>Podcast Link: Lighting Up JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 3
John Wick 3: Parabellum is a fantastical and violent foray into a world of assassins hunting assassins. I’m going to spend my time here pointing out some of the homages to past films that I caught throughout this film so YES there will be some SPOILERS. If you are a cinephile at all, pay attention to the fun they had throwing in references to other movies throughout John Wick 3. Specifically, I saw allusions to Game of Death, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and also The Matrix.
I love these visual tidbits scattered into the midst of the action. I will point out the ones I remember. Feel free to add the ones you caught in the comment section.
John Wick's fight in the library with basketball star Boban Marjanovic gives us a little nostalgic reference to Game of Death with Bruce Lee fighting Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Game of Death is also alluded to as John climbs the stairs to battle villains at various levels in the glass room near the end of the movie.
By the way, these two baddies are from the popular Raid movies.
Then there is a scene where John Wick is in some sort of antique weaponry room and he builds his own revolver. It is very reminiscent of Tuco building his revolver in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Look for this scene:
Watch Tuco's scene on youtube here:
Link: Tuco at the Gun Shop
There are also lots of references to The Matrix films. Specifically lines like the one heard here:
Link: Guns. Lots of guns.
Also pay attention to a fight scene in a pool where you will see something like the Matrix “bullet-time” effect and maybe even this shot:
All in all, I enjoyed John Wick 3. I feel you will too if you liked the first two installments.
Check out the Screenfish podcast. I had a great time discussing the movie on Screenfish.net with Steve Norton and Jason Norton (unrelated).
Listen to our podcast on Screenfish here: