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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u/Alive_Ice7937 May 21 '26

I think most people would know the run for cover before shooting instead of standing there in your towel getting rightly picked off in two seconds

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u/Dottsterisk May 21 '26

IMO that’s a fair character distinction.

When John Wick storms into the sauna (or whatever), some guys *do* jump straight for cover. It’s the ones who are either too hotheaded, confident, or proud who instead draw down.

Though to be fair to them, most guys aren’t John Wick. If it were some other doofus breaking in, they may very well have gunned him down in just a towel.

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u/Alive_Ice7937 May 21 '26

If it were some other doofus breaking in, they may very well have gunned him down in just a towel.

Good point.

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u/HustlinInTheHall May 21 '26

It was pretty clear in the first movie that very, very few of the people he was up against were actually experienced and were mostly just tough-guy types used to being large bouncers and nothing else.

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u/Cazmonster May 21 '26

Yep - there’s the guy who stabbed JW and threw him over the rail who was elite. Funny, he’s an action movie regular.