John Wick 4

Among other San Diego Comic Con unveilings, the fourth instalment of the venerated John Wick series began its trailer campaign with a minute-long teaser that focuses squarely where it should: the action, with Keanu Reeves’ starring role at its centre.

The first thing we see—and hear—is Reeves’ fist against what looks to be some kind of training stick, setting up an audiovisual motif to come (fate knocking?). An ominous single note sets a backdrop for the monologue that follows as we hear Wick being asked “where this ends”. A horn blares shortly before we hear (and see) the fist again at 0:16, this time bloodying the post. An action montage follows as the monologue continues, this time with the percussion running in double time. The fist hits the post again at 0:25, in synch to the beat—and again at 0:28, and 0:30. This image and sound effect seems to recur in almost exponentially increasing fashion.

Ticking enters the arrangement at about this point, itself doubling (now at quadruple time from the original) at 0:32. The gunfire at 0:34 almost seems to respond in kind at this newly doubled pace. The fist tops off the arrangement at 0:38, cutting the music for a moment—just in time for Lawrence Fishburne’s appearance. Finally, we see the larger scene, confirming that the fist indeed belongs to John Wick, where he delivers his only line: “yeah”. Underneath this is a low synth sound effect that punctuates percussive hits and seems to harken back to the Inception sound.

A final action montage rounds the teaser out, this time replete with a consistent barrage of sound effects originating from the on-screen action. Cleverly, Fishburne’s character blows out a candle, which leads to the title card for the release date.

While relatively straightforward as a one-minute teaser, this trailer for the next instalment of John Wick shows an appropriate amount of restraint for the series and its genre. It wisely sticks to a single motif around which it successfully builds intrigue, suspense, and a musical (if particularly spartan) arrangement that operates on more than just the trope of doubling its rhythmic speed every so often. Instead, this close-up image of Wick’s fist allows us to focus even more on the sound of it hitting the training post—sonically, literally focusing on the action. That Wick only has a single word—more of an utterance—only underscores this focus as it is woven throughout the aural arrangement.

John Wick 4 arrives in theatres March 23rd, 2023.

— Curtis Perry