John Wick's True Enemy In Chapter 4 Is Fast-Moving Vehicles

This post contains spoilers for "John Wick: Chapter 4."

There is nothing that John Wick (Keanu Reeves) cannot accomplish. Over the course of the first three "John Wick" films, the legendary assassin has gone from brutally avenging his dead dog to aggressively taking down increasingly dangerous adversaries sent after him for defying the rules of the world he inhabits. As expected, the stakes are grander than ever in Chad Stahelski's latest installment in the franchise, "John Wick: Chapter 4." As a marked man, excommunicated from the assassin underworld, John has evolved into a symbol of unchecked defiance — much to the ire of the High Table.

In "Chapter 4," John has to contend with various threats, including a formidable old friend, a whole slew of assassins, and the annoyingly smug Marquis Vincent de Gramont (Bill Skarsgård). However, John's greatest enemies in "John Wick: Chapter 4" are sleek as hell, impossibly fast-moving, and take John by surprise while throwing him around the streets of Paris like some marionette. I am talking, of course, about fast-moving vehicles, often wielded by fellow assassins who are out to claim the big fat bounty on John's head. After failing to take him out with guns, sniper rifles, katanas, and weapons that make the target burst into flames, they resort to punching him with their cars in a unique martial arts style that was dubbed "car-fu."

Cars have always been more than just a part of cool-as-heck action pieces in the franchise. The (literal) catalyst for John's return to this covert, dangerous world was the theft of his Ford Mustang Boss 429, which he steals back in "Chapter 2." Cars are used both as means of assault and cover, as evidenced in the frenetic opening chase sequence in the second film.

John has had a history of withstanding the most brutal attacks levied against him. The poor dude has been shot at repeatedly, stabbed in the collarbone, and even thrown off the roof of a high-rise in "John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum." The hyperreal world of the "John Wick" movies allows him to survive events that would be guaranteed to kill the average man, cementing his reputation as the Boogeyman with almost-mythical abilities to even cheat death. In Stahelski's latest film, John engages in lengthy standoffs and relentless assaults from hordes of trained killers and emerges unscathed from the bloodbath at Osaka Continental.

As John nears his fateful duel with Caine (Donnie Yen), he is hounded by every assassin in Paris while he's on the way to Sacré-Cœur. This leads to inevitable shootouts and close-combat situations that are repeatedly punctuated by cars hitting John straight-on, leading him to crash against windshields and tumble over car hoods. It all looks extremely painful. Although John eventually turns the odds in his favor by dragging thugs along with his ride and slamming into them in reverse gear, the repeated vehicular assaults must have left him with some nasty bruises, at the very least.

Only moments prior to this, John had to fight his way out of literal hell in Killa's nightclub, where he was dropped from a height (again) and was forced to engage in fights that involved massive amounts of pressurized water. To be almost run over by cars shortly after this ordeal is just plain rude, especially when you're being punched, kicked, and shot at the same time. But hey, we're dealing with John Wick here, a man ready to kill 'em all while being consumed by revenge, and with nothing left to lose. 

The lengthy, impressive crane shot sequence that mimics a video game is undoubtedly one of the highlights of "John Wick: Chapter 4," but the chaotic Arc de Triomphe chase and shootout segment that precedes it grabs the spotlight. It's one thing to be chased on a roadway teeming with vehicles accelerating at full speed, but it is a whole other level of technical craftsmanship to pull off stop-and-shoot combat action while cars threaten to run over every character involved. /Film's Vanessa Armstrong recently spoke to stunt coordinator Scott Rogers, who explained how they shot the car-fu scenes without killing anyone:

"Ultimately, you're getting hit by a car. We do have the luxury of VFX so we can make padded cars, we can put padding on cars, we can put padding on the ground, and that can protect your brain, but you can still ding your shoulder ... And the drivers of the cars are some of the world's best and they're sliding to a mark."

The masterful expertise of the stunt drivers is in plain sight during the Arc de Triomphe segment, which is a rather anxiety-inducing set piece involving assassins being run over and John brutally engaging with them in the middle of moving traffic. There are a lot of cool stunt-driving techniques employed here, including forward-into-reverse 180s and some seriously badass drifting. The stakes feel significantly raised as John seems at risk of getting seriously injured here, with his bulletproof suit already tested by all kinds of ammo and his body pushed to the limits after being hit by a car at breakneck speed.

Little does he know that a rather painful Sisyphean tumble down endless stairs still awaits him.