You can't throw your weight around and abuse people without expecting some blowback. Almost every single conflict in the series is the result of someone using their power to get what they want, damn the consequences (usually kicking the dog, sometimes literally, in the process), only for someone else (usually John) to violently lash out in retaliation for being wronged. By the time of Chapter 4, most of John's allies are people who want nothing to do with him but help him anyway to get revenge in response to the Marquis's scorched-earth tactics against anyone associated with him. He also has a lot of allies who stand up to the High Table out of loyalty to family, to friendship, to the rules, or to personal debt.
Sometimes, it's just better to bite the figurative bullet and fulfill your obligations and bid your beneficiary "farewell". John blowing off Santino at the beginning of Chapter 2 leads to a snowball of complications that make life even more miserable for John. Alternatively, getting into debt with shady individuals who may breach a contract should be avoided in favor of people who at least honor agreements.
Broken Base: The expanding scope and influence of the assassin world with each sequel. While many viewers love its growth due to the world's intriguing origins and machinations as well as the endless Paranoia Fuel, locations, and obstacles it provides John, others prefer the more restricted and subdued presence of the assassin world portrayed in the first movie, with many believing that its borderline societal level of influence decreases the stakes and requires loads of Willing Suspension of Disbelief to accept.
With 22 Bullets, as each film features an Anti-Hero who tries to leave the underworld but who take a "beating" from a surprise attack and lose their dog to murder. Like John Wick, Charly Matei goes on his own rampage against those who wronged him. As 22 Bullets predates John Wick: Chapter 1, it might be enticing to see how they compare.
With Kill Bill. Both main characters go on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge after their lives get disturbed violently, with John Wick becoming enraged from a punk who unwittingly disrespects mementos from his late wife (especially killing his gifted dog), while Beatrix seeks revenge for the death of her unborn child and also wants out of the underworld life. With Chapter 4 featuring a combat chapter in Japan, the similarities became even more apparent.
With Max Payne. Makes sense since both franchises are neo-noir crime thrillers with middle-aged, world-weary protagonists, who both have lost their love ones, have racked up massive bad guy body counts thanks to their insane shooting skills, and face against large criminal conspiracies trying to kill them. Interestingly, both characters have used pain killers to overcome severe injuries and both kill the son of a New Jersey mob boss for reasons that tie into their late wives; Max can't stand women being violently attacked after his Wife's murder, while John utterly hates disrespect towards Helen Wick.
With The Terminator as John Wick has a similar premise but in reverse. The Implacable Man is our main character and the antagonists are the ones getting "terminated".
Memetic Mutation: Jokes about John butchering people with a pencil, alluding to Viggo saying he saw John kill three men in a bar with a pencil ("with a fucking pencil"). This only increased after the second movie actually showed him killing people with a pencil. The meme might replace the pencil with another mundane object like a book as shown in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum. The fourth continues this with John's friend and killer Caine also using a pencil in battle.
Misaimed Fandom: With how nigh-unstoppable John Wick is against his foes and how energetic the action sequences are, there is the risk of getting the idea that being professional assassin is cool and upscale. What helps this misconception is that the people who John fights are also contract killers and/or are unpleasant enough that it's hard to not root for John. However, the series makes it clear that John's friends, family and resources are becoming inaccessible due to John's Revenge Before Reason addiction causing a great amount of collateral damage. By the end of John's journey of revenge, he's essentially a sharply-dressed pauper.
To The Matrix naturally, with a nearly-unstoppable main character who is rarely matched in combat and portrayed by Keanu Reeves. The films even have nods to this by repeating one liners from the series and show-casing actors from those films in these, such as Morpheus and the Key-Maker.
To the Max Payne video game series but on film, even with Max Payne already having its own film adaptation. Both feature gun fighters who tried to start a family, but this gets tragically cut short. Both end up fighting Russian Mob bosses, Italian Mafia bosses, get tangled up in an ancient conspiracy, have to flee the USA after impulsively killing a key Mafia figure, and rack up an incredible body count. Even better, both characters have used pain killers to restore their vitality and keep fighting, and go through lots of pain.
This movie also makes a nice twist on The Punisher with an underworld avenger instead of a vigilante fighting on in remembrance of his family. John Wick ends up bringing down two crime family enterprises, one being weakened due to losing two key figures.
Was Marcus always on John's side? Or was he fully prepared to go through with killing John in his sleep but had second thoughts and switched sides at the last second?
Did Winston give John the tip about Viggo at the end as a favor to his old friend? Or was it because Viggo offered extra money for any assassins willing to violate the rules of the Continental and kill John while he was on their grounds? Or both?
Did Viggo kill Marcus to taunt John Wick into killing him as a form of Suicide by Assassin after he went mad due to grief over his son's death?
Anti-Climax Boss: Iosef doesn't even put up a fight, going down with a bullet to the gut and then a single point-blank bullet to the head, which fits with his characterization. Played with in that he turns into a Disc-One Final Boss; Viggo kills Marcus in retaliation and puts up far more of a fight when John comes after him.
Award Snub: Quite a few fans were disappointed that Keanu Reeves didn't get recognized by major award shows for his role as John Wick, given this was not only a major highlight in his acting career but also proved that he could genuinely portray a terrifying manifestation of Tranquil Fury.
"Killing Strangers", by Marilyn Manson. It just totally fits the tone of the film. Also plays whenever Marcus shows up, as a hint to his true allegiance.
Genre Turning Point: Appropriate, given the cast and crew's relationship with The Matrix, this film revitalized the popularity of more grounded action sequences, tight stuntwork and clean camera work after excessive Wire Fu, Bullet Time and Jitter Cam in prior films. Similar to The Bourne Identity rethinking the spy thriller, this film evolved the crime thriller.
Seeing John break down after reading the note from his late wife that was attached on Daisy's dog cage was already sad. But once you find out everything Keanu Reeves has actually been through in his life, this scene becomes even more heartbreaking.
Just how accurate Winston's words after asking John if he'd truly thought hard about coming back end up being in the sequels.
Winston: You got out once. You dip so much as a pinky back into this pond, you may well find something reaches out and drags you back into its depths.
He Really Can Act: As mentioned before, Keanu Reeves uses his understated delivery to convincingly portray a terrifying manifestation of Tranquil Fury. Not to mention the scene where he progressively broke down in tears as John read his late wife's letter explaining the newly arrived puppy as well as his Badass Boast when Viggo captures him.
Iron Woobie: John Wick in spades. The man loses his wife to an illness, then the dog she gave him before her death to a spoiled brat, and forcing him to go back into the life he so desperately left behind to be happy with Helen. By the time the first movie ends, he just looks so tired.
Love to Hate: Iosef is a very unpleasant human being, but damn if he isn't entertaining to watch.
Magnificent Bastard: Marcus is the skilled mentor of John Wick himself, having worked as a hired assassin for decades to achieve a reputation almost as notable as John's. Approached by Viggo Tarasov with an offer to kill John, Marcus feigns acceptance of the contract hit, only to use Viggo's resources against him as Marcus stalks John to protect him from Viggo's other goons. Marcus uses his expert sniping skills to alert John to other assassins and even flat-out kill thugs that have John on the ropes. Marcus further proves his loyalty to John by facing vicious torture from Viggo with snark and resolve. Even when his death by Viggo's torture is at hand, Marcus musters up enough strength to kill several of Viggo's men and force Viggo to gun him down, Marcus using his last words to emphasize that he refuses to go out on any terms but his own.
Memetic Badass: According to the internet, it doesn’t matter how ridiculously overpowered you are: kill John Wick’s dog and he will murder you and make it look cool.
Variations of the "Yeah, I'm thinking I'm back!" phrase became popular amongst the movie fanbase.
"He was the one you sent to kill the fucking boogeyman" is popular for describing John due to its conciseness and sheer badassery.
More broadly, jokes about not messing with John's dogs. Animal lovers also like to joke that his response to his dog's death was perfectly reasonable, or put his picture in response to stories of animal cruelty.
Viggo's "....oh." when told his son killed John's dog, simply for how it sums up everyone's reaction to John. The entire phone call scene often gets modified in response to someone deeply screwing up.
Viggo's description of John as "a man of focus, commitment, and sheer fucking will", which has sometimes been appropriated to describe various other characters who are The Determinator.
While relatively minor compared to many examples of this trope, killing John's dog put Iosef firmly in the "irredeemable villain" category, at least in John's mind. Ironically, Iosef doesn't do much besides this one evil act since most of the time, he just lazes about while drinking, smoking, chasing girls, and playing video games. As his father and Aurelio spell out to him, it's not what he did, it's who he did it to. His arrogance and ignorance get to be too much for any knowledgeable person in The Mafiya to bear, just with the one act of offending Wick, who helped build his family's organization.
Ms. Perkins crosses it by killing Harry. Breaking The Continental's rules by going after John there was definitely a dick move, but murdering a man who's already given his word not to harm you, when you could have easily disabled him and escaped, or even simply waited for him to leave (he explicitly states he's leaving her tied up for housekeeping to find), falls squarely into this.
One can almost, almost sympathize with Viggo for trying to get John to back down, since he didn't pick the fight to start with. Once he murders Marcus, though, there's no going back.
The premise of a puppy being the Freudian Excuse for a Roaring Rampage of Revenge may sound ridiculous to some, a sentiment that's even shared In-Universe by several characters like Viggo. Doesn't stop people from rooting for John though, especially animal lovers. Several fans even consider it as a more refreshing excuse compared to dead family members or loved ones.
Viggo's tale of John Wick killing 3 men in a bar with a pencil initially comes off sounding as utterly ludicrous. However, John Wick quickly proves himself to be capable of doing such a thing and indeed he does kill 2 men with pencils in John Wick: Chapter 2, thus making John Wick utterly terrifying and awesome in the aforementioned scene.
Nightmare Retardant: In the setup menu of DVD release (at least the release included in the ''Chapter 1 - 3'- box set) is a background image of John holding a handgun gangster-style while kneeling over a corpse and presumably looking over at Iosef and John having a nonchalant expression expression like he's saying "Found your hiding spot!" and not taking the situation seriously. Quite a contrast with how the scene actually plays out in the film.
Officer Jimmy. He's onscreen for barely half a minute and says less than twenty words, but he gets one of the funniest scenes in the movie. Unlike many other characters, he also immediately knows to leave John alone, making him a standout Only Sane Man.
Kevin Nash as Francis, the Red Circle doorman who has a friendly familiarity with John and is one of the only people other than Officer Jimmy who's smart enough to take the night off when the Bogeyman comes a-knockin'.
Addy the genuinely Nice Girl bartender at the Continental who's practically bubbling with joy when she sees John again.
Periphery Demographic: The film quickly became popular with firearm enthusiasts, thanks to averting many unrealisticgunplaytropes while still offering stylized action. Later films in the series would fully embrace this, having actors train with combat veterans and featuring Product Placement from firearm manufacturers and tactical outfitters.
Daisy's death and John crying over Daisy's dead body. This scene shatters any idea that John can have a peaceful life and starts his Roaring Rampage of Revenge for the rest of the film.
Viggo laying it out plainly for Iosef just who John is as a final cap on a sequence establishing John's reputation before he's even gotten to work. The most memorable and highly quoted parts of this scene are likely Viggo describing John as not the boogeyman but "the one you sent to kill the fuckin' boogeyman," and his statement that John's capable of killing three men with a pencil.
The Red Circle fight. It shows how deadly John is (about a third of his body count comes from this one scene), and the use of color and music often prompts comparisons to the club scene from Collateral (itself a Signature Scene for that movie).
John's monologue to Viggo about what Daisy, and Iosef's killing of Daisy, meant to him, up to and including the now-popular line "I'm thinkin' I'm back!"
Marcus is John Wick's mentor; he's the guy who taught him how to "kill the boogeyman." Someone this cool dies just before the climax so John can fight Viggo alone.
Kirill, the henchman of Viggo who's both smart enough to be wary of John and tough enough to survive multiple encounters with him, even winning their first fight. He did have a good run in the film, but it still sucks to see him go.
Complete Monster: "Calamity" is a half-feral assassin who, in stark contrast to other assassins employed by the Continental, relishes in deliberately targeting innocent lives for pleasure. Calamity blew up an entire village and slaughtered dozens for the sake of attempting to kill a young John Wick, and is freed from custody years later where she proceeds to murder the people who break her out and escapes to old habits. Calamity fires upon populated buildings to lure John out while cackling, taking innocents hostage and only hesitating on murdering her own gang members for fun simply because "it would be over too soon" that way.
This version of John Wick proves to be just as dangerous a Combat Pragmatist as his film counterpart. Traveling to Texas to kill the Three Bills, John ambushes one of them while he's trying to kill Charon, killing his target and neutralizing the others non-lethally before leaving them at Charon's mercy. John then convinces the Bills' boss Maria to help him play the other two against each other. John tricks the Bill' men into fighting one another before killing off the rest and sending the Bills on the run. When the Bills release the psychopathic Calamity to kill him, John quickly acquires guns from their men and confronts them. When Calamity backs him into a corner by taking hostages, John calls Maria, agreeing to work for her in exchange for her help which allows him to kill Calamity and the Bills.
Maria is a charming Russian gangster working out of Texas. When John Wick starts attacking a group of her associates called the Three Bills, Maria starts scheming to make John work for her as a hitman. To this end, she allows John to lead the Bills into a trap and then saves them in exchange for markers. She then uses the markers to force them to release the violent Calamity from prison in order to kill John. When Calamity backs John into a corner by taking hostages, Maria saves the hostages, allowing John to kill Calamity and the Bills in exchange for him working for her.
that Grand Moff Tarkin would have been convinced to Abandon Ship in A New Hope if he'd been told that John Wick's dog was on Alderaan.