John Wick

"Don't set him off."

2014 1h 41m EN

🙌

7.5

BANGER

★7.5TMDB · 21,439

ActionThriller

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Ex-hitman John Wick comes out of retirement to track down the gangsters that took everything from him.

“Don't set him off.”

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Cast

Keanu Reeves
John Wick
Michael Nyqvist
Viggo Tarasov
Alfie Allen
Iosef Tarasov
Willem Dafoe
Marcus
Dean Winters
Avi
Adrianne Palicki
Ms. Perkins
Omer Barnea
Gregori
Toby Leonard Moore
Victor

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Chad Stahelski
Writers: Derek Kolstad, Todd Harris
Languages: Hungarian, English, Russian
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Made its money back 4.3× over at the box office.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 12 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 3 languages: Hungarian, English, Russian.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "John Wick Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

CAST

Did you know

215+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Chad Stahelski, shot by Jonathan Sela. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Tyler Bates. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Elísabet Ronaldsdóttir shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Chad Stahelski directs. Jonathan Sela behind the camera. Tyler Bates scores. Elísabet Ronaldsdóttir cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in Hungarian, English, Russian.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Made its money back 4.3× over at the box office.
2Released 12 years ago.
3Dialogue crosses 3 languages: Hungarian, English, Russian.
4Part of the "John Wick Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
5215+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.
6Directed by Chad Stahelski, shot by Jonathan Sela. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
7Original score by Tyler Bates. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
8Editor Elísabet Ronaldsdóttir shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
9Keanu Reeves and Michael Nyqvist and Alfie Allen carry the top of the cast.
10Marketing tagline: "Don't set him off.".
11IMDB entry: tt2911666 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
1221,439 TMDB user ratings logged — serious cultural footprint.
13Classified under 9 themes, including "hitman", "bratva (russian mafia)", "gangster", "secret organization".
14Released under 10 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Jonathan Sela
Original score: Tyler Bates
Editing: Elísabet Ronaldsdóttir
Production design: Dan Leigh
Costume design: Luca Mosca
Makeup / hair: Stephen M. Kelley
VFX supervisor: Jake Braver
Sound: James Bolt
Stunt coordinator: Darrin Prescott
Runtime: 101 min · 1h 41m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $20,000,000
Box office: $86,085,191
Return: 430% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: John Wick (2014)

Part of

John Wick Collection

A neo-noir action thriller film series that follows Jonathan 'John' Wick, a former assassin, who comes out of retirement seeking vengeance for the theft of his vintage car and the murder of the puppy his deceased wife left to him.

Also by

Chad Stahelski

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Dark Jedi2015-06-25
★ 9/10
This is very much my kind of movie. Straightforward, lots of good action, our hero never waivers from his path and no social or emotional nonsense. Those who have watched the movie might wonder why I claim that there is not emotional nonsense since the entire plot is driven by John Wick’s very emotional response to his wife’s death and the subsequent killing of the dog that he received as a last present from her. What I mean with “no emotional nonsense” is that John Wick is never second guessing himself, the movie never really tries to portray him as an “ordinary” guy having second thoughts about killing the bad guys and he doesn’t go into some silly “oh should I really pull the trigger” trance and drops the gun in the worst possible moments as is done in a lot of movies. Sure, there are emotions in this movie. Rage and thirst for revenge in particular with the addition of a healthy dose of fear from the bad guys…eventually that is. The plot of the movie is, as I wrote, quite straightforward and classical. Retired hit man gets wronged by idiot son of big bad guy. Hit man gets pissed off and goes on a quest for revenge. People die (a lot of them). Hit man and big bad guy have a show down at the end. In terms of story that is about it. However, such a story can be told and presented in a good and entertaining way and in a less good and entertaining way. As far as I am concerned the way the story is told in this movie is very, very entertaining. Keanu Reeves is quite good as the hit man. So are the big bad guy and most of the other actors of any importance. During the course of the movie we get more than a few glimpses into John Wick’s former life and it is a quite cool background that have been elaborated. The secret world that John Wick was once part of and how it works and operates would be worthy a good old-fashioned James Bond movie. Then of course there is the action. It is an action movie so you do expect quite some expenditure on the action and this movie do not disappoint. There are lots of action and it is good action. Sure, the ease by which John Wick picks off his opponents waiving his gun(s) in all direction without hardly looking is sometimes a bit over the top but it is still done with a fluidness and grace that just makes it … so cool. The gun fights are generally mixed up with some equally good martial arts close combat stuff and it is really well woven together. One thing that I really like with this movie is that John Wick is the cool, cold, determined, not to be pissed off, killing machine from start to finish. There are really no slow parts or “obligatory” scenes of doubt and self-recrimination. It is “the bad guys will pay” all the way. This of course gives the opportunity to include some other elements that I quite like in a story like this. For instance the parts where the spoiled total idiot son of the big bad guy slowly gets his arrogance replaced by some good, honest to God, fear. Fear of death and fear of the guy he so carelessly pissed off. Needless to say, I enjoyed this movie a lot when I sat down to watch it with my oldest son yesterday.
Andres Gomez2015-08-10
★ 6/10
I don't get why this movie has such good reviews. It simple and quite uninteresting. Lots of actions and well known faces (many from TV series), but nothing else. The same old brainless plot to justify tons of bullets.
John Chard2016-04-05
★ 7/10
Woof! Keanu Reeves is the John Wick of the title, a grieving one man army who gets tipped over the edge when gangsters kill his dog. Carnage ensues. The paying public do like a good revenge flick, there have been plenty this last couple of decades, and they do go down well. Once the set-up has been staged - Wick grieves at the loss of his loved one - gets some small joy via a pet - only to have that snatched away from him, then the film becomes a joyously unstoppable actioner. Wick, in good hands with a moody and beefy Reeves (face fuzz strange, though) strong in presence, cuts a swathe through the gangland eastern blockers. And that's pretty much it! Characterisations are thin on the ground, it's a bit nutty and of course preposterous, but boy is it fun. There you go, a box office winning actioner without pretensions. Enjoy. 7/10