When you think about everything Keanu Reeves’ John Wick has lived through in the span of the action franchise, it’s pretty inhuman right? Like how in the heck is that guy still kicking to show up for John Wick 4? It’s crazy. Now, most of the time we likely chock it up to the fact that Wick's a movie character and that’s just what movie characters do. But one fan theorist believes the answer is this: John Wick lives in a video game... a little Matrix-y no?
Yes, the movie franchise already has an actual video game in the works called John Wick Hex, but I'm not talking about that. What if John Wick has actually been about a video game character the whole time? The concept is actually pretty simple to grasp. The assassin often finds himself killing people (that are much like non-player characters) before encountering a boss at the end of each stage.
John Wick gets injured all the time, but the effects of those injuries never really stick. How would he be able to keep living unless he’s picking up health packs along the way? The Continental is the perfect recharging station too. Whenever Keanu Reeves’ character visits the hotel, the action stops and he’s allowed time to get supplies and maybe save his progress thus far too.
As the Reddit theorist notes, the coins used in the John Wick movies are kind of reminiscent of what you’d see in Mario or Zelda games. In addition, when a John Wick action scene happens it’s all about the action. When it’s dialogue time, it’s also just about the dialogue – not unlike the shift between gameplay and cutscenes in an action video game. Is this blowing anyone else’s mind yet?
Another observation to take note of is how the background characters in the movies are much more prone to rampant violence than the other characters in John Wick, also playing into the clichés of NPCs (non-player characters). Here’s where the theory really gets meta: Imagine if in future John Wick movies Keanu Reeves’ character finds out he’s in a video game and he decides to take revenge on the game creators for creating his wife just to kill her off to serve their plotline? Whoa.
The theory goes a step deeper when it starts connecting things to The Matrix, which let's be honest was always going to happen. The world of John Wick could be one of the simulations of the sci-fi world. Maybe he’s Neo in disguise? It’s already Keanu Reeves playing both roles and Laurence Fishburne has a role in both franchises as well. Not to mention the few sneaky Matrix references John Wick has made in the past.
Also John Wick 4 and Matrix 4 share the exact same release date right now on May 21, 2021. Most of the time when this sort of theory crops up, it's a stretch, and in fact it should be noted that a lot of movies these days have formatting structures similar to video games. There's also the issue of the two movies being from completely different studios and writers. Still, the connections being made here are too good to not at least talk out. Sometimes a theory may not be true but it is a lot of fun and is still worth talking about.
What do you think? Is John Wick actually about a video game? Does it take place in The Matrix?
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