#28 — John Wick

This is part of an illustrated countdown of my 49 1/2 most essential action movies. Last week I talked about the meticulously crafted spectacle of Kill Bill.

Keanu Reeves’ besuited boogeyman (pardon me, the one you send TO KILL the boogeyman) might be the most ubiquitous representation of the action genre in the last ten years. They even put him in Fortnite. A lot has been said about it, and it’s hard to add anything substantive that goes beyond the underlying mythology or the graceful existence of its lead actor. It’s inspired memes, stoked the passionate flames of the “Keanaissance”, and created a franchise from scratch — now three films and counting.

The release of that first movie felt like a “Thank you for your service” to every action fan who survived the Olivier Megaton regime. The revival of a universally liked actor and the meta element of his return within the film is a great comeback story, but then you add to that the success of first-time directors, and proof of low budget action as viable spectacle that could penetrate the mainstream in a climate controlled by comic book movies — well, it really accomplished a lot.

It’s also the movie that got this list started! At the time (I think it was the late summer of 2018), I just wanted to draw John having breakfast with his dog. I thought it was a nice moment. Then I did a couple more and thought “I should make a whole bunch of these” — because I have a condition where if something is worth doing once, than it’s worth doing 49 1/2 times — and eventually it snowballed into a passion project that dramatically ate into my spare time and made me question on several occasions if I had made a huge mistake. But you have to finish what you start.

So that’s my story about how this all came to be. The movie is pretty good, too. It’s impressive how much mileage they get out of the simplest creative gestures. Minimal dialogue delivered by interesting faces, dry humor at just the right moments, neon lighting, and a narrative hook that sneaks emotional catharsis of love and loss into a revenge tale involving an elaborate criminal underworld. You don’t typically get this sort of thing in the M&MCU (Marley & Me Cinematic Universe).

I think it’s interesting how John doesn’t really seem like a dog person. He doesn’t think about house training until the dog begs to go outside. He calls Daisy’s food “kibble”, which is not technically incorrect in the same way that some people call soda “pop”, and he feeds her a bowl of cereal as her first meal. He seems pretty uncomfortable in general around the dog, but is making an effort to be a good owner to honor his wife. It’s what she would have wanted.

A lot of junket interviewers loved giggling about the absurdity of John’s vengeful unretirement ceremony, even if they understood the underlying point. And Keanu would always correct them with “but it’s more than just a dog”. It’s a therapy dog, and a second chance being cruelly reneged by fate or bad luck — or perhaps by the inconvenient possibility that he never had a shot at peace. It’s a sad story, really.

Hats off to Keanu for selling the premise with such conviction. He proves within the opening thirty minutes that he could easily sell the emotion of an indie drama until someone owes him a life — then suddenly he’s a very spry 48 doing stunt fighting, driving, and shooting in a tailored suit. I can’t think of another actor within the Hollywood system that would commit months of prep to such an under the radar risk at that age, during that phase of his career — and pull it off as if it was meant to be.

I can remember digging through Keanu’s IMDB a couple years prior to Wick’s release, when the film was listed under another title. At that time, he hadn’t really done anything that could be considered “action” since Street Kings, and I kinda thought “this might be it for him”. Set photos began to trickle out of him dressed in all black, carrying a weird looking shotgun, and I guess I started to feel like comic fans do when they show Batman’s new costume at a location shoot. Then the trailer. Then the Fantastic Fest debut. Then me watching it on IMAX opening weekend. It started to sink in. He’s back! Keanu came back! And he brought a whole new franchise with him.