The first John Wick movie was clearly designed to be a single film, there was no expectation that it would become one of the more popular modern film franchises. However, now that the series has reached that point, just where is it going? The movies have already foregone the standard trilogy plan, by leaving John Wick: Chapter 3 -Parabellum, wide open for another sequel, which is on the way. So just where are these movies going? What is John Wick's ultimate goal?
Now, of course, part of John Wick's goal is simply to survive. There have been large numbers of people trying to make him dead for the last couple of films. But John Wick director Chad Stahelski says, on the special features of the John Wick: Chapter 3 Blu-ray, that John's real battle isn't with the High Table, it's within himself. John sees himself as split between two people, one is the professional assassin that he is, the other is the man he wants to be. According to Stahelski...
John is the person he wants to be, John Wick is the person that he naturally is. John's concerned with that. The contract the people trying to kill him, that's not his primary concern I don't think. I think it's looking for a type of absolution that allows to become the person he wants to be. In order to remember his wife and if he's going to die, he'd rather die as the nice guy that his wife would want him to be. And that's his main journey, and somewhere along all that he decides which is more important to him.
The first John Wick film sees Keanu Reeves' character re-enter a world he chose to leave. He does it for his own vengeance, but that choice has consequences. In that first film he responds to a question about his exact status by saying that he is, in fact "back," but clearly he doesn't want to be. All of his vengeance in that first film is because the one thing left in the world that made him the person his wife wanted him to be was gone.
This battle of who John wants to be is put to him in very much these same terms by Winston in John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum. Although, Winston's interest in John Wick's future was seriously put into question by the end of the most recent film. Of course, the real question is, even once John decides who he wants to be, how does he get there?
If he truly wants to live, or die, as the man his wife wanted him to be, what does that mean? Will he eventually just walk away from all this, or give himself up? That's certainly not the man we saw at the end of Chapter 3. It appears that, at least for now, John Wick may be choosing to be the assassin.
John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum is now on Blu-ray (opens in new tab), DVD, 4K and Digital. John Wick: Chapter 4 is slated for a 2021 release.
