The John Wick Scene That Fans Agree Makes No Sense

Realism in movies is often a tough balance to strike. Any scene can have unrealistic elements, but if the filmmakers push it too far, then they risk breaking the audience's suspension of disbelief. Of course, how far one can go in a given scene when it comes to depicting the reality-bending, the jaw-dropping, the mystifying, and beyond depends heavily on the genre.

Action franchises like "John Wick," for instance, have a relatively high tolerance for unrealistic events. Though much of the fighting and gunplay in the film is true to life, no man (no matter how tough) could realistically fight dozens of trained assassins by himself. That is simply something fans choose to overlook for the sake of the story.

That said, just because fans are willing to accept John Wick (Keanu Reeves) as an unstoppable killing machine, it doesn't mean they're willing to accept anything they see him do. Similarly, just because John is interacting with similarly highly-skilled killers, it doesn't mean those foes get a pass in the believability arena. In particular, there is one scene from the movie that many fans agree makes no sense, and it operates on an extremely overused trope within action films.

In a popular 2020 Reddit thread discussing irritating scenes in movies on the subreddit r/askreddit, "John Wick" fans shared more than their two cents about a particular scene in the first film. After being knocked out by his goons, John (Keanu Reeves) comes face to face with the film's main villain, Viggo Tarasov (Michael Nyqvist). But, rather than killing John when he has the chance, Viggo wakes him up to chat. This affords John's sniper friend, Marcus (Willem Dafoe), the opportunity to break him free and allow the trained assassin to have a field day murdering more of Viggo's men.

"I know that the bad guy not taking the opportunity to kill the hero is a common thing, but killing John is literally Viggo's only goal," wrote one Redditor. They go on to point out that John is of no strategic value to Viggo and, even more frustrating, Viggo knows how good John is at his job. So, why is this villain taking all this time monologuing when there was a prime opportunity for him to kill his enemy? "

"It's a trope I'm so tired of," wrote another user. "I want an action flick where the antagonist takes instant advantage when they can. BLAM!! [The] protagonist is dead ... Roll credits." Another Redditor, u/mynumberistwentynine, felt equally as strongly that this scene made no sense and pointed out that John didn't hold back from killing Viggo at the end of the movie.

Even though John does almost die in this scene, fans do have a point. Of all people, Viggo knows how dangerous John is. Letting him live even a second longer is just begging to receive the infamous pencil treatment.