Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.
- In the opening car chase, John proves to be not just The Gunslinger, but a Badass Driver as well. Just for starters, he performs a Toyota Tripwire on a motorcycle while driving. Barely a minute later, while reversing after a fleeing mook, John throws his car into a J-turn, smashing the mook with the car and sending him flying through the air to smash against a pillar.
- Even though John wasn't at his peak (considering this is all happening immediately after the first film), Cassian has to be given some respect. His two major fights with John are some of the longest and best in the movie, and he proves that being the bodyguard of a major underworld member isn't something to be taken lightly.
- John and Cassian's second fight in the train station has a truly memorable scene about halfway through. Making liberal use of Hollywood Silencer, the two blend into the crowds and shoot at each other from different levels, without any of the civilians all around them noticing. Definitely not your average shootout.
- The conclusion of John's second fight with Cassian is particularly impressive. Cassian has an impressive showing, for sure. But John still manages to win handily with a non-lethal KO in a knife-fight, managing to show he's not an Invincible Hero, but still making his skills damn impressive.
- Winston making it very clear in the end scene that being the Manager of one of the Continentals gives one far more power than is ever really let on; even John himself gets properly unnerved by it. When Winston tells John that he made the decision not to just have him killed, everyone in the park stops behind him. They were all assassins waiting for the order.
- Before this, he makes it clear to Santino that he is the king of his little empire, and no one, not even the High Table, can tell him what to do.
- On the subject of the ending, a lot of respect has to be given to John. Rather than calmly accepting his fate in light of this impossible odd, John instead tells Winston that he'll kill anyone who comes after him. He's basically declaring war on the entire criminal underworld all by himself. Remember, the man is clearly exhausted and broken after all the crap he's been through throughout two movies, and yet he's still willing to fight on for his life even if it is, in Winston's words, already forfeit.
- The icing on the cake is Winston apparently fully believing that John is capable of killing anyone who comes after him. And when the third film rolls around, we see that John was not, in any way, exaggerating.
- After Santino's betrayal of John after his sister's death, Winston comes to collect the finished marker and warn Santino about what he's done.Winston: You stabbed the Devil in the back... You incinerated the priests' temple... Now he's free of the Marker... What do you think he'll do?
- As he speaks, the camera pans up and reveals a statue of a ten-armed deity behind Winston. Who is it? Most likely the Hindu goddess Durga, warrior goddess and destroyer of evil. Not so subtle foreshadowing for what's coming for Santino. The word "durga" translates as "impassable" or "invincible", an apt description for Wick.
- John demonstrating what he can do with a pencil onscreen. Really, it's just better if it's seen.
- The sheer talent of John's weapon handling throughout the film, such as doing a brass-check on his Kimber with a single hand during a beat in a firefight, or his finesse in reloading the Benelli. The film goes out of its way to avert many notorious action thriller tropes like Bottomless Magazines and looks awesome doing so.
- The sheer degree of Gun Porn on display when John is selecting his weapons early in the film. Weapons are given the respect and reverence of fine wines, and the sort of class Wick is displaying qualifies it as more "Erotic Firearms Portraiture" than "Gun Porn".
- A subdued one, but Santino's one job that only Wick is qualified enough for it is shown to be trivial for John. He reaches and kills his target before anyone noticed him and only had to fight his way out during the extraction (and most of the troubles came from being betrayed, not even the assignment itself).
- Keep in mind, if not for being spotted by Cassian, John never would have had to shoot his way out of that concert. And in turn John probably would have been able to get through the catacombs fast enough to avoid Ares and her strike team. Then, if John could have avoided that strike team in the catacombs he would have gotten to the Continental Hotel in time to avoid being ambushed by Cassian. Basically, John's skills as an assassin are so great that it took one of the best bodyguards in the criminal underworld remembering his face, AND being betrayed by Santino just to mildly roadblock him.
- Finally, in a bit of Fridge Brilliance, we see John stash his AR and Benelli throughout the catacombs, despite most of the operation taking place nowhere near them. He later uses them to great effect once Ares and her goons show up. John fully expected Santino to betray him, and planned accordingly.
- There's also the part in the catacombs scene that is worth a mention. John who is in need to reload his Benelli M4 while next to a mook. And what does John do? He pins the shotgun painfully on said mook on the chest where the mook is in pain, unable to move, and reloads his shotgun while still pining the mook and to top it off, finishes said mook with the reload. Damn, you don't see this in many action films.
- While not as flashy as some of the other moments, John and Cassian's first meeting deserves mention due to being almost unbearably tense. You can feel the two men sizing each other up, like coiled snakes ready to strike at any time. This is only bolstered by their conversation. In a beautiful use of Show, Don't Tell, the two exchange barely more than a half-dozen words, but the amount of meaning that is left unsaid reveals a lot about their characters and past interactions.
- Much like the Red Circle shootout in the previous film, there's the concert shootout which is then followed by the shootout in the catacombs.
- There's also the museum shootout and how it starts which is by John doing seven headshots in about 5 seconds.
- The entire buildup to the shootout deserves mention. The scene begins like a run-of-the-mill high class party, with Santino reveling in his new found position in the High Table... and then he spots John in the crowd. And in a single moment, everything stops. Everyone goes silent to stare at this one man, as if the Grim Reaper himself had just manifested... and to Santino, that's exactly what's happened.
