More weapon than man at this point, his killer instinct as sharp as a knife’s edge, but any notions that his last tethers to humanity have snapped are rebuffed every time he speaks of his friends, of his wife, of his family, all with the stubbornness of someone who’s sure he’ll return to his new life even whilst knee deep in the blood of the old one. Chapter 4 even begins with him attempting to undo one of his last acts in the previous movie and get back the wedding ring he gave away to the Elder (George Georgiou). The significance of such tokens harks back to the first movie, in which Wick keeps his wife’s bracelet and his puppy’s collar on his nightstand, symbols of a man who just can’t let go. Unlike the Bond franchise, John Wick does not deal with the death of a love interest by giving its hero another. Throughout its four movies, there’s not a single other woman that Wick expresses romantic interest in.
Variations of “love” and “friend” recur across the franchise’s scripts, but more than the dialogue, these sentiments are expressed through action. If Wick survives the first film, it’s only because the love of a watchful friend and fellow assassin, Marcus (Willem Dafoe) who opts to protect rather than persecute him. This, despite the large bounty on Wick’s head and the painful death Marcus suffers for his disobedience. Sofia Al-Azwar (Halle Berry) is bound by a blood oath to help Wick because she owes him, sure, but that debt too is predicated on the love of a daughter. Consider how Viggo Tarasov (Michael Nyqvist) weeps as he thinks about the fate that’s about to befall his son. Even throwaway moments, such as one in which Wick inquires about a bouncer’s weight loss before they scuffle, reveal a camaraderie among this secret community, in a break from the tradition of lone-wolf assassins. For all his unknowability, Chapter 4 underlines that the one predictable aspect of Wick’s life are his friends, the only certainty is that he will unfailingly turn to them for refuge. “Wick has so many friends in this world because, at the end of the day, he’s inherently a good man,” screenwriter Michael Finch told the New York Times.
John Wick is also a franchise about family, and all the ways in which we miss, mourn and choose to massacre ours. For every Santino D’Antonio (Riccardo Scamarcio) who orders a hit on his sister so that he can nab her place at the High Table, there’s a Winston (Ian McShane), a Charon (Lance Reddick), a Koji (Hiroyuki Sanada), people willing to risk everything to keep Wick safe.
