Keanu Reeves Cut Roughly Half Of His Dialogue From The John Wick 4: Chapter 4 Script

The "John Wick" movies are an anomaly in Hollywood today. This is a rare franchise based on an entirely original concept, with the first movie only hinting at a larger world for the sequels to explore without explicitly setting up threads for future movies. Instead, the "John Wick" movies have organically expanded the simple tale of a guy getting revenge for the death of his dog and the theft of his car into a massive world that looks like our own but isn't, complete with intricate lore and worldbuilding that is organically expanding into spin-offs.

At the center of it all, of course, is John Wick himself, an absolute killing machine we know rather little about. Other than vague hints about his past, his great affection for dogs, and his love for his wife, we don't know much about him. This is mostly because John Wick is one of the quietest protagonists in a modern major motion picture, with the Wall Street Journal reporting that Keanu Reeves' John Wick has fewer than 400 words of dialogue in the nearly 3-hour runtime of "John Wick: Chapter 4." Indeed, there are more words in this article than words John Wick says in the whole movie.

Turns out, that wasn't always the case. According to Variety, director Chad Stahelski and Reeves actually "stripped out roughly half the dialogue written for his character in the initial script." For instance, in the negotiation scene between John Wick and the thrillingly punchable Marquis de Gramont (Bill Skarsgård) agreeing on the terms for their duel, the original script split the dialogue 50-50 between Wick and the Marquis.

Of course, that is not the final film. Reeves and Stahelski cut big chunks of the dialogue so Wick would mostly have one-word responses during the exchange, answering the question of what weaponry to use in the duel saying only "pistols," no more, no less.

Having a mostly silent protagonist works for the "John Wick" franchise because John is more of an idea than a character, really. He is an archetype of a former assassin who tried and failed to leave it all behind. After all, when we first realize what his past used to be, we know him only by the mythological nickname given to him — Baba Yaga. He is not a man, he is a rumor, a dark fairy tale passed around in the underworld of international assassins. To hear him talk is not as important as to see the imagery around him. 

"John Wick" is a rare Hollywood franchise that is all about imagery, about visual storytelling. There are phenomenal fight scenes, sure, but also strong visuals that create lore for the story and build an expansive world. In that way, the "John Wick" movies are more like George Miller's "Mad Max," especially "Fury Road," which took a page out of the silent movie era and had a mostly silent protagonist, but they nevertheless managed to paint a picture of a fleshed out world rich in detail with only images.

John Wick's catchphrase may be a simple "yeah," but he still found his way to be one of the most memorable characters in movies in years. A man of few words but many bullets.