John Wick: Chapter 4’s post-credits scene keeps the action rolling
John Wick is back for another life-and-death struggle in his biggest (and longest) film yet. But if you stick around for all John Wick: Chapter 4‘s almost 170 minutes, you will at least get a small extra reward at the end.
The latest installment in the series about the assassin who just wants to hang up his guns and live his life in peace has a scene at the end of the credits. It’s not long, and it’s not entirely pivotal to the plot, but it’s thematically relevant, co-writers Michael Finch and Shay Hatten told Polygon in a recent interview. It’s pretty cool too. Either way is reason enough to stick around. But if you can’t, or if you just want a little explanation, here’s what happens John Wick: Chapter 4‘s post-credits scene.
[Ed. note: This story contains spoilers for all of John Wick: Chapter 4, both before and after the credits.]
John Wick: Chapter 4 solemnly ends with John’s funeral. (No, it’s not clear if he’s really dead.) But that’s not all the movie has in store. After the credits, we see Caine (Donnie Yen) on his way to his daughter with a bouquet of flowers. While walking through a crowd, Akira (Rina Sawayama) walks up to him and unsheaths a knife, preparing for the death of her father, Shimazu (Hiroyuki Sanada), whom Caine killed earlier in the film.
Finch and Hatten told Polygon that her hunger for revenge is the focal point of the scene.
“One of the themes of this piece was to demonstrate the vertical reach of the table,” Finch said. The High Table is the much-discussed shadowy organization that rules assassins in the John Wick movies. “Due to the events taking place at the Osaka Continental, she is going full steam ahead. What she doesn’t understand, and what we’re trying to show, is that once you get into the Table, you can’t get out. She was imprisoned when Caine said: […] ‘I will wait for you.’ He knows she’s coming because she’s part of the Table. […] She goes all in, she goes after Caine for revenge. Her story is, in many ways, the story of John Wick.”
This cycle of revenge and violence is crucial to the themes of the John Wick series, Hatten said.
“It shows the cyclical and brutal nature of this world, that once you’re in it, it’s impossible to get out,” Hatten said. “I think that’s why we empathize with John so much. No matter how many people he kills, you know, he didn’t really have a choice. He fell into this life, and now he’s just trying to get out and honor his wife’s memory. But it is really challenging to do.”
While this all plays into the themes of the series, including revenge and the idea of the High Table sitting above even the most legendary assassins serving below, it’s also just an exciting little cap of the film’s story – or perhaps a tease. of what’s to come for the future of the series.