John Wick's Story Borrowed A Big Part From A Forgotten Keanu Reeves Romance Movie

Across four movies, John Wick has killed almost 500 people, wounded countless others, and left a trail of absolute devastation across the globe. While he's mostly dispatched his enemies using his ferociously efficient gun-fu fighting style, Keanu Reeves' assassin has also offed adversaries in a variety of ingenious ways, including pencils to the neck and books to the face. From 2014's "John Wick" to 2023's "John Wick: Chapter 4," we've seen the hitman lay waste to thugs using every form of weapon and using every type of physical combat. And to think, if losef Tarasov (Alfie Allen) had just left that poor puppy alone none of this would have happened.

As any fan will know, John Wick set out on his murderous rampage simply because the son of a Russian crime boss killed his Beagle puppy, Daisy. That puppy happened to have been given to the retired assassin by his deceased wife, Helen (Bridget Moynahan), who back in "John Wick" had recently died from a terminal disease. The opening moments of that film see John receiving the puppy and bonding with the little guy, before losef breaks into his home and puts the poor pooch down. This incident sparked the carnage-filled odyssey we now know as the "John Wick" quadrilogy — but it wasn't the first time one of Reeves' characters received a furry little friend from a terminally ill love interest.

After Keanu Reeves replaced Brad Pitt in "The Devil's Advocate," he starred alongside Charlize Theron in that 1997 supernatural horror, marking the first time the two stars shared the screen. Reeves played defense attorney Kevin Lomax and Theron played his wife, Mary Ann Lomax. The pair reteamed in 2001 for romantic drama "Sweet November," in which they once again had a romantic entanglement. But this time there wasn't anything supernatural about their love affair.

Directed by Pat O'Connor, "Sweet November" follows San Francisco-based advertising executive Nelson Moss (Reeves), who meets Sara Deever (Theron) during his driving test and causes her to fail due to talking during the written portion of the exam. Despite this awkward first meeting, and the fact he's a corporate shill and she's a free-spirited dog groomer, Nelson and Sara are drawn to each other. Sara offers to "help" Nelson by having him move in with her for a month, after which they'll separate for good. Eventually, Nelson agrees, and on the first night of November, he moves in. As you might expect the pair fall in love and everything turns out rosy. Except — and this is a major spoiler in case you were planning on watching "Sweet November" — it turns out Sara has terminal cancer.

Before their love flourishes, however, Nelson finds a package at his door with the word "November" written on top. He opens it to find a puppy, which he returns to Sara, forcing the pair to reconnect and setting off the love affair — which ends when Sara leaves a newly reformed Nelson in order to spend her last days with her family. Despite the plot parallels, it seems that "John Wick" co-directors, Chad Stahelski and David Leitch weren't aware of Reeves' previous puppy drama.

The Hollywood Reporter's Brian Davids was the first person to make this connection between "Sweet November" and "John Wick." In an interview with Charlize Theron, the writer revealed that he'd told both Chad Stahelski and Dave Leitch about the dog in "Sweet November" and how the actress' "terminally ill 'Sweet November' character mailed a dog to Keanu 13 years before John Wick's terminally ill wife mailed him a dog." According to Davids, Stahelski learned about it shortly after "John Wick" debuted and Leitch had no idea about the parallel between his movie and Keanu Reeves' early 2000s romantic drama. Theron, meanwhile, was amused to hear about it, saying "You are obviously a lover of film because not a lot of people would know that."

When Davids previously told Leitch about the parallel between the two films during a 2024 THR interview, the director claimed that he "never connected those dots." In a separate interview, Davids also spoke about it with Stahelski, who said, "Funnily enough, I did not know that at the time. After 'John Wick' came out, I read something about it, and I was like, 'Really? How did I not know that?' So maybe we'll go for three. You never know."

Sadly, "Sweet November" wasn't quite the surprise hit that "John Wick" turned out to be. The film made just $65.7 million on a $40 million budget, and bears a lowly 15% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. But who cares if John Anderson of Newsday called the movie "dumb enough to make 'The Wedding Planner' seem like an Ingmar Bergman film" if it can claim to be the first time a Keanu Reeves character received a dog from a terminally ill love interest? 

Reeves and Theron might not have appeared together since that ill-fated 2001 rom-com, but that wasn't the end of their collaborations. During production on "Atomic Blonde," the actress found herself training in the same airport hanger as Reeves while he trained for "John Wick: Chapter 2." The two even ended up sparring together, which is only right considering she was his original Helen Wick.