John Wick was initially hailed as Keanu Reeves’ comeback vehicle, but in the near decade since its release, the film has proven to be much more than that. It seems like John Wick has become this generation’s Die Hard in the sense that it’s now a short-term point of comparison for pitching new action movies. Similar to the movies pitched as “Die Hard in a___,” recent revenge movies like Nobody, Atomic Blonde, Violent Night, Kate, and Extraction have all taken inspiration from John Wick’s premise. However, the John Wick saga has influences of its own, and John Wick: Chapter 4 pays tribute to the extensive history of action cinema that has come before.

John Wick: Chapter 4 is easily the biggest, boldest, and most emotional installment in the series thus far. After being nearly killed at the end of John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum, John is rescued by Winston (Ian McShane) and the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne) and taken to safety. However, John is not given much time to breathe, as the High Table member Marquis Vincent de Gramont (Bill Skarsgård) has put a price on his head that lures assassins like the blind swordsman Caine (Donnie Yen) and the ruthless tracker Mr. Nobody (Shamier Anderson) on his trail. John has been excommunicated by the High Table, and the only way to clear his name is by challenging Marquis to a duel.

It’s no secret that the reason that the John Wick franchise has been so successful is that director Chad Stahelski is a former stuntman himself. No one knows the type of effort that goes into pulling off these critical scenes better than someone who's made a career out of it, and there’s an elegance to Stahelski’s precision that blends gun play, martial arts, neo-noir, and swordsmanship into something totally unique. However, John Wick: Chapter 4 goes beyond the series’ initially simple premise into a grandiose homage to 100 years of artistry.

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The Earliest Silent Film Masters

Buster Keaton in Sherlock Jr.
Image via Metro-Goldwyn Pictures

The joy of seeing the John Wick films in theaters is getting to marvel at what you’re seeing with a crowd; you may be laughing at some points because there’s no other way to respond to seeing Reeves run through the Paris traffic firing his pistol than to begin chuckling. This is a hallmark of the earliest days of cinema, in which cinematic stuntmen delivered daring feats like carnival performers simply to wow the viewer. It’s notable that Reeves bears a lot of similarities to “the great stone face” of Buster Keaton, whose 1920s films had a similarly outrageous sense of comedy. It’s hard not to think of Keaton’s classic The General, a film that takes place during a nonstop war, when watching John Wick: Chapter 4 because every location introduces new assassins and enemies.

There’s also a reverence for the 1930s films of Charlie Chaplin; Chaplin and Reeves share the same inherent likability and simple motivations that make them so endearing. In Modern Times, The Tramp goes on a wild quest just to give a girl flowers, and in John Wick: Chapter 4, Reeves spares Mr. Nobody’s life after seeing his dog. Chaplin’s films often showed the perseverance of humanity amidst complex works of infrastructure, such as the overbearing factories in Modern Times or the endless metroplex in City Lights. This is a part of the reason John Wick: Chapter 4 is so constantly thrilling; between Paris, Berlin, New York, and Osaka, each new location is more complex and layered than the previous one.

Homages to International Cinema

Toshiro Mifune in 'Yojimbo'
Image via Toho

It’s impossible not to note the influence of international filmmaking on the John Wick series; the code of chivalry that binds John and the other assassins in the High Table is comparable to the same code of honor that the samurai in Akira Kurosawa’s classics Yojimbo, Throne of Blood, The Hidden Fortress, and Rashomon all share. While this has been an aspect of every installment in the series, John Wick: Chapter 4 gives characters like Winston, Shimazu Koji (Hiroyuki Sanada), and Harbinger (Clancy Brown) the chance to speak about the importance of tradition and the art of their training.

However, John Wick: Chapter 4 is as much rooted in modern Asian action cinema as it is in the past. John goes through a nonstop confined killing spree in a Paris building that bears significant similarities to the infamous “hallway scene” in Park Chan-wook’s 2003 masterpiece Oldboy, and there’s a large-scale hotel battle similar to the recent “prison breakout” in The Raid 2. The reverence for Asian performers is evident, as John Wick: Chapter 4 gives us the chance to see legendary action stars Hiroyuki Sanada and Donnie Yen duke it out in an epic brawl.

The Noir Influence

Le Samourai
Image via S.N. Prodis.

John Wick is also as much a noir as it is an action movie, as John must search within the lower levels of each city to follow a complex series of clues that lead him to his next target. The idea of assassins hiding in plain sight is similar to the paranoia of 1970s political thrillers like The Conversation and The Parallax View, combined with the non-stop repulsiveness of The French Connection and the brutality of Dirty Harry. The nearly worldless, stoic nature of these covert assassins also takes heavy inspiration from the cinema of Jean-Pierre Melville, specifically his 1967 crime masterpiece Le Samouraï.

While the first John Wick film was set within the gritty underbelly of society, John Wick: Chapter 4 goes to the largest cities in the world. Stahelski shows his respect for Michael Mann with the eerie beauty of his cityscapes, specifically during John and Winston’s brisk conversations in New York. Mann had a gorgeous way of framing his flawed protagonists against a stunning backdrop; comparisons can be drawn between John’s silent musings and the late great James Caan’s adventures in Thief.

The Inspiration of Westerns

The Good the bad the ugly

Nearly all the John Wick films have been westerns in their own way, but John Wick: Chapter 4 homages The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly in the most perfect way imaginable. The final duel between John and Caine is held at thirty paces with pistols; all the tension comes from the expressions on their faces that precede each shot being fired. Like Sergio Leone, Stahelski understands that keeping everything still for a moment leaves the viewer with bated breath, daring them not to move until the end of the battle.

John Wick: Chapter 4 is as much a sendoff to the titular character as it is a sprawling, epic love letter to the masters of filmmaking over the last century. Reeves has certainly solidified himself as a new legend, and the film reflects on his legacy in this genre. While John Wick: Chapter 4 is certainly influenced by the past, its success will hopefully inspire a new generation of artists that look to its accomplishments with wonder.