Firearms and Gun Handling of "John Wick": Part 2

Recently, I wrote about the first John Wick and why it set the new standard for gun handling in movies. Now, let’s look at John Wick: Chapter 2 and see what makes it different from the first one.

In preparing for the second movie, the director decided to double down on the main advantage of the first movie—Keanu Reeves and his training, which allowed him to film unique and memorable fight scenes. To me, it seems like the director was trying too hard, turning the second movie into a kaleidoscope of fight scenes with the story taking the backseat.

Example - the first movie started with three goons successfully beating up John Wick with baseball bats. The second one opens with Keanu beating up 10 car mechanics in hand-to-hand combat. During this fight, he carries the pistol but only uses it once at the very end.

It seems like the director was so keen to show Keanu’s hand-to-hand combat skills, he forgot to explain why a calculated killer would start a fist fight instead of just shooting everyone. Overall, while the second movie is an incredible demonstration of Keanu’s skills, it lacks the realism of the first movie, when John Wick did not seem like a superhero who could survive anything.

However, the action scenes of the second movie are indeed remarkable. In preparation for the second film, Keanu did Brazilian jiu-jitsu, stunt driving, and shooting. The firearms and tactics training for the second John Wick movie was conducted by two completely different instructors, some would say polar opposites.

The part that everyone knows about was done by Taran Butler, a renowned competition shooter who trained many Hollywood actors and directors. He also provided a lot of guns for the movie. At his shooting range, Keanu Reeves was shooting from 1000 to 1500 rounds per session and trained with a pistol, shotgun, and rifle.

But there was another instructor, Aaron Cohen, who also trained Keanu for the second movie. Mr. Cohen is a former member of the Israeli special forces, namely the unit called “Duvdevan”. If you watched the TV series called “Fauda,” you know exactly what “Duvdevan” is.

For those who didn’t watch the show, “Duvdevan” is the military unit that specialises in undercover operations, surveillance, and infiltration. Typically, operatives of this unit dress as Arabs and attempt to blend in with the local population during their missions.

Aaron Cohen taught Keanu some classic Israeli shooting techniques: wide and low stance, “thumbs down” grip, tense body position, and flipping the weapon to the side for a status check. The video of the training is available at Mr. Cohen’s channel.

Interestingly enough, during his preparation for the second movie, Keanu managed to first learn, and then unlearn, almost all Israeli gun-handling techniques. In some of the videos from Taran Butler's range, we can see that he tried to use a low shooting stance, but in the movie, he never tried to get into the famous “horse stance” - signature move of the Israeli pistol shooting technique.

Perhaps, by the second movie, Keanu’s shooting skills were at such a level that he “filtered out” slower and less efficient techniques and only took the best. In fact, at a certain point, his skills presented a problem for the filming crew. Keanu’s transitions between targets were so fast that stuntmen could not fall fast enough to keep up with the pace of shooting.

And while the shooting techniques in the second John Wick movie clearly evolved from the first one, the tactics changed dramatically. While in the first movie, they were logical and somewhat realistic, the gunfights in the second movie resemble a stage at a 3-gun competition.

It is not necessarily a bad thing. The skill Keanu Reeves demonstrates is unprecedented for the actor. But in order to show his skills, the character sometimes uses weapons that make little sense in the given situation.

For example, why would you take a shotgun and a rifle with an optic to fight in the catacombs? Would it make sense to maybe stick to one shorter rifle? Perhaps it would, but in that case, we would never see John Wick doing all those sophisticated shotgun reloads.

To give credit where credit is due, during the shootout in the tunnel, all inefficiencies of the shotgun are clearly highlighted. Keanu is always out of ammo, constantly reloading and transitioning to his sidearm. The Benelli M4 he uses is grabbed by opponents, which is another disadvantage of the longer firearms in a tight space. He would definitely be better off with just a rifle and a few spare mags.