JOHN WICK: Chapter 4

*CUT TO THE CHASE*

NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Jeremy

The film starts in New York City, where John Wick (Keanu Reeves) and his pitbull have taken refuge with The Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne). John is punching a board until his knuckles bleed, and BK comes in to ask him if he is ready to go after The High Table. John simply says “Yeah.”

John travels to Morocco, where he chases men working for The Elder (George Georgiou) on horseback. After killing those men, John confronts The Elder for his ring, though John is told that the ring is gone. John then proceeds to execute The Elder before departing.

Back in New York, Winston (Ian McShane) and Charon (Lance Reddick) are summoned by The Harbinger (Clancy Brown) to meet the Marquis De Gramont (Bill Skarsgard), who was sent by The High Table. They have learned of The Elder’s execution, and The Marquis berates Winston for failing to kill John. As a result, The Marquis has the New York Continental condemned and blown up. Winston is deemed excommunicado, and to rub it in deeper, The Marquis shoots Charon in the chest. Winston stays by his friend’s side as he dies, saying it should have been him.

In Paris, a blind assassin named Caine (Donnie Yen) is standing in the park as his daughter Mia (Aimee Kwan) is playing the violin in the park. Caine is called upon by The Marquis to go after John. Caine says he is retired, but The Marquis threatens Mia’s life if Caine refuses the orders of The High Table.

John heads to the Osaka Continental, managed by his old friend Shimazu Koji (Hiroyuki Sanada), where his daughter Akira (Rina Sawayama) is his concierge. Koji meets with John on the roof, agreeing to give him sanctuary in secret, although Akira doesn’t trust John being there. Soon, The Marquis’s right hand man Chidi (Marko Zaror) arrives with his hit squad in an attempt to lure John out. Koji’s own men show up and face off against the High Table assassins by firing arrows in the darkness. When the hitmen make it to the roof, John grabs his gun and starts to do what he does best.

While Koji’s guards are able to fight off most of the High Table hitmen, Caine arrives and begins his own body count, setting up traps to help him hear where his targets are moving before using his sword and gun to kill the men. Meanwhile, Akira joins the fight and executes some of Chidi’s men, but she ends up getting shot and wounded. John helps her and Koji get out while he continues to fight more men, including taking out several with a pair of nunchucks. He is found by Caine, the two of them viewing each other as former friends, so Caine is reluctant to go after John, but does so for the sake of Mia. John and Caine briefly fight before John manages to get away. In the middle of the gunfights, a tracker, “Mr. Nobody” (Shamier Anderson) and his German shepherd are nearby, and he kills some of the gunmen going after John. He wants the contract on John’s head too, but he claims that the current hit ($20 million) is not enough, so he is currently helping John.

As Koji and Akira are running out, they encounter Caine. He and Koji are also old friends, but Koji refuses to allow Caine to go after John, so they engage in a sword duel. When it appears that Koji is allowed to walk away, he keeps up the fight until Caine delivers a fatal blow. Akira holds her father’s body as he dies and attempts to grab his sword to kill Caine, but he advises her against it so that she does not suffer the same fate as her father, and he tells her he will see her again. Akira goes to the train station where she finds John, blaming him for her father’s death. She tells him to kill Caine, or she will.

Winston meets with Bowery King, as they both know them still being close to John makes them targets. Meanwhile, The Harbinger talks to The Marquis over the unnecessary bloodshed at the Osaka Continental, but The Marquis says it is necessary to not only kill John Wick, but to destroy the idea of him as an untouchable and unkillable figure. The Marquis is then visited by Mr. Nobody, who demands a $23 million contract for killing John. The Marquis responds by impaling his hand and forcing him to choose either pulling the knife out or pulling his hand out to see where his ambitions lie. Mr. Nobody pulls his hand out, cutting between his fingers, and The Marquis agrees to honor his request.

John meets Winston at Charon’s tomb, offering his condolences for the loss of his friend. Winston wants to get back at The Marquis, so he tells John that in order to win his freedom from The High Table, he must challenge The Marquis to a duel, even though it is believed that High Table duels were only myths. The only people who can support John in his endeavor is his family, but the Ruska Roma tore his ticket and severed ties with him. Seeing no other way, John agrees to seek them out.

John travels to the Ruska Roma in Berlin, where he is greeted with a shotgun blast by the priest before he is tied up with a noose around his neck. He is met by his adoptive sister Katia (Natalia Tena), who is angry with John because his killing of The Elder led The Marquis to order the execution of her father Pyotr, who would have approved of John in the duel. John offers to help Katia to redeem himself, and she orders him to go after a German High Table member named Killa (Scott Atkins), the man who killed her father.

John goes to Killa’s nightclub, where Caine and Mr. Nobody are also there after tracking John down. The three sit for a card game with Killa, where Killa cheats before having his men go after the three assassins. While Caine and Nobody hold their own against the thugs (along with Nobody’s dog), John goes after Killa throughout the club in the midst of oblivious clubgoers. John slices Killa’s neck with a card and fights him, though Killa uses his strength and weight against John. Killa’s men go after John and meet predictably bloody ends. Killa pushes John over a balcony, but it is not enough to stop him. John eventually corners Killa and knocks him over a stairway, sending him falling until he smashes headfirst onto the ground, killing him. John then takes one of Killa’s gold teeth as proof of his death and brings it to Katia, who reacts approvingly and helps John undergo the ceremony where he is branded with the family’s crest and given support for the duel.

Winston visits The Marquis with the official challenge document from John for the duel. Despite The Marquis trying to refuse, Winston reminds him that he is still bound to The High Table and its customs, so he must go through with it. In addition, Winston demands that if John wins, Winston will no longer be excommunicado, and his Continental will be uncondemned and rebuilt as it were, with his management reinstated. However, The Marquis reminds Winston that he will be John’s “second”, so if John dies, so will he.

John arrives to sit down with The Marquis as The Harbinger presides over them to discuss the conditions of the duel. They will meet at the Sacre-Coeur in Paris at sunrise, and will duel with guns. If either of them fails to show up before the deadline, it will be an automatic forfeiture and grounds for execution. Caine will be The Marquis’s second, and he agrees to allow him and his daughter free if he can kill John.

John goes to a church where he sits to pay tribute to Helen (Bridget Moynahan). Caine meets him there in a friendly manner, telling him about Mia and what he has to lose. John later meets with Winston and Bowery King, the latter giving him a new gun and bulletproof suit.

The Harbinger reminds The Marquis of what would happen within The High Table if he were killed by John. To ensure that John does not make it to the Sacre-Couer on time, The Marquis deploys Chidi and his thugs to go after him. A radio DJ also announces to other listening assassins that the bounty on John is set for anyone who can kill him before sunrise.

As John makes his way to the Sacre-Couer, scores of assassins go after him. He faces off against gunmen in the streets, even getting into the traffic around the Arc de Triomphe, shooting the bad guys or letting them get hit by cars. The High Table keeps track of his whereabouts, leading to more assassins going after him. John enters a warehouse full of bad guys and fires explosive rounds at them. At the same time, Nobody helps take out some of the assassins and contacts The Marquis, demanding a higher payment. The Marquis ultimately agrees to a $40 million contract, luring out more desperate (and doomed) hitmen.

John finally makes it to the steps leading up to the Sacre-Couer, killing several more assassins before Chidi shows up and knocks him all the way back down the steps. Caine shows up to help John get to the top, helping him kill Chidi’s guys. Nobody arrives as well, fighting Chidi because he threw his dog into traffic (but he’s okay). With John’s help, Chidi is brought down, the dog bites him in the balls, and Nobody puts a bullet in his head. For good measure, the dog also pees on Chidi’s face.

John makes it mere moments before the sun rises. He and Caine grab their pistols as they engage in an old-fashioned duel. Both manage to hit each other twice. On the third round, Caine shoots John in the gut, but John doesn’t fire. The Marquis then orders that he claim the coup de grâce so that he may be the one to kill John Wick. He grabs his gun and aims for John before Winston tells him he’s an arrogant asshole and reminds him John didn’t fire his last round. The Marquis realizes this too late before John blows his brains out. The Harbinger then declares that both John and Caine are free from their obligations to The High Table. John goes back down the steps and briefly thinks about Helen, saying her name before he slumps over. John Wick dies a free man.

Winston and Bowery King bury John next to Helen, with his tombstone reading “loving husband” as he requested. BK asks Winston if he thinks John is in Heaven or Hell, to which Winston replies, “Who knows?” The two walk away, with BK continuing to look after John’s dog.

After the credits:Caine goes to find Mia and reunite with her. Not far from him, Akira starts to approach him and exact her revenge.

The film is dedicated to Lance Reddick.

In his vendetta against The High Table, John Wick kills The Elder in Morocco. As a result, The High Table employs the Marquis De Gramont, who has Winston declared excommunicado and has the New York Continental condemned and destroyed, and The Marquis also kills Charon the concierge to throw salt on the wound. John seeks sanctuary at the Osaka Continental, managed by his friend Shimazu Koji, but The Marquis's henchman Chidi and his goons show up and lay waste to Koji's men, while John returns the favor to those men. A blind, retired assassin, Caine, is also hired by The Marquis to kill John, threatening the life of Caine's daughter Mia if he refuses. Koji helps John get away, but Caine kills Koji in a duel. Meanwhile, a tracker, "Mr. Nobody", travels with his German shepherd to go after John, but he ends up helping John more because he finds the bounty on him to be too low.

Per Winston's suggestion, John must challenge The Marquis to a High Table duel if he wants his freedom. The only way to get approval is from an assassin family. John goes to the Ruska Roma in Berlin, but they are against him since his killing of The Elder led to the killing of that family's head. His adoptive sister Katia tells John to kill the man who murdered her father. John finds the man, a German High Table member named Killa. John kills him and gets the Ruska Roma's approval.

John issues his challenge to The Marquis, who goes through with it but knows what would happen if John succeeds. He deploys Chidi and hordes of assassins to go after John so that he does not make it to the location of the duel (the Sacre-Coeur) and must either die or forfeit. Naturally, John Wick kills anyone that stands in his way, and he is also helped by Mr. Nobody after John helps save his dog from Chidi. Nobody kills Chidi after he had previously hurt the dog.

John and Caine engage in the duel, with Caine fatally wounding John. The Marquis tries to get the killing shot, but since John didn't fire his last round, he saves it for The Marquis's head. John and Caine are freed from their obligations to The High Table, but John dies peacefully after remembering his wife Helen. Winston and The Bowery King bury John next to Helen, and Bowery King takes care of John's dog while Winston gets his hotel back.

Caine attempts to reunite with his daughter, but Koji's daughter Akira goes after him for revenge.