The Word Count of John Wick’s Dialogue in the Fourth Installment
One of the defining traits of Keanu Reeves character in the ‘John Wick’ series is his inclination towards action over words. This makes it all the more fascinating to discover that the actor only speaks 380 words in the upcoming ‘John Wick 4’.
This figure is significant when we consider the movie’s runtime. It prompted ‘The Wall Street Journal’ to conduct an analysis of Reeves’ dialogue and draw some intriguing conclusions. For example, the trailers feature roughly 10% of John Wick’s dialogue, indicating that he has more lines in the trailer than in the movie’s first 25 minutes.
Moreover, approximately one-third of his lines consist of the single word, “Yeah.” His longest dialogue is a response to Hiroyuki Sanada’s character and is limited to the interaction,” You and I left a good life behind a long time ago, my friend.” It is noteworthy that the 380-word count is significantly lower than the 484 words he spoke in the first ‘John Wick’ movie.
The director of the film, Chad Stahelski, disclosed that the precise reason for Reeves’ minimal dialogue is the actor’s decision. “Reeves eliminated about half of the dialogue written for her character in the initial script,” he explained. According to co-writer Michael Finch, working with Reeves made him realize how committed the actor is to minimizing his on-screen conversations.
In conclusion, it is fascinating to see John Wick’s efficient use of dialogue throughout the series, with the upcoming fourth installment being lower in word count than any of the previous movies.
