Keanu Reeves Wonders If John Wick 4 Went Too Far With Its Car Stunts

"John Wick: Chapter 4" is the culmination of everything the franchise has attempted and achieved so far. It shows how you properly build an expansive universe and it introduces incredible new side characters all while, of course, having bombastic action that should (and does) shame the entire American action movie industry.

Despite the movie being almost three hours long, it flies by, in no small part due to the nonstop action that feels like a Greek myth brought to life. This is particularly true of the film's last hour, which is a spectacular action scene filled with moments that rival "Mad Max: Fury Road" in terms of how unbelievable it is that no one died making those scenes.

And yet, there can be too much of a good thing, at least if you ask Keanu Reeves himself. Speaking to Variety, the actor pondered the question of whether the team had "gone too far" with the car stunts. After all, this is the movie where they brought back car-centric action films, and, as Reeves said previously, "We took the car driving to the next level," including "180s, forward-into-reverse 180s, reverse-into-forward 270s, drifting" and more crazy stunts, only for that incredible Arc de Triomphe scene.

It is an incredible sequence, but it does make you wonder if "John Wick: Chapter 4" went overboard, not with the action per se, but with the number of times Wick gets hit by a car. 

Too much of a good thing

In the new film, John Wick is essentially a superhero. Thanks to his magical bulletproof suit, the man can withstand anything, simply lifting the suit above his head to avoid headshots. He can also survive being shot and thrown off buildings multiple times, but there is one thing he seems very vulnerable to — moving vehicles.

Indeed, during the spectacular Arc de Triomphe scene with the fantastic car stunts, Keanu Reeves' John Wick gets run over more often than a character in a cartoon, basically just bouncing from windshield to windshield, all without a scratch.

Granted, it helps that the stunt team is one of the best in the world and they make the stunts look great. When /Film talked to lead stunt coordinators, Scott Rogers and Stephen Dunlevy, Rogers revealed the secret to getting hit by a car repeatedly. "We can put padding on cars, we can put padding on the ground, and that can protect your brain, but you can still ding your shoulder."

Now, that doesn't mean you can walk away from being hit by a car without a scratch. The whole thing is dependent on proper blocking and hitting your marks because you are still getting hit by a car, silly.

Is Keanu right? Did they overdo it with the car stunts? That depends on what you look for in an action film. If you want something grounded and that follows real physics, then sure, it was a bit much. If you don't mind a bit of "Looney Tunes" logic, then no — if anything they needed a few more car crashes!