the premiere of John Wick 4: Baba Yaga makes it very clear the success that the franchise starring Keanu Reeves has achieved. What began as a story of a retired assassin who returns to action after having his dog killed by a mobster’s son has grown enormously to the point of becoming an international mega-hunt and also a money-printing machine, given the ever-growing box office of each of the movies.
But Wick is not the first character to be involved in this type of plot and will not be the last. In fact, the great merit of the series was to resume a style of story that has always been very successful in action cinema and that was a little forgotten in recent years and that has returned with force since then.
So if you’re a fan of the franchise John Wick and want to watch more movies like this, the Canaltech listed some titles that also focus on assassins or retired agents who, for some reason, need to return to the killing game with their very specific set of skills.
8. RED: Retired and Dangerous
We start our list with a film whose proposal is literally that — even if more focused on comedy. But don’t be fooled, because RED: Retired and Dangerous it does not give up the unbridled action and does it very well when bringing a group of mortal elderly.
Starring Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren and John Malkovich, the feature shows these secret agents who have retired and left behind the life of espionage and secret operations. But that changes when the CIA itself decides to eliminate them for considering that these old men know too much about the agency’s dirty secrets.
RED: Retired and Dangerous is available on Prime Video, Star+, Lionsgate+ e Globoplay.
7. Wild Hunt
In addition to the return to action, another common point in these plots to the John Wick it is the fact that there is always someone or something very dear to the protagonist who is threatened by the villain. And, most of the time, that target is just a familiar — as happens in Wild Hunt.
The film starring Gina Carano (The Mandalorian) features an ex-soldier who leaves the Army to pursue a quiet life in the interior of the United States. After her father’s death, she decides to return home and take on this more peaceful lifestyle with her family. The problem is that she doesn’t have a single day of peace and her son ends up being kidnapped by a mysterious group.
Thus, she is forced to put that retirement aside and use not only her field knowledge, but also the expertise of having grown up in those forests when it comes to hunting down bandits and making them pay for messing with the wrong woman. .
Wild Hunt is available at Netflix.
6. Rambo: Last Blood
And of course, even one of the great action movie icons of all time also flirted with this story of the veteran who returns to action. In fact, the entire franchise Rambo revolves around this idea, as the character is a soldier who survived the Vietnam War and who, film after film, is forced into a new conflict.
However, it is in Until the end that we enter in the greatest spirit John Wick possible. The fifth and final chapter of Sylvester Stallone’s series brings the hero trying to leave the past behind and living as a rancher on the border between the United States and Mexico. And it’s when a friend is kidnapped by a Mexican gang, Rambo decides to show the world why he is this legend that everyone knows.
Rambo: Last Blood is available at Netflix e no Telecine.
5. Undercover
Even one of the biggest brucutus of today has played this retired agent who needs to show his claws again. In Departed, Jason Statham lives a quiet employee of a high security company. Quiet and head down, he’s the kind of person who doesn’t want to mingle with his colleagues, just do his job and leave.
However, it is when he and his companion are the targets of an attempted robbery that the protagonist shows that he has skills that no one knows about and an even more mysterious past. In reality, he is a crime boss trying to avenge his son’s murder and who is now in the crosshairs of a group of ex-military criminals.
infiltrated is available for purchase and lease at Google Play, Amazon, iTunes e Microsoft Store.
4. Anonymous
A film that follows a very similar script is Anonymous, starring Bob Odenkirk. the star of Better Call Saul lives a peaceful and quiet family man, one of those who avoids confusion and listens to silent abuse — being that person almost invisible in everyday life. But things change when his family is threatened.
After a robbery, he lets out all that violence that he kept hidden for so long and we discover that this very ordinary man hides a very deadly past and will show everything he is capable of to save the one he loves — including revealing a side that can scare his heart. woman and children.
Anonymous is available on Telecine.
3. The Protector
One of the greatest hits of Denzel Washington’s career also follows this same formula. In The protector, the actor plays a former secret agent who tries to live a new life while leaving the past behind. Only we know that ghost never goes away and always comes back to haunt.
In the case, this happens when he meets a young girl who is kidnapped by a Russian gang. Thus, the hero puts retirement aside and shows that he hasn’t forgotten any of his skills when the goal is to take revenge into his own hands. And all this amazingly directed by Antoine Fuqua.
The protector is available for purchase and lease at Google Play, Amazon, Microsoft e iTunes.
2. The Professional
One of the classics of the retired assassin subgenre, The professional stands out on this list for changing the point of view of the narrative. Instead of placing the matador as the protagonist of the story, he becomes the companion of the true heroine — a teenager played by a very young Natalie Portman.
When the girl’s family is murdered by corrupt police, she goes to the next-door neighbor for help and shelter. And that’s when she discovers that Léon (Jean Reno) is a deadly and skilled assassin who will not only help the girl take revenge but will also teach her the art of killing.
The professional is available at Netflix e no Paramount+.
1. Relentless Quest
Before John Wickthe synonym of deadly and unstoppable killer was none other than Liam Neeson, the big star of the franchise Relentless Quest. He is a former government agent who abandons this life in order to spend more time with his family, more specifically with his teenage daughter.
However, when she is kidnapped during a trip to Europe, this tired old agent decides to roll up his sleeves and show that he has a very specific set of skills to find and kill each of the criminals who took his little girl.
And this is not a bluff, because the action of Relentless Quest it’s so intense and mesmerizing that it’s impossible not to get excited to see the hero destroying everything in his path. It’s such a defining role that it became a curse for Neeson: Since then, he’s been doing pretty much the same movie year after year.
Relentless Quest is available on Star+.
