Keanu Reeves’ character in the movie “John Wick” is known for being silent and active person. In the latest installment, John Wick: Chapter 4, Reeves takes it to an extreme level by uttering only 380 words in a nearly three-hour-long movie.
Limited Dialogue Intentionally Created
The Wall Street Journal reports that the limited dialogue was created intentionally by the movie’s creators. Reeves, who also co-directed the movie, cut out almost half of the original script’s dialogue for his character, John Wick, in favor of action scenes. Wick’s longest continuous dialogue in the movie consists of just one sentence, “You and I left the good life behind a long time ago, friend.” About 27% of Wick’s lines in the movie consist of only one word.
Training for Stunts
Reeves, who earned $15 million for the movie, trained exclusively for stunts for three months. The actor’s toughest stunt to prepare for was a car stunt that involved racing around the historic Arc de Triomphe in Paris. In one scene, after uttering the phrase, “Give me a name,” Wick gets into an eight-minute fight.
John Wick’s limited dialogue only adds to the intimidation factor. Wick’s enemies are even more scared of him because of his reticence. His silence is especially noticeable when he faces dozens of enemies in Morocco, Japan, Germany, and France. Wick’s usual reaction is to remain silent, except when he wants to say something with his fists.
Interesting facts
The fourth installment of the movie was quite lengthy, running for 169 minutes, but John Wick, the protagonist, only spoke 380 words throughout the entire film. Surprisingly, about 10% of his words appeared in the movie trailer, which may make him seem talkative. In fact, in the first 25 minutes of the movie, he speaks less than he does in the 2.5-minute trailer. The longest sentence Wick speaks in the movie is, “You and I left the good life long ago, my friend,” which consists of just one sentence. Out of the 103 lines written for his character, 27% of them consist of just one word, including the word Reeves chose for the finale. Reeves received a payment of $15 million for his role in the movie, which translates to about $39,000 per word.
Wick’s silence only adds to his enigmatic persona. Despite the limited dialogue, John Wick: Chapter 4 promises to be an intense, action-packed movie.
