00:21:48
MARKER OF THE DEVIL
A visit from an old enemy, Santino (Riccardo
Scamarcio), to whom Wick owes a vast debt, ends
in an explosive attempt on John’s life. Stahelski
believes that John is “fully expecting to be
terminated. I think he’s more upset by being left
alive. He’s a little pissy when you tell him how to
die.” Alive and angry, Wick must now honour his
debt, which means heading to Rome...
00:38:59
SOMMELIER LIKE IT HOT __ Enter Peter
Serafinowicz as the Rome Continental’s sneering
sommelier, dispensing weapons rather than wine.
“I actually don’t know shit about guns,” laughs
writer Derek Kolstad. “I said to the stunt guys, a lot
of whom served in the military, ‘Give me some gun
speak.’” The scene took just one day to film. “Peter
has this weird mix of apathy, condescension and
a little bit of charm,” adds Stahelski. “I love him.”00:45:34
SHE’S A GIANNA __ “This is my favourite
scene,” says Stahelski of the woozy sequence
where John, sent to kill Santino’s sister (Claudia
Gerini), watches as she commits suicide instead.
“We went a little Dante there.” The twist was
Reeves’ suggestion. “He came running into
our gym one day. He said, ‘I want to pitch some
wacky shit to you.’ The image alone was worth
thinking about.”
01:04:47
TUNNEL OF LOVE __ John comes into
conflict with Gianna’s bodyguard Cassian
(Common), first in Rome, then in New York. The two
take shots at each other in a subway tunnel. “We
call it the Silent Gunfight,” says Stahelski. “I think
Keanu and Common were arguing over who would
have shot who.” The fight was shot in the newly
opened PATH train station beneath New York’s
Freedom Tower. “We were the first to shoot there.”01:21:25
SUBWAY TASTY __ Continuing their battle,
John and Cassian engage in a bloody knife fight
on the train, surrounded by (mostly) clueless
onlookers. “We stretched the limits of
believability a lot,” admits Stahelski. The location
of the fight was no accident. “I’ve always liked the
New York subway system. It’s very unique to our
world. Catacombs and subways, it’s a constant
analogy for the underworld.”01:25:48
MORE-PHEUS Seeking revenge, John is
forced to strike a deal with the Bowery King, the
head of New York’s network of homeless spies.
He’s played by Laurence Fishburne, making it
a mini-Matrix reunion (Stahelski worked on all
three movies too). “We kept calling him a
‘Morpheus type’ as we wrote it. Then Keanu had
dinner with Laurence one day and asked him.
A couple of months later we were shooting.”
01:38:53
MIRROR MIRROR MIRROR MIRROR
__“The first thing Chad told me was, ‘I want
a mirror room,’” recalls Kolstad. The climactic
action sequence was inspired by Enter The
Dragon and Stahelski’s love of Citizen Kane, and
an art installation at MOMA in New York. “It was
one of the last things we shot,” says Stahelski,
who spent five months planning the sequence.
“In post, it was a fucking nightmare!”00:28:19
JOHN OR JONATHAN? __ Ian McShane
returns as Winston, manager of the New York
Continental hotel, and a man with an unusual
habit of calling John ‘Jonathan’. “People have
pointed out that Jonathan is not the long version
of John,” says Kolstad. “But Winston has this air
of royal civility. If he calls you ‘Jonathan’, you
don’t correct him. But we make sure everybody
else says ‘John’ or ‘Mr Wick’.”01:50:13
END OF THE WICK? __ The movie ends
with John on the run, wounded and hunted.
“It’s our Invasion Of The Body Snatchers ending,”
says Stahelski. (Kolstad cites Three Days Of The
Condor.) “Everything doesn’t end clean. John is
fucked, and he’s got a tough road ahead of him.”JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 2 IS OUT 16 AUGUST ON DVD,
BLU-RAY AND DOWNLOAD