10 Things You Didn’t Know About John Wick: Chapter 2
Like many action fanatics around the world, it only took one viewing of 2014’s John Wick for me to become a fan of the character for life. My fandom for all things John Wick has only grown since then with the release of two sequels, 2017’s John Wick: Chapter 2 and John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum. And to say my anticipation is high for the fourth film in the franchise would be an understatement.
Two of the chief architects of the John Wick Universe are Director Chad Stahelski and the man who has brought John Wick to life, Keanu Reeves. Recently I sat down and listened to the John Wick: Chapter 2 commentary track featuring Stahelski and Reeves as they provided a behind the scenes look at the film.
That commentary track along with some of the behind the scenes features included on the Blu-ray release, were the source material for this post as I present 10 Thing You Didn’t Know About John Wick: Chapter 2…
1. The opening car chase scene ends with our hero, John Wick (Keanu Reeves), standing over his fallen foe in the middle of Times Square in New York City. But the actual car chase itself was filmed by the second unit team in Montreal since New York did not want to shut down their streets in order for the car chase to be filmed there.
2. Peter Stormare who plays Abram in John Wick: Chapter 2, got the part after he was hanging out with Keanu Reeves one night and expressed his love for the first film.
3. The tailor that John Wick visits when he arrives in Rome was based on the movie’s costume supervisor, Luca Mosca. After they couldn’t find anyone to cast in the role of the “Italian Tailor”, the role went to Luca Mosca himself after a day of acting classes with Keanu Reeves.
4. Another crew member who pulled double duty was Tyler Bates. Bates was one of the composers on the film and he also played the guitar player during the rock concert scene in Rome.
5. While we are talking about musicians… the street musician playing the violin, that is actually one of the many assassins that get the text that there is a price on John Wick’s head, was played by Heidi Moneymaker aka Mrs. Chad Stahelski.
6. John Wick: Chapter 2 was the first movie to film at the World Trade Center station under the Freedom Tower in New York City.
7. After Chad Stahelski got word from Keanu Reeves that fellow Matrix alumnus Laurence Fishburne was interested in being a part of John Wick: Chapter 2, Stahelski sent Fishburne a script and later that same day Fishburne responded with “I’m in. Fish.”
8. The movie was shot in 54 days including all the second unit work done in Montreal.
9. The most expensive set piece on John Wick: Chapter 2 was the the mirror room… which was an homage to the famous final fight scene between Lee (Bruce Lee) and Han (Kien Shih) in Enter the Dragon. On a side note that I found entertaining, Keanu Reeves noted that “the mirror room” reminded him of Richard Donner’s vision of the Fortress of Solitude in 1978’s Superman.
10. Keanu Reeves spent nearly five months training for the film. This included firearms training as well as fight training, specifically in judo and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Keanu would train four to five hours a day with the 87eleven stunt team and even had some BJJ sessions with the Machado Brothers.
