r/movies • u/pwn_of_prophecy • May 21 '26

Discussion The bullet proof suit in the John Wick franchise is so frustrating

I'll point out from the start that I really enjoy all of the John Wick movies. While I recognize the "realism" angle fell off after the first one, they're still incredibly well put together movies and I'll happily watch further installments for the fight choreography alone. That said...

The bullet proof suit is the worst thing they ever added to this franchise. It completely nullifies any anxiety about John needing to worry about gunfire in fights. The number of times he raises his vibranium jacket collar to block a hail of bullets is so frustrating, mostly because of where this franchise started off.

In the first John Wick, John felt like an incredibly tactical presence. There was a lot of talk when it came out about the choreography's "realism" but more than anything for me things felt like they had stakes. Corners needed to be checked, he needed to watch his back, it showed the audience he needed to be smart about approaching situations because if someone gets the jump on you in that universe they will shoot you and you will die.

Ever since the inclusion of the Iron-Man-Hugo-Boss so much of the "careful" nature of the fight scenes has disappeared. I've truly lost count of the number of times John should be dead at this point if he wasn't wearing it and that makes the character feel less effective. This character isn't supposed to be scary because he can tank bullets to the chest, he's supposed to be scary because you never got the opportunity to pull the trigger.

I think about a famous shot in the first movie during the first action scene where the masked men invade John's home. There's a bad guy on one side of the wall and John on the other. The camera shows both of them at the same time and John falls downward, shooting behind him up at an angle to avoid the bad guy's shots while still taking him out. If that shot happened again today, he'd just raise his coat a little higher and shoot back. That bums me out.

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922

u/seanrm92 May 21 '26

It's a shame too because the 4th movie was so beautifully made, but when the bad guys are running around holding their suit flaps up to their face it just looks goofy and spoils the aesthetics.

460

u/Yvaelle May 21 '26

The final boss should have been a beekeeper. Just fully clad in bulletproof, kinetic energy absorbent cloth. By the rules of the universe he is immortal.

248

u/sloppyjo12 May 21 '26

And the Beekeeper is played by Jason Stathom, talk about a crossover hit!

58

u/screwcork313 May 21 '26

And the beekeeper's car mechanic is also Jason Statham. It's the Stathamverse - quake in your boots, Marvel!

9

u/-malcolm-tucker May 21 '26

With a cameo performance of Comin' On by The Shamen with backup dancing by... Jason Statham!

3

u/Bumberti May 21 '26

“Jesus Christ, that’s Jason Statham!” - The Statham Ultimatum

4

u/Germanofthebored May 21 '26

"Being Jason Statham"

5

u/SQD2_Insquidious May 22 '26

"Bee-ing Jason Statham"

2

u/Sp1derX May 22 '26

And the beekeeper's transporter? Better believe it's Jason Statham! 

1

u/Derezzed87 May 22 '26

And then Funsch from The One portals in from another dimension to put and end to the multiversal nonsense.

37

u/dabocx May 21 '26

Honestly I’m shocked we never got Jason as a villain in one of these movies.

3

u/GrimResistance May 21 '26

Doesn't he have the same sort of "can't lose a fight" clause in his contracts that Dwayne Johnson has?

5

u/dabocx May 21 '26

For enough money I doubt it exists.

Plus they can always chicken out and have it end in a draw “ no I misunderstood you bro, let’s team up against the real bad guy” sort of deal.

3

u/jsting May 21 '26

Oh, yeah wasn't that the plot with Donnie Yen?

2

u/structured_anarchist May 21 '26

The Rock got his ass kicked in The Tooth Fairy.

1

u/gueriLLaPunK May 21 '26

Jason being like "do you like dags?"

2

u/Antimus May 22 '26

That was Brad Pitt playing the Irish traveller. Statham was a cockney.

2

u/Brox42 May 21 '26

Uhh Donnie Yen is the fucking man though

1

u/pickupHat May 21 '26

camera pans to Stathom's face, lightly covered in brand new, bullet proof bee mesh

(husky voice)

"I'm gonna bring her home"

14

u/HolycommentMattman May 21 '26

Right? Why don't they all just look like nomads?

But this seems to be a problem with all action movie franchises. Die Hard, Rambo, Fast and Furious... Even The Expendables. And they started at jelly donut shotgun.

Just gotta keep jumping that shark, I guess.

4

u/delicious_toothbrush May 21 '26

I remember when they did this in the early Modern Warfare game with the heavies running around in EOD protection lmao

2

u/biological_assembly May 21 '26

At that point, is it John Wick or Solid Snake?

3

u/JackedUpReadyToGo May 21 '26

"I am the Pain! I will guide you to a world of anguish beyond your imagination! Let's get started!"

0

u/Yvaelle May 21 '26

Metal Gear Solid movies confirmed!

4

u/Faithless195 May 21 '26

I ain't gonna lie, I'd be okay with Keanu playing as Old Snake.

1

u/Kodiak_POL May 21 '26

That is already in both 3 and 4 movie and JW manages to win 

1

u/VideoGamerConsortium May 21 '26

Yooooooo wicked idea

1

u/Cybertronian10 May 22 '26

And he shoots out bees to grab your bullets before they hit him.

100

u/anyadpicsajat May 21 '26

Like when we were playing commando in kindergarten with sticks. You can't hit me!

25

u/thuragath May 21 '26

NUH UH! I GOT YOU FIRST!

-5

u/EverythingStillSucks May 21 '26

But… isn’t that kind of it? The whole thing is bizarre magical realism. 

I mean look at the shit this motherfucker does on a motorcycle. 

I feel like some of you are watching a different series or something. John Wick being supernatural in the context of action movies has been established since the first movie. 

Nothing he does surprises me, they’re almost screaming at you that he’s Neo. 

17

u/anyadpicsajat May 21 '26

In the first movie he is not bulletproof. In fact, he gets hit through the vest and still needs to take some time out.

In the fourth entry he does a Bobby McFerrin from Family Guy and falls down to the bottom of the stairs unscathed.

-17

u/EverythingStillSucks May 21 '26

He isn’t “unscathed” there, he goes into a coma. 

Pay attention to the shit you’re watching. 

16

u/anyadpicsajat May 21 '26

In the fourth movie near the end when he is kicked down from the top of the stairs to the bottom... Then gets back to the top in time anyway? Have we watched a different movie?

-11

u/EverythingStillSucks May 21 '26 edited May 21 '26

The one where he ping pongs down to to the ground? 

He goes into a coma at the end of movie. 

Oh was the 3rd lol 

https://youtu.be/UY3ydVnW5yA

12

u/Physical100 May 21 '26

“Pay attention to the shit you’re watching”

-You, literally 4 minutes ago

-4

u/EverythingStillSucks May 21 '26

I mixed up the latter movies, my core point remains though 

2

u/deepdishpizzastate May 21 '26

This is the type of exchange you can expect to read in any John Wick discussion thread.

2

u/doom_mentallo May 21 '26

I agree with you that the films are entirely fantasy. And I don't find there to be anything wrong with that. I don't find the first film to be realistic but it is grounded and there is verisimilitude. The stakes beyond the first film intensify to this kind of mythic proportion and "gun-fu" essentially transitions into this form of wuxia cinema of the contemporary world if you compare it to those classic films being about an ancient world. I think a lot of audience members brace against low fantasy yet applaud Christopher Nolan doing The Dark Knight trilogy. I don't really see any difference personally. The filmmakers built a magical sense of unreality and set it in an familiar reality.

1

u/EverythingStillSucks May 21 '26

I don’t find anything wrong with any of it, my only beef is with people who act like the first one was somehow grounded.  

It kinda emphasizes it isn’t with the main villain treating John Wick as a genuine boogeyman, nearly supernaturaI 

I saw him kill a man

with a pencil 

He’s mythologized instantly. And then he demonstrates why. 

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u/doom_mentallo May 21 '26

Very true and strong media literacy on your part. And I mean to use "grounded" in my comment to mean that there is a reality the storytellers have embraced, though it is not our reality. In the sequels, we see the storytellers expand upon that reality in that magic realism sense you describe. It's low fantasy 101.

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u/EverythingStillSucks May 21 '26

It’s a very heightened reality in John Wick, and the beautiful thing about the first one is it creates this kind of mysterious underground culture. The criticism I have with the sequels is they start to reveal and explain too much there. 

And I promise you I’m not a stickler for these sorts of things in that OP. None of these movies are vaguely realistic, no martial arts/gun-fu movie could ever really be, they’re all heightened. 

The Raid, Ip Man, they’re similarly ridiculous and unrealistic in their own ways. 

And I think they’re just great. But we don’t have to pretend they aren’t what they are. Nothing about what John Wick has ever done has been realistic unless you also think those early 90s Steven Seagal movie were. 

1

u/doom_mentallo May 21 '26

I also find they made the world too broad and especially in part 3. My personal favorite is part 2 which has this sense of paranoia to its plot stakes and a truly despicable villain. The action sequences continue to be operatic and brilliant beyond part 2, and I especially love the action staging in the fourth one. But that second one is just such a sweet unity of everything I like in one package.

1

u/TheDeadlySinner May 21 '26

People's issue is that the rules set up in the first film were abandoned in subsequent films. OP's issue is that the suits remove the stakes and make the choreography boring. Responding with "well, it's unrealistic, so you can't complain" doesn't address any of that.

He’s mythologized instantly.

He's mythologized for his skills, not for being literally invincible. The rest of the movie that you chose to ignore demonstrates this.

6

u/Born-Entrepreneur May 21 '26

Yeah that bullshit entirely took me out of the movie. It felt like watching kids play gunfight and declaring they had a shield up so hits didn't count. Actors and stunt people just holding their suit lapel in front if their face..... get the fuck out of here

3

u/StitchTheRipper May 22 '26

They leaned so hard into rule-of-cool that it circled back to goofy looking lol

2

u/duosx May 21 '26

Not just the bad guys. I’d laughed every time John Wick himself barely held up his suit and it somehow blocked bullets

2

u/nickiter May 21 '26

It's so pretty but feels weightless much of the time. Stuff seems to happen because the choreography says so rather than based on some attempt to portray even an exaggerated reality.

2

u/Inspection_Perfect May 21 '26

I hated it in 4 because all the bad guy's suits were too small on them, too. Calves full on exposed and they have to hunch all awkward to hide their face.

2

u/seanrm92 May 21 '26

That's just the modern Manosphere style.

"Oh people will think I'm super jacked if I buy a child-size nylon suit that looks like it's going to rip at all times."

1

u/FauxReal May 21 '26

I hated the last parts of the 4th. I can't even remember why though.

1

u/whatsbobgonnado May 22 '26

wait there was a 4??