The John Wick movies have always lived by video game rules

Hollywood is a hotbed for live-action TV adaptations in 2023. The Last of UsThe following are some examples of how to get started: Twisted MetalAnimated films are now available through major streaming services Super Mario Bros. MovieOver $1 billion was banked in the theatres. There was a film about it. TetrisThis year is the first time that we will be able to see this.

Yet, very few video games are adapted directly into films. They don’t capture how different video game stories and worlds can be from the real-world, or the differences in the way we experience them. You can do this by looking at movies that aren’t based directly on video games but that have been inspired by the aesthetics or form of them.

The pixels and the power-ups in Scott Pilgrim Vs. The WorldThe repetition of the same words or phrases can be subtextual. Edge of Tomorrow. Video games are so influential that they may even not have been a conscious choice made by filmmakers who were raised with them. Derek Kolstad, the screenwriter of John Wick’s home video release describes in behind-the scene featurettes his desire to build an pulpy comic-book world with assassins and gangsters. Whether he meant to or not, what he actually created was cinema’s most perfect representation of a video game world, a surreal space governed by a set of clear, often unspoken rules.

The John Wick series follows the eponymous hitman (Keanu Reeves) as he’s drawn out of retirement by the senseless killing of his beloved dog, a parting gift from his late wife, Helen. John is the classic video-game character. He has few words, little emotion, but unimaginable, superhuman skills and an iconic appearance. John never leaves the assassins’ secret world, nor does the audience. Under the High Table, there is an economy and social structure that exists alongside the actual world. However, they do not interrelate with it. Under the Table, political and social power struggles have serious repercussions in their own world but have little impact on anyone else, even though logic dictates that they should.

Lionsgate

Apart from Helen, who appears only in recordings and in John’s memory, nearly every single character with a name or a line of dialogue across all four John WickFilms is part of the secret society. John is like the player in an RPG who only talks to people that are also playing. The streets are full of people going about their days, but, as seen during John’s frantic escape from the city in the first act of The Third ChapterOne in five New Yorkers are secret assassins. Most people are unaware that violence is happening all around them. You can never have enough of your own?Catch a bullet that has strayed.

John Wick could no sooner harm an unarmed civilian than a Pokémon trainer could have their Arcanine incinerate a gym leader. That’s not how the game works. It is strange that despite the fact that their main business would be to kill politicians, leaders of businesses, or other noncombatants who some parties might pay handsomely for them to die, they never do. Once you have a clue, it is easy to get started.In four films, we never see anyone being paid to kill anyone outside their criminal group. According to the High Table, the collateral damage is nil.

Those who serve under the Table have their own currency, the three-inch gold medallions usually referred to as “coins.” Coins do not have a direct or consistent monetary value. A coin might buy you a night’s stay at The Continental (the hotel chain for assassins that has a location in every major city, and the setting for the Peacock limited series of the same name premiering this week), or a drink at its basement speakeasy.

Image: Summit Entertainment

You can also find out more about the following: John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, High Table treasurer Berrada (Jerome Flynn) explains that the coin represents “the commerce of relationships.” Like with many video game currencies, you can’t simply buy a stack of gold coins; you have to earn it through interacting with important people and completing specific tasks. It’s also the only currency that we see characters exchange over the course of the series. Contract killings have a real-world monetary value, which is presumably how assassins afford their homes, cars, and non-tactical apparel, but it doesn’t appear to have any use within their own society.

Not that John Wick’s peers seem to have much use for the outside world, either: In fact, they seem most at home within the walls of The Continental, where “conducting business” is forbidden under penalty of excommunication. The Continental in gaming is the safe room where the character can automatically heal from any damage they have taken, level up, replenish their supplies, and get the next mission. In the same way that combat is usually disabled in such spaces, as soon as John steps (or touches) the Continental ground, all action stops. This chapter is complete. Now, it’s time for him to get a refreshing drink, and to pick up new intel or equipment from Charon (Lance Reddick) or his mentor Winston (Ian McShane). It’s time for him to get a refreshing drink and pick up new intel or equipment from Charon (Lance Reddick) or his mentor Winston (Ian McShane). The Chapter Two:, John avails himself of the Rome Continental’s in-house tailor (Luca Mosca) and “sommelier” (Peter Serafinowicz), who outfit him with the latest weapons and armor. It’s here that John acquires his “tactically lined” dinner jacket, which allows him to take gunfire without spoiling the sleek silhouette of his suit. It’s a tremendous stat buff that, against all reason, does not affect his appearance, like when a game allows a player to equip heavy armor but disable any cosmetic effect it should have on the character.

Murray Close/Lionsgate

John Wick’s enemies also level up gradually over the course of the series, with new equipment being introduced to raise the difficulty of combat. We see other characters using John’s tactical suit not long after he receives it. This helps to level the playing field. The game is not over until the other characters use it. The Third Chapter, when John provokes the ire of the High Table, their souped-up foot soldiers wear heavy body armor that’s bulletproof everywhere but the neck. (Nothing says “video games” like a bad guy with one weak spot.) Chap. 3The following are some examples of how to get started: 4Both feature a climax where John must fight through enemies to reach the top of an actual structure. A final boss is waiting for him. Donkey Kong-style.

The John Wick series may not have begun with the intention to mimic video game structure or atmosphere, but it’s come to embrace the comparison. Chad Stahelski, the director of John Wick series, cites 2019’s top-down shooting game The Hong Kong Massacre The sequence was used as the source of inspiration for similar scenes in John Wick: chapter 4. Stahelski will adapt Ghost of TsushimaKolstad has been developing both the new and recent adaptations Sifu and the classic Sega beat-’em-up Streets of Rage.

Still, it’s hard to imagine any of these projects striking as perfect a balance between video game structure and cinematic storytelling. After all, part of the reason why John Wick’s surreal video game rules work is because they evolved gradually out of the premise, over the course of multiple films. It’s novel to have an original film quietly copying video games, but it isn’t so good for a movie adaptation that attempts to mimic video games. John Wick can get away with employing these same gimmicks because most audience members aren’t looking for them. Like the films’ noncombatants, we’re content not to look too closely, and let the man in the bloodstained suit go about his business.