John Wick is back. The cult 2014 movie set a dizzying new standard for fight choreography, with Keanu Reeves playing an ex-contract killer brought out of retirement by the death of his dog. Wick is a balletic killing machine, treating bullets like punches. The reason? The film was directed by Chad Stahelski and David Leitch, veteran stunt artists with The Matrix, The Hunger Games, TRON: Legacy and The Bourne Legacy on their collective CVs. The pair's California-based production company 87eleven Action Design specialises in workshopping original action sequences, which they then pitch to films during the pre-production process.
"Most movies will hire a stunt co-ordinator and they'll have six weeks to train an actor and develop moves," says Stahelski, who is also an expert in judo and ju-jitsu. "That's fine, but that's why action scenes are starting to look repetitive. Our martial-arts team works five days a week creating moves that no one's seen before. We'll say, 'Let's try this judo throw tied in with gun fu' [a stylised, firearms-based martial art inspired by Hong Kong cinema] and we'll basically develop our own martial art. We will then piece it together in a cinematic way."
For John Wick: Chapter 2, out on February 17, the company decided to push their stunts even further. "The way Wick moves is a character trait," says Stahelski. "We just took it to a higher level. We had Keanu train for four months and expanded the type of weapons he uses. We went deeper into that gun work and mix of jiu-jitsu [a Brazilian martial art] and ju-jitsu, and used longer takes. I want the audience to know it's Keanu doing 98 per cent of this stuff."
Thought gun fu was cool? Welcome to car fu: Chapter 2 opens with a car-chase sequence that evolves into a full-on brawl in a taxi warehouse as Wick, knocked out of his car, fights several goons while avoiding oncoming cabs. "The sequence took three months to choreograph," says Stahelski. "You don't want to hit Keanu Reeves with a car."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
