Keanu Reeves Explains Why The Berlin Clubbing Scene In John Wick 4 Was So Tricky
Early reactions to "John Wick 4" are calling it the best of the franchise and one of the best action films ever made. Regardless of the overexcitement that can occur at a premiere, there's still a lot of high praise surrounding John Wick's ongoing dispute with the High Table. Chad Stahelski returns to direct with a script by Shay Hatten and Michael Finch. The globe-spanning story is also receiving some acclaim, so expect a little bit of actual drama mixed in with heaping amounts of martial arts mayhem. Lance Reddick, Laurence Fishbourne, and Ian McShane all return to aid Keanu Reeves on his quest to stay upright and breathing, but Donnie Yen, Rina Sawayama, Bill Skarsgård, and Hiroyuki Sanada may stand in his way.
Clocking in at almost three hours, "John Wick 4" is banking on the fact that audiences want to see long, extended fight sequences, plus a deeper dive into the mythology of the High Table and the culture of assassins that populate the neo-noir world. Some of the set pieces in "John Wick 4" look absolutely epic, from a high-speed chase around Paris' Arc de Triomphe to a crowded club scene in Berlin that feels reminiscent of the bathhouse bloodshed from the original.
The fight choreography is difficult enough to pull off, but factor in a roomful of extras that have to react to the controlled chaos around them. There's a dance that's happening at all times that should blend together seamlessly if it's done right. Sequences involving that many people make an action scene exponentially harder to pull off, which is why so many fight scenes tend to exist in a bubble with only a small group of stunt performers. Keanu Reeves and the entire "John Wick" team wanted to make sure the Berlin club scene was something truly next level.
The unseen challenges of crowded fight scenes
The action formula that "John Wick" films adhere to usually begins with a largely public fight scene out in the open streets, a crowded club, or a theater during peak hours where hundreds of innocent bystanders are caught in the crosshairs. Then a video game logic kicks in where John Wick continues to take down an army of henchmen to reach the final boss. That formula looks like it's still intact in "John Wick 4."
If that structure holds up, expect to see the jaw-dropping sequence in a crowded Berlin club fairly early on in John Wick's adventure. Keanu Reeves touched on the added difficulty of pulling off a fight scene in public, with lights flashing and carefully placed background actors dancing closely behind the punches and gunshots:
"Well, you're dealing with space and also you're dealing on the strength of the people who are in the background in the sense of committing to it. Like, they had to keep dancing or be in the moment and kind of just ignore that fight scene that's going on around you and in front of you. So that kind of cooperation, keeping the moment alive, and feeling authentic."
Some of our favorite action scenes occur when audiences are watching the main action in the foreground and the sheer anarchy happening in the background, simultaneously. It becomes hypnotic watching a group of highly trained assassins collide with the real outside world, and it makes a second viewing even more rewarding.
Professional dancers helped sell the Berlin club scene
Keanu Reeves also spoke about how the background extras for the Berlin clubbing scene were divided up into certain groups. Director Chad Stahelski also placed some performers in the sequence that hopefully wouldn't wind up as one of those bad extras that completely ruin a scene. "Chad had gotten professional dancers and seated them throughout the background, so there [were] people who knew their bodies and movement and spatial relationships," Reeves told Collider. "And so these pods, I think, made this tertiary, connective world that I could weave, and Scott Adkins and I could weave through, as well as the other stunt performers."
Scott Adkins has been at the top of the stunt and acting world for well over a decade. One of his most incredible action scenes came just recently in Netflix's "Day Shift" starring Jamie Foxx. In "John Wick 4," Adkins plays an aptly named thug named Killa. The club scene in Berlin promises to be a show-stopper with Adkins and Reeves performing their own dance surrounded by a bunch of horrified German club kids. Out of the whopping 169-minute runtime for "John Wick 4," this is the scene I'm probably most excited for.
The "John Wick" films have their epic one-on-one fights, to be sure, but the drag-down surprise fights in public are what make the series stand out. Those moments in neon-tinged nightclubs are the lifeblood of the franchise. Those sequences also show the staggering amount of work and choreography that goes into making these scenes so believable in such a high-octane action fantasy world.
"John Wick: Chapter 4" arrives in theaters on March 24, 2023.