Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.
Fridge Brilliance
- Almost every assassin in the series prefer compact switchblades and handguns over long rifles and automatic firearms. While this is obviously for Rule of Cool, as pistols are small enough to allow for extremely fancy maneuvers, it also makes sense considering their very profession. By their nature, assault rifles and shotguns are long and obvious, while most assassinations in the series happen up close and deep inside enemy territory. Unless an assassin has an absolute advantage, they wouldn't bring anything larger than a handgun to work, which was the case of Marcus in the first film, who has vertical advantage for being a sniper. On the off chances that Wick himself absolutely has to use long firearms, he would stash them somewhere safe as a fallback in case things go wrong.
- As if it hadn't been demonstrated enough, mooks carrying longer firearms are very easily wrestled and disabled due to the lengths of their guns. By contrast, the handguns that Wick uses are small and compact, thus giving him much better mobility that he would need to take down big mobs of men with superior firepower.
- Handguns are more standardized and easier to find ammo for during a shootout, as shown during the shootout at Berrada's compound. Both Sofia and Wick use Glocks, as do most mobsters in the series, so ammo wouldn't be a concern for them no matter who they're up against.
- Zero and his apprentices operate similarly to the ninjas of old, who favor knives and blades due to the close-up nature of their job.
- The Schizo Tech makes more sense with the reveal of the Elder as the absolute authority. The Underworld's system is powerful but also really traditional. Like the gold coins and the Markers the administration side of the High Table is a relic of the old days that most higher ups might not want to update because of traditions. The business mentality feels also more like a feudal society than modern organized crime because almost everyone answers to the High Table and the High Table demands servitude more than money.
- At first it feels like convenient timing that Zero was just in time to save John from that mook but given how giddy he was as John made his way through the final glass room to fight him there is no coincidence in it: Zero has been watching John fighting the armored soldiers the whole time and probably loved it. Zero just wants to watch John do cool stunts and be the climatic battle at the end.
- The High Table's punishing of the Bowery King seems unfair, considering it was for the offense of aiding John Wick in assassinating a member of the High Table before he was excommunicado, despite Santino not being punished for contracting John in opening the seat up for him in the first place. But their motivation could be looked at from at least two ways:
- John's vendetta against Santino was personal, whereas his killing of Gianna was business, suggesting that the High Table is only touchable if someone puts a contract on them. This would seem like a bad way to run your organization, with aspiring claimants to the Table putting hits out on all its members, but considering the power wielded by them, anyone who fails at usurping the throne on their first attempt probably won't get another opportunity. Santino just happened to be the lucky one who had John Wick in his debt.
- Alternatively, considering the Bowery King's domain seems adjacent yet separated from the Continental and the High Table, they could be compared to a small independent kingdom and an immense empire, respectively, with the former having just enough influence and power to maintain sovereignty, but still having a healthy respect for the power of the latter. In turn, the High Table would not be able to steamroll over the Bowery and give it a new ruler without losing face unless they had a good enough reason. The King's aiding of John in killing one of their members, no matter how small, was probably the suitable enough pretense that was long-awaited by the High Table, particularly considering how defiant and dismissive the Bowery King is of them.
- Throughout all three films, the action has become more and more chaotic, choreographed, and exquisite in terms of John's actions. While of course this is a case of sequel escalation and adding flair to the action, it also has a possibly unimplied/intentioned storyline reason: John was in retirement just a week and a half earlier, and was therefore very rusty in his skills. Now that he has been for the course of 9 to 10 days waging an all out war, he has become the man who was feared in the underworld once again. Granted, the body count is due to more and more reinforcements and preparation for attacking him, but John himself doing all the stunts and physical actions such as his judo and weapon tricks such as tossing empty weapons at foes and fighting off high armored guards is all due to him finally getting back into fighting shape. If John in John Wick 1 had to deal with what was sent to him in the finale of John Wick 3 (even if he had the bullet proof suit he received in John Wick 2), he might have actually been defeated due to the fact he was still getting readjusted to his old job.
- If any more proof was needed, look no further than John's fight with Zero and Winston's last words in the movie. In the first film John had a reputation of being the boogeyman, the thing other monsters had nightmares about. Two movies later and he pulls Stealth Hi/Byes not once but twice, against someone else who's just as stealthy, in mid fight. And what does Winston say in regards to Wick's body is missing? Baba Yaga. Ladies and gentlemen, the boogeyman's back, and he's pissed.
- Early on in the film, two of the assassins hunting John are nondescript motorcycle-riders. Later on we also see one of Zero's shinobi trailing John to the theater. Zero will also mention to the Adjudicator that his students "have not been idle." Much later on, two more motorcycle assassins try to kill John on Zero's orders outside of the train station. The first pair that John killed early on were likely other students of Zero's who were trying to grab the bounty or the honor of taking John down while he was still wounded and fleeing.
- John uses a Reverse Grip when wielding a wakizashi (a single-edged Japanese short sword.) While this might partly be Rule of Cool, wielding a bladed weapon in a standard grip requires a different set of movements compared to fighting unarmed. The live edge remains close to your body which means you need to pay more attention so you don't accidentally cut your own limbs or head. It's quite possible John Wick isn't as practiced when it comes to these movements. However, using a sword in a reverse grip places the pointy end out of the way and allows John to utilize strikes and parries that he's already familiar with from unarmed combat, although it does nullify the reach advantage that a sword normally gives. Essentially, John turned his sword into a fancy baton.
- This is compounded by the fact that John is noticeably taller than anyone he uses a sword against, somewhat mitigating the reach disadvantage.
- The reason John Wick's current Dog is being well treated and respected is pretty obvious. The news of his return would have led to everyone learning why he did come back, because some dumb punk decide to kill his first dog, Daisy, and John went on a warpath. Everyone is keeping from pressing John's Berserk Button as best as possible.
- In this chapter it starts to become clear: many in the criminal underworld bear at least some smoldering resentment towards the High Table and their, shall we say, inconsistent application of the rules. The Table, not being idiots, are aware of this, hence them coming down hard on John Wick and anyone who could be considered as having assisted him in any way. Like any despot, the Table seeks to strangle a budding revolution in the cradle. . . and like any despot, their extreme methods only provoke the very revolution they were trying to quash. Winston is fine letting the Table do its thing so long as they let him do his, them butting into his "kingdom" only incentivizes him to actively oppose them. The Bowery King already seems to have a pretty low opinion of the Table, prepared to oppose them just for kicks, never mind the Table deciding to make it a matter of self-preservation. Sofia wants to keep her head down and not get involved, but when her hand is forced her loyalty is to her dogs and John more than to the Table. While there are many still following the commandments of the Table in killing John (though it's an open question how many are only in it for the potential payday), if this is a good cross-section of the criminal underworld as a whole, there are a significant percentage of those under the Table wholeheartedly willing to flip the damn thing over. John Wick was only the spark, the rallying figure, to shake loose discontentment that had been brewing, probably for decades prior.
- Zero's squad butchers assassins in the middle of the subway and nobody even so much as slows down to look at the corpses. This could mean one of two things: that either the Table's influences are known far and wide that incidents like these happen on a nearly daily basis, or the fact that these assassins' Stealth Hi/Bye game is so strong that nobody saw it coming, meaning you could be dead almost any second if they wanted you to, without anyone or anything noticing.
- That might be Brilliance, if y'all were to consider it. Being able to off someone without being detected is something the criminal underground in the John Wick universe would have mastered long before now, lest there not have been a High Table to start with.
- The taxi driver taking a gold coin to drive the dog to the Continental. John didn't plan on calling the taxi. He just jumped in one at random and knew that a portion of New York's taxi services is part of the High Table's network. How many services are a front to the High Table's dealing? How many aren't?
- Worth noting that there are three taxis onscreen at the time and John specifically chooses to get into the only one that is an older model. Given The Continental's preference for older technology, it's not outside the realm of possibility they would favor a similar method with their transportation services, or that John would be aware of that when he chose the cab.
- During various scenes deep inside The Continental such as the Adjudicator examining the corpse that John shot in the hotel, you can see Taxi parts strewn around that match the one John got into.
- The Director's training school and Sofia's Noodle Incident about her daughter draw a pretty bad picture for what happen to people's family when they can't quit like John. The High Table already asks for blood, fingers, and servitude; a first born is not something they will feel bad about taking as collateral.
- Which puts the Director's status as The Fagin in a more horrifying (and somewhat tragic) light, as how many of those orphans she brought up and trained, were actually orphans?
- Immediately after the motorcycle scene, John Wick crashes right at the doorstep of the Continental and then immediately places a hand on the steps, allowing himself to be saved from Zero by Charon. But Charon shows up literally out of nowhere in this scene, with the entrance to the Continental being closed and us hearing no sounds of either footsteps or the door in questionn opening, making it look like Charon teleported to the scene.
