John Wick

At a gas station, Iosef Tarasov tries to buy John's Mustang and is told no. That night he breaks into the house with his crew, beats John, kills Daisy and takes the car. At Aurelio's chop shop the car gets recognized and Iosef gets punched: Aurelio tells John who the kid is.

Iosef is the son of Viggo Tarasov, head of the city's Russian mob. Viggo explains to his son that John was the Baba Yaga, the man you sent to kill the boogeyman. John only got out after completing an impossible task for Viggo, so he could be with Helen. At home, John sledgehammers through his basement floor and digs up guns and gold coins.

John kills the hit squad Viggo sends to his house and checks into the Continental, the hotel where assassins can't do business. Winston, the manager and an old friend, tells him where to find Iosef. Viggo puts a price on John's head and hires Marcus, John's old mentor, who quietly protects him instead.

The assassin Ms. Perkins breaks the rules and attacks John inside the hotel. John burns Viggo's money stash in a church, kills Iosef and loses Marcus, executed by Viggo. At the harbor, he kills Viggo but is badly hurt. He breaks into a vet clinic to patch himself up and takes home a pit bull that was about to be put down.

After getting the Mustang back from the Tarasovs, John gets a visit from Santino D'Antonio. Santino holds a marker, a blood oath John swore in exchange for help with the impossible task. John refuses, and Santino blows up his house. Winston reminds him a marker can't be refused.

In Rome, the job is Gianna, Santino's sister, who has just taken a seat on the High Table. She takes her own life and John finishes it. Santino puts out a contract on him. After fighting Cassian and Ares, John finds Santino hiding at the Continental and kills him on the grounds, breaking the hotel's most sacred rule. Winston declares him excommunicado and gives him an hour's head start.

With $14 million on his head, John runs through New York and asks for help from the Director of the Ruska Roma, who raised him. She sends him to Casablanca, where his old friend Sofia, who owes him a marker, takes him to someone who can reach the Elder, the one who sits above the High Table.

After nearly dying in the desert, John finds the Elder, cuts off his ring finger and hands over his wedding ring as a sign of loyalty. The price of forgiveness is killing Winston. Back in New York, John chooses to fight alongside Winston against the High Table's soldiers. During a parley, Winston makes a deal and shoots John, who falls off the Continental's roof. His body ends up with the Bowery King, who was punished too. Both are furious with the High Table.

The Ruska Roma's Director sends John after Eve Macarro, a ballerina and assassin trained by the Ruska Roma, who has gone after the cult that killed her father and is putting an old truce at risk. John catches up to Eve, wins the fight and, instead of bringing her back, understands why she's doing it. He gives her until midnight to finish what she started and ends up helping from a distance.

John kills the Elder in Morocco. The High Table gives full power to the Marquis Vincent de Gramont, who demolishes the New York Continental, kills Charon and calls in Caine, a blind old friend of John's, to hunt him. In Osaka, his friend Shimazu Koji dies protecting him.

Winston suggests an old way out: challenge the Marquis to a duel. To do that, John has to get back into the Ruska Roma family in Berlin, where he kills Killa. The duel is set for sunrise at Sacré-Cœur, and John fights his way across Paris, helped by Caine and the bounty hunter Mr. Nobody, up all 222 steps. In the duel, Caine wounds him badly. When the Marquis takes the final shot himself, John uses the bullet he held back and kills him. Free, John sits on the steps and collapses. Later, Winston and the Bowery King visit a grave with his name next to Helen's.

John Wick was created by screenwriter Derek Kolstad, and director Chad Stahelski was Keanu Reeves's stunt double on The Matrix. The nickname Baba Yaga comes from a witch in Slavic folklore. His birth name is Jardani Jovonovich, and the tattoo on his back reads Fortis Fortuna Adiuvat, fortune favors the bold. The character also showed up in the games Payday 2 and Fortnite.