John Wick: How The Killing Continues

As part of the John Wick 101 course, there is another major highlight of the franchise you should know about, it’s called “The Continental”. Before reading this article on John Wick: How the Killing Continues, you should read the first part here. In the John Wick universe, The Continental Hotel is a worldwide empire that caters to regular people, and serves as a neutral ground to high-class assassins. Cold-blooded killers thinks alike…

For regular clients, it is business as usual, but the assassins have some ground rules. They only accept payments in gold coins which derives its value from the holder’s value. Just in case you find yourself here someday, there are only two major rules at the hotel:

No business can be conducted on the hotel premises, including fighting and carrying out contracts on other assassins in the hotel. This includes killing.

A blood oath, once sworn, must be carried out, or those who don’t hold up their end of the deal will face the death penalty. Killing the holder of the blood oath is, of course, unacceptable, as well as running away.

This isn’t some normal bed and breakfast as the hotel offers a few non-conventional services which include provision of weapons, classy bullet-proof suits, and a safe haven amongst many other things. Does the movie; Hotel Artemis come to mind? Yeah…thought so too. I wrote this article (John Wick: how the killing continues) as an ideal on onboarding process for newbies.

Keanu’s Dedication

Keanu Reeves’ return to the John Wick franchise is described by him as the “Old Testament revenge story that possesses me”. Keanu spent four months learning judo, jujitsu, and Brazilian jiu-jitsu from some of the toughest guys ever encountered by Chad Stahelski and David Leitch in the course of their careers. This included their LA SWAT and Navy SEAL friends. The actor was paid a reported $1–2 million salary for his role. (Hey, let me know if you heard otherwise because I think is too small). It is safe to say that Keanu was groomed into becoming the All-American, Canadian Jet Li.

Chad Stahelski had mentioned in an interview that the inspiration to create John Wick was based on films like; The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), Point Blank (1967), Le Cercle Rouge (1970), and The Killer (1989). – don’t overthink this…its very likely you were still wearing diapers at the time.

John Wick

The first film; “John Wick” enjoyed a mostly positive reception upon release, attaining praise for the action sequences, direction, visual style, pacing and the performances of the cast especially Keanu Reeves. The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a score of 86% based on 202 reviews, and an average rating of 7.2/10.

The film’s critical consensus reads, “Stylish, thrilling, and giddily kinetic, John Wick serves as a satisfying return to action for Keanu Reeves – and what looks like it could be the first of a franchise”. Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 68%, based on 40 reviews.

My favorite review for this movie is by Richard Corliss: “Action movies are about movement, and John Wick pursues that goal with remorseless verve” because I felt the exact same way. This film is a movement! “Perfectly balanced as all things should be” *wink*

“Little Wonder there is a John Wick: Chapter 2”

No true fan of John Wick would disagree that there had to be a John Wick 2. You can’t afford to leave us hanging like that – You dare not!

3 Years later, we see John Wick back in action, in the sequel named John Wick: Chapter 2 to give us even more sauce in the neo-noir John Wick Film Series or what you may now call a franchise. The movie which stars Common, marks the first collaboration between Keanu and Lawrence Fishburne since the Matrix Trilogy.

In this chapter, John has gotten his revenge, had his house blown up, and gotten a new dog. However, the stakes are high as he finds himself forced to take on a job he is uncomfortable with. This leads to a spiral of events that forces the “man-who-just-wants-to-live-in-peace” to be on the run for his life once again. The bodies pile up as the killing spree ensues after a worldwide bounty is placed on his life. The movie notably ends with John saying to Winston (Ian McShane)…

“…tell them, whoever comes, I’ll kill them, I’ll kill them all.”

In June 2017, it was reported that a prequel series titled The Continental was in active development. The series will focus on the hotel chain that acts as a neutral ground for assassins, as opposed to the character; John Wick. John Wick: Chapter 2 had an aggregated Rotten Tomato score of 89% with 249 review, Metacritic ranked it at 75% with 43 reviews.

John Wick: Parabellum

Meanwhile, we await John Wick 3: Parabellum – prepare for war. From the Latin saying which is translated to mean – If you want peace, prepare for war (except you live in Mushin – run for your life).
The movie is expected to be released on the 16th of May 2019. It stars Halle Berry in addition to the already great cast. Berry plays Sofia who is a fellow assassin and trusted friend of John.

“John Wick: How the Killing Continues” is the final chapter of my two-part series on the John Wick franchise, be sure to read the first as well.

Either way, can’t wait to see how John Wick: Parabellum turns out? Yep, me too! John Wick: how the killing continues is just my way of letting you know that; however the story goes, heads will roll…always.

Let me know what you think about John Wick: How the Killing Continues in the comment section below;

Official Synopsis Of John Wick: Parabellum

John Wick fights for his life in this chapter following his assassination of Santino D’Antonio in The Continental, and with a $14 million global contract on him, John Wick is banished from every Continental service, which forces him to fight his way out of New York City with the help of Sofia who still trusts him.