John Wick. Baba Yaga. The Ghost. The Boogeyman. Jardani Jovanovich. That last one is actually his real name. But so many aliases can only mean one thing – that he’s the best in the business. An assassin with an agenda – to get back out of the game once and for all – Wick has had to up the ante when it comes to his execution and evasion skills. In doing so, the price on his head has gone through the roof, and he’s notched up a glut of iconic John Wick kills.
As Wick takes on both the High Table and a host of fellow assassins out to claim a bumper pay day in John Wick: Chapter 4, there’s a plethora of new and inventive dispatches vying for a place on the best John Wick kills list.
Spoiler: not all of them are at the hands of the title character!
So let’s take a look at our pick of the series’ most thrilling eliminations: we present the franchise’s best John Wick kills.
Iosef’s done for
When John Wick was first unleashed upon the movie-watching world back in 2014, word of mouth led to audiences embracing the plight of a guy trying to come to terms with his wife’s death. The film quickly stirs our sympathy for him: his wife arranged delivery of a Beagle puppy – Daisy – after her death to help him heal, giving him something to love other than his beloved Mustang.
So when the odious, entitled Iosef Tarasov (Alfie Allen) and his gang decide to break into Wick’s house to steal his car, kill his dog, and leave him as good as dead, they also unwittingly open up a can of whupass on themselves – that we fully endorse. We soon learn Wick was part of a sprawling underworld of assassins. But just when he thought he was out, they pulled him back in. And we can’t wait for payback.
We watch big cheese Viggo Tarasov (Michael Nyqvist) throw a full-on paddy about his son’s actions and the prospect of Wick seeking revenge. All of this tees us up for Keanu Reeves to go full John Wick on Iosef’s ass. When the time eventually comes at the end of the film, Wick showcases his sniper skills by taking out Iosef’s bodyguards at the warehouse he’s holed up in.
Iosef flees through the building in fear, but it’s not long before Wick catches up with him, first taking out a henchman from his Boogeyman-tastic off-camera position. Then, instead of a protracted death sequence for the snivelling toerag, we get characteristic short, sharp efficiency from Mr Wick as he first shoots Iosef in the stomach. Wick walks purposefully towards him in slow motion as he slumps to the ground.
“It was just a f**k’n…” says Iosef. But before he can say the word “dog”, Wick has popped a bullet in his head. How do you like them apples? The first on our list of awesome John Wick kills.
Unlucky for some
Chapter 1’s first kill sequence is a no-brainer for the list. Viggo sends a team of hired guns to Wick’s house to take him out. But we’ve just witnessed his transformation from mild-mannered grieving widower to a besuited man ready to take care of business, and we have an inkling as to what’s coming for these unsuspecting hitmen.
There are a number of snazzy moves as Wick tackles the home invaders – the dance-like shooting of four right off the bat; a neat leg-grapple using his opponent as leverage for both elevation and protection while he shoots at another before rolling the first to the floor, finishing off the other, then shooting the first in the head.
Then, when he uses his pistol – having just run out of ammo – to whack another in the eye after having grabbed his arm as he’s shooting his gun and before kicking him in the testicles then launching him through a window, reloading, and finishing him off, we first get a proper glimpse of what John Wick is capable of as he showcases his quick-thinking and nimble moves. He’s always several steps ahead.
But it’s when a now-gunless Wick takes on one kitchen knife-wielding guy that we get a breathtaking move we’ll see repeated in other franchise entries. As the two take the fight from the kitchen to the corridor, they wrestle, with Wick grabbing his opponent from behind before eventually overpowering him and slamming him to the ground. The dude is strong, but Wick manages to manoeuvre the knife so it’s pointing towards his chest. After moving him into position, Wick uses his other hand as a hammer, hitting three times to drive the knife into the guy’s chest.
Beaten by a beard
This is the final entry from the first film in our list of best John Wick kills. As Wick is eyeing a towel-wearing Iosef fleeing the scene through a door in the nightclub he’s tracked him to, a bald, bearded henchman appears from an entrance to the right. The guy takes aim at Wick, and fires.
Wick ducks for cover, then fires back, hitting the guy in the leg. Ever the improviser, scanning the room for things he can use, Wick grabs a nearby glass jug and smashes it in the villain’s face. He then grabs him by the beard, smashes his head on a table, and shoots him twice in the head. The end.
Sumo assassin
Japanese wrestler Yamamotoyama Ryūta plays the giant assassin in question, in John Wick: Chapter 2. Wick comes up against the man mountain in New York after the bounty is placed on his head.
The big guy proceeds to knock Wick clean off his feet, simply with an outstretched arm before the two engage in hand-to-hand combat. But he’s too slow for Wick – drawing his gun gives Wick time enough to parry his aim and elbow the gun out of his hand.
Wick karate chops him either side of the neck (come on!) to little avail before kicking him between the legs. He definitely feels this. Big guy charges at Wick and pushes him through a pane of glass.
There’s more gun wrestling as Wick tries to disarm him again, before Wick is finally able to shoot him in the side three times at close range during a bull-like charge from his opponent. Wick finally kills him while climbing on his back – via a shot to the top of the head.
I’ll do it myself
John Wick kills way more men than he does women – but he certainly doesn’t hesitate based on gender. Gianna D’Antonio from Chapter 2 is an obligatory kill for Wick as a result of a Marker. Because Santino D’Antonio helped John complete Viggo’s impossible task, he now in return requires Wick to kill his sister so he can take her place at the High Table.
We learn that Wick and Gianna were friends, but is there a hint at a former romance? Perhaps. Nevertheless, Gianna accepts her fate, knowing that she doesn’t have a hope in hell of escaping Wick. It’s John Wick.
So, she disrobes, steps into her lavish bath before slitting her wrists with a hair clip that doubles as a very sharp blade. She lived her life her way and she will die her way. She lies back in the water. “Do you fear damnation, John?” she asks.
Yes, is his reply. He holds her hand as she slips away. Then he puts a bullet in her brain for good measure. A memorable moment for our list of best John Wick kills.
With a f**k’n pencil
With a large bounty on his head, Wick is hot property for the underworld’s assassins. Strolling through New York in Chapter 2, he’s a huge target. So of course now is the time we see him take out not one but two of those out to kill him with something as small and unlikely as a pencil.
Let’s not forget, though, this is a major pay off for audiences. In both Chapter 1 and Chapter 2, we’ve heard people discuss a legendary kill of Wick’s – in which he supposedly dispatched three people with a pencil. Wick here proves just how easy it is for him to do so when he’s beset by a couple of guys at a café. First, he uses one to disable the first assailant by jamming it in his throat. Then he picks up another, stabbing the second assailant first in the hand, then in his nostril, before pushing it into his ear.
As the first assailant comes back for more, Wick supplies another HB stab to the throat before holding the pencil against a window and ramming the guy’s head onto the sharpened end.
Book him, Danno
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This John Wick: Chapter 3 kill is surely one of the all-time greatest screen terminations. Wick’s encounter in a public library demonstrates his ability to use his surroundings to his advantage and turn anything into a weapon. Even a book.
Supersized hitman Ernest tracks Wick to the Russian folktale section and quotes Dante’s Inferno as he approaches him. So far, so cerebral. But that’s where brains end and brawn begins as the two spar, with Wick evading Ernest’s knife slashes using a hardback book. To be fair, there’s lots of quick thinking going on here, especially on Wick’s part as he inventively uses that book to block, parry, disarm, and attack.
The Baba Yaga takes a knife wound to the shoulder but hits back with a classic nut shot before punching the book into Ernest’s face. Ernest slams Wick by the head into the shelves either side and kicks him, sending Wick flying backwards.
But Wick fights back with another nut shot, a throat slam, and several face smashes before finally getting the better of Ernest with his reading skills, ramming the book into his mouth and breaking his jaw, then snapping his neck with it. It pays to be widely read.
Hole-y moly
The next set piece to follow on from the library opener in Chapter 3 is another doozy. As the contract out on Wick becomes active, he looks for a place to hide. John dives into a shop, and out through the back, which takes him into the bowels of the building.
In rushes a gang of killers hot on his tail, and Wick finds himself in a room of artefacts and weapons, and sets about arming himself. After shooting one in the head, he disarms two brutal martial arts specialists.
After some hand-to-hand, they smash cabinets and toss knives at one another. A third guy enters the fray. Some spectacular fight choreography results in Wick burying a number of hurled knives in, first – you guessed it – one guy’s testicles, then the torsos of the remaining two.
An eye for an eye
But this sequence isn’t finished there. Another two would-be assassins turn up bearing axes. The first, he takes out with a knife hammered into the skull (classic Wick move); the other with a knife forced into the eyeball. Here’s looking at you.
Rule number one: never leave anyone alive. A spluttering survivor is taken out with an axe hurled into the head. The cherry on top of the icing on top of the cake. Chef’s kiss.
Stairway to hell
Osaka is the first global location we head to proper in John Wick: Chapter 4, after Wick’s short visit back to the desert to off the Elder, followed by some time in the Big Apple. We’re rewarded with a flurry of franchise-topping kills – not least Rina Sawayama’s Akira toppling some big dude on the stairs.
How does it go down? Allow us to take you through it. After Akira has dealt with several High Table henchmen, she wrestles with the largest of all. She’s outmatched in terms of size so out come the blades. Except he’s tooled up, too, naturally.
Nevertheless, Akira sinks two blades into his thighs and as he attempts to slither away up the nearby steps, she’s riding his back, stabbing him repeatedly as they go. She finally plunges both blades either side of his neck, killing him. She’s nothing if not persistent.
Nunchuck nuisance
John Wick. With a set of nunchucks. In a room full of glass cabinets. What’s not to love? Choosing just one takedown out of all the lackeys he dispatches in this Chapter 4 sequence isn’t easy, so we’ll take you through the highlights of this delightful nunchuck fight. Not only does it showcase a skill we didn’t know – but aren’t surprised – Wick possesses, but our beloved Boogeyman uses the martial arts sticks brutally and inventively (of course) to great effect.
Wick uses them to beat two guys savagely over the head before shooting both – nice – but we love when he demonstrates a little nunchuck flair after doing so. Wick’s not a show off, generally, so we’ve got to appreciate him appreciating his weapon.
Perhaps the greatest moment, though, is when Wick swipes one opponent clean off his feet, hooking the nunchucks around the backs of his knees before stomping on his nether regions (he loves a nut shot) and shooting him in the head. Oh, the grunts!
Killa takedown: a tooth for a tooth
Scott Adkins’ well-upholstered, gold-toothed asthmatic Berliner, Killa, is an antagonist to savour. This drawn-out Chapter 4 fight sequence offers several moments to make you wince. Starting with Wick’s slash to the throat using a playing card. That’s gotta smart.
After Killa turns and runs, he’s rewarded with a gunshot to the butt as Wick pursues him into classic Wick territory — banging but kinda sleazy nightclub setting. They’re flanked by ravers, soundtracked by throbbing electronica, and showered by, um, indoor waterfalls.
Killa stops to puff on his inhaler: “You shot me in the ass, bastard.” Hand-to-hand combat ensues, and Killa proves surprisingly agile for a big dude with a lung condition. His strength doesn’t stun though – at least in terms of taking us by surprise.
Wick takes a moment or two to recover after Killa shoulder tosses him twice, drags him up some concrete steps by his tie, kicks him in the face, and knocks him over the railings to the concrete floor below. It’s a big drop, but let’s assume the water raining down on Wick is what revives him quickly.
Wick gets up, and after a run-in with some lackeys armed with axes, he and Killa go head-to-head again. This time, Wick gets the upper hand with an elbow drop, followed by punches to his head – seen in slow motion in the rain. Wick punches him square in the face. As the music pounds, more men with axes attack. Killa sits up, uses his inhaler.
He runs through the crowd, and Wick tosses an axe that hits him from behind. Wick then flips him over the side and he falls – fatally – on the staircase. Oof. Wick punches him in the face to loosen his gold teeth, then takes one as proof of death. The expression on Killa’s face is unrivalled in on-screen corpses.
In your face
Shamier Anderson’s newly introduced tracker, Mr Nobody, takes the final spot on this list. He’s trailed Wick for most of Chapter 4, waiting for his chance to strike for a bumper payday. But the two find themselves unlikely allies when Mr Nobody’s dog takes a shine to canine-lover Wick for saving his life and they’re both pitted against chief Marquis (Bill Skarsgård) henchman, Chidi.
During the final stages of the fight on the steps leading to Paris Basilica, Sacré-Coeur, Nobody takes advantage of Donnie Yen’s Caine’s disabling of Chidi with a pencil to his hand. As the High Table heavy crawls towards the gun on the floor, the dog growls.
Mr Nobody commands, “Nuts”, at which point the dog goes for the spot between the guy’s legs. He bites down and pulls him along. Wick isn’t the only one out for revenge.
“You hit my puppy dog,” says Nobody before shooting him in the head. The dog cocks his leg and pees on his face. Consequences.
For more John Wick: Chapter 4 coverage, check out the below articles…
Review | Is John Wick true? | Killa explained | Ranking the movies | Is there a post-credits scene? | Marquis explained | Ballerina cameo | How long is Chapter 4? | Caine explained | Potential Chapter 5 | What happens to Charon? | 13 Best John Wick kills | Post-credit scene explained | Does the dog die? | Keanu Reeves on emotional ending | Is Chapter 5 streaming? | Movies to watch if you like JW | Will there be a Chapter 5?