John Wick Redux

I've been re-watching the John Wick series the past few weeks and reflecting on the humanity that underpins the story of a "retired" assassin re-activated by the theft of his beloved supercharged 'Stang and the killing of a puppy left to him by his recently deceased wife.

Wick, known as The Boogeyman by members of his extensive tribe of hitmen and their handlers, uncorks his formerly sublimated demon as his retaliation against those who wronged him cascades into one vengeful battle after another on nearly every continent and against countless foes within a system with strict rules and rituals that seem almost medieval.

The narrative world in which all of this happens is as fanciful as any mythical realm that operates on its own system of logic. Though Wick is supposedly a ghostly figure, everyone in New York and abroad seems to know him. In fact, everyone in New York seems to be working for the same global criminal operation known as the High Table, its members represent the collective interests of organized crime around the world.

Wick -- played by Keanu Reeves, as everyone knows -- is a Russian orphan raised by the mob "to serve and be of service." He was a star pupil and an unstoppable killer -- until he fell in love and wanted out. As a condition for his freedom, he was given an impossible task but completed it and left. He was done for five years, then his wife got cancer and died and a week later the sociopathic son of a former associate steals his car and kills the dog and that's where the series begins.

That Wick is running for his life across the four films and is forced to dispatch dozens of opponents in amazingly creative ways makes him a noble figure, fighting against nearly impossible odds to save his soul. His cause balances the outrageous body count.

John Wick is every person who is faced with impossible choices while confronting circumstances not of their making. Repeatedly Wick is told that he is fighting against his nature but the film shows he is a creation of a system he did not choose. A system he rejected once he discovered a greater truth.