Keanu Reeves lets his hands do most of the talking in John Wick: Chapter 4. The silent assassin barely speaks in the latest installment of the popular movie series when considering its lengthy runtime. In fact, a new report published by The Wall Street Journal reveals just how many words John Wick says in the film. In the span of 169 minutes, or just a bit shy of three hours, Reeves has 103 lines of dialogue, ultimately saying just 380 words in total by the end of the film. The report notes that this is a sharp contrast to the original John Wick film, where Reeves said 484 words in just 101 minutes, demonstrating how the deadly killers has changed over the course of the series.
In John Wick: Chapter 4, around 10% of the 380 words spoken by Reeves are featured in the official trailer for the film. John Wick actually says more in the trailer than he does in the first 25 minutes of the film. The report also notes that around a third of Reeves' dialogue in the new movie is spoken with a single word, and his longest line of dialogue is a single sentence, coming when he tells another chartacter, "You and I left a good life behind a long time ago, my friend."
Co-writer Michael Finch, who penned the script with Shay Hatten, tells the outlet that Reeves personally trimmed a bulk of the film's dialogue along with director Chad Stahelski. Compared to the original screenplay, Finch says the two "stripped out roughly half the dialogue written for his character." With Reeves was insistent on removing the dialogue, Finch added that it's "a shock when you work with him how dedicated he is to not speaking.”
The Box Office Results Speak for Themselves
Keanu Reeves didn't have to say much for John Wick: Chapter 4 to find success at movie theaters. The film had a very strong debut at $137.5 million worldwide, earning $73.5 million domestically with the best opening performance of the franchise up to this point. What's even better is that the reviews have also been very positive, as the film has a 94% approval rating with critics along with an audience score of 95% at Rotten Tomatoes. While it's not quite clear what is happening just yet with John Wick 5, the franchise will continue to expand amid this success, as a spinoff film called Ballerina with Ana de Armas is in the works.
John Wick: Chapter 4 is playing in movie theaters. The R-rated film stars Reeves, Donnie Yen, Bill Skarsgard, Laurence Fishburne, Hiroyuki Sanada, Shamier Anderson, Rina Sawayama, Scott Adkins, Ian McShane, and the late, great Lance Reddick in one of his last roles.