John Wick: Chapter 4 and John Wick: Chapter 5 can bring back an action movie trend that’s fallen by the wayside. John Wick 4's battle with the High Table will bring Keanu Reeves’ famed assassin anti-hero back into action, with all of the stunt work and martial arts fans have come to love from the franchise. However, there’s one type of action that John Wick has never cashed in on, and which the upcoming sequels are more than prepped to.
Specifically, the discipline of parkour would fit in perfectly with John Wick’s style of grounded but very physically astonishing action. Created in France by David Belle, parkour is a methodology of movement in which the practitioner, or “traceur”, navigates their environment in the most economical way possible. After being utilized here and there in action movies, parkour really caught on with the District 13 films. Being viewed as a cousin of sorts to more traditional martial arts seen in John Wick and other action films, parkour gained international recognition from the District 13 movies. Co-starring David Belle and Cyril Raffaelli of Kiss of the Dragon, District 13 and its sequel District 13: Ultimatum were packed with stunt-filled parkour foot chases like the world had never seen. Parkour quickly gained traction in action films, and would be featured in movies like Casino Royale, Live Free or Die Hard, The Tournament, Bodyguards and Assassins, and others.
Parkour has not been as prominently utilized in action films in recent years, and the John Wick franchise could be the perfect place for it to make a comeback. With stunt performers from the 87 Eleven group on board and stunt veterans like David Leitch (on the first John Wick) and Chad Stahelski directing, the John Wick movies do virtually every shade of action extremely well. In particular, the John Wick series elevated martial arts films as a whole.
With John’s skills in Judo and his opponents and allies bringing many different martial arts disciplines to the table, John Wick’s fight scenes are extremely finessed and diverse. Parkour has often been worked in as a complementary element to fight scenes in movies where it has been used, and even blended with them in numerous instances. John Wick 4 or John Wick 5 doing the same could be a parkour showcase that hasn’t been seen in a long time.
As seen in the John Wick 4 trailer displayed for 2022's Cinema Con, the movie is continuing the franchise’s endeavor to outdo itself, with descriptions including John wielding a pair of nunchaku. In both John Wick: Chapter 4 and John Wick: Chapter 5, Stahelski, Keanu Reeves, and all involved are, by all outward appearances, striving to keep evolving the John Wick franchise's action. Adding some parkour stunts and chases might well be the next such frontier for the Baba Yaga.
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