John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum Trailer Teases A Manhunt For The Ages

Tears For Fears told us that everybody wants to rule the world. Now, Lionsgate is telling us that everybody wants to kill John Wick. 

The studio launched the first trailer for John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum on Thursday, inviting fans of the genre-revolutionizing action series back to New York City and into the life of Keanu Reeves' steely, man-of-few-words assassin. 

Freshly ex-communicated from the Continental hotel, denied from its services that include protection and shelter from the other dangerous criminals slithering through the underworld, John Wick knife-stabs, machete-slices, and bang-bang-bangs his way through the Big Apple — making the most of the one-hour head start Winston (Ian McShane), the manager of the Continental Hotel in New York, gave him at the end of John Wick: Chapter 2. 

Dark and rain-soaked, splattered with the occasional (and ultra-cool) neon light that shines in the background of action scenes, the John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum trailer teases the manhunt that hundreds of hired guns embark on. They're after the $14 million bounty on John's head, and he's determined to do anything and everything to avoid flipping from his usual role as the killer into the position of the victim. This, as the footage reveals, includes riding horseback through the streets of New York, shooting a guy on a motorcycle while he rides said horse, eventually traveling overseas to meet up with his old friend and fellow assassin Sophia (Halle Berry), attempting to win over Sophia's lethal doggie duo, and walking across desert sands, seemingly completely alone. 

It isn't just the independent assassins who are after John and the bundle of cash that hangs over him. A dangerous criminal organization known as the High Table, which fans were introduced to in John Wick: Chapter 2 through Gianna and Santino D'Antonio, get mixed up in John's life-or-death mission. And they could be out for John's blood. 

As you'll remember, the whole reason why the Continental revoked John's membership is because he broke the establishment's biggest rule: no killing on hotel grounds. John murdered Santino in the lounge of the Continental, despite every warning against doing so. To add to his possible tension with the High Table, John also killed Gianna early on in John Wick: Chapter 2, carrying out the "impossible task" that Santino couldn't complete himself. (Santino was eyeing Gianna's seat on the High Table, and knew she needed to be permanently out of the picture, so he tapped John to do the dirty deed for him.)

Members of the High Table whom John may have to outwit in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum include Robin Lord Taylor as The Administrator and Asia Kate Dillon as The Adjudicator. But at least John has something of an ally in Anjelica Huston's The Director, who is said to act as his protector on the High Table (though, in this trailer, she denies him refuge when he asks for it). 

John will also cross paths with The Bowery King, an underground crime lord played by Laurence Fishburne; Tick Tock Man, an assassin portrayed by Jason Mantzoukas; Ares, the hired gun Ruby Rose originated in Chapter 2; and Zero, the central assassin who has a fierce vendetta against John. 

Sounding out in the background of all this murder-y madness is Frank Sinatra's rendition of "The Impossible Dream," the lyrics for which reflect the deep trouble John is in, the resilience that just might see him make it out of the situation alive, and the outlook he has about — gasp! — his potential death? 

"This is my quest, to follow that star / No matter how hopeless, no matter how far / To be willing to give when there's no more to give / To be willing to die so that honor and justice may live," the song goes. "And I know if I'll only be true to this glorious quest / That my heart will lie peaceful and calm when I'm laid to my rest / And the world will be better for this / That one man, scorned and covered with scars / Still strove with his last ounce of courage / To reach the unreachable star."

That does it. Cancel all other movies coming out in 2019, and ring up the Academy immediately. John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum deserves all the Oscars.

Check out the trailer in full above. 

According to director Chad Stahelski, who helmed the original John Wick film and its Rome-set follow-up from 2017, there will be just 60 short seconds between the end of the second franchise entry and the beginning of Parabellum. He detailed to Entertainment Weekly, "Number three starts literally a minute after the second film ends. It's John Wick trying to get out of New York City and find some way out of the box he's gotten himself into. The first part of the film is John Wick escaping New York and trying to line up the assets he'll need to find a way out of the problem he's in."

Get ready for a wild ride and the cat-and-mouse chase of a lifetime when John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, also starring Lance Reddick as Charon and John Leguizamo as Aurelio, opens in theaters on May 17.