- John Wick is 10 today
- Film revitalised Keanu Reeves’ career
- Stuntmen directors had to fight for story
It’s officially been a decade since infamous assassin John Wick was lured out of retirement and back into his bloody day job, giving star Keanu Reeves an unlikely career boost in the process.
Released on 24 October 2014, this gritty hit-man tale introduced us to its eponymous lead, a mysterious figure leading a double life.
When we find John (Reeves), he’s trying his best to live a normal and peaceful existence. However, when a run-in with a local Russian gangster leads to the murder of his beloved dog and the theft of his car, he’s forced to resort to his old ways once more.
Since the original movie’s release, an entire Wick-based movie-verse has followed in its wake. Reeves has returned for three direct sequels, each bigger and more successful than the last. A prequel series was released earlier this year, with The Continental delving into the history of the dark hired-killer underworld at the heart Wick’s world.
Meanwhile, new spin-off film Ballerina is edging closer to a 2025 release, with star Ana de Armas grabbing the guns as a brand new threat.
Impressive. However, while it may be hard to imagine now, none of this was expected from a film directed by two unknown stuntmen that almost everyone had little-to-no-expectation for.
Zero Expectation
Based on a script by screenwriter Derek Kolstad, the story for John Wick originally envisioned an older hero, closer in nature to Clint Eastwood’s grizzled Gran Torino character. When it landed on Reeves’ radar his interest was piqued so he sent it to two of his old work colleagues to see if they could assist with the story’s many action set pieces.
Enter Chad Stahelski and David Leitch. Today, we know the former as the mastermind of each future instalment of the John Wick franchise and the latter as the famed director behind action hits like Atomic Blonde, Bullet Train and The Fall Guy. However, back in the early 2010’s they were stuntmen working at the top of their game.
Stahelski had long doubled for Reeves on a number of projects, most notably the The Matrix trilogy. Meanwhile, Leitch was Brad Pitt’s long-time stunt double and also assisted Stahelski on his work with the Wachowskis.
When Reeves sent them the script for John Wick, he was unwittingly handing them the perfect vehicle to help make the jump from fall guys to filmmakers.
That said, making a film while they were still relatively unknown to the wider industry was far from easy, with finance battles lurking around every corner.
At the centre of one of Stahelski and Leitch’s biggest hurdles was the death of Wick’s dog – a moment that spurs the character to return to his deadly ways.
“We were told, ‘It’s bad luck.’ ‘It’s bad juju.’ ‘It’s Old Yeller, you can’t do this!’ “No one will want to see this on screen; you’re going to alienate the audience,’” Leitch recently told Business Insider.
“And I’m like, ‘We’re going to execute people at close range; killing the dog is one thing, but what about the brutal massacre of all these human beings? Are they going to be able to accept that?’
“They didn’t understand that we were making a genre movie,” Leitch continued. We are genre fans to the core, and we know those hard-boiled moments are what make memorable moments.”
The pair say that it was Reeves’ dramatic acting chops that were ultimately responsible for salvaging the moment and letting it stay in the movie.
Re-Revving Reeves
Speaking of Reeves, John Wick would end up being just as instrumental in his career as it was for Stahelski and Leitch.
Despite already having enjoyed a three-decade-strong string of hits spanning the likes of Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Point Break and The Matrix, by the time the mid-2010s had rolled around, he was in dire need of a hit.
Prior to Wick, Reeves had starred in a string of largely forgettable film – from 2006’s fantasy romance The Lake House and 2008’s critically panned reinvention of 1951’s The Day The Earth Stood Still to 2010’s romantic crime drama Henry’s Game.
Perhaps this could be considered part of the problem with becoming too big of a star. After all, how do you ever top a role as high-flying as The Matrix hero Neo?
As it turns out, the answer lay in a collaboration with two low-key stunt men.
By following the pair on a journey with the character, the trio helped introduce audiences to Gun-Fu, a new, super-fast fighting style that mixed martial arts and weaponry and had a huge impact on the way Hollywood would approach action scenes moving forward.
With that, the future legacies of both Reeves and Wick were set.
Stahelski and Leitch defied the odds to turn a little movie made for around $30million into $86million megahit that spawned a brand new franchise. All the while adding a new icon character to Reeves’ already jam-packed roster of familiar film faces.
