10 Things You Didn’t Know About John Wick
In honor and in celebration of the soon to be released sequel to 2014’s hit John Wick titled John Wick: Chapter 2, I’ve taken the time to pour over the special features and audio commentary from John Wick and have compiled this list of stuff that you may not have known. I have to tell you, while watching some films with the commentary on can be a real drag, that was certainly not the case for John Wick. Directors Chad Stahelski and Dave Leitch are true lovers of the action genre and probably know more about staging an onscreen fight than any two-headed directing duo alive. If you have the film on hand, be sure to check out the commentary. Now, on to 10 Things You Didn’t Know About John Wick…
1. Let the actors act: The two young directors did many things right during the course of filming but one thing, in particular, was letting many of the actors bring their own “flavors” to their roles. Willem Dafoe turned his character into a juicer role during his meeting with the mob boss. Bridge Regan recommended that her character have a bunch of tattoos. Michael Nyqvist delivered most of his lines in a ways that constantly had the directors surprised. If you have a group of actors like they did, you just need to let them go.
2. Lone Survivor Prequel: The film is very loosely based on a story where Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell’s dog was killed by four thugs. The dog was named DASY after the members of his SEAL team, and upon finding the lifeless body of the dog, Luttrell grabbed a couple of pistols and chased the men across several counties. They would be apprehended by police but Marcus allegedly said “I spared them because I’ve killed enough people already.”
3. Keanu and Stone Cold: John Wick was written by Derek Kolstad. Kolstad also wrote the action film The Package, starring Steve Austin. In the film, Austin’s character was named Tommy Wick. IMDB tells me that Derek Kolstad’s grandfather was named John Wick and I’m assuming he was a real badass.
4. Everyone loves bacon: In order to get the 8 week old beagle puppy named Andy to follow John around and lick his face, they would rub bacon grease in Keanu’s beard. Sounds delicious.
5. A match made in action Heaven: Sexy and deadly Ms. Perkins, played by the lovely Adrianne Palicki, was eventually engaged to be married to the stunt double of Keanu Reeves. Whether they actually beat the crap out of each other during the film or not is unknown. If they are like every other married couple I know, they’ve mentally and emotionally beaten the crap out of each other since then.
6. Training guru: Keanu trained for 8 hours a day for around 4 months for the role. He trained in judo and jujutsu for the fight scenes and worked with LA SWAT and some Navy SEALS in order to pull off the gun work. The man is a machine!
7. Bullet crazy: Unlike most action directors, Stahelski and Leitch were very aware of how many bullets had been fired from John Wick’s weapons. They made an extra effort to not do a John Woo and just have the man fire 73 rounds from one 10 round clip.
8. Nyqvist the Russian Swede: Born in Stockholm, Sweden, Nyqvist didn’t have the traditional accent of most Russian mobsters in film but that was part of the reason they chose him. They didn’t want to do the stereotypical villain and allowed Michael to play with the character and the accent to the point that at some times it’s difficult to hear a Russian accent at all. Either way, Nyqvist’s performance is one that is unforgettable, and that is all you can ask for in an action film.
9. In a Valley of Violence: In something that is news to me, the 2016 film starring Ethan Hawke and John Travolta is somewhat of a western version of John Wick. Don’t believe me? Check out the trailer and or synopsis and tell me it doesn’t sound like a lot of killing and fun.
10. A body count to be proud of: There was no gratuitous nudity (damn) but there was a serious amount of killing in John Wick. I’m not sure exactly what the count was for John, himself. Some put it at 77 while others had it well over 80. Another commenter had Nyqvist’s character as the 69th victim. No matter how you slice it, John Wick had a body count that rivals almost any other action hero in history.
