Yet that trope continues to persist in almost every movie and TV show. Silencers reduce the hearing-damaging noise caused by gunfire, but they are not the magical movie devices we see that turn explosive gunfire into “pew pew” noises. Pretty much everyone knows at this point that the term “silencer” is a misnomer. This brief scene is a microcosm of what makes John Wick: Chapter 2 great. Neither man hits their target and they continue on through the sea of unsuspecting civilians to confront each other in a subway car. The men exchange bullets as they walk through the crowded station. John also sees Cassian, and both draw their silenced pistols. There John is spotted by Cassian on the level above him. He fights them off with varying levels of difficulty, until bruised and bloodied he ducks into a crowded subway station. John is attacked by multiple assailants across the city. After John returns to New York City, the traitorous Santino calls in an open contract to dispose of him. Eventually they crashed into the protected grounds of the Continental, leading to a stalemate and a tense drink at the bar. Gianna was under the protection of Cassian (Common), who doggedly pursued John through Rome after her murder. Midway through the film, John has completed his blood debt and killed crime boss Gianna D’Antonio under orders from her brother Santino. This is exemplified by the silenced pistol shootout in the subway station. The world becomes even more colorful and heightened, and the action keeps pace. We find out there is more than one Continental, and meet others in the community that supply and support these criminal endeavors (the Sommelier being particularly delightful). The criminal underworld is expanded exponentially. John Wick: Chapter 2 goes the sequel route of “bigger is better.” John’s already ridiculous body count from the first movie is nearly doubled. John Wick showed just enough of this world to give the movie color and character, serving as a backdrop to accomplished action and stunts that made critics and audiences take notice. John Wick presents a world with so many professionals killers and criminals that they literally have have their own currency, clubs, and hotel (the Continental), and rigid rules and traditions that (almost) everyone obeys. Action movies seem to be populated by impossible numbers of assassins and mobsters, many living by iconoclastic or honorable “codes” that would seem at odds with their occupations. Many action movie heroes have cut a bloody swath of vengeance after a loved one was slain, but John Wick pushed the trope into the absurd by having him avenge a dog. The first John Wick introduced us to a colorful criminal underworld that stylized and codified action movie tropes.
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