John Wick Analysis: Part 3 - Genre Conventions and Five Commandments

In this episode, we're going to keep diving into John Wick and analyzing all of the story elements that made this movie a masterwork. In this episode, we're going to look at the five commandments of storytelling and how it abided by it throughout the entire story to make it work. And we're going to look at the genre conventions and how John Wick abided by those as well. But first, just so you know, this is the Story Grid podcast. My name is Tim grohl. I'm the CEO of StoryGrid and a writer trying to figure out how to tell a story that works. Joining me shortly is Rachel Arsenal. She's a Story Grid certified editor and she's along to make sure I don't give the wrong answers. Just so you know, if you want to Download the entire StoryGrid analysis of John Wick, you can do that right now by going to storygrid.com wick Also right now, Sean is getting ready to start his genre blueprint training. This is a 14 week live training, which is a deep dive into genre and you're not going to want to miss it. You can go right now to storygrid.com blueprint to see more about that. Otherwise, let's go ahead and jump back in to John Wick and get started.

All right, so next up, we need to look at the five commandments of storytelling. So before we get into that, Rachel, what are the five Commandments and why are they useful?

Oh, okay. All right. This is a big topic because they use the five commandments at all levels of story and they do so many things. So I will try to give like a nice succinct version of the. The global five commandments. So the global five commandments really serve as our major way stations for the story. So what they do is they help us create an ARC for our story or help us identify an arc or a lack thereof in our work. Right. If we're looking at it, we're trying to evaluate.

Where it's at, if it has a full arc, all that good stuff. So our inciting incident, right, is the event that kicks off the story. We uphold that the inciting incident has to come from outside of the protagonist because it's something that's forcing the protagonist to change. It's something that happens to the protagonist. So the protagonist is not inciting their own anything. Something comes from outside of them to incite the story. At the turning point. At the global level, we talk about that as something that represents the failure of the protagonist's initial strategy for dealing with the inciting incident. And so what that means is when you have a protagonist who has an inciting incident happened to them, they. They are going to come up with a way of dealing with that, right? They're going to have some kind of strategy for what they think is going to solve this problem at the global turning point, which happens at the end of Act 2, that has failed. And they have to basically either they're going to have to change their tactic or they're going to double down and they're going to say, I'm going to keep doing the same thing and I'm just going to do it harder and hope that it works. And so then that leads us all the way up to our global crisis. And this is like the big question of the story. This happens sort of next to the all is lost moment in Act 3. And this is the. The major question that the protagonist has to answer. And it's sort of like this is where we see whether they transformed or whether they double down, whether they were able to transform to their environment or whether they failed to transform. Now generally that's. We. We say that generally because most stories are about protagonists who need to transform. In the case of something like status admiration, even like your worldview revelation stories that have highly integrated protagonists, there is a time like when your protagonist should be doubling down. So it's. So in that case, right? It's that they sort of refuse to compromise their morals or whatever it is. So it. It can look a little bit different depending on the kind of protagonist you have. And then the climax is where the protagonist enacts whatever decision they made in the crisis.

And that will be. Sometimes this can look a couple of different ways.

Generally, it'll sort of be the decision they make at the climax moment. And then what happens, because this is all happening in Act 3, is in Act 4, we see that in the fullest sort of expression, right? Where they pursue the villain or they enact whatever plan they have to, so they'll make that climax decision. So this is again determining whether they sort of transformed or not. And then in Act 4, they have to actually prove it, right? They went through all this change and now they have to actually enact it in the world. And that's what happens in Quadrant four. And then our resolution is the very end of the story. And it's okay, our protagonist faced a crisis. They made a climax choice. What happened? How did it go for him? Like, how did it work out for him? And that's the Sort of the basic function and the basic arc that we use with the five commandments at the global level.

All right, so what do you have? Is the inciting incident of John Wick.

I had for the inciting incident that Yosef Tarasov invades John Wick's home, stealing his car and killing his puppy.

Yep. I feel like that's pretty clear.

And, you know, one of the things that does, you know, it's a very sad moment, but it makes me laugh that, like, on screen, there are 77 kills, but they move the camera so you don't see the dog die. So. So they don't show you the dog's death.

Yes. I really appreciate that.

Yeah, I mean, that's pretty clear. You know, there was a part of me for a long time that felt like I was like, did the writer Derek. Is it Derek Colstad?

Did he.

Basically, I think, yeah.

Yeah. Did he tell say to himself, like, what is the. Like, crazy? Like, the. Not the dumbest thing, but, like, the smallest thing I could use to start off this movie. And it's like, we're gonna have a puppy die. Right? So it's not like his. It's not like they came and killed his wife. You know, it's his puppy. So. But, yeah, I think that's pretty clear. All right, so let's look at the turning point. So I have that. It's when.

Basically, when Vigo breaks the rules to try to kill John. So this is when Ms. Perkins comes into his room at the Continental. And this is the quick exchange where John says, I never knew Ms. Perkins to get out of bed for less than three, talking about $3 million. And Ms. Perkins responded. Viggo's giving me four to break hotel rules. So I feel like John takes it really personal and realizes, like this, we're no longer playing by the set of rules that I thought we were playing by. And so to me, that says, because the way I look for a turning point, too, is looking at, like, when does the protagonist realize they're not going to be able to just go back to the way things were? Right. Like, we've now reached a point where I have. I'm not going to do something and go backwards. I'm going to have to keep going forward. So that's what I had.

Yeah, I had something, like, similar in terms of, like, where it happened, but I identified it a little bit differently. So the turning point that I identified was when John fails to capture Yosef at the club because his. His original strategy for dealing with Josef has Failed. And then what happens after. Right. Is that he has to target Vigo in order to get to Yosef. So that's. So I think there's, like, a really similar.

We're seeing kind of similar things, and they're happening in similar places in the story, but they're. We're just sort of identifying slightly differently. But I think you make a really good point about the fact that when Ms. Perkins comes in, like, it is, like, a decided change in the rules that they're playing by.

Yeah. Because I was thinking.

The reason I didn't read it as the reason he went after Viggo was because he missed Joseph. Because to me, it's like, the next thing to do is, well, where is Yosef now? Now I'm gonna go find him there. Because it took me, you know, I had to, like, beat up Ms. Perkins in the first place to find out. No, no. How did he find out? Oh, Winston told him that she. That he was at the Red Circle, left him the note. Yeah. Yeah. So.

To me, it's like, okay, well, I'm gonna go find out where he is next. Where. And I think Yosef would have stayed the target until Ms. Perkins came into the room. So I didn't read him going after VGO as, like, well, now I have to do this to find Yosef. I felt it was, like, a response. And I think that's even in when.

When, you know, V go's, like, freaking out about everything that got destroyed. And he's like, you know, you. You. You know, this stuff was priceless. And John would kind of laughed and was like, yeah, I kind of enjoyed that, you know? And it's like, up till then, he wasn't going after vgo, but it's like, now it's like, well, you broke a rule to come after me, so now I'm coming after you.

Yeah. Yeah, I think that's a good point. And also. Right. That's like. That's where he gets the tip off the. Because Ms. Perkins is the one who tells him. Right. Where to find that stuff. So she sort of enables him to enact that, like, to enact a new strategy, because she kind of sells Migo down the river, too, by telling John where the. Where his stash is.

Yeah. All right, so for crisis.

Okay. So this is where I think we'll differ, because I was. You know, I left my notes the same. Even though you swayed me. But on the. On the. On the internal genre. But I have Will Jean surrender to his dark side in order to get revenge. Or will he let go of the dark side and lose his ability to get revenge? So I put this quote here where VGO says, a lot of us are rewarded for our misdeeds, which is why God took your wife and unleashed you upon me. This life follows you. It clings to you, infecting everyone who comes close to you. We are cursed, you and I. And John responds on that. We agree. So what did you have for the crisis?

I did have the exact same moment. I think that the question that is being raised, and I phrased it way more generally than you did, but the big question is, is John Wick coming back? Right. He is. And it's kind of interesting because this crisis reminds me of a few different ones that we've actually seen. So in the Guild in Year two, we've looked at the Old man and the Sea, and we've also looked at the Prestige, and you sometimes have these crisis questions that kind of, like, linger, like they're present in the whole story, where the protagonist, at some point, can sort of decide, basically decide to quit. Right? And the Old man in the Sea, he's a long period of time where he could be like, you know what? This fish isn't worth it. Like, I'm over it. I'm going home, or whatever else he could do in the Prestige, Angier could maybe get that chip off of his shoulder and decide that he's going to go make a career for himself and not keep bothering and not keep, you know, perpetuating this rivalry with. Rivalry with Borden. And so John Wick, Right. There's this constant question of, is he coming back? And what you'll see is that there is a point at which the protagonist is kind of backed into a corner, and they are forced to really decide this once and for all. And so if you have that kind of lingering question you want you. You need to sort of back them into a corner where they have to really make that decision. And that's what. That's what I.

That's what's happening here when John finally, like, has to opt in or opt out. And, of course.

Yeah, yeah.

He says, right. Yeah. I'm thinking I'm back.

Yeah. Spoiler alert. That's the climb. Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, yeah. I mean, I think this is why, like, Danielle uses a lot of times that crisis matrix of, like, looking. The crisis isn't always just one point in time. It is something that's been building throughout the entire story. And so.

Yeah, but the crisis of, are you back or not? And so what do You. So what was the climax?

So the. The basic climax is that he says, yeah, I'm thinking I'm back. And. And then. And so I see that as like just the climax moment, right. Where we see on the. On the page or like in the movie that he has decided that he's coming back. And then we see him enacting that in Act 4, when he goes after.

When he goes after Vigo, that moves into the resolution. So he kills Josef and then he goes after Vigo, and that's the five Commandments. And so.

And he gets a new dog.

Yeah, well, I think we'll cover that here in a little bit. Okay. So that's the five commandments. And again, like, looking at those five commandments, that's how we, you know, stories are always about change. And so that's how we track that change through the story. So now that we've done that, we want to look at the genre conventions and obligatory moments. So in this case, to remind everybody, our global genre is action person against person revenge.

And so we pulled together the action conventions that are available at the StoryGrid website. And so let's talk through those. So what's. What's the first convention.

So the first convention that I have in the list for an action story is you have to have a disturbed, unbalanced physical and social environment.

Yeah. Do we have that?

I think we have that in spades in this story. We are in the world of hitmen, so already. Right. There's a physical imbalance. These conventions are really setting up, making sure that the value at stake for your genre is like, half heavily contested. Right. And this is really, really fulfilling that because this is a world of.

People who kill for money. And that's definitely going to be a real threat to life. It's going to put those life and death stakes on the table. And then also as a part of the unbalanced kind of. It's a combo, I think of, like, unbalanced physical and social environment is the fact that you have powerful mobsters like Vigo who control major resources and have the power to commit crimes without repercussions. And we see that Yosef specifically.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, when actually, when I think about the disturbed, you know, the intense setting and disturbed, unbalanced setting, what actually comes to mind for me is the moment when Jimmy the cop comes to the door and, you know, he opens the door, and at first, when he's walking towards the door, he has it behind that his gun behind. John Wick has his gun behind his back. And what? I just. It's all these little moments where you're like, am I reading into it, or did they do that on purpose? Because when he first opens a door, he only opens it, like, a crack. And then he wait. He waits a beat, and then he opens it all the way so that Johnny can, like, see in. Or is it Jimmy or Johnny? Jimmy? Yeah, Jimmy the copy. So Jimmy, like, peeks around, and there's just, like, this body laying in the. In the floor. And Jimmy just, like, completely takes it in stride because he knows about John Wick. And I. To me, that's where, like, you see this crazy world bump against the real world. And there's, like, I don't know, the friction there of Jimmy just being like, all right, that's cool. I'm just. I'm just going to head out and let you do your thing, you know? And then I love, like. Because, again, you know, I'm trying to separate what I know from movies two and three and just looking at movie one. But to me, the first real glimpse we get at how this world is different is when he calls the cleaners and he drops those weird gold coins in the old man's hand, and they. And he just. They open up the van and they start cleaning up the house. And you're like, wait a second. Like, there's people that do this. You know, this isn't just like this killer, this, like, CIA assassin that, you know, is trying to live a normal life. Like, there's, like, this. It starts, like, giving you a peek into this whole world. And then, of course, you see it at the Continental and everything. But I remember that moment where, like, they open up the van and just start cleaning up the house. I'm like, what is going on? Although I do think, like, I'm, like, watching the movie. I'm like, man, a gold coin gets you everything from one drink at the bar to, like, a night at a hotel and cleaning up a dead body. Like, that coin. I don't understand the value of what one of those coins is.

Yeah, yeah.

Properly, I don't know.

All right, so next on my list is the dueling hierarchy. So a growth hierarchy is at odds with the power dominance hierarchy or a dueling protagonist and antagonist. So what do you have for that?

Yeah, I think we have a little bit of both here. And again, you know, it's. It's a bit weird to talk about the growth hierarchy, like, in a movie that's, like, about hitmen. And it's like, well, they, like, kill People. And it's. But the interesting thing, right, is that, like, the. The confines of the story is what determines, like, how we're looking at it. And so if the movie's not making specific moral judgments on it, then we are not necessarily meant to make specific moral judgments on it. Right? So, as in, this is how this world works. This is what people do. And then. But it's how you do it that that really determines what kind of actor you are in the environment. This is where we get into growth and power, dominance, hierarchy. So first, of course, we have a clear kind of dueling protagonist and antagonist. That's pretty clear between John and, like, Joseph, kind of. But really, Vigo is like the mastermind. Yosef is just kind of bumping around, trying not to die. But then in terms of the growth hierarchy, you have these things represented by. By things like bonds of loyalty, following the protocols and the rules, like we see in the Continental. That's kind of our very specific representation of that. And John represents this, right? He avoids unnecessary death. You wouldn't think so, like, just from, like, looking at it, right? But he. He keeps civilians out of it when they're fighting in the club. Like, he is only. Like, he is targeting only the guys who are from Tarasov. He. He doesn't kill Perkins when he could have. He actually lets her go. He lets Francis go as well. Right? I love that moment when he's like, hello, Francis. And Francis is like, are you drinking, John?

Yeah.

Yeah, right? And he's like, why don't you take the night off, buddy? Right. And so he has these. These loyal bonds that he follows. And his discipline and the way that he engages this specific world is representative of, like, a good actor in this world, right? How you ought to be if you occupy this world. And then you contrast that with Vigo, who is right, protecting his power and assets and using his power to maintain control over the city. He even sells out his own son in exchange for his own life. We talked about that last time. And then his son uses all of his father's resources, and he really abuses his position to get what he wants, take what he wants, take people's cars, kill their dogs, like it's no big deal. He just thinks it's all fine, and he's just using. And it's not even, like, his own power. Like, he's. He's riding right on. On his father's power and resources. And then, of course, we also have Perkins, who is willing to break Continental rules for a higher paycheck. And that is a behavior in this world that is not rewarded, and it helps us see that she is not a good actor.

Yeah, Yeah, I agree with all of that. There was a moment when, like, again, in Vigo and John's exchange, when he has John captured, where Vigo says, you're still very much the John Wick of old. And John says, am I? Vigo says, people don't change, but times they do. And so there's this, like, glimpse of, like, Vigo thinks, like.

You know, I'm. You know, I'm trying to change. I'm trying to, like, make. Make everybody more civilized. Right. And even references that later and. And kind of looks at John as, like, that's the old way that we did things, and we don't have to do that anymore. As long as I'm in charge. Right. I keep the peace. And so, yeah, I see it there, too, of just, like. It's because we talk a lot about that struggle between, you know, tyranny and freedom and. Right. Like, too much freedom and you have, you know, too much chaos, and it's bad. And too much order and it's bad. And you're looking for complexity. And you can see Vigo, like, tipping over into, like, if I. If everybody just lets me run things, everything's better and safer. And John is not playing by those rules. And so.

Yeah, so, like, even Vigo, in his own head, is telling him a story that he, you know, I think if you sat down with Viggo and had a conversation, he would see himself as the growth hierarchy. I'm trying to change things. I'm trying to become more civilized and not have these monsters out here running around killing everybody. So, yeah. Yeah, I love that. All right, so the next few conventions are pretty straightforward. We have the hero, the villain, and then we'll pause and talk about the victim again. So who's our hero?

Our hero is John Wick.

Yes. And the villain is vigorous. And then this is the one where we started talking about this before.

What is a victim in a vengeance plot? Because in most action stories, we're looking at this kind of play between, you know, the victim is being threatened by the villain, and the hero is trying to stop the villain from threatening or hurting the victim. But in a vengeance plot, the victim's already been hurt. If we look at, you know, the dog in this case. And so who do you. Who are you seeing as the victim in this story?

Because John Wick is being overtly targeted by the antagonist. I sort of see him as the victim in this case. And it's interesting because in a revenge plot, the. The victim does look like, differently. And so, again, I'm sorry, I keep referring to the Prestige because doing it in the Guild, and I have watched.

It, like, eight conversation I've had about story over the last three weeks. I've used John Wick as an example. So I'm like, it's just so deep into my head.

Perfect.

Yeah.

So in the Prestige, it's interesting because we still have this similar revenge plot, but there's a couple things happening. So, number one, Angier perceives himself as a victim, and that's really guiding a lot of his misunderstanding. But then you have victims who are collateral damage in the Prestige. So the thing about a revenge plot is that it can look a lot of different ways. I don't. I'm trying to, like, cast my memory back through the movie. And I'm. I'm not seeing, like. Besides, like, the dog, right. Who was harmed up front, who was sort of that initial victim. The only other victim I can think of is maybe like, you know, Harry. He's a victim because he gets killed by Perkins in the Continental. But mostly, I mostly think that it's Jon because he's like the overt target of the antagonist. And that's something that we've discussed before in action stories that at some point the hero becomes targeted by the antagonist. And in this case, he's kind of targeted from the very beginning, even before. Even before it. Right. Yosef even knows who he is. He's been targeted by Yosef because he's like, I like that car. I'm gonna get that car.

Yeah. The only other thing I kind of came up with was there's this. I think there is this level in a vengeance plot where.

You'Re almost like, protecting society from this person. Right? So if Yos. If you know, as the viewer of. You know, as the viewer of the movie, that if Yosef is left onto his own devices, he's going to kill somebody else. He's going to beat somebody else up. He's. It's. And he's this source of chaotic damage, too, where, again, VGO is very targeted. Vigo would not just randomly beat somebody up and take their car. Right? Where. So this. So to me, there is this level of. In a vengeance plot of like, you know, and I. And I also wonder. I mean, we don't. I don't think this is on the page. And so Danielle would not allow me to put this down as an actual analysis. But I think there. I think you know, there's probably in a lot of vengeance plots, there's a story in the protagonist's head about like, well, you know, my reason to come after them is because they, you know, killed somebody I love. But also somebody needs to stop this person because they're going to keep doing this. And so, but yeah, I do think because a lot of time, you know, that is one of the things is like throughout an action movie or an action plot, the focus of the intact of the villain has to move from not just the victim, but particularly going after the hero. And maybe in a vengeance plot, it just. That happens way earlier.

Yeah. And I just think, you know, something that's like, worth thinking about when we look at conventions in particular is like thinking about like, what sub genre of action you're in and then looking at that sub genre really specifically so you can explore the different ways that those conventions can play out and get like a deeper understanding at your, at, at the sub genre level. So that, you know, you can tell you can still abide the conventions and see how they're playing out in your specific subgenre. Because we're looking sort of broadly, Right. We have these listed as broadly for the action story, but then they get even more specific as you go down to the sub genre level. So I think that's like always a really worthy exercise of once you've identified your sub genre, looking more closely at examples in that subgenre.

Yeah. And I mean, this comes back to the reason why at Storygrid we talk so much about looking at masterworks. Right. So, and everybody always wants us to be, to like, lay out, you know, the cheat sheet for every single genre, sub genre, and, you know, 12 examples of each one. And those are the times where it's like, we may get to that one day, but for now you can do it, you know, just like if you're writing a vengeance plot action story, like watch six movies and fill out a full, you know, analysis, just like we're doing here for John Wick. Read six vengeance story books, fill out a full analysis. And then once you do that, you're going to step back and look and be like, oh my God, look at this thing that keeps showing up over and over and over.

All right, so let's look at the speech in praise of the villain. So at some point, an avatar or character must discover or point out how the villain appears unbeatable. The villains point. The reason the antagonist will not give up also must be revealed.

Yeah, so when I'm thinking about the Speech in praise of the villain. I'm. And I'm. There was probably a more overt moment that I'm like, not thinking about in the movie. But a lot of times what you'll start to see, so that you don't get anything too monology, is you'll see these sort of like broken up pieces of story that indicate to us, but basically the point of establishing the power of the villain and sort of what they're after. And it. So it tends to be like spread out over like multiple avenues and even over. Across like multiple scenes to sort of you, like, create the picture of the villain. So in the way that I was thinking about this think when, like, as you're explaining it that way, I'm like, oh, actually, I think there are probably some way more specific moments than what I'm thinking of. But I feel like in this movie, a lot of the ways that they do this is by showing. Showing the power that the villain has. Because. And this is like a. This is a. This is. You can do this in written medium. It doesn't always work as well, but because we're in like visual medium of film, it means that you can like, play with point of view so we can see what Vigo's doing. Right. When John isn't there. And we get these scenes where we're seeing his power demonstrated in the world, we're seeing what he's doing, we're seeing the resources at his disposal.

And so this is where we are able to see, like, the extent of Vigo's power. And then, of course, Vigo also confirms these things himself to John. Right. So like, when he has John captured, he's like, you had your wife, I have my son. And. And I think it's clear to John as well, even from the beginning that Viggo is going to come after him because he's trying to protect his son. So there's a lot of stuff that we sort of see and that we play with that point of view to give us that information.

What did you have, like, specific moments where Avatar sort of like let Jon know what he's up against because he's also familiar with Vigo. So I found that kind of an interesting dynamic.

Yeah.

As well.

Yeah. I think there's. What I'm looking for too is like my favorite part of whatever serves as the speech in praise of the villain is when you get to see the villain's point of view. Like, this is why they're doing things. And like, that's why a really great speech in praise of the villain. It, like, a really great speech in praise of the villain makes you think, like, yeah, I kind of get it. You know, Like, I get why they're doing this. Like, it's wrong. But, you know, that's. I could. I could get on board with that argument at some point. And I. And the one that, again, stands out to me, and I mentioned it earlier when we were talking about the turning point was when Vigo says that they're cursed, and basically we're cursed, and anybody that comes in contact with us are cursed. And John agrees with him. So I think there's this level of, like, people like us do things this way, you know, so it's like, you know, you're trying to stop. I don't know, something about setting this up is like, look, the reason I'm here and I'm doing what I do is because this is what we do and this. And I'm playing my role in this world. And so.

You know. And again, like, you know, I'm going through Heroic Journey 2.0, Sean's seminar right now. And, you know, the. The antagonist is the one that does not have the growth mindset, right? So they're the ones that stays the same, and there's always a night, some sort of nihilistic bit to them. And so that's where I feel like it comes out in Vigo, where it's like, you know, I. I'm playing my role, you're playing your role. This is how the world works. And so we get a. To me, we get a little bit more of that. Like, it's not just that he's powerful, and it's not just that he has to protect his son, but it's almost like, why would I do anything different? This is my role. Because, again, the. What makes the antagonist. The antagonist is their inability to. To grow and break frame.

Yeah, Right. Which. Yeah, that's a really good point because Vigo has sort of, like, crystallized into the kind of person that he is. Like, we don't see, like, there. Vigo's not going to change. He is not only, like, in his frame, but he has also now established himself in a position in the city. Right? And in a position of power that he doesn't have to change. And he's like, oh, why would I. Right? And so he sort of crystallizes into this character. And it's interesting then, because at the end, we start to see him, like, breaking a little bit. Right? Like, pieces of him are breaking. And rather than it being Like a frame break, it's making him double down even harder and get, like, a little bit crazier as he breaks.

Well, and. And that's where, like, when he gives up his son, I don't think anybody's surprised, right, because they set that up early when, like, he gives his son a drink and then, like, punches him in the stomach to make him puke it up and then throws a rag on the ground to make him clean it up. So, like, there's this level of, like, my son is a tool that I use and not, you know, there's no, like, loving intimacy there between him and his. His son. And. Yeah, yeah. And I. When you said that of, like, fraying around the edges because, like, what. One of the parts I love is when Wick's coming after him at the end and he's just laughing the whole time.

So he's like, what is going on? Like, would you please calm down?

Yeah.

All right, so the deadline there is a clock that establishes a limited time in which the protagonist must act to save the victim. So again, this is going to be different. Looking at a vengeance plot. Yeah.

And I think the way that this looks in, at least in this particular vengeance plot, again, I think it plays out in lots of different ways. But in this case, I think that there is an underlying deadline to this conflict because somebody's going to have to kill somebody else first. And that means that John needs to move and move quickly because Vigo's coming after him. And so he has to come after Vigo or he has to come after Josef and then Viggo, and he needs to, like, beat him to the punch. Right. It's like you or me, and I have to act quickly so that it's. So that it's me surviving and not you. So it's sort of a race of who can kill the other first. And that's where we get kind of that clock element. And then at the end, when he's trying to chase Viggo down before he gets to the helicopter as well, that's sort of like an ultra, like, ultra specific moment where there's like a very specific deadline that kind of gets established in the story.

Yep, I like that. All right, so the next one is set piece sequences. So fast paced sequences show the reader the protagonist's strengths and weaknesses as well as help the protagonist gain new skills. I mean, this is all pretty much there. The one part I wanted to ask your thought on is the part about the protagonist gaining new skills. Do you think that was a Part of this.

I don't think so. Which makes sense. Like, at least in. In the first one, I think we see. As far as I can think of, like, we only see.

Like, we see John's existing skill set.

And.

Well, what do you think about. So, yeah, there's that moment at the bar at the Continental. Where.

Is it? Addie. What's her name? Yeah, we're Addie.

Yeah.

Yeah. Where Addie says, I've never seen you like this. And he's basically like, what do you mean? And she said vulnerable. And so I wonder, like. And again, I, you know, maybe I'm reading it too much into it, but, you know, I'd love. Again, the end. We've talked about it where he doesn't pick the cute puppy who picks the pit bull. And so it's like this how. I think the. The skill he gains throughout this movie is the ability to take the emotional side that his wife opened up in him and insert it into the strength he already has. And it adds a new level to his. I don't think there was an anger in John Wick 5 years ago when he came out. And I think there's this anger that drives him, that gives him even a new level to what he's able to do. So that's the only thing I could think of because, yeah, he pretty much does what everybody expects him to do throughout the entire. Throughout the entire movie.

Yeah, I actually, I really love that. Just that addition of sort of the internal workings that are happening in. In John because he is like, he has to learn how to grieve. Like, he has to learn how to grieve in a really deep way. And so I was thinking. I was. Since I was thinking in terms of action story, I was only thinking in terms of like, very external. But because you're right, like, we don't really see him develop any new external skills. He's really. He's a highly.

Highly established, highly skilled protagonist, but sort of integrating this. He's like learning to integrate this very. This deeply personal element that he has never had before. And he's like, he's learning grief. He's learning like these. There are these. These new emotional layers that are being added to him as a character. And I actually think that's a really great. That's a really great observation. It's way better than my answer.

All right, so the last convention is the fast paced and exciting plot. So the characters are put in extreme situations and forced to take risk. I think that's. I think that's there.

Yeah, my document, I have like a single bullet underneath and just one word that says check period. It's definitely there. We're good.

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Story Grid podcast. As I mentioned at the beginning, if you want to join in to the genre blueprint, a 14 week live course being taught by Sean Coyne, you can do that right now@storygrid.com blueprint to download the complete analysis of John Wick, you can go to storygrid.com wick as always, to keep up with everything going on in the Storygrid universe, just go to storygrid.com and sign up for the newsletter. And if you want to support the show, you can do that by telling another author about the show or by going to Apple Podcasts and leaving a rating and review. As always, thanks for being a part of the Story Grid community. We will see you next week.