Every movie in the ‘John Wick’ franchise, ranked

4. John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023)

John Wick’s most recent outing sends the retired assassin on a quest to free himself from the High Table once and for all, which puts him on a violent collision course with old friends and new enemies, including Bill Skarsgård, Hiroyuki Sanada (Shōgun), and martial arts legend Donnie Yen.

While all the John Wick films are bone-crunching shots of adrenaline, the action in Chapter 4 is elevated by the presence of Yen and Sanada, who slip seamlessly into this beautifully violent world alongside Reeves. These actors fit so well, in fact, that Yen’s character is reportedly headed for a spinoff. 

Chapter 4 is the longest and most relentlessly over-the-top John Wick entry (can one man really survive getting hit by that many cars and falling down so many stairs?), but as EW’s critic wrote, it’s “patently ridiculous and mostly very fun: the platonic ideal of a globe-hopping meatbag action thriller taken to its gloriously illogical extreme.” 

Where to watch John Wick: Chapter 4: Starz

3. John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017)

In the series’ second outing, our hero reluctantly comes out of retirement to fulfill a blood oath to an Italian crime lord (Riccardo Scamarcio). And it’s a good thing he did; said Italian crime lord covets the power of the High Table, and Wick is just the guy to stop him.

Following up a surprise hit is a challenging task, yet where many have failed, franchise director Chad Stahelski succeeded. EW’s critic praised this “gratuitously crunchy ode to choreographed ultraviolence via the bullet, the bare knuckle, and the everyday No. 2 pencil” for its depiction of  21st-century ronin who live by a strict code of conduct. 

That said, this installment trades a little plot for a lot of action while diving deeper into the underground world of the assassins’ guild. As a result, the story skims over the emotional surface of our lead while he performs impossibly stylish acts of mayhem. Still, it’s hard to complain about a movie that introduces Laurence Fishburne’s Bowery King and Common’s Cassian.

Where to watch John Wick: Chapter 2: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)

2. John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum (2019)

The third John Wick movie is bigger and more violent than its predecessors as Wick finds himself “excommunicado” from the assassins’ guild and forced to go on the run with a $14 million bounty on his head. By now, the rules, history, and alliances in the assassins’ club have grown almost dizzyingly complex, but Halle Berry and her attack dogs add a jolt of energy to the boys’ club.

As the body count spirals, Wick starts and ends Parabellum in pretty much the same place: on the run from the High Table. But it hardly matters when the movie is “hands down, the most giddily brutal and bananas film in the series to date,” as EW’s critic wrote in his review. This is, after all, the film where Wick uses a horse as a weapon before galloping through the streets of New York. 

Where to watch John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)

1. John Wick (2014)

A dog died, a legendary assassin un-retired, and a lot of people died. Like, a lot.

That’s the premise of John Wick boiled down to its most fundamental elements, and boy, does it work. Alfie Allen’s (Game of Thrones) Russian gangster character had no idea that by killing the puppy gifted to John by his late wife, he’d set off a global spree of bloody, balletic violence. While Daisy (RIP!) was taken too soon, audiences worldwide have delighted in the gorgeous retribution that followed. 

The film that introduced the world to Reeves’ widowed assassin is a little shorter, a little smaller, a little cheaper, and a little grittier than the films that would follow it. It was also an unexpected treat for moviegoers who weren’t sure what to expect from the actor’s return to the action genre. The answer: raw, uncut cinematic fun. (“I once saw him kill three men in a bar with a pencil. With a f—ing pencil!”)

More importantly, John Wick is the film that launched one of the most thrilling franchises in ages, laying the groundwork for a soon-to-be-expanded world of shadowy safehouses and secret societies while providing Reeves with a role that fits him like a well-tailored black suit.

EW’s critic was dazzled when the first film exploded into a mega-hit that nobody saw coming, writing, “John Wick is not only a return to badass form for the actor, it’s also one of the most excitingly visceral action flicks I’ve seen in ages.”

Where to watch John Wick: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)