Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
This piece was originally published in March.
We are recirculating it now thatJohn Wick: Chapter 4isavailable to own digitally.
So isJohn Wickdead or what?
Loving Husband, the gravestone reads, just as John himself had requested earlier in the film.
Who knows, says Winston.
The King chuckles to himself as he walks away.
Winston stays behind, touches Johns grave, and mutters, Farewell, my son, in Russian.
Then he too walks away, as the camera cranes up.
And theres a hint of it as we see the dog turning off-screen.
A shadow in the distance watching them?
A telltale mop-top quietly moving into frame?
The dirt on the grave levitating mysteriously?
We see none of these things, and the credits finally start to roll.
Surely theres an end-credits stinger showing us that John Wick is still alive?
Maybe lunching with his new family in a cafe on the banks of the Arno, Bruce Wayne style?
In fact, there is an end-credits scene, but its not what we expect.
But then a hooded figure approaches him.
Its Akira (Rina Sawayama), whose father Caine killed earlier in the film.
Revenge in her eyes, she pulls a knife.
But perhaps a set-up for a sequel or spinoff of some sort.
Theres no way Lionsgate is giving this property up, especially as itsabout to make a boatload of money.
Do we really wantJohn Wickto getBourne Legacy-ed?
After all, doesnt the Bowery Kings chuckle there at the end suggest theres something more going on?
And what about the tattoo we glimpse on Winstons hand at the very end?
Its the mark of the Ruska Roma, Johns clan.
Do his words, Farewell, my son take on greater meaning?
Could Winston be John Wicks father?
No, theres clearly more to this story.
At the same time,John Wick: Chapter 4had to end this way.
Both men need to win this duel, in other words, to gain back their freedom.
The way the duel unfolds seems to indicate that John and Caine have reached a prior understanding.
Sure enough, thats what happens.
In the first salvo, each man gets the other in the arm.
At ten paces, Caine fires before John and gets him in the side of the belly.
The Marquis prepares to shoot John at virtually point-blank range, and mutters, Rules.
But wait John Wick hasnt firedhisgun yet.
(You arrogant asshole, Winston yells.
He didnt shoot!)
Hes beaten the villains at their own game.
So John has won his freedom, but hes also seemingly mortally wounded.
He asks Winston to take him home.
As he sits there, bleeding, he recalls a long-ago happy moment with his wife, Helen.
Is this John Wick being beckoned to the beyond?
On the question of God and an afterlife, John has remained noncommittal in the past.
Hes been a death-adjacent figure since the very beginning, but he has never actually had a death wish.
This is precisely the fate that John wants to avoid.
This is why he pretty much has to disappear off the face of the Earth.
And maybe evenwehave to believe that John Wick is dead.
At least for a while.
