John Wick has killed a lot of people. By my count, the assortment of fight sequences have resulted in the Keanu Reeves character ending the lives of nearly 400 enemies using guns, knives, and an assortment of other tools (including animals and books). But, of course, not each body put down by the fictional assassin represents a different member of the talented stunt team that helps bring the John Wick films to life. Not only are the same performers “killed” in multiple set pieces in each feature, but some end up being “killed” multiple times over in single action scenes.
This is a wild element of the John Wick franchise on the whole, and as such, Keanu Reeves has a special way of celebrating those who end up “dying” the most.
Earlier this month, I interviewed director Chad Stahelski during the Los Angeles press day for John Wick: Chapter 4, and my first question was about the titular character’s many, many victims. I asked if it was known which member of the 87Eleven stunt team has been “killed” the most times by John Wick, and while the filmmaker couldn’t specifically identify the individual with the record, he told me about the gifts that Reeves gives the performers who ending up being taken out in single sequences. Said Stahelski,
No lies, swear to God. Keanu is very tight with the stunt team, obviously. He gave away... we actually have shirts... Keanu actually gave t-shirts – there is like three different types, like the under 10, how many times you died in a sequence. And then the 10 to 15, and then I think two of our guys ... yes, we know who died the most in a sequence. I think it might have been one of our guys, Bruce – it's either Bruce [Concepcion] or Jeremy [Marinas], or maybe even Li [Qiang].. The two biggest ones were the stair fight and the Arc de Triomphe fight [in John Wick: Chapter 4]. I think it was the same guy and he got like 18 kills.
The idea of a single performer being “killed” nearly 20 times in a scene is nuts, and it could be a fun game to play in the future watching John Wick: Chapter 4 and trying to identify the person to whom the director is referring.
Continuing, Chad Stahelski added that there is also an individual who has a specialty when it comes to certain kinds of attacks in John Wick movies. Dogs have been an important part of the series from the very beginning, and the filmmaker told me that one member of the team is basically the go-to guy when it comes to battling with them. And he too has his own special t-shirt:
But then our Jujutsu instructor, Dave Camarillo, had the most number of dog attacks both in rehearsal. He's crazy. I mean he got a t-shirt, Keanu gave it to him for like a hundred dog attacks. He did like a hundred. He was like the dog guy. The dogs just loved to play with him. So that was guy.
There’s a lot of death, but it’s a whole lot of fun, and movie-goers will be able to experience all of the excitement this Friday when the much-buzzed about John Wick: Chapter 4 arrives in theaters everywhere. Stay tuned for more from my interviews with Chad Stahelski and the cast (both before and after the film comes out), and get a preview of what else is hitting theaters in the coming months with our 2023 Movie Release Calendar.
