Characters / John Wick (John Wick)

John Wick Main Character Index
John Wick | John's Family | The Continental Hotels | The High Table | The Tarasov Crime Family | Winston's Crew | Other Criminals

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Jonathan "John" Wick (born Jardani Jovonovich)

"Whoever comes, whoever it is... I'll kill them. I'll kill them all."

Portrayed By: Keanu Reeves ^{Other Languages} Leto Dugatkin [Lionsgate dub of John Wick], Andrés Skoknic [Summit dub of John Wick], René García [from the Zima dub of John Wick onwards] (Latin American Spanish dub); Toshiyuki Morikawa (Japanese dub), Jean-Pierre Michaël (French dub)

Appearances: John Wick | John Wick: Chapter 2 | John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum | John Wick: Chapter 4 | John Wick (Dynamite Comics) | John Wick Hex | Ballerina

"When Helen died, I lost everything. Until that dog arrived on my doorstep... A final gift from my wife... In that moment, I received some semblance of hope... an opportunity to grieve unalone... And your son... took that from me... stole that from me... KILLED THAT FROM ME! People keep asking if I'm back. And I haven't really had an answer. But now, yeah, I'm thinking I'm back! So you can either hand over your son, OR YOU CAN DIE SCREAMING ALONGSIDE HIM!"

At a young age, Jonathan Wick was taught various martial arts and marksmanship and grew to be the best of the best. The mere mention of his name echoed fear onto others, calling him "The Boogeyman". He met a woman who eventually became his wife and wanted to retire. In his new retirement, his wife died from a sudden illness but she gifted him a dog to help with grieving. A few days later, on one fateful night, the son of John's former boss decided to steal his car, beat him up, and murder the aforementioned pet. All the pain and anger he felt sent John on a rampage fueled by vengeance, leaving trails of bodies in his wake and digging himself deeper into the organized crime he wanted to leave so long ago.

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A-L

• The Ace:
  • John is a Living Legend among the underworld. Everyone who knows him has nothing but respect and fear of him, aside from Santino, the man he used a Marker with to complete the Impossible Task. In the sequel, we see him doing one true job (killing a member of the High Table during a public event with a high-security level) and only encounter problems after the target is dead.
  • Whether it is pistols, assault rifles, shotguns, sniper rifles, knives of any make or model, John knows how to use them faster and with more lethality than just about anyone else he meets. And if he can't get his hands on conventional weapons, pencils, books, cars, or horses will do. And if he can't get his hands on any weapons, his bare hands can still suffice. He also speaks multiple languages, and is an expert in stealth and infiltration, so, basically, he has all the skills necessary to be the most efficient, uncatchable, unbeatable kind of international killer.
• Acquainted with Emergency Services: Befitting his legendary status in the underworld, when the police roll up due to a "noise complaint" (caused by him dispatching a dozen assassins sent to ambush him), he is cordial to the police officer with whom he's on a first-name basis, and in return, the officer knows enough not to bother doing anything even though he can plainly see a dead body in John's home.
• The Alleged Car: Not at first. John's signature car is his 1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1 (mistakenly called a 1970 Ford Mustang Boss 429 by losef) which he is shown to be a proficient driver in. It is so iconic to the Boogeyman that Aurelio instantly recognizes it as John's when Iosef brings it into his shop. Played straight in the sequel, as John nearly totals the car when he reduces Abram's chop shop into a house of corpses just to get to it, though really he just wanted the photo in the glove compartment.
• Alliterative Name: Chapter 3 reveals his true name to be Jardani Jovonovich.
• Ambiguously Christian:
  • There is a bit of Christian imagery associated with John. He has a tattoo of a cross and hands clasped in prayer on his back. In Chapter 3, he uses a Russian Orthodox cross and prayer beads as his "ticket" to sanctuary. However, he's not shown actively practicing religion nor any indication that he's a believer.
  • It's implied several times, particularly in Parabellum and Chapter 4, that he was brought up by a church but is now a hopeful agnostic and/or believes that the path he chose as an assassin bars him from any sort of heaven.
• Ammunition Conservation: John tends to restrict himself regarding how much ammunition he uses against his opponents. This practice gets particular focus in the first film with the Red Circle shootout, where John kills Viggo Tarasov's men with an average of two and a half bullets per combatant.
• And Then What?: John's Fatal Flaw is his wrath, and this is on full display in Chapter 4. Several times, John is questioned if he really thinks he can just keep killing his way out of his problems, especially when he thinks of doing so to the High Table. Even if he does, by some miracle, manage to kill everybody who's getting in his way, what happens when it's all over? In the end, John really can't just kill everybody; his wrath ultimately leads to his death, as while he wins the final fight so he can be a free man, it's after he's taken so many hits and suffered so many injuries that his body just gives out on him completely.
• Anti-Hero: He has quite the blood-drenched past and isn't afraid to kill anyone who gets in his way, but he's a very cordial and polite man who won't mess with you if you don't mess with him. He's also remarkably merciful, giving several people (namely, Francis the guard and The Bowery King) opportunities to walk away from the massacres.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: While he's retired, he's dressed in plain clothes. When he returns to the world of assassins, he begins dressing in sharp suits, wearing a black shirt when he's out to kill and wearing a white shirt when he isn't.
• Batman Gambit: John anticipates that the Marquis de Gramont won't resist the opportunity to rub his apparent victory in John's face if Caine takes him down in the duel. He waits until the Marquis is within firing range before putting a bullet between his eyes.
• Beat Them at Their Own Game: Does this on occasion, proving himself to be better than his opponents at whatever they specialize in. Shown most prominently with Zero's goons, when he shows that, despite being severely injured, he can still easily pull off their trademark Stealth Hi/Bye even better than they can.
• Beware the Nice Ones: When he's off the clock, John Wick has proven to be a fundamentally good man who is easy to get along with. Piss him off, however, and you will die.
• Beware the Quiet Ones: John Wick is a man of few words who prefers to let his actions, namely his guns, do the talking for him. Despite his quiet exterior, John is a pretty reasonable guy once you get to know him. However, as many characters throughout the series learn the hard way, getting on the bad side of someone called "The Boogeyman" is not a good idea.
• Blood Knight: Downplayed and discussed in the movies. While John doesn't want to return to the life of an assassin, once he does return he does it with brutal ruthlessness. Santino suggests that John is actually "addicted to the revenge" since his wife and his former life are gone, leaving him with only a life of hunting down anyone who wronged him. There are hints in Chapter 3 that he does enjoy combat to some degree, even admitting to Zero in the end that their battle was a great fight, even if all he's really trying to do is stay alive.
• Blunt "Yes": "Yeah" is his go-to answer to many rhetorical questions directed to him.
• Boom, Headshot!: John often finishes off his opponents with one of these. Completely logical considering his assassin background, as he wants to be certain the target is dead.
• Bulletproof Vest: In the first movie, he straps on a bulletproof vest before going to work. In the second, he has his tailor put special carbide panels into his suits so that the jackets themselves are bulletproof. Indeed, he can be seen protecting himself by lifting his jacket and ducking his head under the lapel. The only wounds he takes come from opponents who find a way around the jacket.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: The Bowery King mentions having met John in the past which is an event that he considered to change his life but he acknowledged the fact that John probably wouldn't remember as, at the time, he was just another lowly mook that was fortunate enough to get John's mercy.
• Character Catchphrase:
  • John tends to respond to more outlandish situations with a teeth-gritted "Yeah", highlighting both his stoicism and determination.
  • As a more minor variation, John has a habit of saying someone's name when he finished a conversation with them. Happens frequently with Winston.
• Christianity is Catholic: It's not outright stated but John is a practicing Catholic in a few scenes. However, he is an immigrant from Belarus, a country where Orthodoxy and state-sanctioned Soviet atheism are very common, and his "ticket" is an Orthodox crucifix. Eastern Rite Catholicism is among Belarus's minority religions, though John could have simply converted while living in New York.
• Close-Range Combatant: While John is perfectly willing to take out enemies at range, his Sambo skills and Center Axis Relock style make him an absolute monster in close combat. This is done for practicality. With guns, this saves on bullets as he can quickly shoot vital areas with less time to aim. With sharp or blunt objects, he is able to inflict immediate and often fatal injuries, usually by hitting the back of them to apply suddenly bursts of force when the opponent is fending them off.
• Cold Ham: Almost all of his aggression is delivered with a stone cold demeanor, and he rarely raises his voice.
• Color Motif: He has a dual one with blue and black. His human, softer side tends to be associated with blue, whilst his "Boogeyman" side is usually associated with pitch-black.
• Combat Pragmatist: John uses any and every means available to him during fights to gain the upper hand; if John has a loaded gun, he will certainly be using it. More than once he pulls a gun in the middle of a fistfight, and he's quite gifted when it comes to improvised weapons (remember the pencil story?). Observant viewers may notice that his fighting styles are tailored for surgical strikes at weak points in order to quickly stun or kill opponents. It's also why he favors the Double Tap since it allows him to quickly and cleanly kill opponents rather than risk them surviving.
• Cool Car: His 1969 Mustang, a car so nice, it alongside a poor puppy end being the cause of John returning to the criminal underworld. As revealed in the second film, the car was a gift from his late wife, which is where his sentimental value in it comes from.
• Cunning Linguist: John is fluent in a wide range of languages. He's shown to understand and speak English, Russian, Italian, Indonesian, Japanese and Cantonese and is able to at least understand Arabic and American Sign Language.
• Dark Is Not Evil: He favors black suits but he's an affable, courteous person provided you aren't trying to kill him whose only real quarrel in the films is people who have wronged him. Depending on the nature of the Impossible Task he pulled for Viggo, he's Affably Evil at most, and he goes out of his way to avoid excessive collateral damage and won't hurt innocent bystanders.
• Dark and Troubled Past: There are brief mentions of how he became an assassin. He was an immigrant from Belarus at an early age who was taken by the Director and taught a spartan lifestyle so he can become the professional killer he is. And in the prequel comic, he witnessed 53 people being killed by Calamity and the Three Bills, pushing him toward the path of becoming the deadliest hitman in the criminal underworld.
• Death Glare: He can give very intimidating ones when he's sufficiently pissed off. He glares at Iosef with such intensity that the latter promptly drops his gun and bolts.
• Death Seeker: While it's never outright stated, with the amount of destruction and pain John throws himself into instead of walking away, it is implied that he's looking for a way to die or punish himself after the death of his wife. This shows up in the first ten minutes of the first movie, before John even has a reason to go on a rampage, when he drives out to an airstrip to Drives Like Crazy and almost crash while screaming.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: John deconstructs Determinator, Revenge Before Reason, and Vigilante Man. As noted by several characters, many of John's problems throughout the series stem from his inability to simply let go and walk away. If someone wrongs John in any way, he will pay them back, consequences be damned. And this Old Testament mindset ends up causing him more problems than it actually solves. In the first film, John's war against Viggo and Iosef only succeeds in dragging him back into the assassin life he desperately tried to escape, something Santino exploits in Chapter 2 by using a blood marker to force John to help him take over the High Table by killing his sister. Later, John murdering Santino for double-crossing him only results in the High Table doubling the bounty on his head (which is exactly what Santino warned would happen if he did). And because he broke the cardinal rule and killed Santino on Continental grounds, Winston is forced to declare John ex-communicado^note He could've had John killed like he had Ms. Perkins killed, but as he has the final say, he chose to spare him instead; it helps that John did not directly attack or antagonize any of the Continental staff like Ms. Perkins did, leaving John to fend for himself against the High Table's assassins. In Chapter 4, John killing the High Table Elder only results in the High Table sending the Marquis de Gramont, who goes on a scorched earth campaign against John and his allies, leading many to question if John can really keep killing his way out of his problems or what would he even do if, by some miracle, he succeeds. And even though he manages to kill the Marquis and win his freedom, a shot to the stomach on top of all the other injuries he's endured throughout the series means that all he can do is die once it's over, having gotten nothing he ultimately wanted except maybe death. To summarize, over the course of four films, John's relentless quest for vengeance ends up costing him everything, going from a well-funded assassin with powerful connections to a fugitive fighting for his life who ultimately dies in a final duel, demonstrating that vengeance really isn't worth it
• Despair Event Horizon: He came dangerously close to this when Helen died, but she willed him a small puppy, who gave him hope again. And then Iosef went and killed her, pushing him fully over the edge.
• Determinator: His opponents always fail to take into account that once John gets started, he won't stop and will mow through endless waves of mooks while ignoring wounds that would kill normal human beings. In short... nothing will ever stop him from getting what he wants. NOTHING. Tellingly, it is only when he has no reason left to fight, be it obligation or revenge, that he finally passes away, as if he decided he did not need to keep going anymore.
  Viggo: John is a man of focus, commitment, sheer will.
• Dented Iron: Over the course of two weeks, John is beaten, cut, stabbed, shot, and even thrown off of a roof. At the end of it all he can't even stand, but his sheer will protects him from dying. At the end of Chapter 4, a shot to the stomach is what ends up taking him out, but it's clearly been exacerbated by everything else he's gone through. Beyond all the injuries he's accumulated over those two weeks, as well as finally having gotten what he wanted and becoming a free man, John reaches his physical limit and dies from his wounds.
• Disproportionate Retribution:
  • Downplayed. On the surface level the idea of John declaring war on the entire Russian Mafia because one punk killed his dog seems like a straight example of this, but it's worth remembering that John's only goal is to put a bullet in the head of Iosef, the little bastard who actually did it. It's only Viggo's determination to protect his son that forces John to rampage throughout the ranks of the mob in a massive bloodbath. Once John gets his revenge (and retrieves the Hero's Classic Car Iosef also stole from him) he considers the matter closed.
  • Worth noting however, is that his dog Daisy represented so much more than just a mere gift from his deceased wife, as the quote above his summary demonstrates. That said, given that those who heard his rant were soon killed, everyone else In-Universe believes it really was simply having his dog killed that started his rampage.
• Double Tap: John has a tendency to ensure targets are fully neutralized in keeping with his nature as a Combat Pragmatist.
• Dragon-in-Chief: John himself, alias "Baba Yaga", previously worked as an assassin aligned with the Tarasov family. When John wanted to retire for the sake of his marriage, Viggo Tarasov gave him an "impossible task" as a term of John's departure. According to Viggo, John's body count essentially established the Tarasov family power base. The central film conflict arises because Viggo's son Iosef had carjacked John and killed his pet dog Daisy.
• The Dreaded: Absolutely everyone is scared shitless of him, even hardened mob bosses like Viggo, who calls John "the man you send to kill the Boogeyman". And for good reason. Only a few people, like Zero and the Bowery King, are not, and those who claim not to like Santino would eventually be. Doesn't stop regular mooks from going after him after the Table placed a bounty on his head, though.
• Easily Forgiven: Averted, Winston could have John killed like Perkins for murdering somebody on Continental grounds, but Winston chooses to spare him given the circumstances, as he gets the final say. He does still have to punish John though, and so declares him excommunicado, cutting John off Continental support just as his bounty from the High Table goes international, and the best he can give John is an hour headstart.
• Establishing Character Moment:
  • John drives to a remote location so he can Drives Like Crazy with no one else around to be hurt and almost kill himself by crashing into construction vehicles. Instead, he chooses to live. He spends the following four films as a Death Seeker who can't allow himself to die.
  • In the first film, after losing Daisy, John proceeds to meticulously clean up all the blood and broken items in his house and bury Daisy without saying a word, then immediately heads to Aurelio's chop shop to get a new ride. He then proceeds to his basement and uses a sledgehammer to remove a chest filled with gold coins, guns, and a suit hid under the concrete floor. All while Viggo narrates John's past as a Professional Killer and The Determinator.
  • In the second film, John goes through a punishing fight with dozens of Russian gangsters, before declaring to their boss he just wants peace, driving home in his now totaled car, and revealing he just wanted the picture of his wife in the glove compartment. This is a sign that John's Roaring Rampage of Revenge is becoming more and more self-destructive, John wanting to retire when he threw his only chance away and having nothing left but memories of better times.
  • In the third film, with the clock ticking down to his excommunication, John tries to get to the New York Public Library and hails a cab, but when he sees that the traffic is just not moving he pays the cabbie his last gold coin to take his dog to the Truce Zone.
  • In the fourth film, John silently punches his bloody fists on a makiwara while the Bowery King quotes Dante's Inferno. Then he travels to Morocco, shoots the Elder's goons while on a horse, demands his wedding ring and freedom, and kills the Elder despite being warned of the consequences. He's re-established himself as every bit as the noble threat described by Viggo in the first movie, but it only becomes clear that John will begin to realize how much his vengeance will cost him.
• Experienced Protagonist: Before he was properly introduced, he has already produced a reputation as The Dreaded. It's even implied he used to be in the military before he became an assassin.
• Face Death with Dignity: After being wounded by Caine on top of all his other injuries, John knows he is dying and simply calmly sits back and passes away, only asking Winston prior to bring him back to be buried alongside Helen.
• Fairytale Motif: The Boogeyman. John's nickname during his time in The Mafiya was Baba Yaga, symbolizing his nature as an Implacable Man and the fear he strikes into the hearts of his targets. ^note Even though the folkloric Baba Yaga is not the boogeyman. In fairness, though, Viggo did say that John was 'the one you sent to kill the fucking Boogeyman.'
• Famed In-Story: John Wick is a Living Legend in the assassin community, and nearly everyone can immediately recognize him on sight. Except Iosef.
• Fatal Flaw: Wrath. As Winston would put it, John doesn't know when to "just walk away." A lot of John's problems could have been avoided throughout the films if he didn't take the full extent of his anger to its logical conclusion. But he does anyway out of a desire to get payback for any slight made against him. His revenge spree against Iosef ultimately ends up dragging him back into the life of an assassin, and his murder of Santino on Continental grounds forces Winston and everyone else affiliated with The Continental to turn their backs on him. John loses everything other than his dog and ends the second film a fugitive. The fourth film expands upon this as John is continuously questioned as to how and when will it all end, that even John himself can't keep killing everyone; his wrath ultimately leads him to his death.
• Fingore: Cuts off his left ring finger to get The Elder's forgiveness.
• Fluffy the Terrible: Many Russian fans have pointed out the humor in a feared assassin going by the nickname, "Baba Yaga." Baba Yaga being an old magical woman who would fly around in a mortar, wielding a pestle, and lives in a house in the forest supported upon chicken legs. Scary to small children, perhaps, but not so much hardened criminals. Though, much like Baba Yaga, wronging him is a very, very, VERY bad idea.
• Friend-or-Idol Decision: In the third movie, he is told that to clear his excommunicado and keep his life, he has to kill Winston. When he returns to New York, he refuses to kill Winston, and instead takes up the defenses of the Continental.
• From Camouflage to Criminal: Never said outright, but he has the motto of the 3rd Marine Regiment tattooed on his back and Keanu Reeves himself said John used to be in the military. It is translated slightly differently, though; their motto is "Fortes Fortuna Juvat", while John's tattoo says "Fortis Fortuna Adiuvat". Both essentially mean "Fortune Favors the Bold", but it's not quite the same thing. The marines' motto is "Fortune favors those who are bold" while John's is "Fortune favors he who is bold".
• Gangsta Style: In close quarters situations, John sharply tilts his pistols to the side. This is the signature style of Center Axis Relock; the tilt helps minimize recoil while rapidly shooting by lining it up to the bend of the elbow to absorb the force there instead of at the wrist..
• I Gave My Word: When he promises something, he honors his end of the deal. When he has Viggo cornered, John agrees to let Viggo go in exchange for Viggo giving up his son's location. John only goes after Viggo again when Viggo executes Marcus. Played with when he initially tries to refuse Santino's marker only to be reminded of the very harsh consequences for refusing a marker.
• Genius Bruiser: In addition to being an extremely dangerous hitman, John is also very intelligent. He can speak multiple languages, capable of being a skilled tactician and exceptionally good at getting into heavily guarded places and getting out undetected.
• Gun Fu: A more realistic example than most. John's fighting style integrates Sambo with Center Axis Relock's close-in shooting techniques, making him practically unstoppable when facing multiple opponents at close range. Also, when he doesn't have time to reload, he unhesitatingly uses his guns as clubs in order to maintain the initiative.
• The Gunslinger: Wick's repertoire consists mainly of pistols. He does use other manners of firearms, however, just not as much as his handguns. Notably, in the Chapter 4, during the setting of the terms for the climactic duel, John's weapons call was for guns, countering the Marquis' call for blades to favor his stand-in, Caine; luckily for John, he drew a better card and secured his choice. Subverted in the end where he ultimately dies, but the choice of guns still let him end it the way he needed it to end, letting him die victorious nonetheless.
• Happily Married: Helen really was the light of John's life, and it is sad to watch what her death does to him.
• The Hero Dies: After fighting his way through all of Paris' goons and having his final showdown with Caine and The Marquis in Chapter 4, all of the wounds John has accumulated through this and all the previous movies finally catch up with him, and he passes away a free man.
• Heroes Love Dogs:
  • He gets very attached to his dogs quite quickly (especially seeing as his first dog was a gift from his late wife). And God help you if you hurt his dog.
  • In the fourth film, this comes up again when he chooses to save Nobody/The Tracker's dog despite having him dead to rights.
• Heroic Ambidexterity: It's a subtle detail, but in the climax of Parabellum, John briefly switches to a left-handed grip when wielding an assault rifle. This is most likely to allow his bullet-resistant suit to cover his torso against the Elite Mooks approaching from his right.
• Hero's Classic Car: What starts it all off is Iosef Tarasov's jealousy of John's '69 Ford Mustang Boss 429: he breaks into John's house to steal it when John refuses to sell it to him at a gas station, and kills his puppy out of annoyance with the noise it makes (both were gifts from Helen). Aurelio later loans John a '70 Chevelle SS 454 LS6. Unfortunately John totals them both in the process of retrieving the Mustang from Abram Tarasov at the start of Chapter 2.
• Hitman with a Heart: He's really friendly despite killing people for a living.
• Hollywood Action Hero: Could be a Reconstruction of the archetype. He takes the The Ace and stoicism of old-school action heroes and marries it with the more relatable John McClane-type Dented Iron and determination.
• Horrifying the Horror: Acts as an Establishing Character Moment of sorts for John. The notoriously dangerous Russian mafia is led by a highly feared man like Viggo, who is nonetheless terrified of inciting Wick's wrath.
• I Die Free: He lives just long enough for the Harbinger to inform him that his debt to the High Table has been repaid, after which he immediately passes away.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Ever since meeting Helen, John has tried to leave his life as a hitman behind him. However, because of his rage and need for revenge, he keeps finding himself dragged back into action, unlikely to ever be able to walk away from his past.
• Implacable Man: It is exactly for this reason he's The Dreaded: if he wants to kill you, he will kill you. No matter how rich or how powerful you are, no matter how many bodies and guns you throw at him, no matter how far or how fast you run, John Wick will kill you.
• Improvised Weapon:
  • In the first film, Viggo gives Iosef a hint of how dangerous John is by telling him the story of how he managed to kill three men with a pencil.
  • As if the audience doubted the validity of this story, Chapter 2 had John take on and defeat two assassins with the exact same weapon. It's quite brutal.
  • In the third movie Parabellum, John uses books^note first to break the assassin's jaw, then his neck and horses as weapons.
• Leitmotif: "Story of Wick". This tune accompanies him on several dramatic moments and it's noticeable because it has the sound of an actual candle being lit incorporated to its beat. In the movies, whenever that particular sound comes in, it's a sign shit's about to hit the fan in some way.
• Living Legend:
  • John is one among the community of hitmen. Everyone who speaks him of him does so with a combination of admiration and fear and he's generally considered to be the best at what he does. Even after he places a 14 million dollar bounty on John's head which the entire criminal underworld is all too eager to grab, Winston simply notes that all it does is give John a fair fight.
  • Winds up working against him when he's on the run in Parabellum; there's a city full of assassins after him, and every single one of them recognizes him on sight.
  • This turns around in Chapter 4, because part of what he's known for is his sense of honor and justice. He has friends, not just acquaintances, and the underworld eats itself in part because they respect him more than they do the High Table.

M-Z

• Made of Iron: Zig-Zagged. John noticeably limps and slows down after getting shot or stabbed, and he is quick to seek medical attention when he can. He's also better than most action heroes at realizing kevlar is a thing, rendering his survival of shootouts much more plausible than most. However, if it's not being shot or stabbed, he's basically Superman, being unscathed by insane levels of punishment enough times to still make the Made of Iron top ten list. He finally reaches his limit in Chapter 4, with the wounds Caine inflicts on him in the final duel being what finally puts him down for the count, though he manages to hold on just long enough to win against the Marquis and earn his freedom.
• Man Bites Man: When Kirill has him pinned, John chomps down on his finger to get him to lay off.
• Manly Facial Hair: Quite a nice beard. His beard forms the silhouette of a skull minus the lower jaw, fitting his terrifying nature.
• Martial Pacifist: Despite his reputation, John does prefer to solve problems without resorting to violence if he can and even try to negotiate a resolution during a conflict to prevent more bloodshed as the opening to Chapter Two shows. Given his rep, characters offered this are usually smart enough to take it. In short, John prefers not to kill enemies unless he has to or they make the mistake of making things personal.
• Master Swordsman: As Parabellum shows, John can wield a wakizashi with extremely lethal efficiency.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Due to his dark suits and tendency to fight in darkly lit environments, the flashes of his gunfire resemble the wick of a candle. Also the fact that he goes after people who "set him off", leaving near-aimless destruction to everyone around him (an himself) much like an explosive. In fact, one poster depicts him with his tie being a lit wick as one may find on a bomb.
  • In the case of his moniker, it has multiple implications:
    • "The Boogeyman" is a reference to how he is The Dreaded in the criminal underworld as an Implacable Man that will hunt you down if you cross him. Viggo even clarifies that John Wick gets that name because he's the kind of guy you send to kill the Boogeyman, implying he is the kind of guy who Pays Evil Unto Evil and all of his on-screen targets have been other criminals. It also doesn't help that he came out of retirement to put the fear of him into The Mafiya because The Don's bratty son broke the rules, the mythological Boogeyman famous for hunting naughty children as a means of scaring them straight.
    • The Russian name Baba Yaga - while incorrect in its translation as "the Boogieman" - also makes sense when you remember that Baba Yaga was a figure in folklore that would routinely find and kill children that would wander into her territory on the outskirts of civilization. What brings John out of retirement and into his Roaring Rampage of Revenge was a Spoiled Brat Mafiya Prince and his group of friends wandering out of their territory of Central New York into John's home, assuming he was just a regular guy they could push around, only for their naive hubris to destroy him and his father's criminal empire.
• Mugging the Monster: Iosef had no idea who he was messing with. Which is odd, considering John worked for his father for years, and literally everyone else in the city seems to know John on sight.
• Mysterious Past: The movie is very enigmatic regarding Wick's past. We know he was a hitman for Viggo and we know he did one impossible job that made Viggo who he is today, but that's about it. Parabellum reveals that he was an orphan from Belarus named 'Jardani Jovonovich' and that he lived under the Director learning Sambo.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: As lampshaded by Viggo, pissing off someone named Baba Yaga - the Boogeyman - is a very bad idea.
• Never Found the Body:
  • After being shot off the roof of the Continental by Winston, the Adjudicator wisely notes that John's body is missing from the street. John had in fact been picked up by the Bowery King's men and is broken, but very much alive.
  • Likewise in John Wick 4, as John is bleeding out from his final duel with Caine and the Marquis, the screen fades to white and cuts to a graveyard with Winston and the Bowery King discussing his fate.
• Never Hurt an Innocent:
  • John holds his fire when Iosef uses a random girl as a shield and checks his fire carefully when he's chasing Iosef through the Red Circle whenever he's running through crowds. During his fight with Cassian, John and Cassian both avoid direct violence while in civilian areas, only shooting at each other with silencers and when they know no civilians are in the line of fire or backstopping their shots. They also wait until most of the subway train is clear before they start their final knife fight, in order to keep bystanders from being hurt.
  • This comes up again in the third film, where he stops short of engaging Zero when a line of kids comes between them; Zero muses on the situation that that's the difference between them- Zero wouldn't have stopped.
• Nice to the Waiter: John's taciturn and barely emotive at the best of times, but John's significantly more civil to bystanders just doing their jobs whom he has nothing against. When police officer Jimmy rolls up to John's house, John is very cordial and polite, talking with Jimmy on a first-name basis.
• Noble Demon: John has no qualms about killing hundreds of people to achieve his goals but goes out of his way to avoid harming innocents and give certain mooks a chance to leave before the bloodshed starts. Despite his violent brutality, John's sense of honor is inflexible. He spares Francis (a gate guard for the Tarasov crime family) and lets him walk away without a scratch on him, then proceeds to spare the Shinobi (who themselves qualify as Noble Demons, taking him one on one while repeatedly showing John mercy).
• Nominal Hero: Is not motivated by any sort of altruism, but solely by revenge. Only his sense of honor and the fact that the people he's after definitely deserve it keep him from being a Villain Protagonist.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: One of the reasons that John is so dangerous is that he uses any opportunity he can as a Combat Pragmatist. When he has finally caught up to his prey, he doesn't wait for their pleas or threats, nor does he go into some spiel about his motive. He just shoots them and walks away. This was shown with John's killing of Iosef in the first movie. John gut-shots Iosef once to incapacitate him, then slowly walks up to point-blank range so he doesn't miss. John doesn't even wait for Iosef to finish his last words, as Iosef can only get out "It was just a fuckin'-!" before John shoots him in the head.
• Noodle Incident: Viggo briefly talks about an "impossible" task he assigned John as one last job. He doesn't go into specifics but explicitly mentions a "mountain of bodies" John left behind. The sequel doesn't elaborate on the task itself but it was so difficult John had to offer a Marker to Santino to pull it off.
• Not So Stoic: John maintains a more or less emotionless facade, but several scenes show he has a lot of bottled up emotions (like when he cries when he receives the dog, or when he gives a wrathful threat to Viggo). When he's dragged back into the assassination tasks in the second film, he descends into primal screams.
• Older Hero vs. Younger Villain: Some of the opponents John goes up against are younger than him. His age is most notably contrasted with the naive Spoiled Brat Iosef - who is the primary target of John's vengeance in the first film even if Viggo is the Big Bad - and the Marquis. Both men drastically underestimate John in part because, due to their youth, they haven't witnessed just what he's capable of. The Adjudicator and Mr. Nobody are also noticeably younger than John, though they're far more savvy about how dangerous he is.
• Omniglot: Is fluent in Russian, Italian, ASL, Japanese, Indonesian, Cantonese and possibly Hebrew in addition to English.
• One-Man Army: Is he ever. In total, across the films of the franchise (and excluding other media), his kill count totals 439.^note 77 in John Wick, 128 in Chapter 2, 94 in Parabellum, and 140 in Chapter 4 It's directly referenced in Parabellum, where Winston notes having the entire criminal world after John amounts to a fair fight.
• Overt Agent: Zig-zagged. For someone known as "The Ghost", he never attempts to disguise his appearance, and everyone in the assassin world can easily recognize him on sight. Of course, when they do recognize him, there's little anyone can do to stop him anyway. However, when he does perform his infiltrations, he tends to get close to his targets before they ever know he was there. The only reason why the first attempt on Iosef fails is because a random guard stumbled on him when John is within sight of his target, and in his second attempt on Iosef no one even sees him until the very last second. When he performs his hit on Gianna, he gets to her before anyone even remark he was there and it's only when he leaves that he is spotted.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: He adheres to this to such a degree that it winds up being his Fatal Flaw (see said entry). When you wrong him he will put a bullet in your head and nothing will placate him until he does even with the death sentence of excommunication.
• Perpetual Frowner: He only smiles in flashbacks with his wife and in pictures.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Despite having the man dead to rights, he offers to let Francis "take the night off".
  • He actively refuses to hurt civilians, in spite of having Iosef in his sights at the Red Circle club, John refuses to take a shot in case he hits an innocent bystander. Later in Chapter 3, John holds off on fighting Zero when a group of kids passes in front of him, even Zero finds this admirable.
  • After fighting off Abram Tarasov's henchmen, John chooses to make peace with him instead of killing him. Deciding that enough blood has been shed and both men would rather not have a feud.
  • After a protracted fight with Zero's two main enforcers in Chapter 3 he defeats them and lets them live; the pair having done the same earlier in the fight so John could pull himself together for a fairer challenge.
  • In Chapter 4 he kills as many of the Marquis' men at the Osaka Continental as possible in honour of Koji's Heroic Sacrifice. Then by the end of the movie, he ensures he kills the Marquis so that Caine will be free of his obligation to the High Table and live the peaceful life with his daughter he yearned for.
  • Rather a "Save the Dog" moment, but instead of killing Nobody even though he had a clear shot, John subdues Chidi and rescues Nobody's dog from him, sparking Nobody's Heel–Face Turn. From the look on his face, he likely considered this redemption for failing to save Daisy from Iosef.
• Phrase Catcher: "Be seeing you, John." At least once per film this is said to him.
• Powerful and Helpless: In the leadup to the first film. John is a serious contender for the title of the single most deadly person in the world, but none of his martial skills can cure Helen's terminal illness.
• Pragmatic Hero: No matter how furious he gets, he will not do anything that will hurt a civilian. The second movie builds on this by showing that, given the option, he won't kill someone but severely wound them instead, forcing them to hold still and keep from bleeding out while giving himself a chance to escape.
• Quick Draw: One of John's most notable traits is his superb reflexes, allowing him to get the drop on multiple opponents. Most notably seen in his standoff with Cassian, and while reloading his shotgun in the Catacombs. During the museum scene, he draws and kills six opponents before any of them can return fire.
• The Quiet One: He's a man of few words, and only ever deals out curt replies or simple greetings. A memorable scene is a phone call in which he says nothing at all, which Viggo still thinks was enough to get his point across.
  Avi: What did he say?
  Viggo: Enough.
• Red Baron: "The Boogeyman", or "Baba Yaga" in Russian, fitting his foreboding nature.
• Retired Badass: For the past five years he's been retired. Now, though, he's thinking he's back.
• Retired Monster: Shades of it. It's strongly implied that he has conducted several bloodbaths for the Russians back in his days as a hitman. His bloodbaths in the movies show that he still got it.
• Revenge Before Reason: He is warned multiple times throughout the first and second film to not let his hunger for revenge get the better of him. Ultimately, John can't let it go, and gets himself in more and more trouble throughout the four films. Chapter 4, in particular, has John on the receiving end of several questions about what he thinks he's going to do once his quest for vengeance is over, and that's if he can even pull it off. In the end, John cannot pull it off, as the cost of his vengeance ends with him dying from a shot to the stomach. Even if he dies a free man, it still could have been avoided of John had known when to quit.
  Winston: Jonathan, just walk away.
• Reverse Grip: While John normally wields bladed weapons with a normal grip, when he faces off against Zero in Parabellum he uses a wakizashi (small katana) held in a reverse grip and can match Zero with his own wakizashi (held in standard grip) blow for blow even when he's on the brink of exhaustion.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Killing his dog, as it turns out, was a horrible idea. Blowing up his house and all his family photos, then stabbing him in the back afterward was also a horrible idea.
• Rogue Agent: A variant in Parabellum. He is not an actual agent of anyone, but his actions rendering him excommunicado label him like this in relation to the High Table. By the end, he is fully one of these, siding with the Bowery King against the High Table and implicitly the entire criminal underworld, including Winston and the Continental.
• Russian Guy Suffers Most: Revealed to be a Belarusian immigrant^note a country so close to Russia that its own national language is at risk because most people just use Russian instead in Parabellum and the universe's favorite chewing toy in all three movies. Ironically enough, that doesn't stop him from inflicting this trope upon the actual Russians in the first film, who are unique for being the only villain in the series to not be affiliated with the High Table and can be destroyed without consequences.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: In Chapter 2, he kills Santino in the Continental, despite knowing he shouldn't be doing that in there.
• Semper Fi: It's implied that John is a former United States Marine; the motto of the 3rd Marine Battalion is tattooed on his back.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: Quite fond of suits.
• Shotguns Are Just Better: As a Close-Range Combatant, he seems to have a liking for them.
  • In the first movie, he makes use of a Kel-Tec KSG.
  • In Chapter 2, he purchases a Benelli M4 in preparation for his "dinner party".
  • The climax of Chapter 3 sees John and Charon take up Benelli M2 and M4 Super 90 shotguns loaded with armor-piercing slugs to fight against the High Table's armored Elite Mooks.
  • Chapter 4 has him taking semi-automatic shotguns from his attackers, which have been loaded with incendiary rounds to neutralise his bulletproof suit.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!:
  • When the Elder gives him a long Breaking Speech on how John's efforts to track him down and murder him have been All for Nothing, and that he'll still be hunted down by the High Table, John quickly and permanently shuts him up.
    The Elder: I'm afraid you've come all this way for nothing.
    John: Yeah... Not really. [shoots him in the head]
  • He also gives an epic one after the Marquis gives him a "The Reason You Suck" Speech. It's later shown the Marquis's words did have an effect on him, but it doesn't negate the awesomeness of his rebuttal.
    The Marquis: There is no John out there. No happy man with a normal life. There is only John Wick: the killer.
    John: Yeah. And he's about to kill you.
• Signature Move: John likes to use a wrist-lock or arm-lock to hold foes in place so he can shoot them. Often he'll use one to throw them to the ground. So he can shoot them.
• Silent Snarker: John doesn't talk that much, but he is perfectly able to show his bemusement and reaction to all the craziness around him through body language and facial expressions alone.
• Simple, yet Awesome: John's fighting style, both with guns and hand to hand combat. He generally avoids flashy or elaborate moves in favor of simply subduing opponents with some combination of Aikido style twists, flips and wrist locks, Judo strikes, Sambo takedowns, Systema joint manipulation and throws or BJJ flips and holds and then shoots them or he overwhelms them with whatever he can get his hands on as well as incorporating moves from Krav Maga, Muay Thai and Jeet Kune Do, all styles built around simplicity, ruthlessness and brutal efficiency over showy or impractical moves. With guns, he also tends to prefer getting close to enemies and dispatching them with quick shots to the head, shots to the head and chest or to simply overwhelm them with firepower. The fact he's racked up a body count well into the triple digits within a matter of days using such an approach speaks volumes about its effectiveness. Notably, however, his unarmed fighting style seems to be intended as a support for his gun skills, not a replacement. When forced into a protracted hand-to-hand fight against someone who specializes in unarmed combat (Kirill, Cassian, the Shinobi, and finally Killa and Chidi) John usually takes a beating, as his striking skills seem to be way less polished than his grappling, leaving a hole for his opponents to exploit. He still manages to prevail through a healthy dose of combat pragmatism and more or less impossible to permanently put down.
• Special Person, Normal Name: "John Wick" isn't all that unusual.
• Stealth Expert: One of John's several nicknames was "The Ghost", and he is shown to be highly adept at stealth missions. He meticulously plans the jobs we see him doing, expertly avoiding all guards and pulling a Stealth Hi/Bye on Gianna. Of course, when stealth fails, he is fully capable of outshooting pretty much everyone. In the third movie, he managed to out-stealth Zero and his students, who are master assassins themselves, while also being heavily injured!
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: John is shown to be pretty antisocial. If you get on his bad side, you basically signed your own death warrant. That said, he is very polite to those close to him and wants nothing more than to return to living a normal life.
• Taking You with Me: In a sense. John takes Caine's bullet in the final round of their duel without firing back, just so he can be in a position to kill the Marquis within the rules.
• Tattooed Crook: When he showers, several tattoos are visible. Probably due to his work with the Russian mafia, which is big on tattoos. Keanu Reeves states that the Semper Fi tattoo is from his days in the military, while Parabellum shows that the crucifix tattoos are shared among all the students taken in by the Director, either as ballerinas or martial artists.
• Terse Talker: When he does speak, his words are usually kept very short, often using one-word responses to questions.
• Throwing Your Gun at the Enemy: When his guns run dry, John has a habit of throwing them at mooks as a distraction so he can have time to either draw another gun or close the distance so he can engage in hand-to-hand combat.
• Took a Level in Badass: While John is already a colossal badass in the first film, he only grows more lethal with each film. Notably, this is not due to him actually becoming tougher, instead it's the inverse: in the first film he is "rusty" due to being retired for five years, and by the third he's fully back to his groove as a killing machine. Chapter 4 shows just how deadly he can be with three months of rest and training.
• Trademark Favorite Drink: John is a well-known bourbon drinker in the circles he travels in. Specifically, he's shown drinking Blanton's, a high-end single barrel bourbon, in the first film.
• Tragic Hero: An ultimately decent guy with a dark, sinful, and murderous past whose own despair and rage drive him to make decisions which result in him losing just about everything, including any semblance of peace he had found. John is given the chance by both Viggo and Winston to simply walk away from his respective conflicts with Iosef and Santino, but John's own burning desire for revenge consumes him. Chapter 4 cements him as this, as he recognizes the suffering he's caused to those he cares for and even in the midst of trying to end it all, always ends in someone dying or suffering at his hands. By the end, John dies fighting for the freedom he so longed for but could never truly have in life, and he acknowledges he felt like he had nothing to live for without Helen. The only consolation is he gave his old friend Caine a chance to live a peaceful life, got Winston the Continental and all his privileges back and he died peacefully, finally absolved of the Table's stronghold over him and his friends.
• Tranquil Fury: Wick is frighteningly good at hiding his emotions.
  • The one time that he let this slip, it was due to Viggo underestimating the importance of Daisy in his life. Sure, to Viggo Daisy is "just a fucking dog", but to Wick, the puppy is the sole link he has left to his deceased wife, and Iosef, being the spoiled brat he is, took it away just to spite him. His Berserk Button having been thoroughly pressed, Wick lets Viggo and his men have a piece of his mind:
    Wick: When Helen died, I lost everything. Until that dog arrived on my doorstep. A final gift from my wife. In that moment, I received some semblance of hope. An opportunity to grieve unalone. And your son took that from me! Stole that from me! KILLED that from me! People keep asking if I'm back. And I haven't really had an answer. But now, yeah, I'm thinkin' I'm back! So you can either hand over your son... or you can die screaming alongside him!
  • Also again in the third film: at the end of it all, John has been seemingly betrayed by Winston and shot off the roof of the Continental before being saved by one of the Bowery King's men. The Bowery King then asks John if he's "pissed" at the High Table as much as he is, and while not raising his voice, John's simple answer of "Yeah" while glaring back at the King says that, yes, he is very angry.
• Verbal Tic: John doesn't talk much, but when he does, one of his notable traits is immediately repeating something someone else (usually an enemy) has just said to him.
• The Unfettered: Downplayed, but John shows that if he's pissed enough and given the option to kill a man in The Continental, which is a big no-no in the criminal underworld, he'll do it.
• Villain Killer: Almost everyone who has tried to kill him or even opposed him is dead. Almost, because he lets a few go for various reasons. Currently, none of The Dragons have survived, and the only Big Bad to survive John Wick is the Non-Action Big Bad the Adjudicator.
• Weapon Specialization: Pistols, naturally.
  • His signature weapon in the first film is a Heckler & Koch P30L fitted with a custom muzzle brake. He uses this in tandem with a subcompact Glock 26 throughout the first film, and briefly again at the start of Parabellum while on horseback. With that said, the P30L doesn't appear all that much in the series compared to Wick's other pistols.
  • Wick's primary loadouts from Chapter 2 onwards consist of guns customized by Taran Tactical Innovations; a Glock 34 in Chapter 2 (of which an updated Gen 5 version briefly shows up in Chapter 4), STI 2011 in Parabellum, and finally a TTI Pit Viper in Chapter 4; the last two are noteworthy as both are derived from the legendary Colt M1911.
• World's Best Warrior: From the looks of it. Despite being out of the game for five years, out of practice, and heavily wounded, he still cuts through everyone in his path, with only a handful of people even coming close to giving him an even fight. Given his Living Legend status as well, it's safe to say that he's one of the, if not the, most lethal men on the planet.
• Worthy Opponent:
  • He recognizes Cassian as an equal, in mission if not in skill. Granted, leaving Cassian on a subway train with a knife in his chest may seem like a funny way of showing respect, but when John Wick chooses to leave you almost dead when he's perfectly within his rights to kill you going by the code of the underworld, you know you've impressed him.
    John: The blade is in your aorta. You pull it out, you will bleed, and you will die. Consider this a professional courtesy.
  • The third film sees John take on two of Zero's finest students who are actually capable to matching John when they're in tandem (a little less so when separated), in two specific moments where the two of them give John some breathing room on purpose out of respect. This Villainous Valor earns them John's respect in turn when he finally gets them both down; unlike Cassian, John lets the two off without immediate critical injury.
  • Played with a bit in his interactions with Zero. While John is mostly ambivalent to Zero's attempts at cultivating this sort of relationship, he does eventually acknowledge that their fight was a good one after it finally ends. When Zero tries to make it out like he'll live to fight with him another day, though, John rather bluntly tells him that he won't and walks away from him unperturbed.
  • Chapter 4 has him show great respect for Caine, who's able to match him almost blow-for-blow despite being middle-aged and blind. Justified as they were good friends for years prior the films and they still maintain this camaraderie even in the movie.
• Would Hit a Girl: There seem to be relatively few female assassins or targets, but when one comes up, he will not hesitate, either in self-defense or because she is the mission. In the first film, when Perkins attacks him, he only barely holds back; though it's his right to kill her, perhaps out of respect for Winston, he subdues her with the intent to leave her for Winston. Played Straight in John Wick: Chapter 2 where John kills three women (one technically killed herself, but only because John was after her and that was better than whatever John was going to do once he caught her), and dispatches them just as much brutal efficiency as men.
• Would Not Shoot a Civilian: John takes care to not harm anyone who isn't a threat to him. Most noticeably when he has Iosef in his sights in the Red Circle club, but since Iosef has an innocent woman as a human shield, John refuses to take a shot.
• You Are Already Dead: Sometimes he will leave someone to bleed to death, not necessarily out of cruelty as much as there is no reason to finish them off. He will be pretty blunt that they are not gonna survive.
  • The first time is non-verbal to Ares where he pulls out the push dagger from her aorta (which he stated earlier it's a sure death) and just takes her ammunition before walking away, indifferently replying to her "be seeing you" comment.
  • The second is toward Zero who thinks he just needs a moment, John harshly tells him he is fatally wounded and leaves.
• You Will Be Spared: Every once in a while, John will let a few henchmen go or leave them injured instead of dead. The Bowery King considered his missed artery a mercy.
• Yubitsume: The Elder asks John to prove his fealty by chopping off his ring finger and giving him the ring as offering. John complies.

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"Those who cling to death, live."

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