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As a premise, John Wick’s “hitman comes out of retirement to avenge his dog’s death” appears as morbid as it’s unbankable. Back when Keanu Reeves first began exhibiting curiosity in John Wick, lots of people concerned have been nervous that killing a pet was taking issues too far. Yet, after Reeves introduced on administrators Chad Stahelski and David Leitch to do exactly that, the movie—and its three sequels, together with this week’s John Wick: Chapter 4—went on to show simply how in style that premise might be. Also how doable it was to construct a completely new franchise from the bottom up. 

From the bottom up, albeit with spare elements. No one might accuse the Wick franchise of being by-product, however quite a lot of its allure comes from its amalgamation of influences. It’s a franchise purpose-built for genre-loving midnight-screening cinemaniacs. Reeves and Stahelski, who has been a director on all 4 motion pictures, put on their inspiration like benefit badges: Sergio Leone; South Korean cinema; Bullitt; the Wachowskis, who first teamed them up as an actor-stunt double combo on The Matrix. The Wick motion pictures remodeled these components into an amalgam of underworld intrigue, splendidly choreographed battle scenes, and tongue-in-cheek knowingness that has made them cable and streaming service mainstays. (Seriously, click on the Guide button out of your cable supplier at any hour and also you’re about as prone to see Reeves capturing individuals in a black swimsuit as you’re to see the gang at Central Perk on Friends.) 

World-building like this put Wick creatively head and shoulders above a number of franchise rivals. Its motion scenes might go toe-to-toe with these of, say, a Jason Bourne film. But whereas these are political espionage thrillers set on the earth of the CIA, Wick’s titular murderer operates in an imagined universe the place felony organizations have their very own foreign money (these iconic gold cash), guidelines, switchboard, and governing our bodies (aka the High Table). John Wick’s world appears like the actual one, however he exists on a special aircraft. 

Meanwhile, the Wick movies provide a extra adult-friendly various to superhero motion pictures. Superhero flicks are enjoyable as hell, however their motion is extra sanitized, laden with CGI and in the end beholden to the tropes of comics in a manner the Wick franchise shouldn’t be. When I interviewed Reeves and Stahelski for this month’s journal cowl story, Stahelski famous that not having “60 years of Batman to work from” meant that whereas his franchise didn’t have these broad shoulders to face on, nothing was holding him again from making his hero look the way in which he needed. Wick’s playground, as Reeves referred to as it, is constructed round motion as a storytelling instrument, and a character-building one. “That was the fundamental base,” Reeves mentioned.