to reunite with his daughter but is approached by the vengeful Akira, who brandishes a weapon.

Cast[]

• Keanu Reeves as John Wick
• Ian McShane as Winston Scott
• Laurence Fishburne as The Bowery King
• Lance Reddick as Charon
• Rina Sawayama as Akira Shimazu
• Bill Skarsgård as Marquis Vincent de Gramont
• Clancy Brown as The Harbinger
• Hiroyuki Sanada as Koji Shimazu
• Donnie Yen as Caine
• Scott Adkins as Killa Harkan
• Shamier Anderson as Tracker/Mr. Nobody
• Natalia Tena as Katia
• Marko Zaror as Chidi
• George Georgiou as The Elder^[2]

Production[]

John Wick: Chapter 4 was originally intended to shoot back to back with John Wick: Chapter 5 but Lionsgate dropped those plans in March 2021.^[3]

At San Diego Comic-Con in July 2022, Keanu Reeves made a surprise appearance at a panel headlined by director Chad Stahelski to reveal the first teaser trailer for John Wick: Chapter 4. The trailer confirmed the return of some characters from previous installments and showed scenes filmed in the USA, Japan, France, Germany, and Jordan.

Release[]

John Wick: Chapter 4 premiered at Leicester Square in London on March 6, 2023. The film also had a special screening at the SXSW Film Festival on March 17, 2023.

John Wick Chapter 4 was released on March 24, 2023.

Home Media[]

John Wick Chapter 4 was released digitally on May 23, 2023. Blu-ray, 4K UHD, DVD, released on June 13, 2023.

Gallery[]

Videos[]

Images[]

References[]

Trivia[]

• John Wick: Chapter 4 will be the first film in the series not to be written by the creator and screenwriter Derek Kolstad, it will be instead written by Shay Halten and Michael Finch.
  • Shay was also one of the writers who wrote John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum along with Derek.
• At the John Wick Panel at CCXP22, star Keanu Reeves announced the next film Ballerina will take place between John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum and John Wick: Chapter 4.
• George Georgiou appears as the Elder, the "Man Above the (High) Table", replacing Saïd Taghmaoui from John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019).
• John Wick's fate is officially up to viewers to decide. Michael Finch says, “What I will say is that we never actually see him dying, We see a [grave] plot. What happened in between is up for interpretation.”
• In an interview with Director Chad Stahelski, he confirms that Caine was killed by Akira in the post credits scene of the uncut version. This was cut due to it being "too much" and Stahelski preferred the cut to black. It is unknown whether or not Caine's death is canon.
• Originally, the film's title was supposed to be John Wick: Chapter 4 - Hagakure so that it could match alongside John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum.
• Keanu Reeves has only 380 lines of dialogue.
• In Japan, John Wick: Chapter 4 is known as John Wick: Consequences.
• Keanu Reeves gifted each stunt worker with a personalized t-shirt detailing how many times that performer met their demise in the film. His five-person stunt team also received Rolex Submariner watches, each costing around $10,000, with a personalized message on the back of each one when filming concluded.