John Wick (2014)
There is a particular kind of action film that arrives without fanfare, earns its reputation entirely on its own terms, and ends up reshaping the genre around it. John Wick, released in October 2014, is exactly that sort of film. The premise is almost aggressively simple: a retired assassin, grieving the recent death of his wife, has his car stolen and his dog killed by the son of a Russian mob boss, and proceeds to remind the criminal underworld precisely why they were so relieved when he quit. What sounds on paper like the setup for a throwaway straight-to-video thriller turned out to be one of the more influential action pictures of the decade, launching a franchise that now spans four feature films, a television spin-off, and enough stylised world-building to fill a small encyclopaedia.
The film was co-directed by Chad Stahelski and David Leitch, two stunt coordinators and second-unit directors who had spent years working at the sharp end of Hollywood action sequences. Stahelski had been Keanu Reeves' stunt double on The Matrix, and both men knew their way around choreography, camera placement, and the mechanics of screen violence in a way that most directors simply do not. John Wick was their feature debut (Leitch would later go on to direct Hobbs and Shaw, among other things), and the film carries all the hallmarks of people who have spent years watching other directors get action wrong. Working from a screenplay by Derek Kolstad, produced through a cluster of smaller independent outfits including Thunder Road and 87Eleven (the duo's own stunt and production company), the film came together on a modest budget and without the safety net of a major studio machine behind it. That relative freedom shows, in the best possible way.
At the centre of everything is Keanu Reeves, and it is worth pausing on just how well-suited he is to this particular role. By 2014, Reeves had spent much of the previous decade in something of a career lull, the enormous goodwill from the original Matrix having been eroded, fairly or not, by its sequels (Macca has written about both The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions if you want to revisit that particular argument). John Wick gave him a character that plays to his genuine strengths: a certain quiet intensity, a physical commitment that borders on the monastic, and a screen presence that reads as genuinely dangerous rather than performatively so. Around him, the film assembles a cast that punches well above its weight. Michael Nyqvist brings a weary, almost philosophical menace to the role of the mob boss Viggo Tarasov. Alfie Allen, still best known to many as Theon Greyjoy, is persuasively weaselly as his reckless son Iosef. Willem Dafoe, Ian McShane, and John Leguizamo turn up in support, each of them lending the film a kind of seasoned, deadpan credibility that grounds its more outlandish flourishes. The world these characters inhabit, all gold coins, Continental hotels, and professional courtesies, is sketched in with just enough detail to feel lived-in without ever overexplaining itself.
I still remember the sheer surprise of John Wick dropping out of nowhere back in 2014. I caught it on release and was immediately hooked, largely because it didn't pretend to be anything other than a pure, unadulterated revenge flick.
Chad Stahelski’s directorial debut takes a remarkably straightforward plot (someone kills the titular assassin's dog, so he kills everyone) and just runs with it. It’s a beautifully simple premise that strips away all the bloated, CGI-heavy nonsense we were getting at the time, giving us Keanu Reeves at his most focused and lethal.
Where the picture truly earns its keep, and what remains its absolute standout feature, is the jaw-dropping action choreography. If you’re a fan of "gun-fu" cinema, this is your holy grail. Stahelski and the stunt team clearly took heavy inspiration from the slick, balletic violence of Equilibrium, the relentless close-quarters combat of The Raid, and even the stylish, gothic shootouts of Blade. The result is a series of action scenes that are just cracking to watch. Reeves throws himself into the physical demands of the role with a bruised, relentless energy, making every single headshot and judo throw feel incredibly visceral and weighty.
Fair play to the casting department as well, because the ensemble cast is highly effective in fleshing out this neon-lit underworld. You’ve got absolute legends like Ian McShane, Willem Dafoe, and John Leguizamo popping up to deliver their lines with a wonderful, deadpan gravitas. They add a much-needed layer of texture and dark humour to the proceedings. However, for all its stylistic flair, I have to admit it’s not exactly a "great" film in the traditional sense. Honestly, it’s incredibly one-note, entirely singular in its focus on violence and retribution, never really pausing to let you breathe or care about anything other than the next body count.
When you strip away the hype, John Wick is a brilliantly executed piece of genre cinema that knows exactly what it wants to be and delivers it flawlessly. Stahelski crafted a sleek, hyper-kinetic thrill ride that revitalised Reeves' career and spawned a massive franchise. It might lack the narrative depth or emotional resonance to be considered a cinematic masterpiece, but when the choreography is this tight and the pacing this relentless, who really cares? It’s a really good, highly entertaining film.
John Wick lands, on balance, as a polished but deliberately narrow piece of work: a film that set a new benchmark for action choreography in mainstream Western cinema and did so with a confidence that belied its modest origins. Its influence on the genre since 2014 has been considerable, and the fact that it revived one of the more likeable careers in Hollywood is not nothing. Whether it sits comfortably alongside the films you consider genuinely great will probably depend on how much weight you give to craft versus complexity. But there are worse things a film can do than know exactly what it is. Don't set him off, indeed.
Rating: ★★★½ | Year: 2014 | Watched: 2026-07-20
Trailer
▶ Watch the official trailer for John Wick (2014) on YouTube
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