Released: May 17, 2019

Director: Chad Stahelski

Screenplay: Derek Kolstad, Shay Hatten, Chris Collins, Marc Abrams

Stars:  Keanu Reeves, Halle Berry, Laurence Fishburne, Mark Dacascos, Asia Kate Dillon, Lance Reddick, Anjelica Huston, Ian McShane

Plot:  John Wick is on the run after killing a member of the international assassins’ guild, and with a $14 million price tag on his head, he is the target of assassins everywhere. How did he get here? Watch the other 2 movies…

How did this movie do:
Budget: $75 million
Box office: $327 million

• Both Ian McShane and Jerome Flynn have appeared in HBO’s hit TV series Game of Thrones (2011), although Ian McShane appeared in only a single episode Game of Thrones: The Broken Man (2016).
  
  
• Five different dogs portrayed Sofia’s two dogs. They were trained by Andrew Simpson, who also trained the dire wolves in “Game of Thrones.” The dogs were taught a one-of-a-kind form of dog martial arts that Chad Stahelski created for the film.
  
  
• Berrada’s character is described as the “master of coin” for the High Table and the assassins, as he mints the gold coins they use throughout the movies. Berrada is played by Jerome Flynn, who also played the sellsword Bronn in the HBO series “Game of Thrones”. When that series ended in 2019, the character of Bronn had been elevated to Master of Coin as a member of the Westerosi Small Council.
  
  
• Returning from the first “John Wick” movie is Randall Duk Kim as Doctor. Kim also appeared with Keanu Reeves in “The Matrix Reloaded” in the memorable role of The Keymaker.
  
  
• Before directing the “John Wick” movies, Chad Stahelski’s martial arts background got him into stunt work. He first worked as a stunt double for the late Brandon Lee in “The Crow” and later doubled for Keanu Reeves in “The Matrix.”
  
  
• “Guns. Lots of Guns.” (From the trailer) The same line used by Neo (Keanu Reeves) in The Matrix (1999).
  
  
• Mark Dacascos has starred with 3 people of the Matrix Trilogy; Lawrence Fishburne and Keanu Reeves here, and Carrie Anne Moss in Sabotage/Dark Assassin.
  
  
• Early on, Wick finds himself in a room filled with revolvers from the 19th century. Desperately, he swaps parts of the revolvers, listens to the mechanisms as he spins the cylinders and cocks the different hammers. This is a homage to the scene in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), when Tuco is assembling a revolver to suit his taste from a multitude of other revolvers in a gunsmith’s shop.
  
  
• The repeated phrase in the movie, “be seeing you” is the same phrase used by Patrick McGoohan in the classic TV show The Prisoner.

• Jennifer Beals, Eva Longoria, Salma Hayek, Penélope Cruz, Marion Cotillard, Uma Thurman and Marisa Tomei were considered for the role of Sofia.
  
  
• First in the series not to star John Leguizamo.

• The glass structure where John fights Shinobi 1 and Shinobi 2 in the film’s climax cost $4 million to construct.
  
  
• Halle Berry broke three ribs while filming the movie.
  
  
• On May 20th, ‘John Wick: Chapter 4’, along with its release date, was confirmed via a text message: “You have served. You will be of service. John Wick: Chapter 4 is coming – May 21st, 2021.”
  
  
• The title “Parabellum” comes from the Latin phrase: “Si vis pacem, para bellum” which means “If you want peace, prepare for war.” It is also an alternate name for the ubiquitous 9mm handgun cartridge (“9mm Parabellum”). The phrase itself appears three times in the movie: it is tattooed on the back of the ballerina girl in the beginning, it appears on the door of a bus outside the hotel, and Winston (Ian McShane) says it out loud later in the movie.
  
  
• Despite appearing in all of the films, this is the first one where Charon’s name is said on screen.
  
  
• Halle Berry spent three hours a day, four days a week with the dogs doing drills in order to form a bond with them. She says, “Malinois are super smart and fiercely loyal but, at the same time, they like to play, which made it fun. I’m an animal person. I have two dogs myself, so the sweetest part of my training day was always hanging out with the dogs.”
  
  
• Director cameo in crosswalk, as Wick passes on horseback.
  
  
• Sofia’s dogs look similar to German Shepherds, but they are actually Belgian Malinois. They are a breed often trained to do police work.
  
  
• Laurence Fishburne returns in this film as Bowery King. He says, “I love that he’s the king of the underworld beneath the underworld.”
  
  
• Keanu Reeves describes John’s conflict in this film as “a battle between two sides of himself: John and John Wick” He says, “John is the guy who just wants to be left alone, who seeks a quiet life in which to remember his wife. In order to do that he has to engage the side of himself that is John Wick, the side that knows how to fight to the death. John Wick is the only one who can help John survive.”
  
  
• Director Chad Stahelski stated that John Wick: Chapter 3 isn’t necessarily going to be bigger than Chapter 2, but it is going to be more intense.
  
  
• Mark Dacascos (Zero) was born into the martial arts. Both his father Al Dacascos and his mother Malia Bernal are respected, accomplished, and highly trained in Kajukenbo (a Hawaiian Mixed Martial Art: Karate Judo/Jujutsu, Kenpo, Boxing). Dacascos created his own form of martial art; Won Hop Kuen Do.
  
  
• The Russian book featured in the library scene is Russkye Narodniye Skazkii, published in English as Russian Fairy Tales, by Aleksandr Afanasyev, and is a prominent collection of Russian fairy tales like those of the Brothers Grimm or Hans Christian Andersen. It includes the first known written tales of Baba Yaga, who is a central metaphor in this series. John Wick says the title and author correctly while requesting the Russian language version at the library.
  
  
• Another familiar character returning in this film is Charon, played by Lance Reddick. Reddick says, “I always saw Charon as a lot like Batman’s Alfred – that unsung guy behind the scenes who keeps everything running smoothly.”
  
  
• Director Chad Stahelski warned Halle Berry about how much one has to train for a role in a “John Wick” movie and she was still determined to do it. She says, “…I never worked harder for a film role in my entire career.” Berry is proud of her work on this film, saying, “There’s nothing I wanted to do more than to prove that women of my age can do exactly what we want to do. Age doesn’t define us.”
  
  
• Halle Berry was a fan of the John Wick films before taking the part of Sofia. When she heard that this film would have a female assassin, she told the director she was on board even before the role was completely written.
  
  
• Mark Dacascos describes his character as being “a little psychotic” and he mirrors this in the way that Zero fights. “He has a broken rhythm, where he’ll be smooth then suddenly frantic. It’s great when you can put so much character into the physical movement.”
  
  
• Keanu Reeves, Ian McShane, and Lance Reddick are the only actors to appear in all the John Wick films to date (2019).
  
  
• The Adjudicator is a new addition to the “John Wick” universe. Producer Basil Iwanyk describes The Adjudicator as being like “an insurance investigator who in a very, cold and matter-of-fact way, investigates what rules were broken, who broke them, and what the punishment should be.”
  
  
• “John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum” was released on May 17, 2019 and has made more than 160 million dollars domestically. Each “John Wick” sequel has made more than the previous film in the franchise.
  
  
• The two main sidearms used by John Wick are the Glock 34 and the STI 2011, both chambered in 9mm “parabellum”. Both pistols are heavily modified by Taran Tactical.
  
  
• Cinematographer Dan Laustsen’s favorite scene to shoot was the one at Grand Central Terminal. He says, “It’s just so iconic New York. We wanted to light it in our own shadowy way, and it’s difficult to do there because the working conditions are rough. You have to come in and get out fast. We only succeeded because we had such a fantastic lighting and grip crew in New York.”
  
  
• Wick’s true name is Jardani Jovonovich. Jovon is the Serbian Hebrew form of the name John. His last name means “son of John”. Jardani is from the Hebrew which means “of the garden”. As is seen by the crucifix, his tribe was obviously formerly Jewish but had converted to Christianity at some point.
  
  
• The tattoo ‘einfühlsam’ on the Adjudicator’s neck is German for ’empathetic’.
  
  
• The Adjudicator stays in Room 217 in the Continental. Room 217 is the room used in the book of The Shining, while the movie adaptation changed this to Room 237.
  
  
• The exteriors of The Continental were filmed at the Beaver Building, which is at the intersection of Pearl, Beaver, and Wall Streets. The building is also known as the Cocoa Exchange.
  
  
• Lance Reddick is cast as “Charon” in all three John Wick films. In Greek and Roman mythology, “Charon” is “The Boatman”; after death, he took one’s soul across the River Styx to the “Gates of Judgement”. Coins were placed on the eyes of the departed, in order to pay “The Boatman” for passage. This is still (occasionally) done today.
  
  
• Jason Mantzoukas joked about wanting to be cast in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019) on his podcast How Did This Get Made, where he reviewed the Keanu Reeves movie Johnny Mnemonic (1995) with Paul Scheer and Jessica St. Clair.
  
  
• The photo of Wick and his wife hidden in the book is a black-and-white print of the color photo he had framed in his house.
  
  
• The name “Bowery” has its roots in the Dutch word for “farm” and is both a street and a neighborhood in Manhattan. The bridge visible from the rooftop where The Adjudicator meets Bowery King is the Manhattan Bridge.
  
  
• The motorbikes used in the chase scene are Yamaha MT-09s
  
  
• In all the Wick movies Winston always has three olives in his martinis.
  
  
• As was seen on Winston’s watch in John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017), the global contract on Wick began at 4:54 p.m. At the beginning of this film the time on the clock tower is 5:08 p.m. and it is about twenty minutes after sunset. According to sunset tables, this would set the date at about January 11th.
  
  
• When the Bowery King says, “If you cut a king, you better cut him to the quick”, he is rephrasing the Ralph Waldo Emerson quote, “When you strike at a king, you must kill him”. This was also said by DCI Tony Gates in the TV series “Line of Duty”.
  
  
• This is the first “John Wick” movie to feature 3 Oscar nominees: HALLE BERRY (Best Actress – Monster’s Ball 2001), LAURENCE FISHBURNE (Best Actor – What’s Love Got To Do With It 1993), and ANGELICA HUSTON (Best Supporting Actress – Prizzi’s Honor 1985); Berry & Huston won their Oscars.
  
  
• When John and Ernest are fighting in the library, one of the books visible on the shelves behind them is simply titled ‘Ninjas,’ foreshadowing the battles to come.
  
  
• Cooking show aficionados might recognize Mark Dacascos (The Chairman) from the cooking game shows “Iron Chef America” and “Iron Chef Australia.”
  
  
• Some hotel scenes were filmed at One Hanson Place in Brooklyn, which is the tallest building in that borough. It was once known as the Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower.
  
  
• The first movie in the series to not feature a song by “Le Castle Vania” or “Nostalghia”
  
  
• The subtitles are set in variants of the Square Sans Serif 7 font.
  
  
• In this film, it is said that John Wick is from Belarus. Belarus is bordered by Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia. The capital of Belarus is Minsk.
  
  
• When John is dropped off in the desert by Sofia, there is a shot of him climbing up a sand dune in trackless desert and the camera pans around. Just before it cuts away there is a town visible in the far distance behind John.