John Wick: Chapter 4, and the entire series, for that matter, still feels like a breath of fresh air years later. Movies just aren’t made like this anymore. Marvel, DC, and a bunch of other comic book movies and shows rely on green screens too much. Sometimes this is good, but lately, it’s felt pretty generic, especially with the backlash around Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
That’s not the case with John Wick: Chapter 4. While the movie still has special effects, they’re integrated well into the real performances. As a result, some of the best personal kills and overall action scenes in John Wick: Chapter 4 really are a sight to behold.
This article contains major spoilers for John Wick: Chapter 4.
1 The Desert Chase
The direct opening to the movie has John bunching a board in his training dojo. The first actual action scene sees him chasing down several men on horseback in the desert.
The kills in this scene may not be as creative as the rest of the kills in John Wick: Chapter 4, but it’s still cool to see John absolutely dominate his opponents on horseback. It’s even greater that he is still wearing his iconic suit while doing so, which must be torturously hot. Keanu Reeves kills it as John Wick in all of these movies.
2 Akira’s Ride Stabs
Rina Sawayama is a pop artist that has a small role as Akira in the movie. Akira is one of the receptionists at Osaka’s hotel for the assassin guild and she is also the daughter of the Manager, Shimazu.
She has a lot of great bow kills when the Osaka hotel is attacked by The Marquis’ men but her best kill scene is when she takes down one of the bigger guys after being injured. This guy is the size of a truck and she jumps on top of him, stabbing her way up his back as he tries to climb away. It’s like a moment from Shadow of the Colossus.
3 Caine’s Kitchen Kills
Another great series of kills in the Osaka hotel involves Caine, the blind swordsman working for The Marquis. As he is being chased down by Shimazu’s men, he puts up devices in the kitchen to detect where everyone is. These censors sound a lot like the chimes found in convenience stores.
It’s funny to imagine Caine robbing a convenience store but only for their censors. The fight he has against Shimazu is also good, but sad at the same time since Caine is technically a villain for most of John Wick: Chapter 4.
4 Killa’s Death
Killa is one of the weirdest villains in the movie and he has the most brutal death by far. He also has one of the wildest deaths in the entire John Wick franchise. After several encounters involving guns, axes, and punches, John eventually defeats Killa by throwing him off a balcony from the dance floor.
It would have been enough for Killa to die from being splatted on the ground but John Wick: Chapter 4 went a step further. Killa lands on his head and the audience can surely feel that neck break as he hits the cement.
5 The Car Kills
Paris is the final city visited in the movie and it is littered with set pieces that would make any action movie fan happy. The first series involves John being hit repeatedly by cars as assassins descend from all over.
After he gets his own car, John starts going to town on these assassins sent by The Marquis. The first kill he gets with his car has him slam a guy into a van, denting it completely. One can only imagine how dented the insides of this random villain must be.
6 The Top-Down Kills
After surviving a grizzly series of car-related injuries, John finds himself in what appears to be an abandoned apartment building in Paris. Th movie is great because it turns the perspective into a top-down viewpoint.
John goes from room to room, blasting fools with a shotgun loaded with Dragon’s Breath rounds that Call of Duty fans would love. The scene overall mirrors that of Hotline Miami, which this series probably learned a lot from in the production of the first movie.
7 Chidi’s Death
Chidi is The Marquis’ right-hand man in John Wick: Chapter 4. He goes toe to toe with John and his allies starting in Osaka. No matter how many times he gets beaten, Chidi always walks away. That is until he dared to punch The Tracker’s dog.
For revenge, The Tracker sends his pooch after the man’s family jewels followed by a blast to the face. To add insult to injury, the dog pees on his corpse which is a bit overkill even for an action movie, but Chidi definitely deserved it at the same time.
8 The Marquis’ Death
Bill Skarsgård always seems to play great villains, such as Pennywise in the It reboots. The Marquis in John Wick: Chapter 4 is a great villain as well. It feels like he has a plan the entire time and he does indeed. That is until John and Caine best him in the dual at the end.
John takes a fatal shot from Caine just to get The Marquis to lower his guard. When he steps in to give John the killing shot, John fires back because he still had his round left from the dual. It’s a simple shot to the head but it is satisfying nonetheless.