The John Wick movie franchise owes a lot to a surprising actor, one of the silent era’s most acclaimed comedy stars. The first John Wick movie saw Keanu Reeves’ тιтular character set out to kill the man who murdered his beloved dog and anyone who stands in his way. However, the second movie changes things and puts Wick in the crosshairs of other ᴀssᴀssins, leading to the evil High Table putting a contract on Wick’s head, which sees him battle ᴀssᴀssins worldwide.

The franchise specializes in its own form of gun-fu and owes a lot to action filmmakers like John Woo and martial arts epics with men like Jackie Chan. Wick never stops moving in fight scenes, similar to Chan’s films. The highly choreographed John Wick fight scenes, with men and women using every weapon imaginable, are similar to the classic Woo action films. However, there is one more acting legend that influenced director Chad Stahelski. Every sequel has a moment that references the legendary Buster Keaton.

Buster Keaton Has Been A Constant Inspiration Throughout The John Wick Movies

Director Chad Stahelski Inserted Fun Into His Action Movies

Director Chad Stahelski never hid any of his influences when making John Wick movies. He openly credits Jackie Chan for helping him learn how to make it seem that Wick can beat mᴀss amounts of enemies by keeping moving at all times. However, one influence that might surprise fans of the action franchise is the silent era comedy star Buster Keaton. According to Stahelski, it all started when he was a kid and watched old movies with his grandfather (via Slate):

“My grandfather, for whatever reason, had a ton of 8 mm films of all the old silent comedians. He liked to play Charlie Chaplin in the background. So I’ve already seen Little Tramp, I’ve already seen Buster Keaton, I’ve already seen Harold Lloyd. I’ve already seen it, but it’s not clicking yet until I have a couple conversations with Yuen Woo-ping and his team. And then I meet Jackie Chan for the first time, and he’s telling me how it came about with him.”

According to Stahelski, Buster Keaton was Jackie Chan’s biggest influence. In the silent era, there were three major silent-era slapstick stars. Charlie Chaplin was best known for his role as The Tramp. Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton were better known for their slapstick offerings, including taking falls and having exaggerated accidents. That plays into most Jackie Chan movies and many of John Wick’s fight scenes.

Stahelski also said that there is a similarity between Keanu Reeves and Buster Keaton, and it is the look in their eyes, where they can tell a story with just a look into the camera without saying a word:

“You watch Buster Keaton, he had to give the looks—like, when he’s in love, the twinkling eyes. You go back and watch any of the Harold Lloyds or the Buster Keatons, and are you kidding me? They’re selling whole stories without a word. I don’t think people appreciate how ҒUCҜing crazy that is. They were getting across love, fear, astonishment. They made you laugh with the shrug of the shoulders. You have to pay attention to that.”

John Wick 4’s Stair Fight Is One Of The Franchise’s Best Keaton-Inspired Scenes

John Wick Getting Knocked Back Down Is Classic Buster Keaton

Chad Stahelski said he implemented Buster Keaton into all the John Wick movies. “No matter what I do, just when you think it’s over, I’m going to throw him down the stairs,” the director said. “Just when you think it’s over, the dog’s going to come in. Just when you think it’s over, I’m going to hit him with the car. Just when you think it’s over, he’s going to run out of bullets. That’s our big thing in karate: subversive, subversive, subversive.”

There is a scene in John Wick 4 where Wick falls from an upper-story window, where the awnings break his fall, which comes from the Keaton movie Three Ages. There is also a moment in John Wick 4 where Keanu is in the train station, and a projection of Buster Keaton is shown in the background. In John Wick 2, another Beaton Keaton movie was projected on the side of a building. John Wick 2’s Hall of Mirrors scene paid homage to Charlie Chaplin’s The Circus, and the movie poster paid homage to Harold Lloyd.

However, the most overt Buster Keaton-like scene in any John Wick movie is the stair fight in John Wick 4. In that scene, John Wick is fighting up a flight of stairs to get to the Sacré-Cœur for the dueling-pistols battle with the Marquis. However, when he reaches the top of the stairs and then is knocked back down, he falls all the way to the bottom (via Screencrush).

“All I could think about was Buster Keaton. How would Buster Keaton do it? Buster would walk all the way up, he’d fight his way up, he’d trip at the top step, he’d fall all the way back down, then look back up and go “F—.” I always look at it from a silent film perspective. And that’s how it all came about.”

The stairway scene wasn’t a joke, though. Just like with Buster Keaton’s movies, where his slapstick and pratfalls were all in the name of the story and the character’s journey, the stairway fall meant just as much. Chad Stahelski uses Buster Keaton to show that these movies are supposed to be fun, but he also uses the moments to emphasize that people should never believe John Wick is part of the joke. Stahelski said the stairway fall was “a metaphor for the movie as a whole,” meaning even the gags have a deeper meaning.

Source: Slate