A John Wick Motion Scene, Step by Step

The next comprises spoilers for “John Wick: Chapter 4.”

The very first thing the “John Wick: Chapter 4” combat coordinator Jeremy Marinas thought when confronted with the prospect of staging a combat scene on 222 steps main as much as the Sacré-Coeur Basilica was: “My quads and hammies are going to kill me.”

On the identical time, he wasn’t precisely stunned when the director Chad Stahelski introduced him with the idea. “It’s like, in fact that’s what you need,” Marinas stated. “You need 100 guys falling down the steps and also you need me to make each response and fall totally different. In fact you do. It was like we have been simply one other day at work.”

Within the bravura motion sequence, Keanu Reeves’s immensely proficient murderer has to defeat a gantlet of enemies to achieve the highest of the staircase. When it lastly looks like he’s made it to the summit, he’s despatched plummeting again to the underside in full slapstick style and has to start out from scratch whereas the clock is ticking. In spite of everything, he must get to the church by dawn to compete in a duel with an evil marquis (Invoice Skarsgard) that may determine his destiny. Fortunately a foe involves his help: Caine, performed by the martial arts grasp Donnie Yen, who had been looking Wick for a lot of the film’s operating time and can shoot on behalf of the marquis.

The climb comes near the tip of the almost three-hour movie, and after a flurry of ingenious and relentless fights that function Wick operating round Paris attempting to keep away from killers who need to gather the value that’s on his head. However by some means it outdoes every little thing that has come earlier than with its mixture of technical proficiency, emotional stakes and Looney Tunes-style tumbles. The plan was to make it a “entire John Wick metaphor,” Stahelski stated in a cellphone interview, the place the hero beats up individuals after which will get crushed up and has to start out over again.

The thought for a combat set on these steps got here to Stahelski throughout a visit to Paris to scout capturing areas. The director, who has labored as a stuntman, was a giant fan of Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s “Amélie” and was keen to have a look at areas utilized in that movie. That introduced him to the Sacré-Coeur, which appeared like a great place for the ultimate showdown. However he wasn’t impressed by the steps that instantly face the construction. “It didn’t look that terrifying to the stunt crew I had with me on the time,” he stated.

Then they walked across the left aspect of the church and noticed the extra daunting climb. “You by no means noticed three stunt guys smile sooner after we noticed these stairs,” Stahelski stated. “Everyone immediately knew what we have been going to do. There was no verbal communication. It was simply large smiles.” Along with the Buster Keaton of all of it, Stahelski had a spaghetti western in thoughts for the ultimate alliance between Caine and Wick, who should crew as much as make it to the highest earlier than they will flip their weapons on one another.

The stunt coordinator Scott Rogers described Stahelski as like a “child” desirous about what he may engineer on the location. “I’m pondering, mechanically, a man’s obtained to go down these steps,” Rogers stated. “He simply turns, and goes, ‘Yeah, that might be nice.’ However it’s not one thing he wouldn’t have executed in his prime.”

Prep work for the shoot started in each Berlin and Paris earlier than cameras rolled, however the crew stored rehearsing and altering actions even whereas Stahelski was filming on one other a part of the staircase.

In response to the stunt coordinator Stephen Dunlevy, the scene was “no extra complicated than every other combat” on a “John Wick” movie, however Rogers added that the very act of scaling the steps had its challenges. “There’s in all probability extra of a bodily toll on it since you are preventing in the midst of steps,” he stated. Reeves needed to ascend throughout every take, then reset — the cinematic model of a StairMaster.

And whereas charging up flights is exhausting, to not point out an amazing exercise, Reeves had to try this whereas executing the choreography, which Marinas stated is a mixture of Wick’s common “gun fu,” judo and jujitsu. He additionally needed to discover what little cowl there may be, ducking behind our bodies and bushes. “Everyone knows how arduous it’s simply to stroll up stairs after we don’t need to,” Marinas stated, including, “Simply to consider how properly Keanu — not John Wick — Keanu was capable of do capturing upwards whereas stepping. It’s arduous sufficient to be a marksman on flat floor.”

Filming happened over seven generally moist nights, throughout which the crew often needed to anticipate the Sacré-Coeur’s funicular, carrying vacationers up the incline, to cross. There have been 35 stunt individuals concerned, a few of whom have been felled by Wick a number of instances in the middle of his ascent makes an attempt. Rogers estimated that one man was in all probability “killed” 5 – 6 instances on the steps. “He was like Gumby,” Rogers stated. On the finish of the shoot, Reeves made T-shirts for the stunt performers emblazoned with the variety of instances they have been slain over the course of your complete film. Some had greater than 20 deaths.

In fact, Reeves isn’t any slouch. In response to Stahelski, you’re watching him carry out every little thing on the steps himself, aside from the “actually large stair fall.” That process fell to the stunt double Vincent Bouillon, whose second take, captured with a cable digital camera, was the one which was used. (In the course of the first take he obtained caught on a railing.)

For added safety, a number of the steps had hidden padding that might be eliminated with visible results, however in sure circumstances the performers needed to take the affect with out that cushioning. Rogers stated that he was proud that “outdoors of some bumps and bruises, there have been no concussions” among the many stunt crew.

And for continuity within the remaining edit, Reeves did must roll somewhat bit. “I nonetheless gotta throw Mr. Reeves down a few stairs,” Stahelski stated.

Whereas Reeves was all the time sport, Stahelski did sense a weariness when his star confronted the steps. “That look John Wick provides when he seems at his watch and truly seems up the staircase, I feel that’s possibly 50 p.c John Wick and 50 p.c Keanu Reeves going, ‘Ugh, Stahelski did it to me once more,’” he stated. However, Stahelski added, the hassle makes the character who he’s: “You bought to undergo. That’s what’s enjoyable about John Wick. He suffers and he retains going.”