- 5/10/2025
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00You're like, okay, I don't, I think people are, like, if they see, they're going to want to know when he's going to, like, start killing people.
00:10We were trying to hold on to the script so tight that I think we fought everybody for the first four or five weeks.
00:14It's sometimes harder when you're like, no, but this is the way I saw it, and I just need to see it that way until I don't see it that way, then I can, you know, and I'm like, I've already forgotten about that way, because this way is already so cool.
00:24Basil, he got mad at us for being so depressed. He's like, what the fuck are you guys doing?
00:30Like, get to work. We're like, well, it's terrible. We failed. He's like, that's your assembly. Like, now you've got to go make the movie, guys.
00:36Like, you've got 20 weeks. Hurry up. We're going to go. We're like, oh, I guess this is directing, huh?
00:43You know, they had to figure out the film and the cut, and then the battles that you have to fight with the show business part of it.
00:48You know, what do other people think of the movie that you thought you made?
00:52There's too much action. No, there's enough action. You can't really kill the dog. Wait, what? What's the ending? The ending doesn't work. Oh, we got to redo that.
01:00And I'm sure they had a lot of, you know, is this fucking terrible?
01:05We kind of found the movie very, very slowly. It was very slow. But yeah, we were panicked.
01:11You know, at the time, remember, it was all about fast editing and shaky cam and all that stuff, and we didn't have a single shaky cam.
01:16Our stuff was very slow and with no VFX. Yeah, we thought the movie was terrible.
01:22Everybody beat Keanu. Keanu and Basil were just like, no, just keep hammering, keep going. We'll see you in a couple weeks.
01:26Part of it is like your baby, you know? It's the art you created, and you're really into it, and you're excited.
01:32But then you're feeling, like, self-conscious about, is this moment going to be cheesy, and are people going to like it?
01:38And I know I like it, but I've got to put it out in the world, and it's all of that confidence and insecurity colliding.
01:47I got to believe myself, but I also got to, like, deliver this to an audience, and it's got to work.
01:51We preview the movie for the first time, and the audience didn't know what to make of the movie.
01:55They're like, what is this? It's like Keanu depressed and crying, and what is happening here?
02:00It's supposed to be an action movie.
02:02And I'll never forget, it was the most important moment in the entire Wix franchise history,
02:06where Michael Nyquist calls John Languizamo.
02:08Aurelio speaking.
02:09And says,
02:10I heard you struck my son.
02:11And John says,
02:12Yes, sir, I did, because he stole John Wick's car, sir, and, uh, killed his dog.
02:18And Michael Nyquist just goes,
02:21Oh.
02:22And the entire audience laughed.
02:24Okay, we have them.
02:25It's the greatest performance ever in a movie where someone says,
02:31Oh.
02:32And I realized, okay, they finally got it.
02:35We're supposed to have fun.
02:36This movie is crazy.
02:38And from that moment on, it played great.
02:40I remember the first screening, they give you these little questionnaires to fill out,
02:43and the first question was, like, do you think the killing of the dog justifies all this death?
02:48Then we divide it up by demographics.
02:50And I remember the men were only on board at about 60%.
02:53But, like, 98% of the women were, like, kill them all.
02:57Because they knew it was not about a dog.
03:08We had a really cool movie.
03:10We had a movie that I think we're all, like,
03:12Boy, there's, like, a world there that we never realized.
03:14And Ian McShane and Lance Reddick really popped.
03:16And Willem Dafoe was just cool.
03:18We pulled it off.
03:19And we should have a number of domestic studio offers because this movie really works.
03:24And then we started to screen it for the studios, and everybody passed.
03:30Literally, everybody passed.
03:31We didn't sell it.
03:32Like, nobody wants it.
03:33Like, this is better than so many movies that I've been asked to fix.
03:38It was heartbreaking.
03:40I misread the marketplace, and I put these people in a really tough spot because I advocated making this movie and put this movie together that no one will ever see.
03:49But someone at Lionsgate said, you know what?
03:52Fuck it.
03:53We might as well take the domestic because we've already got the territories for international.
03:59There was a separation between church and state at Lionsgate at the time.
04:01There was a domestic piece and the foreign piece.
04:04Lionsgate had only sold the film foreign.
04:07And so Lionsgate bought it, but for no MG, for zero dollars, which is, you know, not a great deal.
04:13I'm like, okay, that's better than nothing.
04:15They're not believing in it.
04:16They're not guaranteeing us theaters.
04:17But then out of nowhere, their head of marketing sends this trailer that is awesome.
04:27And he's like, I could sell this thing.
04:29This feels like a Lionsgate movie.
04:31You working again?
04:32No, I'm just sorting some stuff out.
04:33You know, let's figure out how to do this movie, and we are going to do a wide release.
04:36And then something else happened, which was like a miracle, but there was a slot open in October.
04:41A movie fell out.
04:42There was this wide release action movie called Kingsman.
04:45And for whatever reason, they have moved the date to next spring.
04:50There's opening here in October.
04:53Let's go for it.
04:54Then we were like, okay, well, we need to somehow let people know about this movie that's about to come out in two months.
05:00And so the marketing team says, you know what?
05:02We could premiere it at the Fantastic Fest Film Festival in Austin.
05:07And that would be like a week or two before our opening weekend.
05:10We've worked on so many big action movies before, and we've mentored under a lot of great directors.
05:15And it's been, it's really incredible to get a chance to, like, show people what we can do storytelling-wise and action-wise.
05:22We show the movie, blow the roof off the place.
05:27People freak out.
05:28Twitter's face goes nuts.
05:29Fanboys went apeshit for it.
05:31They love it.
05:32Then all of a sudden, reviews start coming in.
05:35Reviews are fantastic.
05:37Everyone's saying, this is not just a typical action movie.
05:40This is inspiring.
05:42I was more surprised that nobody wanted it in that buyer screening than I was when we showed it for the fanboys, who I kind of deep down knew would like it, because I'm one of them.
05:55And so one minute, we didn't even really have a theatrical release.
05:59It was going to just go straight to video.
06:01And the next minute, it's like 1,200 screens.
06:03It's pretty awesome.
06:04It was a huge win for all of us.
06:07Huge.
06:08But there was one thing about that first movie that I was so happy for.
06:11It reminded the audience why they love Keanu.
06:14And it reminded them that he was a movie star.
06:16People keep asking if I'm back.
06:20Yeah, I'm thinking I'm back.
06:23And now you have an opportunity for a sequel.
06:26But if we make John Wick 2 and it comes out in six years, it doesn't have the same value in the audience.
06:35I knew at this moment in time, we cannot slow down with the idea of if we're making a John Wick 2.
06:42We couldn't come up with an idea.
06:44And Chad and I were attached to this other project that I was really falling in love with, The Coldest City, which is now called Atomic Blonde.
06:52And I thought we could do it first together.
06:55And I don't know, Chad felt like he really wanted to do Wick 2 next.
06:59And part of me was like, I want to do Wick 2.
07:02But I know there's nobody that could hire that could do Wick 2.
07:07We just, it was such a unique thing that we created together.
07:10It was either Chad or me or nobody.
07:13Like, who are they going to hire to do Wick?
07:15And I'm like, we have time to do Wick.
07:17This has Charlize.
07:18It's ready to go.
07:19And we can go make another movie, you know, and come back and make Wick 2 when we have a great idea.
07:25And he was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, for a while.
07:29And then he started at Cold Feet.
07:30And I think he really wanted to stay in the Wick world.
07:32And he, and although we didn't have a script, he's like, I think he really wanted me to stay too.
07:37I think Dave wanted to direct on his own.
07:39We all want to direct on our own.
07:40That's directing.
07:41We all want to be on our own.
07:41The co-directing thing, if we did three films together like that, yeah, we would have done three films together like that.
07:46Long and short of it, I just went to Chad and I said, I want to direct Cold the City.
07:53And he's like, Keanu's got a window.
07:54I'm doing it this at the same time.
07:56So you got to choose.
07:56And I'm like, Cold the City.
07:59I was like, what?
08:01You're going to do that.
08:02You're going to leave a franchise behind.
08:03I think he felt like that.
08:05I think he probably said those words.
08:08It was a big blow.
08:09It was, it was like, oh my God.
08:12At the time, I was fucking furious.
08:13I was like, are you out of your mind?
08:16Like, this is franchise.
08:18Like, we're the luckiest people in the world.
08:19What are you doing?
08:20It was very dramatic.
08:21And that was the straw.
08:22Like, that was like, okay, to me, you sort of felt like people became Team Dave or Team Chad.
08:27It's not like Chad ever said, don't work with Dave.
08:30Dave was still a very integral part of who we all were.
08:34Because to us, he was Dave.
08:36No matter what he was to Chad.
08:37When he left, it was more just like, oh man, I miss Uncle Dave.
08:41He was the cool one.
08:42So yeah, you feel a little bit like, is it me?
08:45Is it them?
08:46Is it that?
08:46You know?
08:46Felt like I was an asshole.
08:49Like, you know, of course.
08:51Like, no one just leaves for no reason.
08:53Your ego says it's them.
08:55But hopefully your brain says it's you.
08:57You kind of, maybe it's something in the middle.
08:58Up to that point, they just went their separate ways.
09:00They ran a business together.
09:02And they were very close friends.
09:03But being in the same creative cockpit, I think it was too much for Dave.
09:08And I think Dave was like, I want to go do my own shit.
09:11That made sense to me.
09:14You know?
09:15I never had like, oh, Dave's not going to do it?
09:18That was like, oh yeah, right.
09:20You're both directors.
09:22And one's going to go do that.
09:25And another one's going to do this.
09:26I was just glad Chad said, yeah, let's do it.
09:31Because if he hadn't have said that, I don't know what would have happened.
09:35I don't know.
09:36I know you called for John Wick 2.
09:38Oh yeah, do you want to do it?
09:39Do you want to do it?
09:39I'm like, yeah, yeah, what are you thinking?
09:40He's like, look, all I know is we just got to know why we're going to do it again.
09:44Yeah.
09:44But we didn't have a script.
09:45We didn't have any ideas.
09:46We really didn't know why the first movie worked.
09:50I know it sounds dopey to say, but it's not a science, right?
09:53They came back and said, so you guys think you're pretty clever.
09:55Let's see what you got for John Wick 2.
09:56I know, right?
09:58Usually when people talked about John Wick 1, they're like, oh yeah, the dog.
10:02I mean, jeez, that was great.
10:03And we're like, fuck, we don't have a dog anymore.
10:04What are you going to do?
10:05Are you going to kill the dog again?
10:06Kill a cat?
10:07Kill the parakeet?
10:08What are we doing?
10:09It would have been laughable if we did it again.
10:11And so we're like, well, what, fuck, what are we going to do here?
10:14And so creatively, it was a big challenge about how do we emotionally connect the audience to what's going on.
10:19We kind of killed ourselves in the second one because we didn't want it to be John Wick 1 and 2 and done.
10:26When you think of franchises that get to 3 and 4 beyond, they did the sequel right.
10:30A movie is not a franchise until you've made a second movie and the second movie worked, right?
10:37Once you have two movies work, now you have a franchise.
10:41That was probably the most stressful.
10:43It's like, oh, did we get lucky or were we good?
10:46We went through, I want to say, 100 ideas, massive universe builds, Nigerian mob, the triad, any number of iterations.
10:55It's not like we talk about it, hand the script off to a writer and then, see, in six months, like, Keanu's writing, like, out of the blue, he'll text me a scene and then I'll have a set piece and then he'll text me, hey, I was thinking John Wick 1 and his, like, two pages of dialogue.
11:09We don't know where to put it yet, but we know it's a scene.
11:11Yeah, you know, I write for Winston, I write for the Bowery King, I write for John, I'll write scenes, you know, I'll send pitches of scenes.
11:20Full scenes, but they all have, like, we want this to say, the theme is this.
11:23Yeah, right.
11:24The scene should be about this and then, how do we get there?
11:27It comes together in the most haphazard way and it's kind of like that for, like, six months of just, we don't know, we don't know.
11:33But the first one, it was just a handful of people in the trenches.
11:36And the second one, it was a thousand people in the command center.
11:39And the third one, you're just like, what in the hell?
11:43But that was the hardest job I've ever had, was John Wick 2.
11:46No one gets out and comes back without repercussions.
11:53There were two things that broke the dam on the development.
11:56One was the marker and then the idea of, like, we wanted to go to Rome.
11:59I remember we talked a couple times going, what if there's a continental in every city?
12:06Yeah.
12:06I said, where do you want to go?
12:07And you're like, well, where's one of the old, what's cool?
12:09Rome.
12:09Okay.
12:10And then, like, we're like, well, how does he get called back in?
12:12Well, he's got to have a marker.
12:14Somebody's got to have a marker.
12:15Marker, I think it was Derek.
12:17Derek, no, Derek came up with the marker.
12:19And then Derek and I sat down and went, well, what if the marker is like a check?
12:22Yeah.
12:23You can buy something, you trade it with it.
12:26If you don't do this, you know the consequences.
12:31I'm not that guy anymore.
12:37You're always that guy, John.
12:40You give somebody a marker, you have to honor it.
12:43Otherwise, you risk being on the open market.
12:46It's a whole arcane world of its own.
12:48Market?
12:49It's wonderful bullshit, you know?
12:51Wonderful.
12:51Adios, Antio.
12:53We're kind of all under the table in this weird, twisted world.
12:57Yeah, I mean, it's kind of like the development of it, right?
12:59I mean, the high table was introduced in the second one as well.
13:02Number two is where we really kind of found our feet, I think.
13:05Yeah.
13:06With the whole world.
13:06The genre of world that they would become.
13:09When you're trying to do new or fresh or sell an idea, a picture's worth a thousand words.
13:14So I will usually storyboard a scene before I write a scene.
13:17The thing about working with Chad is kind of like working on a college film with your buddies.
13:20And you got to spend most of your time watching kung fu movies and anime together.
13:24And then all of a sudden you got to do a project.
13:26So it's kind of how it was because we would geek out about the same things.
13:30Todd is part of my inner circle creatively.
13:32He's someone I like to riff with, not just about visuals, but about story, arcs, characters.
13:38On top of that, he's incredibly gifted with a great eye with perspective.
13:42They throw some ideas at me, I throw some back at them, bounce them off the writer, take
13:46those ideas, put those in the script.
13:48I'll tweak, he'll tweak, go back and around and around and around and around and around
13:52and it won't stop till the day we shoot.
13:54It helps everyone's imagination see the scale of what you're trying to do, the depth, the
13:58color, the pattern, the framing.
13:59It was always about getting into the psychology of John Wick, what kind of character he is,
14:04what visually signifies who this guy is and what makes him different.
14:08This is very much noir filtered through kind of a digital MTV aesthetic.
14:13We kind of made the decision, like, what do we love?
14:15And we wrote it up on the, we love Wu Jawa films, we love Chambara films, we love Westerns,
14:19we love John Ford, we love Sergi Leone, we love Bernardo Bertolucci, we love Tarkovsky,
14:23we love Wong Kar Wai, we love Zangy Mo, you know, Kira Kurosawa, we love Steven Spielberg,
14:29all these great directors of action at the time or storytelling.
14:33And we just went, well, fuck it, we're just going to combine everything we love and build
14:37our own franchise.
14:38I think one of the best things about John Wick is it wasn't an existing IP already.
14:42Yeah.
14:42You know, so there was no rules.
14:46We could make, we could steer John Wick wherever we wanted.
14:48Yeah, we could do whatever we wanted.
14:49We're like, I don't know, is he that guy?
14:51Sure, he's that guy, he loves Mustangs, he's that guy.
14:54Is he this guy, does he like, he's that guy, like, he speaks all these languages.
14:57Good on scene.
14:58It's like every movie we could reinvent him a little bit.
15:00I know, I love it.
15:03All the Wick movies are very, very difficult to shoot.
15:10None of them are easy.
15:11At all.
15:12At all.
15:13But two was hard, but I think we were all like, do you believe this shit?
15:17We're here again.
15:18This is incredible.
15:19John Wick, chapter two, like I never left.
15:21And Keanu was just so happy.
15:24He starts working out and training four or five months before he starts shooting.
15:27And I don't mean like every couple of days.
15:29I mean like five, six days a week.
15:31It's a full-time job for him.
15:32But for Keanu, it's where he's the happiest.
15:35Right back.
15:36Okay, okay, okay.
15:38Go again.
15:39I think you like to have, I mean, I like it too when John Wick suffers, but I think you like it when Reeves suffers too.
15:45Um, not going to say no.
15:50When you see Keanu in pain on screen, it's probably for real.
15:54Bad knee.
15:56Bad knee.
15:58His knee doesn't work.
15:59His right shoulder doesn't work.
16:01And his neck has a fusion.
16:03So when you see John Wick limping, that's Keanu limping.
16:09Chad told Keanu early on, I'm going to push you past your comfort zone.
16:14And Keanu was like, do it.
16:15Now, on one and two, it was kind of healthy.
16:18On three and four, it was becoming like almost barbaric.
16:20But Keanu would never, ever, ever, ever, ever in a million years tap out.
16:25Keanu's work ethic and training regimen that he wants to do for these movies is just really impressive.
16:35First thing you see Keanu walk on set, you barely move.
16:38He's got his head down.
16:39He's just looks like he's been beat to shit for the last two months because he has.
16:44Um, I guess we can start here.
16:48And then there.
16:50And then we add, this is fun.
16:53That one's not bad.
16:55Got a little rug burn.
16:57Yeah.
16:57You already got the job.
16:58Right there.
16:59Got a little bit there.
17:00Action style.
17:03John Wick.
17:05For Wick 1, it was really kind of starting from ground zero.
17:09Building up from nothing.
17:13It wasn't going to be the typical punch kick.
17:15It was going to be more gritty, hard style, messy.
17:18So we had to kind of beat on him a little bit, get him used to contact.
17:24You know, just grabbing onto one of the guys and pulling him in.
17:26That was just a drill.
17:28He would just do that for 20, 30 minutes.
17:30And then pull him in, step.
17:32Pull him in, step.
17:33Woo.
17:33And we sit there and we do rolls for 15 minutes and then break falls for another 15 minutes.
17:41Like, that alone is taxing on anybody.
17:44I was going to have an ice bat.
17:46I was going to have an ice bat.
17:48Ice bat.
17:49I had an ice bat.
17:51I ain't no taking enough.
17:53Ice bat.
17:54In the training room, I got so used to four months of him collapsing on the ground, coughing for 10 minutes straight.
18:04He sounds like he's going to die between every take of rehearsal.
18:08I've seen him go straight to the bathroom.
18:10Like, he's done that.
18:12He's definitely barfed during training.
18:14He would go in the bathroom, come back out, just white-faced, and just be like,
18:19All right, what's next?
18:21Where are we going?
18:23Which I think for all of us was just like, fuck yeah.
18:34Chad used to get a camera, and he goes,
18:36I want Reeves to do 50 throws before he leaves in a row.
18:41And he's, like, in New York, and I'm in L.A., but he puts a camera there.
18:44So I'm training Reeves, and then it's like, he just, like, take his 30.
18:49And he's dying.
18:52Like, he's fucking, like, passing out.
18:55And I'm like, ah, we should let him go, because, uh, whatever, right?
18:58Then I get a text.
18:59He's like, no, that's number 30.
19:00Like, he counts it.
19:01Oh, that's, like, number 31.
19:03You know what I mean?
19:04I'm, like, looking in, right?
19:06He's watching.
19:07So it's like, you have to do it.
19:10It's nuts, man.
19:13He knows Keanu so well.
19:15He knows, like, how much he can do.
19:16I'm like, dude, he's not going to, he's going to die, right?
19:21Most people are just, like, they would have, like, stopped, for sure.
19:25So he knows how much he can push them, not just physically, but mentally.
19:31When you know you have someone as your lead actor go down those roads,
19:34you have a whole other level of opportunities that a lot of directors don't have.
19:38There's actors that directors meet on the day.
19:41You know, I knew Keanu for years before I directed him.
19:43I don't know if you realize what kind of advantage that is.
19:46No better union could have happened in the film business than Chad and Keanu.
19:51Keanu is the hardest training actor I've ever worked with, right?
19:56He's so committed, but it's the same as Chad.
19:59They're both the same.
20:00They see something in their head, and they will both bleed profusely to achieve it.
20:07Do you remember the origin of Wicca's pain?
20:11Day one.
20:12No.
20:13Wicca's pain didn't evolve until John Wick 3.
20:21I think it was during the antique fight.
20:24My knee had blown up.
20:25Oh, my God, I remember that.
20:26The first week of shooting, and I'm sitting there, and I'm like, ugh.
20:29And I think in the fog of art, in the fog of Wic, I think I was sitting there, and then I was there, and maybe I was like, hey, how's it going?
20:40And you were like, you looked at me, and you were like, Wicca's pain.
20:46That sounded like something a director would say.
20:48Yeah, yeah, yeah.
20:50I remember that.
20:50Your knee was fucking swollen.
20:52I wasn't that bad, but it was a little swollen.
20:53It was pretty bad, because we were trying to get Patrick, and we were trying to get the doctor in.
20:57Yeah, yeah, yeah, and I had the thing, and it was a bit of a situation, but that's my recollection of when Wicca's pain became formalized.
21:07I think with Chad, there needs to be a healthy amount of suffering that is in direct relation with the success of the film.
21:15When we were on the first John Wick, and we were doing the fight at the Navy Yard at the end of the film, and it's freezing, and it's rain, and it's terrible.
21:25He was so, I don't think I've seen him that happy before.
21:28He loved it, you know, and I'm sure Reeves was right there with him.
21:33They're both miserable suffering.
21:35Anything hard is always going to be a little painful.
21:37It's good.
21:38Yeah, and it's good.
21:39I mean, honestly, if it didn't hurt, if we weren't stressed out by it, I mean, it's more than just the sunset.
21:44We'd be working on the script.
21:46Yeah.
21:46Trying to figure out, and then that's a different kind of pain.
21:51When you're trying to figure out these scenes, you can sense that there's something cool.
21:54We could do something really neat, but it's, ah, you can't quite get it.
21:58And that, I think that's sometimes more painful than the, well, almost as painful as getting hit by a bus.
22:04Could you recommend anything for the end of the night?
22:08Something big, bold.
22:10May I suggest the Benelli M4?
22:13This is where we wanted to up the action a little bit, so we started Keanu Train with Taron Butler, the three-gun champion of the world.
22:34I didn't know that I was getting gun hands in John Wick 1, but in Chapter 2, I was like, oh, the manipulations.
22:41Like, oh, yeah.
22:43We went from John Wick 1, where it was like 100 rounds at a shooting session.
22:50Yeah, yeah.
22:50To when we got to Taron on number 2, it was like 3,000 rounds.
22:54Yes.
23:03I'm not hitting?
23:04Nope.
23:06Chad's obsessed with weaponry and guns, and I think always, like, the cutting edge of what would be next and what we could do.
23:13The airsoft thing at the time we thought was not revolutionary, but we were like, this is incredible.
23:19But it was like 70% of what we wanted.
23:21As we increased the sophistication of the weaponry, Chad was like, I want to be able to do an enormous amount of gunplay.
23:28I never want to worry about it, and I hate airsofts.
23:31And more, I'm like, well, that leaves us nowhere, because we can't have blanks, obviously.
23:35It can't be plastic guns.
23:36You've got to remember, Chad was Brandon Lee's stunt double in The Crow.
23:41So Chad, more so than I think any person that comes out of the stunt world in Hollywood, is hyper-vigilant and aware of gun safety on the set.
23:48That's bad.
23:49And, you know, a lot of the gunfire is post-combat.
23:52And so how do you do that with a, you know, a gun that looks real?
23:55So you are the speed of light.
23:57I want to name the gun that.
23:58Speed of light.
23:59But then Chad found Taren, and they actually found the secret sauce of plugging guns.
24:06Chad likes to have so much close contact action that he solid plugs everything.
24:11What that means is a normal blank gun in a movie, when you fire it, the flame comes out the front.
24:16When he solid plugs it, you don't get that anymore.
24:19You get the ejection of the casing flying out.
24:22You get the reloads.
24:23You get the smoke.
24:24You get all that, the actions, you know, operating.
24:26But it's safe.
24:27You can go right up against somebody and pull the trigger.
24:30It's not going to hurt them.
24:31As soon as you put a blank with a blank gun, you're basically shooting a pistol that's been fitted for blanks.
24:35And you can get water.
24:36I've been sprayed a thousand times with wadding.
24:38I've been shot and burned.
24:40Nobody can get killed with a solid plug gun.
24:42Nothing comes out of the front.
24:46And now the gun cycles.
24:47It's totally safe.
24:48You can have your hand in the front.
24:49It won't do anything.
24:50There was also a very big benefit, audio-wise, for the stunt performers.
24:55Things are going on.
24:56There's a hundred guys.
24:57Keanu's fighting.
24:58So people are yelling, doing kung fu noises.
25:00So the fact that we had a plug gun that actually sounded like a real gun, you know, it was easier for our stunt people to take their cues off the sounds of the guns.
25:12That was awesome.
25:14I like that press.
25:16Oh, here we go.
25:17So fun.
25:18Yeah, we're just going to slap on the Benelli.
25:20Oh, yeah.
25:27Match saver.
25:28Match saver.
25:29When he runs out of ammo, this is called the match saver.
25:32In the old school way, you'd have to reach down to your belt, grab a shell, drop it in, and drop the bolt.
25:39And that takes, like, almost two seconds.
25:42This way, I'm shooting, I run empty, I know immediately, I throw it in and hit the bolt.
25:51Also on that one, did the jacket pull draw.
25:55Jacket pull draw.
25:56Jacket pull draw.
25:57Very slick.
25:58So good.
25:59Jacket pull draw.
26:00A lot of the DNA, like we say, is always in the first one, right?
26:07But I keep going back to number two is the real experiment.
26:16John Wick, rock concert.
26:18See, where's Dave now?
26:19This is his cup of tea.
26:20Dave would be up there rapping.
26:23When we were in Rome and we were doing the concert stuff, that was when we decided, okay, we have this huge crowd of people.
26:29We have music going, like, how kooky are we going to get here?
26:32Like, is John Wick really going to run up on stage and shoot somebody?
26:34We're like, yeah.
26:39This is where we're like, okay, we're going.
26:41The crowd's cheering for shooting people in the head.
26:43So it's kind of like red circle from the first one.
26:46We do like a club scene.
26:48That whole concert, for me, it came together so big and so larger than life.
26:52And when we heard the music going, it was like, okay, we got to pump this up a little bit.
26:55Then it was you like, oh, no, I'm going to jump down this.
26:57So we're just going to go, I'm going to run through the crowd.
26:59It was this different kind of energy than number one.
27:02It was a lot more aggressive.
27:03Yeah.
27:06Bang, bang.
27:07Bang.
27:08Bang.
27:10I've got to go in here.
27:11Oh, no.
27:11Bang, bang.
27:13Bang.
27:14Ah.
27:16Trip, man.
27:18We did invent this choreography in the night.
27:21Literally did that on the night.
27:23Look.
27:24Look at that.
27:25That's legit.
27:26Yeah.
27:26John, we just got a lot angrier on this movie.
27:28Yeah, look at that.
27:29Look at that.
27:29I love that.
27:30The pullback.
27:31I just want to see the heads exposed.
27:32I just want to see a little bit better.
27:36Yeah, pretty much just made this all up on the night.
27:38But I think this introduced, too, the idea of the toolbox, the way that you guys train me.
27:43The magic of what Keanu went through is we built a giant toolbox for him.
27:47You're out.
27:48That at any moment we can pull out tools from and plug and play.
27:52Secondary.
27:53I built the training very similar to the way we do choreography.
27:56I would put a dummy round in the mag so he would have to correct the malfunction.
27:59So I would create problems in the middle of this that he would have to solve.
28:02All that prep gives you this luxury of, like, we can be flexible and in the moment and almost ad-lib the action because he's already gotten so good.
28:12What?
28:13Cut it!
28:14This is what Reeves can do.
28:15Yep.
28:15And see, that spoiled me for the rest of the movie.
28:17So now I know you can do anything.
28:19I'm like, oh, I can change shit on the day.
28:21In most action movies, like, you can't change a choreography.
28:24Yeah.
28:24You don't want to upset insert name.
28:26Yeah.
28:27After this, it's like, oh, no, we can change everything.
28:29I can't.
28:29He's great.
28:31All the stunt teams are like, oh, now, so we can still change things?
28:34This is great.
28:34We can still change things.
28:36Back to one.
28:37Back to one.
28:37Back to one.
28:38Reset.
28:38It's all good.
28:39It's all good.
28:39It's all good.
28:39And that's what I like about the John Wick action.
28:42He just feels a little back on his heels.
28:43Yeah.
28:43Kind of like he just learned the choreography that day.
28:45Yeah, yeah, yeah.
28:46Which is awesome.
28:47And after this, now it was a challenge to us.
28:49How do we keep up with Keanu?
28:52Whoever comes, whoever it is, I'll kill them.
28:59I'll kill them all.
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