Welcome to another episode of BIRD PROTOCOL, a podcast where we just keep leveling up, expanding our lore, and toppling untouchable crime syndicates on a quest for revenge much like the titular character of the movies we’ve been watching. This week, we look back on an excellent sequel and the second film in the “John Wick” series directed by Chad Stahelski, “John Wick: Chapter 2”. Make no mistake, this movie absolutely rips. Maybe even more than the first one. We discuss early on in the episode just how hard it is going to be to rank these movies at the end of this series because they all kinda go crazy. There’s a lot of general Wick talk but we try to keep it related to this film as we have two more movies to cover. So, join us as we break down what we love about this iteration of Wick and unpack the many, many dope aspects of the film including the plot, sick montages, world-building, pencils, fight choreography, Common, and more.

Released in 2017, this sequel sees John pulled further back into the world of assassins due to an unbreakable vow he made to complete his “impossible task” but, instead of taking the fight to the Russians (who briefly make an appearance), he’s now facing off against the smarmy sister-killing head of the Italian Camorra crime family and his mute bodyguard along with a handful of other rogues and assassins including a vengeful bodyguard named Cassian and a lady with a violin. There’s a shootout in a busy subway station, a shootout in an underground tunnel, some house of mirrors beatdowns, one of the sickest final scenes in an action movie ever made, and John uses his car to murder a few dudes. We also get to see John travel to Italy and get a fun montage while he buys a new suit and samples some “wine”. While there, someone asks if he’s there to kill the Pope. It’s hilarious. As with the first film, there’s lots of highly choreographed violence, humour, and a surprising number of people moonlighting as contract killers who all seem to be content chilling (until they are activated via cellphone). Where are the police? We don’t know. Plus, we’re introduced to the idea that most of the homeless people in New York work for Larry Fishburne as secret assassins. A+ world building. We’re not joking. This is good stuff.

In this episode, we break down the film’s plot, share our thoughts about what makes it great, discuss the merits of finding filmmakers who actually care about what they’re making and why that almost always translates to something amazing, unpack what this film and the “John Wick” series does so well, and so much more. This movie does something super smart with how it sets up payoffs and uses callbacks which becomes a continued motif across the whole series. We spend a while talking about why it is such a smart move. Plus, we share some insane things we learned about the film like how Keanu Reeves is really him. It’s a fun episode about a movie that we both love. Tap in with us or you’ll be marked as excommunicado. We’ll be back next week with Chapter 3!

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