The
Failing World of John Wick
In the world of Hollywood action series, there are few that are
considered unkillable badasses.
In the 1970’s there was Dirty Harry,
the cop that did what no other cop would do to bring about justice. In the 1980’s there was John Rambo,
the former Vietnam hero constantly brought into new wars. In the 1990’s there was Ethan Hunt and
his “Mission: Impossible” team of super-spies.
For the early years of the 21st Century, we have John Wick,
played by Keanu Reeves.
In the first self-titled movie, “John Wick”, we
are introduced to Wick as a man still mourning the death of his wife and
seeking solace through her final gift to him, which was a puppy. But this moment of happiness is rudely
smashed by the spoiled son of a Russian mobster who steals Wick’s car and kills
his puppy.
It is here that we find out just who John Wick really is. He is a former master assassin that the
Russians dubbed “Baba Yaga”, a.k.a. “The Boogeyman”, because he brought fear to
his enemies. Now he is forced to return
to being “The Boogeyman” to right the wrong inflicted on him.
In doing so, we are introduced to a shadow society that runs parallel to
the world we live in. One where everyone
is a mercenary that does “business” for a price. Operatives talk cordially with each other
before pulling out knives or guns. There
is honor and respect, and even a separate currency in the form of special gold
coins, which give them anything they want.
The only exception is they cannot do “business” in designated safe
areas, such as the New York City hotel referred to as “The Continental”. Violating this rule leads to being
“excommunicated” and quickly executed.
Bodies are even cleaned up by a special service which is referred to by
making a “diner reservation”.
In “John
Wick: Chapter 2”, we learn more about this shadow society that Wick was once
able to leave. We learn there is another
rule and another form of exchange by way of “markers”. If you own someone’s marker, they are
indebted to you and must do whatever you ask if you call it in. Refusing to do so is another rule violation
and can justify the owner of the marker to do whatever they want, including
burning your house down. We are also introduced
to “The High Table”, which is the collective group of crime families in charge
of this whole shadow society, as well as the “Bowery”, which is the low-tech
infrastructure manned by vagrants and using carrier pigeons for communication. By the end of “Chapter 2”, we see the bureaucratic
infrastructure in place as Wick is forced to run for his life. We see a vast number of cellphones going off,
letting the whole shadow society know that it will be open season for John
Wick, with a multi-million-dollar bounty on his head. (I’d say
why, but that would spoil it.)
“John Wick: Chapter 3 -
Parabellum” picks up where the second movie ends, with John
on the run and fighting for his life as he tries to terminate the bounty on his
head. We see more and more about this
shadow society, including the introduction of an “adjudicator” who seems to
operate on her own agenda and willing to tear down the whole New York
infrastructure as punishment for either helping Wick or not killing Wick on the
spot. By the end of this chapter, it
seems that Wick is ready to wage war on the very “High Table” that he had just
repledged his fealty to.
As of this column’s posting, there is at least one more
“chapter” to go, not to mention a future spin-off series on HBO called “The Continental”,
but, honestly, this series can go a long way if done right.
And yet, for all that we see of this shadow society of killers and fixers
and cleaners and mob bosses and bureaucrats and their gold coins and ornate
markers, we also see a society that is corrupt, and a society that is failing.
There are supposedly only two rules in this shadow society. No “business” can be done inside consecrated
places like The Continental, and all markers must be honored. A crime-boss held Wick’s marker during his
“retirement” and forced him to honor it in “Chapter 2”. The task was to kill the crime-boss’s sister,
a newly-made member of the “High Table”.
Her death would advance him to the “High Table”, and Wick’s marker would
be cleared. However, once she is dead, Wick
finds himself a wanted man for killing a member of the “High Table”. Ordered by the very man who held Wick’s
marker and now sits at that “High Table”.
And nobody considers that to be wrong?
Wick had to honor the marker or else he could be killed, and yet doing
so means he can be killed anyway. If
you’re not supposed to kill members of the “High Table”, why is that not one of
the “unbreakable rules”? You would think
that it should be, since everyone is supposedly in service to the “High Table”.
The actions of the Adjudicator in “Chapter 3” is another mess
entirely. She’s inflicting punishments
for those who do not kill Wick.
Why? The “contract” on his head
is supposedly an open one. That means
that anyone *can* take it. It does not mean that everyone *has* to take it. So why is this arrogant, prissy, prima donna demanding
everyone kill John Wick on sight for something he had no choice but to do? Why is she depriving people of their status
and their livelihood and even their lives for not following through on a
contract that they did not have to accept?
You would think that an actual adjudicator would be addressing that
issue rather than the supposed fealty of everyone else.
Then again, this is a shadow society that treats body disposals and crime
scene cleanups as dinner reservations, arms dealings as dinner courses, public
libraries as safe deposit boxes, and churches as money laundering services. Duplicity seems to be the thing.
Let’s get brutally honest here... the fictional world of John Wick is a
pretentious society that is corrupt to the core and doomed to fail, even more
so than the real world the rest of us live in.
The characters appear to be polite and cordial, and some of them are
even honorable, but the masters they serve are selfish, corrupt, duplicitous,
and dishonorable. We cannot help but to be
on Wick’s side, only because almost everyone else is against him and are trying
to kill him.
These are characters that we see in our own world. Nameless bureaucrats that inflict pain and
misery as a matter of business. People
in authority that make unreasonable demands of us. Those that torment us because it’s “fun”. Those seeking to bring us down with a polite
smile and unnerving cordiality and tell us it’s “nothing personal”. No, they don’t kill us in the real
world. It would be much easier if they
did. But we wish we could be like John
Wick in how he handles those kinds of people with whatever he can get his hands
on.
The story of John Wick is one of a man looking to be something different. A man with skills that make him seemingly
unstoppable, but still just a man. A
hunter-killer who doesn’t want to be one anymore, and yet, much like John
Rambo, the world continually forces him to be one. Not a hero by any stretch of the imagination,
but we cheer him on as though he were because of the people trying to kill him. It’s a messed-up world that he is forced to
live in and tries to escape from, but not really different from our own.
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