Is John Wick’s Kill-Count Too High?

Let me just preface this, John Wick is the protagonist of the John Wick Trilogy. He is a master assassin, nicknamed The Boogeyman, or Baba Yaga in Russian. Having lost his wife, dog, and car, the man is let’s just say a little vengeful… 

 

Kill Count Per Movie: 

John Wick 

77 kills

John Wick Chapter 2 

128 kills

John Wick Chapter 3 �" Parabellum 

94 kills 

I am not the best at math, but that equates to 299 kills throughout the franchise. And with a fourth movie rumoured to be coming soon, is that too many fatalities? 

 

Short answer: No, in fact it arguably could have been more...

 

Long answer: John Wick is a neo-noir action thriller. Violence is to be expected, if not encouraged in a movie such as this. John Wick, the character, not only is a very well-written character. But ultimately, he is written with very high stakes. At the commencement of the first chapter of the franchise, even whilst in retirement, John Wick is placed on this astronomically high pedestal. Afterall, he is The Boogeyman, or better translated the man you send to kill The Boogeyman. 

In the first chapter, John comes out of retirement after Iosef Tarasov, son of the Russian crime boss, Viggo Tarasov, kills John’s dog and steals his car. Viggo says to his son to get out of his sight as there is no escaping The Boogeyman. 

The second chapter follows the betrayal of Santino D'Antonio. Using an old blood oath, Santino blackmails John Wick into assassinating his sister, Gianna D'Antonio, who is the head of the Camorra crime family and a member of the High Table. After completing the hit, Santino mocks John by putting a tag of $7 million on his head. Winston �" the owner of the Continental Hotel, a neutral ground for assassins �" warns Santino that he has no idea what he has brought on himself by putting that hit on John. We see countless assassins attempt to kill John, a few admittedly get a couple shots or punches in, however all of which fail. Thus, with all the assassins in New York out for John’s head, his kill-count in the second film skyrockets. 

There is a nice parallel between the beginning of the second movie and two of the kills John acquires. Viggo Tarasov mentions to one of his men that John once killed two men in a bar with nothing but a pencil. Of which we see, in a rather graphic way, when John Wick impales a man’s brain on a pencil through his ear canal, and then severs another man’s spinal cord with the tip of a pencil. 

The writing circulating the John Wick character isn’t flawless, but it raises his stakes so high that the kill-count he collects during the franchise is more than acceptable. Many people have argued that the first movie’s kill count, 77, isn’t enough for the ruthless, vengeful John Wick. Which when compared to the second movie’s 128 kills, it does seem a bit miniscule. 

And just when you think it possibly couldn’t go any further… The stakes are taken up a notch. Chapter 3 follows the trajectory of John breaching the Continental’s rules when he killed Santino on its neutral grounds. Winston, the owner, doubles the tag on John’s head (to a whopping $14 million) for disrespecting his establishment and changes his hit status to excommunicado. With his contract going international, John Wick is left with no option but to protect himself, by any means necessary…

Now, I don’t know about you, but if I had nothing but vengeance coursing through my blood, having been stripped of my wife, house, car, and dog. And had a price tag of $14 million on my head, internationally, I think my kill-count would be pretty high as well.