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The Rewatchables ·

John Wick: Chapter 2

year 2017decade 10sdirector Chad Stahelskigenre Actiongenre Crimegenre Thrillergenre Neo-noir
host Bill Simmonshost Sean Fennesseyhost Chris Ryan
All 15 categories

Most Rewatchable Scene · 18:58

The subway concourse pursuit and knife fight with Common

The document could have been written without rewatching because the movie is so clearly centered around six scenes; the first is the chop-shop opener where John Wick gets his car back, one of the most intense openings for an action movie, including shooting the giant guy in the kneecaps instead of fighting him, and garages are liked in general; it is called essentially a four-way tie between action scenes.

After he kills Gianna he goes down to the nightclub and finds Common, with the 'you working?' exchange and the stare-down, then runs off the stage shooting people at close range, an action scene unlike any seen before; it is the first real gunplay since the garage was mostly beatings, the house music runs throughout, and the venue is a Roman ruin or outdoor palladium with hundreds of extras.

The Neil McCauley “A Book about Metals” Award for Best Line from the Movie · 55:43

"You have a beautiful home, John."

Lines written down: 'You have a beautiful home, John', a foreboding one; 'Rules. Without them, we live with the animals'; 'Mr. Wick. Do enjoy your party' from the sommelier (transcribed 'Somalia') after he walks out with the guns; and 'This rounds on me. Consider it professional courtesy'.

The film

John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017)

Directed by Chad Stahelski · Action

122 minutes

IMDb
Cast

Selected cast credits · Film reference

Keanu Reeves John Wick
Riccardo Scamarcio Santino D'Antonio
Claudia Gerini Gianna D'Antonio
Ian McShane Winston Scott
Ruby Rose Ares
Common Cassian
Laurence Fishburne the "Bowery King"
Lance Reddick Charon
Peter Stormare Abram Tarasov
Franco Nero Julius
John Leguizamo Aurelio
Bridget Moynahan Helen Wick

Everything from the episode

In the order the hosts got to it. Open a row for the discussion.

38:16

Casting What-Ifs

Ian McShane replaced Jason Isaacs as Winston in the first John Wick

Ian McShane replaced Jason Isaacs as Winston in the first John Wick

In the discussion (1)
Approx. transcript time · 00:38:16Read transcript
  • Only one could be found: Ian McShane replaced Jason Isaacs as Winston in John Wick 1 for reasons unknown; McShane, a longtime TV actor, is much preferred and called incredible, while Isaacs is on The OA and very good in Death of Stalin.
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41:05

Half-Assed Internet Research

Body count 116; Keanu trained three months in judo, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, marksmanship and driving and did 95% of the ...

Body count 116; Keanu trained three months in judo, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, marksmanship and driving and did 95% of the stunts; the Rome DJ is La Casovania (as transcribed), who scored both films; the back tattoo means fortune favors the brave; 'So I guess you have a choice' echoes the Matrix films; the dog is an American bully; Common has played a contract killer four times; the religious vocabulary; Winston's 11111 order matches JFK's executive order; the Bowery King as the Motel 6 to the Continental's five-star

In the discussion (6)
Approx. transcript time · 00:41:05Read transcript
  • The body count is put at 116, though it is unclear how anyone counts, since karate chops to the neck leave people down but not obviously dead; the working assumption is that everyone who comes into contact with him dies, which prompts a Game of Thrones aside about Jon Snow's Valyrian sword.
  • Keanu trained for three months in judo, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, marksmanship and driving and did 95% of the stunts; the DJ at the Rome party is La Casovania (as transcribed), a favorite who wrote music for both films; the Latin tattooed on his back, 'fortis fortuna adio vet' (as transcribed), means fortune favors the brave, and Keanu's 'So I guess you have a choice' to Fishburne echoes a constant theme of their Matrix trilogy, which one host is not in on.
  • The dog is an American bully, similar to the Staffordshire bull terrier; Common has played a contract killer four times, including Run All Night in 2015, Smoking Aces and Wanted.
  • The film is full of religious and biblical terminology: Santino means the little saint, there is a stabbing of the devil in the back, a descent into hell and an excommunicado, and the assassins play like a chivalrous Knights Templar brotherhood.
  • Winston's order of 11111 at the end is the same number as JFK's June 1963 executive order on obstructions of justice in Alabama, five months before his assassination, which leads to jokes about revealing who killed JFK on minute 48 of a John Wick pod and a request to finally do JFK, perhaps in season four.
  • The director explained the homeless network as a sub-world: if the Continental is the five-star where rich assassins go, there had to be a Motel 6, which became Fishburne's people.
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51:37

Picking Nits

Why Tarasov is left alive at the chop shop; the Commodore 64; the never-ending bullets and coins that never fall out;...

Why Tarasov is left alive at the chop shop; the Commodore 64; the never-ending bullets and coins that never fall out; the 'I'll kill them all' speech needed one more take; John Wick is bad at talking

In the discussion (7)
Approx. transcript time · 00:51:37Read transcript
  • Why did he not kill Tarasov at the beginning after killing everybody else in the chop shop, and what kind of honor is that, when he had just killed 39 people.
  • Using a Commodore 64 is shaky, since no 1999 computer would survive being hacked, though it felt purposeful: like the 69 Mustang, which was forgotten for what aged best, the film mixes cell phones with an out-of-time feeling to seem timeless.
  • A passion nitpick: he always has more bullets and cartridges in his pockets, then the bigger machine-gun magazines too, and nothing falls out when he rolls around, not even the gold coins, while a normal person's pants burst with wallet, phone and keys; the defense is that a tailored suit creates space where none exists, and a suit that is literally bulletproof could hold extra rounds.
  • Forgotten for what aged best: Wick uses dead people's guns instead of reloading during his killing barrage, and he may kill Santino with someone else's gun since he has no rounds left; the lesson is not to brag about duck fat.
  • The 'I'll kill them all' speech at the end wanted a little more, a fastball with one more take dialed up ten percent and perhaps another sentence about people coming at him his whole life; another thought the reading was great, and one host, seeing John Wick 3 that day, immediately wanted the third film when this one ended.
  • John Wick is good at many things but not talking; he has very few good lines, and 'I'm thinking I'm back' from the first film sounds cool but makes no sense, so he may be a little brain dead with assassin CTE.
  • Asked whether assassins can get CTE, the answer is that CTE does not exist in the world of John Wick. — Chris Ryan
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57:03

Probably Unanswerable Questions

Could normal people stay at the Continental? How many floors does it have? How much are the gold coins worth? Where d...

Could normal people stay at the Continental? How many floors does it have? How much are the gold coins worth? Where do you get a pencil that strong? How did John Wick get back to his house? Could Winston Wolfe have worked at the Continental?

In the discussion (6)
Approx. transcript time · 00:57:03Read transcript
  • Could normal people stay at the Continental, and would it be in the American Express fine hotels section with no dates available; it would drive you nuts not getting assassin-level service like a personal tailor; is it cash or a Continental credit card like Peter Luger's, and what is Continental Yelp like.
  • How many floors does the Continental have, 30 or 16, and are there layers of access by success, with a basement cordoned off for the most elite assassins and perhaps a penthouse nightclub.
  • Does one coin buy a stay, and how much are the gold coins worth; the director has said people are annoyed about this, that you do not explain the dollar bill, that they are a Cold War holdover without denominations and more of a membership card and identifier, approached realistically despite being absurd, which the hosts accept.
  • Has there ever been a stronger pencil than the ones he kills with; one host's son's biggest gripe was where to get a pencil that does not break on algebra homework yet survives a human skull.
  • How did John Wick get back to his house at the end: Uber, a 'lift' (as transcribed), or walking the earth, though walking from Manhattan to Long Island with a dog would take days; he is excommunicated with no cell phone and must avoid the Nassau County hoods, so possibly the guy from The Wire drove him, since he is at the house and liked the dog.
  • Winston versus Winston Wolfe, the two greatest movie Winstons: could Winston Wolfe have worked at the Continental, since they are basically the same character who knows all the information and all the rules; a McShane and Keitel trilogy is pitched, after a moment of confusion with Winston from Ghostbusters.
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