John Wick is not known for his speeches.
The fourth installment of the John Wick franchise is 169 minutes long, and Keanu Reeves only speaks 380 words. That’s not a lot of words for the leading role, but this is by design. Reeves and director Chad Stahelski worked with writers Shay Hatten and Michael Finch to take out half the dialogue originally written.
One of the biggest cuts came in the “duel” dialogue with the Marquis (Bill Skarsgård), where all of the lines were cut down to one word to make Wick seem like he was done with words and ready to fight.
What is the longest line for Wick in the movie?
That comes to the leader of the Osaka Continental Hotel, Shimazu Koji (Hiroyuki Sanada). Wick tells him, “You and I left a good life behind a long time ago, my friend.” Thats right. His longest line is only 14 words. That’s pretty impressive and shows us that you don’t have to say much to say a lot.
Who are we kidding? No one goes to these movies to hear the dialogue.
Author: Jason Hellerman
This article comes from No Film School and can be read on the original site.
