This is a look at the Red Circle Fight Sequence in John Wick: Chapter One. There are five interior locations in which the action takes place (changeroom, bathhouse, dancefloor, VIP room, and mezzanine) with several shoot outs and nine significant hand-to-hand fight sequences. I have chosen to focus on two locations: the dance floor scene followed by the VIP room. The dance floor sequence is 38 seconds, and the VIP room sequence is 44 seconds long. The dance floor has 98-110 shots that average 2.9 seconds in shot length. The VIP room has 111-124 shots that average 3.1 seconds in shot length. In the dance floor scene, there is no hand-to-hand combat just gun fire, but in the VIP room there is a mixture of hand to hand with gun fire combat (Gun fu and Gun jitsu). John Wick films are full of “fight scenes that play with proximity, range, and movement across multiple axes, using all available dimensions of space to showcase multiple participants, weapons, and levels. This renders the fight both dance-like and game-like.” (Lisa Coulthard 2022) These scenes are linked to a particular room in the building in which the fight scenes are taking place. This is like a video game which uses levels that a player must move into to defeat enemies. In a video game the move levels you complete, the more your enemies are harder to defeat, and it takes more skill and action as a player to overcome them. In the two scenes, the intensity of the fighting increases as John moves up the levels and the action sequences become faster paced, more varied in techniques and more choreographed.
John Wick in the dance floor scene chases his prey, Ioseph, in a slow, methodical fashion. The camera shots go back and forth from Wick’s smooth, slow-motion and slickly edited shots to Ioseph’s jerky or shaky shots on the floor. Wick is strutting comfortably in a fancy black dress suit with a white shirt. In contrast, Ioseph is half naked in a white towel and he is stumbling and falling in the crowd, pushing people in Wick’s direction so he can shield himself. The crowd seems to be oblivious to what is occurring, and they don’t react to the gunshots and the death of the two people in the scene, which makes the scene a bit surreal. In the background of the scene, you hear throbbing beats which are in synch with Wick’s strutting and behind Wick you see a LED black and white spiral. This also brings out the feeling of surrealism and the thought that Wick is like a machine.
There is a definite transition to the VIP room. Here the lighting is harsher, which brings out the white, red and black color scheme of the room. There is a lot of leather seating in the room, dark pillars and fancy dressed waiters and patrons, which makes it more like an obstacle course for Wick. The music gets more up-tempo and now Wick kills 10 people. Now John Wick is in full video game mode. The camera shots go from third to first person perspectives or frontal and rear camera positions: this change in perspective is typical of a combat video game. Wick reloads his gun mid way through the scene. This break in sequence has two purposes: to give a pause of dramatic effect and to hype up the final part of the scene. Wick does a lot of Gun fu and Gun jitsu. This allows the character to get very close to his victims or opponents, which makes if feel more personal. It lets the character also show off his fighting skills and the music attached to the action is compared to a musical number. In the final part of the scene John is fighting against the head bodyguard, Krill who is like a video game “Boss”. Wick loses the battle, gets shot, and Krill picks John up and throws him over the VIP railing down onto the dance floor. The moment John gets thrown down two floors, the music stops and there is a huge thud sound by John’s body falling. John is frozen for a moment, and a black and white spotlight is put on the character. This ties back into the video game theme. In a video game, when a player is defeated, the music stops and often the “game over” wording is completely white against a black background. Often a spotlight will be focused on the beaten player. John Wick is presented in the same way as a classic video game ending.
John Wick is a very successful movie franchise, with four chapters having been made so far. The first chapter was made in 2014 and the most recent chapter is March of 2023. These films intentionally use the word “chapters” to compare the movies to “classical epics” like Homer’s Iliad. Epics, in one article by Ann C. Hall have “certain characteristics”: The hero is of imposing stature, he has superhuman courage, and a style of “sustained elevation”, or fancy speech, is used throughout the telling of the story. (Hall 2022). Ann C. Hall also explains that epics are violent because “all art- fine and popular- relies on violence.” John in the film fits this definition as an assassin who belongs to a very violent world. He is good at his job and when he is wronged, he fights for vengeance. This film becomes a modern version of an epic, with a video game look. Since classical times, violence has been a big part of storytelling. John Wick is no different. The thing is Homer’s books were read and you had to use your imagination. Now, with the movie experience, nothing is left to the imagination.
Bibliography
Hall, Ann C. 2022. “John Wick: Keanu Reeves’s Epic Adventure.” Heroism science: Vol. 7: Iss. 2, Article 4 1-19.
Lisa Coulthard, Lindsay Steenberg, Caitlin G. Watt, Stephen Watt. 2022. The worlds of John Wick : the year’s work at the Continental Hotel. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Alexandr Popov
Computer games use a lot of cinematography and effects. Some of the good ones try to achieve immersion, but the best ones also try to make it mind-blowing!
You are right; then you are compelling John Wick and computer games, and not without reason. At least many people are still waiting for a good game about the films.
Your comments about game-like progression during the film are very clear, and I can bet that I, as a gamer, felt it too during the watch. You talked about the boss-intro cliche, the level changes, etc.
As much as I sympathize with the text and the comparison you told us about, as much I want to show the points I would improve in the text.
1. Reread the text and fix some minor mistakes (they are not critical; I found only a few).
2. Provide a source on the intersection of video games and cinematography and how one influences another—or at least how John Wick is now represented outside the cinema.
3. Research why game developers use cliches in their action games and how escalating the difficulty influences player’s emotions. Compare that to the cinema.