Each iteration of John Wick gets more elaborate with its sets, world-building, action, and more. Every quality that fans love gets amped up for the next installment. In an interview with IndieWire, stunt coordinator and second unit director Scott Rogers gave details on how the crew and cast were able to pull off the seemingly dangerous car chase in John Wick 4 at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
The final act of John Wick 4 sees three incredible sequences, including the car chase that kicks off the action of the jaw-dropping climax. To have the leading man shoot, drive, and eventually run around cars while being attacked by waves of assassins meant a year of planning. Between Rogers, Keanu Reeves, and race car driver Tanner Foust, they managed to do it. Rogers would plan it out, work with Foust to execute the stunt and teach Reeves to do it, who has done a majority of his stunts in the series, including 90% of the stunts in the latest entry.
Behind the epic car chase in John Wick 4
Reeves proved himself as a capable driver in the previous films but got to show what he was made of when Rogers came up with the idea to take the doors off the car. To showcase the actor steering, shooting, and other movements in the car, the doors were removed. This meant pairing him with the race car driver to teach him how to do everything from drifting to holding his hand out to grab a gun off the street to do what he does best: pop the heads of rival assassins.
It is one thing to have a complex scene planned out and rehearsed, so the actors and stunt crew know what to do to execute their movements; it is another to shoot it. To capture the marvelous car chase in John Wick 4 was to use a drone to weave between the cars. The driver would train with the drone controllers for them to get used to how the car would move. Then, he would train Reeves so he could do it himself while they filmed him drifting, crashing, and killing.
The camera lenses were a part of how they shot the car chase John Wick 4, but it was also to create the sequence in a safe manner. By the type of lens they used, they could make the cars seem closer or farther than they were. Between that and off-screen cones to indicate Reeves’ lane for people to not crash into him, they were able to create the most dangerous-looking scene in the series while minimizing the real danger on set.
“If you shoot with a long lens from far away with both background and foreground action, everything looks more compressed. So in the Arc de Triomphe scene, we have foreground cars and background cars going in opposite directions, and it creates a strobe effect. Even though there are ten feet on either side of Keanu’s car, it looks like he’s right in there.”
John Wick 4 is currently in theaters. The film opened up to the franchise’s best opening weekend and had its best Thursday previews. As of writing, it has grossed over $135 million worldwide.
