The Death Of John Wick Explained

"John Wick: Chapter 4" was one of 2023's most highly anticipated films, and one whose ending proved to be a shocker for fans. Despite the franchise seeming to have a long future ahead with many promises made by the cast and crew that assured fans they'd be treated to enough badassery for the coming years, "Chapter 4" ended with the death of the titular hitman played by Keanu Reeves. "Did John Wick really die?" became a hot topic for several weeks after the film's release, and for good reason. Aside from our sentimental attachment to the franchise that gives us doubt over the character's demise, there are indicators — behind-the-scenes and in-universe — that throw doubt over the absolute finality of his death.

Unlike most other franchises, whose finales are generally marketed as the end of the saga, "Chapter 4's" marketing hinted at no such thing, which made the film's ending all the more surprising — and the franchise's future prospects all the more uncertain. A deeper look into all the ins and outs surrounding John's death — including announcements made by the studio, what the cast and crew have said, and in-universe Easter eggs and clues — will give fans a better idea about whether "Chapter 4" truly is the last we'll ever see of the masterful Mr. Wick. This is the death of John Wick, explained.

One could say that death was finally able to catch up to John in "John Wick: Chapter 4," after he repeatedly (and narrowly) escaped death through each of the franchise's four films and endured more than his fair share of near-fatal injuries. Despite his martial arts mastery, proficiency with various weaponry (including books, pencils, and nunchucks), and distinctively intuitive survival skills helping him rack up a high body count, every film in the franchise sees John getting shot, stabbed, and even hit by cars — basically, a barrage of incidents that would prove impossible for a rusty assassin just out of retirement to recover from.

John is shown to have little-to-no recovery time between his injuries (not counting the time it takes him to travel between cities), and yet, he's able to be at his near prime in every fight. This could be explained by the higher tolerance for pain that he could have developed in the many years of his profession, including his upbringing with the Ruska Roma, his stint in the military, and his time as the famed hitman in his heyday before his retirement. The wounds of his present mesh with the tattoos of his past as physical reminders of the violent life he's been dealt, which makes his union with death all the more inevitable. 

The stakes at the end of "John Wick: Chapter 4" are higher than ever, with each party involved in the climactic duel having something on the line: John's freedom from the High Table; Winston's (Ian McShane) reinstatement as the manager of New York's Continental; Caine's (Donnie Yen) freedom and his daughter's life; and The Marquis' (Bill Skarsgård) reputation among the Table. With The Marquis assigning Caine as his proxy for the fight, John faces the dilemma of having to kill his old friend to win his own freedom.

After the first two rounds of the duel, where Caine and John exchange non-fatal blows, John gets shot in the abdomen and is seemingly defeated. The Marquis relieves Caine of his obligations to the Table and steps onto the field to give the coup de grâce. But in his arrogance, he fails to notice that John saved his bullet from the previous round, which he uses to kill The Marquis once and for all — ensuring victory for his team while sparing Caine and assuring his daughter's safety.

However, compounded with the injuries he sustained in the events leading up to the duel, John is significantly weakened by his gunshot wounds. He asks Winston to take him home and rids himself of his ammunition, before seemingly succumbing to his injuries — remembering his beloved wife Helen (Bridget Moynahan) in his final moments. Winston and the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne), accompanied by John's dog, bid their final farewells at John's grave — placed beside Helen's — as they walk off into the literal dusk of the saga.

Unlike most franchises that get exhausted with countless sequels to the point of creative bankruptcy — until studios have to make the hard choice to finally retire their long-running, once high-grossing franchises and characters — the "John Wick" franchise has chosen to end the tale of its titular Baba Yaga at its critical and financial peak. A bold move on the part of the filmmakers and the studio, even if it was a hard sell.

In a conversation with The Hollywood Reporter, director Chad Stahelski revealed the reaction he got from Lionsgate executives when pitching John's death, saying, "The response was, 'What are you f***ing thinking?' The note was, 'Are you f***ing insane? ... And Keanu [Reeves] and I just smiled and said, 'Yeah.' We decided we wanted to tie everything together, and we were like, 'How do you give a proper goodbye?' So that's how we sold it to the studio because, at some point, this has gotta end, man."

However, it's not a complete end for the IP itself. While the possibility of "John Wick: Chapter 5" is up in the air – it's in early development but Stahelski and Reeves are unsure about returning – the upcoming TV prequel-spinoff "The Continental" and spin-off film "Ballerina" demonstrate that the world of "John Wick" is vastly filled with characters and stories that could help the franchise continue even without the titular character himself.

The ending of "John Wick: Chapter 4" triggered a slew of online discussions on sites like Twitter and Reddit, where fans questioned the actuality of John's death while theorizing possible ways for their favorite action hero to come back. For some fans, while the ending was unexpected, it was the best way the series could have ended. @FutureVisionGem tweeted, "This movie, if it's ending isn't a fake out, was genuinely shocking and I think it worked really well given what has been built up throughout the series." Similarly, @XenoLand90 agreed that the ending worked, tweeting, "John Wick 4 has a great ending. Perfect way to go out."

However, some fans found it difficult to emotionally fathom John's death, like @dimiluvr, who tweeted, "i'm so sad over the ending....idk, i didn't think it would end with him dy!ng but honestly i can't imagine it ending any other way. he went out on his own terms and he was able to protect his friends. such a good, but sad end." Other fans just didn't buy any of it, like Redditor u/davedwtho who commented, "He is definitely not dead, we know they're making more and there was no gravitas to the death at all."

For certain audience members, the way in which John's fate plays out in the film was underwhelming. Reddit user u/Stannis2024 wrote, "His death just felt so dry... as the protagonist of 4 extremely popular films, i would have expected at least more after the fact."

"John Wick: Chapter 4" doesn't feature an ending or post-credits scene that teases John's possible return, such as a shot of him looking at his friends from afar that would imply he faked his death. However, there are a few elements in the way his death plays out cinematically that make it rather difficult for audiences to digest the fact that John is, unmistakably and undeniably, gone.

One factor is that we don't see his body in a casket, which is usually something that solidifies the fact that a character is indeed dead. Right after John's collapse on the steps of the Sacrè Coeur, the scene immediately cuts to his funeral in New York, with the implication that he has already been buried. It all happens too immediately, triggering a looming sense of disbelief for audiences until the very end when the credits roll.

Another factor is that the ground atop John's grave isn't filled with fresh dirt — something that would be normally seen at a recently dug grave. Additionally, a shot of his dog looking elsewhere gives the impression that it may have seen John watching from a distance. Aside from these factors, the lack of adequate foreshadowing of his death, and the immediacy in the way the film wraps up, fans are prevented from the feeling of proper closure on John's fate.

Among the anticipation for the continuation of John's conflict with the High Table and how it would play out, fans were also curious about what subtitle would accompany the title of the fourth film. The third film went against the previous installments' conventions and added a "Parabellum" subtitle, so the announcement of the next sequel gave eagle-eyed fans some hope for clues to dig into and form theories on.

Sure enough, in November 2021, a photo of a production wrap gift posted on Twitter may have accidentally revealed the "John Wick: Chapter 4" subtitle to be "Hagakure." Hagakure is a Japanese book compiled in the 18th century on how a Samurai must lead their life and prepare for death. Given that "Chapter 4" is partly set in Japan and concludes with John's death, it seems like a fitting subtitle, albeit quite spoiler-y.

However, the marketing of the film ditched the Hagakure subtitle in favor of a simple "John Wick: Chapter 4" title, given the word's multiple interpretations as Hagakure literally translates to "hidden leaves" in Japanese. After the film's release, director Chad Stahelski confirmed the Hagakure working title to Cinemablend and explained how it lead to the idea of finishing John's story: "And that's where the whole thing started. If we don't conclude John or John Wick's [story] – depending on obviously it's a myth with dichotomies and all that stuff – but if you don't end the journey, then why do the show?"

It's customary for studios, especially those making tentpole blockbusters, to either shoot multiple alternatives for one scene or reshoot certain sequences according to how audiences respond at test screenings. With the profitability of a $100-million-budget movie such as "John Wick: Chapter 4" at stake, there's no question about ensuring that an ending as divisive as the face of the franchise getting killed is as strong as possible.

Director Chad Stahelski told Empire about the alternate ending to "Chapter 4," saying, "[The theatrical ending] was the ending Keanu [Reeves] and I wanted, but we shot a different ending. ... We shot an ending where you actually saw John Wick at the end of the movie. So it was very clear that he was still alive. The audiences we tested with absolutely preferred the ambiguous ending."

Stahelski also revealed how his and Reeves' dissatisfaction with the "John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum" ending influenced the ending of "Chapter 4." For context, "Parabellum" ends with John — gravely injured and betrayed by Winston — being given refuge by the Bowery King, who suggests teaming up against the High Table. Stahelski said, "We didn't feel like we had done our best. We both felt like we could have ended the series better. ... We didn't feel like we stuck the landing, and that's a s****y feeling. Because we love the character, we love working together, we love the world."

Based on the ambiguous ending of "John Wick: Chapter 4," the most plausible return for the titular character would be to reveal that he faked his death to be free from the High Table's clutches once and for all. This explanation fits the genre, tone, and world of the series, as compared to a literal resurrection through some occult ritual — though a zombie John Wick isn't entirely a bad idea.

However, this justification for bringing John back wouldn't fly with most fans. It could be reasoned that it doesn't make the best sense given that he had already freed himself after defeating The Marquis in the duel, so he wouldn't have had to fake his death. But while the character is no longer obligated to the malevolent rules of the High Table, there's no guarantee that he would still be left alone by other assassins unconnected to the organization.

Sure, John could be free now, but that wouldn't stop the good folks in the underworld from pursuing the famed Baba Yaga either out of friendship, enmity, or just a good old-fashioned challenge with the notorious assassin who managed to beat the High Table's rules. Death is the only way for him to escape the notoriety he achieved in the underworld. 

The problem with IP-driven franchises these days is that no character can ever truly stay dead. While the resurrection of a deceased character was once prevalent in comic books and sci-fi movies, this trope has spilled into action-thriller franchises as well in recent years. The "Fast and Furious" franchise has become notorious for this, with the two most recent films bringing back Han (Justin Lin) and Gisele (Gal Gadot) – both who died nearly a decade ago — with a faux-death plot contrivance, causing viewers to complain that doing so has made it harder for them to worry for the characters' survival.

No matter how intuitive the reasoning would be, bringing John back from his grave would not only utterly undermine the character's death and the ending of "John Wick: Chapter 4," but also would diminish the life-threatening stakes in further installments given that its protagonist is now immune to death itself — which, in turn, would result in the franchise becoming stale.

The "John Wick" filmmakers wouldn't have to look too far to spot a cautionary tale of reviving a franchise's characters to redundancy, in the form of another Keanu Reeves-starring franchise: "The Matrix." After the franchise ended with its third film in 2003, it was resurrected 18 years later into a fourth film, literally titled "The Matrix Resurrections" –- only to face poor critical reception and a box office bomb that put the franchise back into its grave.

One major question about a possible fifth film is: What's at stake now? Now that John has survived the wrath of the High Table and death itself, there's not much for him to endure or conquer anymore. The new film would need to introduce an entirely new and unique conflict since the four films primarily followed John's complications with the High Table — the highest power in the world of the franchise.

Some imaginative fans took to Reddit to posit their own ideas, pitches, and theories for a fifth film. A fan named u/HuntingTheWumpus suggested the fifth film to be a sort of adaptation of Dante's "Inferno," which follows Dante's journey through the nine rings of Hell. Similarly, John would have to navigate his way through the various stages of Hell, battling the demons of his past (including previous villains of the franchise), to get to his wife Helen in Heaven. Surely, it's a snowball's chance in Hell, as most fan theories end up being — but fun food for thought nonetheless.

Regardless of where the franchise goes, director Chad Stahelski had warned against expecting a happy ending for John, telling IndieWire in 2019, "John may survive all this s***, but at the end of it, there's no happy ending. He's got nowhere to go. ... Do you think he's going to ride off into the f***ing sunset? He's killed 300 f***ing people and he's just going to [walk away], everything's okay? ... He's f***ed for the rest of his life. It's just a matter of time." 

Each successive film in the "John Wick" franchise has risen to bigger budgets and even bigger box office collections. The first film was a sleeper hit in 2014, raking in a worldwide gross of $86 million on a modest budget of $20 million. 2017's "John Wick: Chapter 2" doubled the franchise's financial potential with both its budget ($40 million) and worldwide collection ($171 million), doubling that of the first film. "John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum" in 2019 soared the franchise to new heights with a worldwide gross of $327 million on a $75 million budget, and "John Wick: Chapter 4" took the cake with a $426 million collection on a $100 million budget.

"Chapter 4's" financial success stands out, especially in a year that has been plagued with tentpole films either underperforming or straight-up bombing at the box office, including production company Lionsgate's own "Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre" and "Guy Ritchie's The Covenant." The "John Wick" franchise crossed the $1 billion milestone in 2023 with "Chapter 4's" worldwide gross, which obviously would make it difficult for the studio to resist the idea of building on the momentum of the franchise's peak success. With the two "John Wick" spinoffs "The Continental" and "Ballerina" on their way, it remains to be seen if the IP is able to survive without its titular protagonist spearheading the way.