‘John Wick: Chapter 4’ director was inspired by cult classic ‘The Warriors’
John Wick: Chapter 4 director Chad Stahelski has cited the 1970s film The Warriors as a primary inspiration for the latest Keanu Reeves film. The film premiered March 6th in London and follows the titular Wick going up against the villainous High Table.
When discussing the tone of the film, Stahelski cited the famous gang-focused film as one of his references, telling CBR: “In my teenage years, I saw The Warriors. I thought it was the coolest thing ever – all the gangs, like the Baseball Furies. It just sunk back in the back of my head”.
The Warriors follows a group of gangs rallying against each other in 1970s New York. Discussing further, Stahelski mentioned the use of music being a primary factor in the final product, going on to say: “We needed a way to consolidate all the different things. We always have that battle royale at the end of the John Wick films. I’ve never been able to do as much music as I want to in these films”.
Stahelski felt that the only way to bring music into the film was to have a plot point with a DJ during the scenes in Paris, continuing: “We saw the Eiffel Tower, and I’m like, ‘What if there’s a radio station there?’ And I’m like, ‘We’ll have a DJ. And then we’ll paint it black and get some cool tunes in there. And we’ll have this, you know, beautiful DJ doing all this stuff’”.
This is also the first posthumous release for Lance Reddick, who passed away at the age of 60 just last week.
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