In this action movie history-mining interview for Letterboxd Journal, I talk to John Wick franchise overlord/director, former stunt co-ordinator Chad Stahelski, about the genre classics that inform John Wick: Chapter 4.

When it was released in 2014, the original John Wick was a breath of fresh, grounded-action air in an action movie landscape defined by increasingly unrealistic, CGI-enhanced outlandishness. Although every sequel has upped the ante considerably, the franchise still stands as the embodiment of a certain philosophy towards action cinema, one that entails extensive use of practical stunts, expertly choreographed martial arts and a leading man ready to embrace both.

That philosophy flows directly from Chad Stahelski, the stuntman (he doubled Brandon Lee on The Crow and Keanu Reeves on The Matrix) turned stunt coordinator (87 Eleven, the “action design” company he owns with Bullet Train director David Leitch, which creates action set–pieces for blockbusters) turned director (after directing the first John Wick alongside an uncredited Leitch, Stahelski has helmed every subsequent entry by himself).

The ante-upping reaches something of a crescendo in John Wick: Chapter 4, a 169-minute operatic epic that sees John square off against legions of enemies in Osaka, Berlin, and most significantly, Paris. The guest action stars this time include Scott Adkins, Hiroyuki Sanada, Clancy Brown, Marko Zaror, and Donnie Yen as blind swordsman/hitman ‘Caine’, an old friend of John’s who is undoubtedly the deadliest opponent the man in black has ever faced.