Firearms and Gun Handling of "John Wick": Part 1

In a few days, a new movie from the John Wick universe will be released in theaters worldwide: Ballerina. So I decided to take a look at the movie that started it all to understand what made the John Wick series so unique.

Who should get the credit for creating the John Wick universe? I think it is the director, Chad Stahelski, who made John Wick what it is.

He started his movie career as a stuntman and taught martial arts for many years. He also shot USPSA recreationally together with Taran Butler.

His first major work in the movie industry was overshadowed by one of the most prominent prop gun-related tragedies in the history of cinema.

Stahelsky was the stunt double for Brandon Lee in the movie called ‘The Crow”. Brandon Lee was shot and killed in one of the scenes. How did it happen? The crew used primed cartridges with real bullets, and one of the cartridges was fired, resulting in squib load and bullet beig suck in the barrel.

The crew did not notice it, and in a later scene, they loaded blanks in the same revolver. The powder gas from the blank shot pushed the bullet out of the barrel, and the bullet ended up hitting Brandon Lee.

The actor died during the surgery in the hospital, and Chad Stahelsky had to play the role of Brandon Lee in order to finish the movie. Brandon’s face was superimposed onto footage with Stahelski.

You probably remember his other famous role. Remember the first “Matrix” movie? During a big shoutout, Neo did a cartwheel, picking up an M16 and shooting full auto one-handed.

That was done by Chad Stahelsky, Keanu Reeves’ stunt double. That is when he met Keanu Reeves and they became friends, which later allowed Stahelski to offer Keanu a leading role.

While preparing Keanu for the role, Stahelsky sought help from SWAT and Navy SEAL friends. In the interview, he described Keanu's firearms training for the first movie:

No one just learns on the day, Keanu spent four months with the gun coaches and our tactical people from LA SWAT and our Navy Seal friends, and then we went through our guys and our concepts at 87Eleven and put it all together.

But what about Taran Butler and his training? Well, Taran and his team worked with Keanu from the second movie onward.

If you wanna know more about it, check out those videos on TFB TV, where James Reeves trains at Taran Tactical: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 (Handguns)

The first John Wick movie demonstrated how proper firearms training is actually beneficial for the filmmaking process. When you have an actor who can do all weapon manipulation flawlessly, you can film longer shots that are more immersive for the viewer.

But it is also important for the director to understand weapon manipulations and set up the scene in a way that allows the actor to show his skill, and Stahelski did exactly that, including reloads and close-quarters shooting into the fight scenes.

Many people noticed Keanu was using a very peculiar shooting technique with the gun rotated sideways, and many thought it was just a silly movie shtick. But this shooting technique was actually taught to certain Law Enforcement units by the British firearms instructor Paul Castle.

He called it Central Axis Relock (CAR) and emphasized that it is designed for close quarters battle with weapon retention in mind. And in the movie, Keanu uses this technique exactly as intended - for close-up engagements, extending his hands when the target is further away than several feet.

The John Wick movie was not the only time when this shooting technique was used by a fictional character. If you remember Splinter Cell and the main protagonist of the game, Sam Fisher, he also used the same shooting technique.

Another part that makes the movie better is the tactics: they are not always realistic, but always logical. In most shootouts on the street, John hides behind car engines, since it is the only part of the non armored car that can effectively stop a round. In fact, he moves from cover to cover, keeping the engine block between him and opponents.

The tactics in the final shootout also make sense - John Wick starts with the sniper rifle, shooting from a distance without exposing himself too much. Right after exposing his presence he changes the position, blows up the cars, preventing evacuation of the principal, which is expected in this situation. So while some things might seem a bit unrealistic, the overall tactics are logical.

The last part of the action that made John Wick different was his vulnerability. He gets beat up by three people with baseball bats in the beginning of the movie - a kind of thing that happens quite often even with experienced martial artists. He fell, he felt the pain and it was easier to emphatsies with such a character.

After the success of the first movie, John Wick Chapter 2 turned out to be very different. In the next part of the article, I will talk about how gun handling in the second movie changed compared to the first one.