Throughout the John Wick quadrilogy — and I will avoid spoilers for Chapter 4 — there are two phrases that stick out as representative of core themes. The first is something the people in power under the Table say to John: “Consequences.” The second is something these people say to each other: “Rules are what separate us from the animals”. It is My belief that these themes, despite being so present in the movies, are not what the movies are about. They are not the core theme of the movies. They are the lies told about the core theme of the movies.
First, I’d like to perform some basic class analysis of the world of John Wick. John is a worker. Sure, he has a big house and a nice car, but these aren’t tools of his trade, and they are removed from his possession easily. The guns and coins he owns are essential to his work, but he uses them only in service of his work. John’s position is much like that of a feudal master in medieval times, who would own his own house and means of production, but would still be subject to the laws of the monarchy. John is, above all else, subject to the rules of the table. John is a worker.
On the other hand, we have characters like Winston. He’s crafty, but he doesn’t make his daily bread by doing clever work. He earns it by owning the Continental. If anyone keeps the Continental running through work, it’s Charon. Winston is a member of the owning class, and while he may be friends with John, his sense of class solidarity tends to point him towards siding with the Table, who provide him with his power. Winston is bourgeois.
The idea of consequences is brought up when John makes choices that go against the table. But how did this all start? A bourgeois little prick from Russia stole his car and shot his dog. Sure, John had a choice to make about whether to seek revenge, but John was grieving and he’d been beaten bloody. He was in no place to make a proper decision. Iosef held the true agency in that situation. Iosef made a choice of his full consent and free will, and Iosef faced the consequences. The themes of John Wick 1 are simple: The bourgeois can do whatever they want, in theory, but their power will not protect them from a working class who has focus, commitment, and sheer fucking will.
John tries to get back out again, but he’s placed in an impossible situation: The Table is demanding he honour a marker which compels him to do violence upon the table. Consequences? Pah. The only person in this movie who faces consequences is Santino, who thinks his money will buy him everlasting safety, and then gets shot. John has no agency in this story, outside of his involuntary relationship to Santino as a worker. You cannot warn someone of consequences when they did not make a choice.
And what of rules, which separate us from the animals? Well, note that while John is bound by the rules and must either play by them or be hunted down, the owning class of the world of Wick always seems to have a loophole. John is excommunicado? Well, he just has to see the one above the table, who has a handy way of getting back into the system. Winston stands against the table? Well, a bit of theatrics and the death of a dozen working class assassins, and he’s invited back into the fold. Santino has a member of the High Table assassinated? Business as usual, his fellow bourgeois won’t hold it against him.
Rules don’t separate us from the animals, they separate “us” (the owning class) from the workers. They are tools the owning class uses to maintain a hierarchy where they are on top and any worker who offends them (or has the power to threaten them) is put to death. But the rules do not bind the owning class. Through his wealth, Santino can simply outlast John and bypass the rule about business in the Continental. Through his power, Winston can game the system and keep his hotel. These are privileges afforded to the rich. No such privilege is permitted for John Wick and his skill, because skill is the tool of a worker, not an owner.
These two key phrases from the John Wick quadrilogy, consequences and rules, are ideas used to keep the working class of the assassin world in check. To build a society in which John Wick can be sent to his death and will not resist. But the reason the High Table is so threatened by a man like John Wick is that he cannot be tamed, he cannot be made into a willing slave of the owning class, he knows his value as a worker. Civilising him with rules and consequences didn’t work.
And the reason for this is simple: Rules are what separate us from the animals. When we examine the actual consequences of the Table’s system of rules, we see that rules actually separate “us” (management) from the workers. This ideology builds a man like John into an animal. And a tamed dog can only be beaten for so long before it becomes vicious. The idea of consequences is a powerful tool for the rich to control workers. But the truth of consequences is that they apply equally to the rich. A revolt of the workers is a consequence. There comes a point where you cannot control a worker with blame games. Does he look civilised to you?
