The John Wick film series is a Science-Fiction Fantasy franchise. John Wick lives in a parallel universe with a different physical and conceptual reality. Don’t believe me? Let’s look at the overwhelming evidence from the films.
EVIDENCE #1: HUMAN BODIES ARE MORE DURABLE
First up is the massive amount of physical damage the title character receives over the time period of the three movies. While the movies have 2-3 years between their releases, the timeframe within the three movies is about a month. In that time, Wick takes so much physical damage yet continues to walk (or at least limp) away. A fraction of the damage he sustained in the first movie would have killed most people, or at least hospitalized them.
In Act One of the first John Wick film, Wick receives a massive blow to the head that causes a loss of consciousness. Those types of injuries to the skull usually cause serious concussions, which left untreated typically cause some level of brain damage. And that’s just the first act. Over the next few weeks, Wick receives many more blows to the head. By the end of the third film, he likely has around a dozen concussions.
As Wick progresses through the timeline he is stabbed with a bottle, thrown off a balcony, falls down way too many steps, hit by multiple automobiles, involved in multiple car crashes, thrown from a moving motorcycle without a helmet, blown through a plate glass window by an explosion, shot in the stomach, stabbed repeatedly, and in the final act of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, he is shot repeatedly (again) and thrown off a building which is 15 stories tall.
Yes, John Wick is exceptional. It is established throughout the films, that Wick is the best of the best. Yet, the total amount of physical damage he sustains in the films would not lead to appreciation by his friends and enemies if their bodies were less durable like ours. They would assume he is some sort of superhero, undead, or a god.
In the “John Wick Universe” human bodies are capable of sustaining much more serious injuries than in our reality. And it’s not just John Wick, many of the people he fights also sustain life-ending injuries but keep on fighting. At least until Wick eventually kills them outright. A bullet or knife to the brain seems to work the same there as in our reality.
EVIDENCE #2: CURRENCY DOESN’T MAKE ANY SENSE
It’s cool that the assassin society established its own currency for use within its system. However, the value of the currency in exchange for goods and services makes absolutely no sense in our reality. In the films, one coin was used to purchase two nights in a swanky, exclusive assassins hotel. One coin bought an exquisite, custom-fitted, bullet-proof suit. One coin was used to buy two cocktails. One coin was used for a tip.
For an entire (assassin) economy to be based on one coin without any set value, the currency would collapse. One coin equals one purchase or service. A turkey club sandwich at The Continental would cost one coin. Purchasing a car would presumably be one coin. Let’s say a successful kill by your average assassin pays out 25 gold coins. That means the assassin could purchase 25 goods or services with their reward. Think about how many items you buy separately in just a week.
There is a worldwide currency system outside the assassin world. Even the assassination bounties are set in the “real world” currency. John Wick’s bounty was $14 million. What then is the exchange rate between the “real world” dollar when an assassin coin has a variable value anywhere between $20 and $10,000 based on goods and services purchased in the movie?
In our reality, that system of currency just doesn’t work, but in the John Wick Universe it does.
EVIDENCE #3: THE (NOT-SO-SECRET) ASSASSIN SOCIETY
The global, ancient assassin society is the biggest tell that events are occurring in an alternate reality. The assassin society is supposedly older and larger than any government on the planet according Chad Stahelski, the director for all three John Wick films. Using the U.S. federal government as a comparison, there are more than two million federal employees (not including the U.S. Postal Service). When you add in all workers (such as contractors), the federal government employs over nine million people.
Just using the low-end of the potential number of active assassins in the John Wick Universe — say 2 million — that is a lot. Let’s assume assassins, on average, need to make one kill a month to make ends meet. That’s 2 million people assassinated each month for a total of 24 million assassinations in a year worldwide.
According to recent data, 150,000 die each day worldwide for a total of 54.7 million deaths per year. In the John Wick Universe, assassinations would account for half of all deaths, or maybe assassinations are in addition to the total normal death count in our reality. Either way, assassination would be the leading cause of death in the John Wick Universe.
As we saw in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, when Wick made his way through New York City, assassins were everywhere. In our reality, how could a city sustain the livelihoods of hundreds, if not thousands of assassins? Bodies would be piling up in the streets.
The assassin society is so huge and powerful that it operates outside of normal laws. Police are hands-off despite there being millions of assassinations each year. When Officer Jimmy shows up at John Wick’s house, he acknowledges that Wick is an assassin. When Jimmy learns that the events going on are assassin business, he leaves.
In the John Wick Universe, the assassin society could not be a secret because so many people would die by assassination that it would be common knowledge. When you throw in the organized crime establishment which the assassin society supports, we see the foundation for society in the John Wick Universe is organized crime and murder.
IT’S AN ASSASSIN’S WORLD AFTER ALL
There are other bits of evidence that point to the John Wick franchise being outside of our reality, but the three pieces of evidence presented here are sufficient to prove that John Wick is set in another universe. It’s not merely an alternate timeline like The Man in the High Castle. The human body in the John Wick Universe is too durable, the assassin society too ancient, and currency value too alien.
John Wick may be classified an Action Thriller, but the correct category for the series should be Science-Fiction Fantasy. The John Wick Universe is a fun place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there.
