John Wick 4 director explains how he pulled off the epic gods-eye fight

As all John Wick films before, John Wick Chapter 4.It is based on action sequences that challenge how movie action is usually choreographed. Chad Stahelski is a veteran stuntman, and then a coordinator of stunts before he made his directorial debut. John Wick in 2014, and he’s turned the franchise into a showcase for ambitious fight sequences.

John WickOne of the most striking combat scenes is John Wick, a battle-weary assassin (Keanu Reeves), charging through a decaying, abandoned building room by room, while the camera tracks his movements in an unbroken overhead shot. He shoots down attacker after attacker. It’s a particularly startling shot because it moves so quickly, with so many clashes and quick shifts in direction. John Wick uses incendiary shots to set some combatants on fire and then continue moving forward. Polygon interviewed Stahelski, his stunt team and about the execution of that shot.

The following interview was edited for clarity.

Lionsgate Image

Scott Rogers, second unit director: Chad Stahelski is our courageous leader and director. He used to fight in the ring. And he didn’t punch hard enough to win, he punched as hard as he physically could. So every John Wick movie, he’s making the best movie he can, and then within the movie, he’s making the best scene he can.

So those of us that are charged with doing the action, that’s what we’re doing in each scene, whether it’s in the club scene with the falls, and the fights, and the water, and the dogs, and all of that, that’s no less or more challenging than the cars hitting the people. They were everywhere we were. Oh, this one’s easy, we’ll just phone this one inYou can also call it: We’ll take a break on this one. While you’re shooting a scene, you’re rehearsing a scene, and you’re prepping another scene. So it’s all happening at the same time.

Stephen Dunlevy (stunt coordinator): It was 100 days straight of continuous shooting once we began to shoot. As we did the Osaka sequence, Keanu was also driving. We went from Osaka to the Berlin club and Jordan. It was a constant, massive action sequence.

Rogers: Chad had this vision — he showed us a promo for a video game. It was “I want to do this — this is cool,” because you see all the characters, and in storytelling terms, it allows you for the first time to see what’s coming to John Wick, and what he’s got to deal with, before he sees it. So there’s a little foreshadowing — you see the guys coming from every direction, as opposed to being [set up] horizontally, where you don’t know what’s around the corner.

Vreski

Chad Stahelski, director:This game was called Hong Kong Massacre. I love game culture — I’m not a big gamer myself, but I love the storylines. The visuals are what I enjoy. Ghost of Tsushima, Assassin’s CreedThese are just a few of the many types of games. We know many people working in this industry. I think it’s interesting that between video games, animation, manga, Asian cinema, we’re all kind of related. We all steal from each other, we’re all seeing how crazy the other one’s gonna get.

Rogers: This entire set was made for this purpose. We flew a camera that was designed — and the camera moves were designed — in correlation with the choreography. We spent one week on camera [operators]Stuntmen. Laurent is a French legend as a stunt coordinator. [Demianoff]We worked together on camera movements to achieve Chad’s goals.

Stahelski:When I was asked to shoot a top-notch shot, I said yes. I’m not a big oner guy — I don’t really believe in that so much, unless there’s something to offer, if you can see things from a different perspective. The muzzle flashes were done on a vertical plane. It felt very different. It was a rabbit hole, trying to find references. [went online to] type in like, “aerial shots,” “top shots,” just to see what everybody else’s were like. At the top was Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report.

So I tried “video games top shot,” and way down the bottom was Hong Kong Massacre. And, I [looked at footage]They did it in a very professional manner that I appreciated. It was cool to see them do speed ramping more. That was what I liked about it. It’s just, when you’re dealing with a two-and-a-half-hour movie already, I had to be careful where I did my slow motions.

Rogers: It was very intricate. We had to count. It was almost like performing a musical. The camera was at an extremely specific location and time. [each action beat]had to be done. So as we were shooting it, Steve was calling out, “Forty-eight! Forty-nine! Fifty!” And everybody knew “We’re on 20, I need to be here at 25, I need to be there, because the camera’s going to be at a very specific spot.” So it was really linked into [the camera coordination] — there wasn’t a lot of room for change once we set everything in motion.

Dunlevy: This was for all the people involved, as they had to hear my voice and count. It’s hard to understand words if you repeat them for too long. It was impossible to understand why I repeated the same numbers repeatedly. Every beat is a win. [was crucial], because you’ve got people on one side of a wall and Keanu on the other, and they’re having to do a dance. To match the beat, everyone had to know exactly where they were. We probably reached more than 200, based on my memory.

Rogers: And they had to act like they didn’t know what was happening. So there’s a whole choreography where, before they were going to interact with Keanu, they had to be on camera, acting like they’re looking for him, not knowing where he is. So there are a lot of intricate, smaller moments that you’d have to look at it a lot to pick up.

Stahelski: Many games and movies were inspirations for us along with our personal aesthetic. I mean, we’ve done tons of top shots before, just never extended like that. Most people don’t have that opportunity, because they need to switch to [stunt]The SFX or practical effects can double or fix wirework. These are actual men being set on fire. That’s not an easy thing to do and have the guy lay perfectly still while on fire. If one of the stunt guys makes a mistake, it’s time to go back and start again. So it’s what you’d call a director show-off shot.

Rogers: The funny thing about the shot is that for the most part, you’re at the top, you’re looking at the top of Keanu’s head. This could have been anyone. But it wasn’t. It was Keanu — he very much wanted to do that whole, entire sequence.

Stahelski: I’m trying to show you how good my stunt team is, how good Keanu Reeves is. And by that time in the movie, I didn’t want you to have action fatigue. So I’m trying to change it up visually. It was partly because it would be loved by the audience. It’s partly because it was something I believed would be loved by my crew. We’re fans as well.

John Wick Chapter 4. It is now in theatres