The John Wick movies also heavily feature Brazilian jiu-jitsu — a crucial part of how Keanu Reeves' trained for John Wick. Brazilian jiu-jitsu, or BJJ, is all about grappling, positioning, and combat on the ground, with chokes and joint manipulations, and is a staple of the MMA world.
The director of John Wick, Chad Stahelski, states that John uses and is proficient in Japanese jiu-jitsu, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, tactical 3-gun, and Standing Judo. It is pretty much a made up art that has been labeled Gun fu. It's a mixture of all the nuances of the best martial arts mixed with artful gun handling.
Keanu Reeves has extensive martial arts training in Judo, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, weapons, and stunt work. He has trained with the 8711 stunt team, Rigan Machado, and Nomura Tadahiro. Recently he was awarded an honorary black belt in Judo.
So, he needed to learn various martial art techniques to make it happen. As a result, Krav Maga, Japanese Jiu-Jitsu, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, standing Judo, Sambo, and Tactical 3-gun all make epic appearances in the John Wick franchise. Krav Maga is the sub-structure of all my self-defense courses.
John Wick favors a single-breasted jacket with notch lapels, flap pockets, and a two-button front. He makes wardrobe choices wisely, with the utmost attention given to the physical demands of his profession rather than stylistic vibrato.
If you want to see a movie filled with realistic fight scenes, don't pick John Wick 4. While the entire series is grounded in some sense of reality – there aren't any triple-backflip-corkscrew-flying-kicks or catching bullets in midair – it's a far cry from the realism similar action films like James Bond aim for.
John is a highly skilled judoka, and throughout the franchise often relies on various judo throws to catch his opponents off-guard. John also frequently blends his judo skills with his use of guns, throwing or sweeping an enemy to momentarily incapacitate them before putting them down with a bullet.
John was born Jardani Jovonovich in a Padhorje village somewhere in the Byelorussian SSR of the Soviet Union to a Ruska Roma family on September 2, 1964. He was orphaned at a young age before being taken in by an old friend of his father, Winston, who would eventually become John's mentor.
(Arguably) His greatest strength is his Olympic-level judo abilities. Get this man in the BJJ Olympics my god. If John Wick was in the 1996 Summer Olympics, he's winning and it's not even close. He's got so many throws and tosses.
Tom Cruise knows quite a few martial arts with wrestling being his most dominant. This is because he was a solid wrestler during his younger years which has aided his physicality in later life. Aside from wrestling, he's also decent at using the Keysi method and elements of Krav Maga.
Does Keanu Reeves do all his own stunts in John Wick?
Keanu Reeves Does Over 90% Of His Stunts In John Wick Movies
In an interview (via Jake's Takes on YouTube) before the release of John Wick: Chapter 4, Keanu Reeves explained that he did 90% of his stunts in the first John Wick movie and close to 95% in John Wick: Chapter 2.
Keanu Reeves began his martial arts journey with The Matrix, but there would be no instant download of elite skills for John Wick. He spent four months learning Judo and Jiu-Jitsu for the first film. For the sequels, he embarked on a grueling boot camp with BJJ experts and mixed-martial artists the Machado brothers.
Ares is the most dangerous threat that John comes up against in John Wick Chapter 2. His battles against Cassian and others were excellent ones, but Ares came the closest to actually ending John. In the hall of mirrors sequence where they square off, Ares does manage to properly stab John and nearly defeats him.
And despite Batman having the better physicality and combat knowledge, Wick's more ruthless brutality approach was able to overwhelm him, being unlike any gun-wielder the Dark Knight has dealt with before.
Kennedy's executive order (executive order 11111). JFK's executive order on June 11, 1963, provided "assistance for the removal of obstructions of justice and suppression of unlawful combinations within the state of Alabama." On November 22, 1963 (five months later), he was assassinated.
For John Wick, Reeves focused his training and on-screen fighting style on something with a heavy emphasis on throwing and grappling techniques. The style is a blend of Aikido, BJJ, Judo, and Defensive Tactics Training classes offered by companies like Controlled F.O.R.C.E.
Both have their own strengths and weaknesses. Rambo is able to take down enemies quickly, but he is less durable than Wick. Wick is able to take down enemies with more precision, but he has a slower rate of fire.
His reputation for peerless efficiency and reliability earned him considerable respect and fear within the criminal underworld, as well as his persistence to go after those who earn his anger, making him a legendary figure, known to the leaders of virtually all criminal organizations as someone never to be crossed.
John cover his face with his bulletproof suit. Before the hunt for John in Paris, the Bowery King presents John with a new bulletproof suit, describing it as "the latest in ballistic chic". John would later use this suit to deflect bullets fired by assassins hunting him.
John Wick is attacked hundreds of times throughout the movies, with 162 attacks hitting him directly without being blocked. The most common attacks are punches and kicks, followed by being thrown to the floor or through glass.
John Wick: Chapter 4, released on March 24, 2023, takes place six months after the third installment. Since the events between the first and the fourth happened the same year, John Wick is still either 50 years old or maybe 51. Although the character's age stays the same, Keanu Reeves's age changed from the first film.
