Keanu Reeves wanted all of the stuntmen who worked on “John Wick: Chapter 4” to remember how many times they died while making the hit action movie. A new article about the making of the sequel’s unforgettable action scenes says that Reeves gave the film’s stunt crew t-shirts that said how many times each stunt person died in the movie. Some of the stunt crew had a number more than 20.
How come so many deaths per stuntperson? It’s because stunt people from “John Wick: Chapter 4” were used in more than one scene. For the instant classic staircase fight, in which Keanu Reeves’ character John Wick fights bad guys as he races up the 222 steps leading to the Sacré-Coeur Basilica (only to be pushed back down to the bottom and have to do it all over again), the production used 35 stunt workers, many of whom died more than once in the scene.
It’s like, of course that’s what you want,
The fight coordinator, Jeremy Marinas, said about the moment when director Chad Stahelski told him about the scene on the stairs.
You want 100 guys falling down the stairs and you want me to make every reaction and fall different. Of course you do. It was like we were just another day at work.
We all know how hard it is just to walk up stairs when we don’t want to,
Marinas added,
Just to think about how well Keanu — not John Wick — Keanu was able to do shooting upwards while stepping. It’s hard enough to be a marksman on flat ground.
A source says that the fight on the stairs was filmed over the course of seven nights. Each stuntman was probably “killed” four or five times. At the end of filming, Keanu Reeves made T-shirts for the stunt performers that said how many times they were “killed” during the whole movie.
Stahelski also said that Keanu Reeves did all of the stunts that had to do with John Wick climbing the stairs. The 44-second fall down the stairs was done with the help of stunt double Vincent Bouillon.
That look John Wick gives when he looks at his watch and actually looks up the staircase, I think that’s maybe 50 percent John Wick and 50 percent Keanu Reeves going, ‘Ugh, Stahelski did it to me again,’
Stahelski said of filming the scene.
You got to suffer. That’s what’s fun about John Wick. He suffers and he keeps going.
Keanu Reeves gave his stunt team for “John Wick: Chapter 4” more than just T-shirts. A source said in 2021 that Keanu Reeves gave his four-man stunt team personalized Rolex Submariner watches at the end of filming to thank them for their hard work on the upcoming action tentpole. Bruce Concepcion, Jeremy Marinas, Dave Camarillo, and Li Qiang were on Reeves’ stunt team for the movie.
As per a source:
The inside of each watch was engraved with personal messages to each individual from the actor. Marinas shared a look at the watches in his Instagram Stories, calling it the ‘best wrap gift ever’ and revealing his watch read ‘The John Wick Five’ along with the message, ‘Jeremy Thank you Keanu JW4 2021.’
“John Wick: Chapter 4” is playing in theaters now.
