Over the course of the first three John Wick movies, Keanu Reeves’ eponymous character goes toe-to-toe with a number of exceptionally talented killers, but at the start of John Wick: Chapter 4, the hitman known as Baba Yaga demonstrates a very different attitude when confronted by Donnie Yen’s Caine: he’s afraid. Their showdown at the Osaka Continental isn’t so much a fight as it is John hunting for the best possible hiding spot, as he knows that he is outmatched one-on-one.
It’s a fantastic scene that instantly sets the stakes high in the 2023 blockbuster – and the reason that it plays out the way it does is because of how impressed Keanu Reeves was by Donnie Yen’s skills.
Prior to the theatrical release of John Wick: Chapter 4 back in March, I had a terrific in-depth conversation about the film with director Chad Stahelski, and it was while discussing Yen’s work on the movie that he revealed how the first John Wick vs. Caine fight became something completely different than what was originally planned. Speaking about the franchise newcomer’s dazzling speed, the filmmaker said,
One of the best things in my career was choreographing with Donnie, working moves, physically him and I working out a sequence. I switch into stunt guy mode and get to actually touch hands with Donnie. It's pretty amazing, and that's Donnie Yen. He's that fast. It's freaky fast. In fact, we adjusted the choreography 'cause we were choreographing one way, and then Keanu came up to me literally after the first piece of the first day of the first time they choreographed going, 'Yeah, we gotta change this because John Wick can't hang with this guy.' I swear to you, that's why it changed in the museum room.
Stahelski didn’t go into great detail about how the John Wick: Chapter 4 fight was originally going to go down, but it was made clear that the original plan was for the protagonist to be confrontational and attack. When Keanu Reeves got an eyeful of what Donnie Yen could do on set, however, he realized that the original instincts for the sequence were wrong.
While a lot of action stars make a point of not losing fights on screen, Keanu Reeves was rendered ego-less by Donnie Yen, and he worked with Chad Stahelski and his co-star to come up with something that made the movie better. The director continued,
We had a different piece and Keanu just came up and went, 'This guy's like... No, we gotta definitely show this guy makes John Wick nervous ‘cause Donnie is so quick.' So we didn't want to bring Donnie down; we wanted to raise him up as much as we could. And Keanu's like, 'Fuck this, I'm bugging out. I'm gonna run behind and we're gonna make this hide and seek.' And we thought that was a genius idea.
After that sequence in John Wick: Chapter 4, John seems perpetually in danger with Caine on his tail, and it’s one of many aspects of the action epic that make it so remarkable.
Following its successful run at the box office, the 2023 movie is now making its way to the home video market. John Wick: Chapter 4 is now available for digital purchase from major outlets including Amazon Prime, Google Play, Vudu, and Apple, and physical media collectors can pre-order the film on Blu-ray prior to its June 13 release date.
