‘Ballerina’ and Our 10 Burning 'John Wick' Questions
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only for new Apple Card accounts open by June 15th, 2025. To qualify, you must spend $150 or more on Nike purchases within the U.S. Offer may not be available elsewhere. Additional terms and limitations apply. Hello, welcome back to House of R. I'm Joanna Robinson. Joining me today, is that blood gushing out of her toe shoes? It's Mallory Rubin. Hey, Mallory, how you doing? Just thinking about you, thinking about the ballet, thinking about the Baba Yaga.

Thinking about the time that we saw this movie together. We did. We did do that. What a treat that was. What a treat that was. Hello. Hello. We're here to talk about the film Ballerina, which debuted this last weekend. Yeah.

to moderate success. And we will talk about all of that. And it is part of, of course, the larger John Wick universe. So Mallory and I went to go see this movie together this weekend because I was in L.A. It was Halo's birthday. And Halo was like, hey, you know how I want you to celebrate my birthday? You should go see Ballerina, the John Wick movie starring Ana de Armas. And see it we did.

And so we thought we would chat about it for a little bit, chat about the John Wick franchise for a little bit, and just give you like a little action, bright and breezy action episode here at the top of the week. We've got some questions about Ballerina and John Wick that we thought we would ask each other and see if we have any answers for each other when it comes to that. Before we get into that, let's talk about program reminders. Later this week.

And it's very exciting. It's our summer hype meter. It's time for the summer hype meter. Mallory, are you excited? How hyped are you for the summer hype meter episode?

I'm always hyped for a hype meter episode. I love a hype meter. I love a hype draft at the beginning of the year, despite consistently performing pretty poorly in them. And then I love every seasonal hype meter. I love the opportunity to look ahead to what we're excited about and what we're anticipating most, what the bad babies might be anticipating the most. I love, you know, the whole thing is a shared tradition, but I love the traditions inside of the tradition, including...

I that I do not believe we have a single time adhered to the actual definition of a season. Not once. You know, what is time? This might be like one of the closest season stretches that we get to, but it won't be exact. We'll see. So that's coming later this week. If you have things you're hyped for this summer,

We'd love to hear about them. Hobbitsanddragonsatgmail.com. And then we've got some exciting, we'll announce this in full on the Summer Hype Meter episode later this week. We've got a bunch of fun stuff cooking for the summer that we're really, really excited about in terms of like little mini series that we're doing and stuff like that. So Mallory wisely told me to save that for later in this week, but I'm just very excited about it. So I just wanted to let you know, I'm excited about our summer plans and I can't wait to talk about them on Thursday.

So that is what's coming from us later in the week. The Midnight Boys will also have their ballerina reactions up this week. They saw a ballerina as well. Mid-Edition Crew is circling How to Train Your Dragon. That is something that they are interested in. And then next week, the Midnight Boys are doing a Midnight Court Superman vs. Fantastic Four. So their own sort of debate about what's coming this summer. Okay.

Molly Rubin. Yeah. How can folks keep track of all of that? And perhaps, I don't know, if they missed your incredible performance on the Big Pick 2000 movie draft last week or anything else that they might want to keep track of. What do you think? I'll keep it simple. Follow the pods. Follow House of R. Follow the Ringerverse. Follow Big Pick. Follow whatever you want on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. And while you're at it, follow the Ringerverse YouTube channel because you can watch full video episodes of...

House of R and the Midnight Boys Pew Pew on Spotify. You can watch full video episodes on the Spotify app and on the Ringerverse YouTube channel. While you're at it, follow the Ringerverse on the social media platform if you're choosing and send us your emails. The inbox is always open, hobbitsanddragons at gmail.com. This message is brought to you by Apple Card. Earning daily cash back is simple. Use Apple Card right away with Apple Pay and earn up to 3% daily cash back on everyday purchases.

Pretty straightforward, right? Check out the Apple Card Daily Cash Calculator to see how much daily cash you can earn. Visit apple.co slash card calculator today. Subject to credit approval. Apple Card issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA, Salt Lake City branch. Terms and more at applecard.com. Spoiler today. Yes. All of John Wick. That's right. John Wick 1 through 4.

ballerina from pulling from the world of John wick. Um, and I don't have this plan, but comic books, I think around the, like all the extended television show, anything TV show that I don't think either of us watched, like all of that. Oh, you did. Nice. Okay.

A TV show that Mallory started in the last two days. Yes. Those episodes are long. There are only a few of them. They are meaty. Meaty. Hefty. All right. Well, I can't wait for your Continental-based questions then. So yeah, everything for the Wickverse is on the table here. And that is my spoiler warning. Should we go now to our opening snapshot? Let's do it.

I apologize. I mistitled this because I believe it is From the World of John Wick, Colin Ballerina, Not the Other Way Around. A very, very easy to comprehend title for this film starring Ana Darmis as Eve Macaro. Do you think that Colin, a John Wick story, just felt like off limits because of a Star Wars story? I don't know. I think they wanted to get

For SEO, they wanted to get John Wick in the front. Yeah. Yeah. It's not how I would have gone, but I, you know, I don't make movies. I just talk about them. On an Armistice is Eve Macarro, a ballet dancer slash assassin who had a traumatic thing happen to her in her childhood. Her father died and basically we see her on a revenge mission against her.

a befuddlingly accented Gabriel Byrne, um, you know, and John Wick pops in here and there to give her advice, fight her and defend her along the way. Um, so that is what we were talking about here. We've got some characters we've seen before, including Angelica Houston as the director, Ian McShane as Winston Scott, um, the late great Lance Reddick, um,

In his last on-screen performance, posthumously released. It was wonderful to see him. And then just like, he's lovely in this movie. And it was, you know, he's not in it much, but when he's there, it's great. And it just reminded me of what a loss it is. So great to see him.

This film was directed by Len Weissman, allegedly. Len Weissman directed the best known for the Underworld franchise and for somehow managing to marry Kate Beckinsale after directing her in the Underworld franchise. Good job, Len. Per rumors, and we'll talk about the reshoots and the rumors thereabouts, also kind of directed by Chad Stahelski, who directed the other John Wick movies. So the provenance of the directorial efforts here

a little questionable. Screenplay by Shea Hatton, and this is where it gets a little interesting because Ballerina was a spec script that Shea Hatton wrote. Shea Hatton from Oakland, California. Shout out Bay Area. Ballerina was a spec script that he wrote years and years and years ago, inspired by the John Wick 2 trailer. Fun inspo for a movie. And basically, based on the strength of that spec script...

um got hired to work on john wick three and john wick four so he's accredited screenwriter on john wick three and john wick four and in making john wick three they basically backdoor piloted yes ballerina into john wick three parabellum um

And that is something I discovered when I watched John Wick 3 for the first time after I saw Ballerina and everything made much more sense to me. But there's also a bunch of other writers that are credited by the WGA. And it's just sort of like always interesting to think about how many writers may have touched a particular project. Anything, what do you want to tell us about opening weekend, Mallory? And how are things looking for our girl Ballerina? Yeah.

Your girl, Eve, your favorite cinematic character of all time. My girl, Eve. Let's talk box office. So we've opened to 50 million. 50 million opening weekend on a 90 million budget. 24.5 million domestic. Usually we record early Mondays for movie pods, but we're on Tuesday morning here. So these numbers feel like the numbers. Solid. Yeah. So...

That is, Joanna, that is, how would you assess that box office performance? Moderate? I would say it's being characterized as not successful by the people who talk about box office performances. Especially when you consider...

like a 73.8 million domestic opening weekend for John Wick 4, you know, watching the budgets increase and then the global box office increase as the John Wick series has gone on has been really interesting, an interesting experiment around looking at the box office performance here. It's not a great opening for Ballerina. And it will really depend. I think word of mouth will depend. You know what I mean? And we can talk about sort of how the audiences are feeling about it, but

Does it hold steady and just sort of like steadily burn through the summer or does it just drop off completely and then it will be kind of a disaster, to be honest with you? The fact that, you know, John Wick started as a someone low budge, nobody saw this coming.

quirky sort of action movie starring Keanu Reeves, who at that time in his career was not doing well. And it sort of remade Keanu Reeves' career. So watching the budget grow throughout the John Wick franchise, but then watching something like John Wick 4, a movie I actually really, really liked. Oh, yeah.

Co-starring Donnie Yen, Hiroyuki Sanada had this real global appeal to it based on like all the actors that they brought in for that. And so that one did like gangbusters at the global box office, just like a huge smash on it. Number four. So the question that the franchise faces right now is like, can it be,

something without Keanu Reeves? That's the question that the Continental show was asking. And that's the question that the Ballerina movie is asking, even though John Wick is in this movie, definitely, and heavily featured in the promotional material. But the attempt to do a spinoff movies and TV shows is like, how much can the Wickverse grow and sustain beyond the star power of Keanu himself? What's your sense of that just

based on where we are right now, Mallory.

I think that the appetite for the Wickverse is sincere, but also inextricable from John Wick himself at this point. And so I think even with Ballerina, it's difficult to assess because he, like you noted, was so present in the marketing material. It was clear he was going to be in it. It was clear. I'll spoil for you that one of my questions today is a timeline question. I've got a lot of... Yes, a lot of... It's not one of mine, but I considered it. Absolutely. Yeah, I assumed you just knew I would be bringing this on us.

the BB-wise. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I've got some questions there. But it was even marketed as a, like, you know, Parabellum-adjacent story that was going to overlap with prior Wick canon. And even though the total runtime for John Wick in this movie is quite minimal, he's here in the film. There's just no denying it. I think, like,

the question of when the Continental show was announced, I personally was like quite interested in that. I think the lore and mythology around the Continental as an enterprise, but also more like a concept and as this glue guy in the criminal underworld in the Wickverse was really fascinating to me. And my sense, like, again, coming to that show quite late because the reception of it was so poor in real time. Yeah.

I don't... I've watched two of the three episodes. I do not feel like the response has much... tells me much about people's enthusiasm for learning more about other aspects of the world. I think it was just about the execution of that particular show. I...

thought that that the the hedge in ballerina was actually quite smart like give people enough john wick to build that bridge to show what the can again i have a massive timeline continuity question coming your way shortly but put a bit in that just in terms of sheer concept and like intent yeah i think giving us enough obviously it's not just john wick right like winston is here sharon is here the new york continental is here again i have some timeline questions um

The Rescoroma are here, etc. There are a lot of familiar touch points in the world. And also we are introducing a new, not just a new protagonist where we could get an entire series built around Eve, built around this ballerina character, but also then

other characters, Daniel Pine, et cetera. Certainly the cult seems like something that the wider WIC universe intends to explore further and play with. We have an interesting amount of information introduced in Glimpse and then a ton of questions, a ton of stuff that we don't yet know and could find out in future films. So we get to simultaneously connect and also expand in a way that I think allows this version of films to exist not in place of John Wick. Obviously the John Wick 5 murmurs are...

unavoidable and that's a movie clearly we're going to get. I mean, but in parallel track, right? Question mark about John McFive because Keanu has said, I'm not really sure my knees hurt and my guy is 60. So he's like, I'm not really sure they definitely want to make, you know, Lionsgate is like, please, dear God, you see the numbers on John McFore. We want to make John McFive and Chad Stahelski has been like, we're working on the script. We're working on the script. We're working on the script. We want to make it happen. But like,

They can't make it without Keanu. No, I don't know. And Keanu, I think, is unsure whether or not he wants to make another Don Wick movie. I'm going to call this a sure bet.

If I were a gambler, which let me be clear, I am not. I don't know how and I don't understand it and I won't be trying it. I would say that John Wick 5 starring Keanu Reeves as the titular John Wick is to me a sure bet than a future Mission Impossible film. It just feels like an absolute lock. If he needs time to ice the knees, take it.

Take it, my guy. But I feel like we're getting that movie. You could be right. Keanu has just made some interesting choices. Like, his choices are not always as driven by the same things as other Hollywood choices, I would say. And so, like, your average Hollywood star, I would say yes. Keanu is, like...

waiting for Godot with Alex Winters on Broadway next. You know what I mean? He's just making more interesting choices. So I would like to see a John Wick 5. Again, I really like John Wick 4. There's talk of a Donnie Yen Kane spinoff. There's all this stuff that they want to do. The thing that I think is tough about expanding the world of John Wick

is the magic trick of the original John Wick and the franchise is Keanu. Is the fact that Keanu himself can do so much of his own stunts, so many of his own stunts. He definitely has, I mean, I'm not here to describe the stunt department on the John Wick movies. Obviously, they are booked and busy and working. But there are so many shots that you can tell it's actually Keanu there. And it brings a level of

how is this happening to a human man? Now there is like a Looney Tunes aspect and we'll talk about, I had this sort of slated for our question section. We know that the John Wick universe is like bananas. Similar to the Fast and Furious universe, things happen to these allegedly human mortals that, you know, John Wick falls off a building and like multiple times.

Back seemingly breaks on a balcony and then he's fine. Mostly fine. So, you know, but you still see the cost of there's so many sections of these movies where

All of which, the first three, take place over the span of one week, question mark. Where John Wick, battered and bloodied, is like limping. So it's like a human... The limp run is my favorite signature move. It's like a human man. It is Keanu himself often, though not always, obviously. And...

that's the pleasure. And that was like, you know, we'll talk about our reactions to Ballerina, but that was one of my like main notes for Ballerina is like, it's a different prospect entirely with what we're seeing with Eve. That's a, that's a, it's a different thing. And it doesn't mean it's not something I'm interested in, but it's like sort of similar to watching Atomic Blonde where of course, Charlize had a stunt double every time she pulls up the like mask over her face, you're like, that's someone else. But that was a similar sort of like,

because these are films made lovingly by stunt people, this is a, this human body, this movie star, this moment. And so, um, am I interested from an IP standpoint of developing this world? The continental is so evocative. We, um, yeah,

Yes, but I think you can't... You have to really execute on it if you don't have Keanu at the center of it, I guess is what I would say. Yeah, he's... No doubt. He's the secret sauce in a way that is simultaneously measurable and intangible and impossible to describe. I do think... I love Ian McShane. He's just such a personal favorite that I've always drawn to Winston. And...

Again, that was part of why I was intrigued by the premise of The Continental Show, more so than the execution of it. But Young Winston, what a fascinating concept. I think the idea of like a Kane movie starring Donnie Yen is riveting to consider and would be awesome. And, you know, we got the, again, we said spoilers for all the movies, but like the stinger at the end of chapter four, I was like, now? Yeah.

I need it now. And the idea of getting that

maybe if we're so fortunate, should we be so blessed getting John Wick chapter five one day and then continuing to, you know, I think it's like a calibration thing because on the one hand, continuing to explore which figures like central figures could approximate that like feeling and that energy without like diluting too heavily where we're just introducing so many titular assassins that suddenly it's like,

wait, but like the Baba Yaga was the Baba Yaga for a fucking reason and everyone knew it is a really interesting challenge. And certainly, particularly in the context of the IP era where the goal is always like more, more, more. It's going to be a fascinating one to watch. The response so far, sort of as we can measure it by these numbers that show up on these various websites, seems like critical response,

not super great, not in the basement, but you know, sort of mixed 75% on Rotten Tomatoes, 59% on Metacritic, which is not super great, but certainly better than the last time we checked on some of these numbers, which was like Captain America, Brave New World. But 93% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, 6.5% audience on Metacritic, which is actually like pretty good. And A- CinemaScore, which is just right on par with the other John Wick movies. So like,

Audiences didn't turn out in droves to see it, but those who saw it seemed to have had a pretty good time. Having fun at the movies. So, you know, barring other things coming to steal our attention, this could have some legs on it. Anecdotally, I will say that like a friend of mine, my...

my book co-author Gavin Edwards, his son is like a huge cinephile, big picture fan, like all sorts of stuff like that. And he's like, we went to go see the movie together on Friday and then he went again on Saturday. Like right away, I wanted to go back again. Love it. You know, Gavin was mixed. His son was like all in. And so like, you know, it's hard for me to tell which way this is going to go, honestly. Like I don't have a great picture of this. You and I were in the same

movie theater watching this side by side. I got to hear you cackle every time someone turned to goo. Yeah. Um, yeah. What's your sense just sort of anecdotally talking to people, uh, and like based on the temp in our theater and stuff like that.

I wonder if it was hard for you to get a gauge on other people's reactions just because I was cackling in your ear so... Not that... It was just on, like, very... Whenever a grenade went off. One very specific... Yeah. Grenade move. Grenade central... Grenade-based cackling. Yeah. The...

signature move of exploding people by shoving grenades into their mouths really got me. I gotta say, I was having a good time. Genuinely a very high point of the movie. It's really fun. It seemed like people in our theater were having fun, obviously, you know, whoops and cheers anytime John Wick appeared and

when there were like either particularly awe-inspiring action stretches and sequences where the choreography of a given set piece really got people. It seemed like people were quite wrapped. You know, the Frank's Hunting Lodge. May I be Frank? Frank's Hunting Lodge. I chuckled at that too and then you made fun of me. No, no. The whole theater laughed at that. The whole theater thought that was the funniest joke they've ever heard. That stretch. And then obviously there were other stretches where there's like

the laughter at something you see in a John Wick movie that is like, it's the laughter of appreciation, right? It's like, I can't believe they just did that thing to that person's body in that way. You know, the, oh, the John Wick franchise is a franchise that will use a library book in this fashion kind of a thing. So it seemed like people were having a blast. We went on a Saturday afternoon. So we were in a packed theater. It was poppin'.

This is where I reveal to you something that you do not yet know, which is that I went to see the movie again specifically to check one thing. Actually, two things. They both involve hands. Do you know how unsurprised I am? And here's why. I was like freaking out about a timeline thing. I was like, I have to go check something. Oh, to check his finger? The two things, the director's hand, whether there were the scars from the blade of the director's hands.

There aren't. Stay tuned for more thoughts on that. And then the miss... I was like, was John's finger missing? Which it is. At the end. Not at the beginning, but at the end. Right. Yes. In the climax. It's gone. So that's post-Elder. Can I just tell you... And that was a more muted...

theater going experience I will say can I tell you how unsurprised I am by this because you know behind the curtain we bought three tickets for the showing your husband Adam was like maybe gonna go with us it wasn't clear but we were like just in case let's buy a ticket for Adam Adam decides like last minute he's not gonna go and I think while you were like getting your hoodie or something like that before we left he was like you know she's gonna want to see it again

So I'll go with her then. That's what he said to me. He's like, she's going to want to see it again. So I'll go again. And he knew that would not be Halo's birthday that second time. So he was like, I'll go with her then. I was like, okay, Adam. So I am not surprised because I was forewarned by your beautiful spouse. I gotta look for the finger. I have to check the finger. So people, that was a more muted, more muted showing than the one we had gone to. But, um,

It also wasn't midday on a Saturday. So, you know. When did you guys go? Who can say? Monday evening. Monday evening. Okay. Interesting. Okay.

Something that has been sort of swirling around, sort of flavoring people's reactions. Because I spent many hours, as I want to do sometimes, on the Reddit boards. Just like clicking around and sort of seeing how people feel. That's a select, you know, the people who go to the r slash John Wick subreddit, like that's a select group of people, you know, whatever. But the main reaction I saw was...

People saying, I thought this was going to be a disaster because of all the reshoot rumors I heard. But it was surprisingly coherent. And I enjoyed the action set pieces. So we're grading slightly on a curve, which is fine. Like that's we're all always grading movies on a curve. There's nothing wrong with that. But I think and this is what we're going to talk about next. The sort of rumors that were swirling around about the reshoots. This can either help or hurt.

your project often it hurts your project um people people skip the movie altogether because they hear the rumors that there were extensive reshoots and stuff like that um certainly the last time we talked about extensive reshoots reshoots was around captain america brave new world and that's a film that i if i'm characterizing our takeaways correctly felt like we could feel all of the cuts and the seams in a way that really the movie didn't hang together for us um

This, I think, was a much more successful effort, though you could still feel some of the snips here and there. But it didn't feel like a Frankenstein's monster of an assemblage. I can get into details about what we know about the reissues? Okay. So...

Last year, The Wrap puts out this report that, you know, several months worth of reshoots and that Len Weissman, who directed the film initially, is sort of pushed aside for Chad Stahelski, who was the original John Wick director. And Ian McShane gave an interview last year where he said, for the health of the franchise,

That was his phrase. For the health of the franchise, they brought in Chad to do a bunch of reshoots. Now, both Chad and Len in the promo tour for this movie are telling a different story, which was just, it was a couple weeks. And when we showed the original cut to the studio, they loved it so much that they wanted to add things we had had to cut from the script and give us more budget to do so. Which does not feel true to me. No.

Based on some things we know. Oh, man. First and foremost, I would say the biggest thing acting against this sort of like, we just added some whiz-bang-pop because the studio liked the movie so much. Yeah. David Castaneda... Whiz-bang-pop, is that the official subtitling description of what happens to the arm in the...

Halstead bar sequence? Yes. Yes, that is a whiz-bang pop. David Casimietta of Umbrella Academy fame, who plays Eve's father in a flashback, an extensive flashback that I would say is like, what, 10 minutes at the start of the movie? It has to be. Maybe more. Maybe more. That's a full set piece. Was not cast until the reshoots. Sharon Duncan Brewster, who plays Eve's mentor...

uh was not cast until the reissues which means all of the training sequences that happened with that character did not happen until the those are significant i mean this is like the beginning like 35 minutes of the movie of the movie yeah um fascinating uh stahelski said all he added all the flamethrower stuff which by my reckoning is like a third of the entire movie that went on for so long i will say it

felt a little more compact to me on second viewing okay but it is it is it's a robust fan play through our sequence for sure yes it's a lot um norman reedus's role seems to have been cut down significantly there's a bit of an awkward he's sort of left for dead and then oh no he's alive you know question of whether or not he was supposed to be a part of the rest of the movie um

I think that's the main stuff. John Wick's involvement. I don't, that's unclear to me actually, because in an interview that she gave to Fallon, like I think before the reshoots, Ana de Armas was talking about a fight with, with Keanu. So I think I thought maybe that entire second appearance of John Wick was added. I think it was just maybe beefed up.

So maybe like some of the sniper stuff and all this other stuff that John does was, was beefed up. Maybe he like, maybe in the original cut, he shows up, fights with her and says, you have until this time. Right. You know, and then, but what we kept checking back in with him throughout that sequence. Right. Where he is, as you noted this in the sniper position. So like, I mean, there are a couple, we,

We get the great like, hey, yo, yeah, you know, he's just one man. Yeah. You know, he obviously is going head to head with members of the cult at a certain point. But most of outside of the Eve John direct conflict down in the in the snow, he's on his own in a way that would be like to borrow a Joe ism.

Gail in Jackson Hole, Wyoming-esque. You know? Like, entirely possible that that was filmed independent of every other part of that sequence. I still need to get a full answer on that question. Anyway. All in good time. Let me just say this. Ian McShane, it's a crowded field of, like, performers who say things they shouldn't in interviews and then everybody else has to walk back. He is an all-timer on this front. Tits and Dragons? Tits and Dragons. Tits and Dragons.

Is my single favorite. I'm not kidding. Is my single favorite thing anybody has said in response to getting in trouble for revealing something about their character they shouldn't. When Ian McShane came back after spoiling something for Thrones and then saying, it's just tits and dragons. It's just my single favorite thing that's ever happened.

Can we say what he spoiled or do you feel like you should protect people who are watching Game of Thrones for the first time? I mean, you might then have to come back if you say it later in the pod. He spoiled the return of a character that was supposed to be so secretive and that was an all-time Ian McShane moment. I was at a Starz at San Diego Comic-Con

stars put on a party for their Ash versus the Evil Dead show and for American Gods. And so there was like a party with like the cast members. This is where I saw Bruce Campbell and Lucy Lawless, like these two absolute iconic Titans who are like nine feet tall, walk into a room. And I've never been like, I'm a tall person. I've never been like so dazzled by how tall and Adonis like these two people were. But Ian McShane walked in and he was wearing a Hawaiian shirt that I'm kid you not. And this was just a couple of years ago. Like,

open down to his navel unbuttoned and just like all his chest was out and it was like July in San Diego so it was unceasingly warm he's an icon it was just like he walked in and we were just like wow wow Ian McShane

He says what he wants. He wears what he wants. He's Ian McShane. So yeah. Genuinely aspirational. So I tend to believe him though. So for the whole of the franchise, they brought Chad Stahelski in. Len and Chad can say whatever they want in the promo. I'm sure some of it's been overblown, but like, there's some evidence that there's very significant reshoots were done here. Reshoots or no, Malachian,

Mallory, do you want to tell... I mean, you've already sort of... We know that you love a grinning in a mouth move. Do you want to share sort of like your main ballerina takes and feelings and maybe where it sits in the larger wick verse for you? Sure, yeah. I really had fun at the movie. First of all, it's always a treat for me to get to see something with you in person. What a thrill. What a joy. What a memory. I...

had had a very large burrito. It was devastating to not witness Mallory consume nine different snacks at the movie theater. A gigantic breakfast burrito that arrived very late. My whole schedule was thrown off. No chicken tendies. No sour patch kids. I did get the chicken tenders last night. I did go for the chicken tenders, the popcorn, the cherry vanilla Coke from the We've Got 100 Flavors fountain. But I'm sorry that I didn't get to share that with you.

I had fun. I definitely have some notes on the film and some questions on the film. It's part of why I'm very excited about the format that we've chosen for today's pod. I love the John Wick movies. Like, I love them. They're so fun to rewatch. My ranking... We were talking a little bit in real time about our ranking of the films. And then, like... I was kind of torn on the top. But...

re-watching it, I do feel very... I feel... I have the courage of my convictions. The fourth movie is my favorite John Wick movie. I really like it. It's not my favorite, but I really, really like it. I think it's, like, exceptionally good. So I would go four, one. Both of those, I think, are just unbelievable, like, all-time action movies. And then... So they're in a tier, and my order inside that tier is four and one. And then I would put...

three and two in a tier in that order three and then two uh and then I would put ballerina after that which I think is okay you know it's just it's not as good as the four john wood movies I don't think it's not but I still enjoyed it and had fun and would be interested in uh a sequel and like continuing to spend time with eve slash the cult maybe learning more about daniel pine my guy daryl dixon always a treat um what about you

I don't know. I felt like Norman Reedus felt like a non-entity to me inside of this movie. I know, that's why I'd like him to return and be more of an entity. Not the entity, to be clear. Not the entity. Not the entity for Mission Impossible, but an entity. Norman Reedus, who plays the father of a young girl who he has saved from this, we breed child assassins cults in Austria. Yeah. Do you feel like he's only feeding her ice cream?

It's a great question. Yeah. It's a great question. I did enjoy Winston like, ooh, sweet tooth. Yeah. He's got a room service list. I think it's supposed to give us a little hint that there's a child in there. But for me, that was not a hint that there's a child because, you know, I have a pint of ice cream every night before bed. So I was like, sounds like Daniel Fine and I would love to hang out. And, you know, we have plenty of adult figures in the Wickverse who have canonical sweet tooths like the Marquis.

Loved an apple tart. Loved to heap sugar into his tiny little... Was it an espresso or a tea? I can't say. I'm not sure. I don't recall. Okay. I think John Wick 1 exists in a different plane of everything. It's just so economical, neat, tidy, surprising. I remember when it premiered at Fantastic Fest and everyone who saw it there was like...

John Wick, John Wick. And we were like, what are you talking about? Like it came out of nowhere. And again, we were all like Keanu. Okay, sure. And it was just,

so surprising the thing with the puppy was so surprising like it's like it's just the daisy stuff is too painful for me i actually it's like unbearable astounding to me but i would put four next like next beneath it easily um and then having just seen three for the first time uh three and then two uh is what i would say and um it's interesting because for you and i i think are higher on four than like

made me feel, I mean, it was a smash all at the box office, but I think when I was checking out other people's rankings, they don't tend to have for that high, but I'm just like, really? Yen was like, and the whole staircase set piece. Exquisite. Osaka is exquisite. Clancy Brown is here. Bill Skarsgård in the most exquisite suits you've ever seen. One of my favorite memories of John McFour, I mean, I was working at The Ringer already, and

Van, I remember Van being like, that's the most attractive a human being has ever looked about Bill Sarsgaard's suits in John Wick 4. Some great suits. So I really, and like what I think they achieved in John Wick 4. Mr. Nobody, great character. Yeah, great character. Oh, I think they achieved in John Wick 4 that they sort of lost the plot on a bit in 2 and 3 is like making it all feel a bit more personal again. They tried with 3, you've got the plot with Halle Berry and her

daughter and you've got, you know, the Winston John, you know, assigned to kill each other sort of tension and all of that. But I think that like the personal stakes are,

of four made it feel really central again so yeah it's all of that and then it's ballerina and then it's uh the continentalist show i still haven't watched i'm so uninterested it is below that's last you can number five last um and in terms of like i had a fun fine time the movies i loved going with you um i do think a lot of the action set pieces worked pretty well though i was here's what i will say um i don't think it ended up it's not my final list of questions so i'll i'll put it here okay

Why make the whole ballerina set piece, the whole ballerina premise,

and not have like her ballet training connected to her fighting style. I asked you this sort of like outside the theater, but I was, and the person I invoked was, uh, River Tam, uh, a character in Firefly who has this like astonishing balletic way of dancing, of, of fighting that was just like so mesmerizing and so different. And so, um,

Eve has to get quite creative with grenades and plates and ice skates and all these other things because as she's told by her cast for the reshoots mentor, she has to fight like a girl because, you know, she's so much smaller than her opponents. But,

But I just wish that I had seen like that they had decided to go with like a sort of graceful, more dance centric fighting style than what they wound up with, which was something in between. It was like,

it was more like inventive, which is great. Yeah. But like she has to be MacGyver essentially and make weapons out of whatever she can find. But it's not the sort of like my body can take all the hits in the world bruiser approach of John Wick. And it's not the like sort of I'm an elegant, swirling, slicing menace that I would hope for something where they train these women to be ballerinas for why I don't.

I don't know. That's a question I have that I smuggled here. That is not one of your actual questions. I love it. This is going to be a smuggle fest today, I feel. And you know what? It should be. Great question. Early-ish in the film, the minus 11 thing,

the ice club. Yeah. Got some questions about the ice club. Not my formal questions, but again, I've got some questions about the ice club. There's like the open, like when the first fight is about to begin,

There's that opening sweep of the toe in the ice. Very like, okay, here it is. The balletic training. And I thought that was priming us for that to be very recurring. And, you know, I think a stretch like the... Again, I laughed a lot. Very fun and cool. Ice skate sequence with a little mini ice skate. You loved the ice skate. You loved the ice skate. You know what's smart in a John Wick movie? Yeah. Make the floor...

white so that we can see all of the blood sprays everywhere this is a stroke of genius and that you know both because it's on the ice but because we're in an ice skating kind of headspace that was a little bit more we're swinging we're twirling um but yeah it's i agree with you that could have been ratcheted up and maybe will and uh

in future installments. I think the sequence where we watch her walking out of a place where she has previously walked her way through and killed all these people. Picking up all the knives. Yeah. Delightful. Picking up the knives. Right. The body in the elevator. The getting into the car that had been crashed into the wall. Like all of, all of that stuff I thought was like really fun and funny and great. I,

I thought that was great. I have, here's my main issue with Ballerina and why it's actually pretty low on my, I would like to see more of this list because I would much rather get a Kane spinoff. I would much rather we get some knee surgery for Keanu, like whatever we need to do.

We both agree that Ana de Armas is one of the most beautiful humans alive. It's insane. Just like so beautiful. It's crazy. She's stunning. Yeah. I find her deeply uncharismatic. And I've had many films to amass this opinion and sort of like see if I'm wrong and I think I'm right. Or at least for me. For my taste, it doesn't really... I don't find her that compelling. So beautiful to look at. Not...

in a way that like i don't know how keanu gets away with it where like he could just say yeah and i feel it you know like he's a signature move it just um it doesn't work for anna in my opinion so um that is my main bumping point with ballerina right yeah where i find myself totally fair um

The NBA playoffs are here, and I'm getting my bets in on FanDuel. Talk to me, Chuck GPT. What do you know? All sorts of interesting stuff. Even Charles Barkley's greatest fear. Hey, nobody needs to know that. New customers bet $5 to get 200 in bonus bets if you win. FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook.

21 plus and present in Illinois. Must be first online real money wager. $5 deposit required. Bonus issued is non-withdrawable bonus pass that expires seven days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See full terms at fanduel.com slash sportsbook. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. Should we get to our questions? Let's do it. Let's do it. Okay, so once again, let's preface this by saying, we don't want to get on here and just pick nits, but...

The main thing we did when we walked out of the theater is we started asking each other questions, or at least I started asking questions. I think Mallory had some questions too. And I was like, is this the fun way to talk about it? We're going to ask some questions about ballerina and the larger wick first. Anything's on the table. A way to celebrate sort of the daffiness, goofiness of this, of this franchise. Once again, I understand that John wick is a Looney Tunes meets video game sort of world. So we're not going to say how did John wick survive, obviously getting his back broken. But,

don't worry about it. It's just John Wick, baby. Forget about it. But what other questions do we have that we want to check in on as it pertains to this franchise? I do have a timeline adjacent question. So maybe let's start with your timeline question and then I will throw in my adjacent question underneath it. Okay, so I would say this is my most like

serious, actual capital Q question. I have then, I'd say, a mix from here of, like, vibes questions and a couple actual, like, plot questions where it might be going in the future. But it's a... This is the most intense. Okay. How can we, despite that preface...

How can we reconcile the timeline questions with John Wick himself, with our beloved Baba Yaga? I will run through some key details and aspects of this question, and then you chime in on whether this is just okay and something I should move on from, or whether this is something you've been noodling onto. You wouldn't be you. I love a BBY. Okay, here is...

And let me also say as like a preface, entirely possible I'm missing something, entirely possible I'm forgetting something, entirely possible that there is an actual answer and explanation for this. But I'm not sure there is an answer and explanation for this. And so let's just talk it through. You know, let's just talk it through as our pal David Jacoby says, like no bad ideas in a brainstorm. I'll throw it out there and see what everyone thinks. Okay. Here's what we know.

Ballerina, the film Ballerina, includes an expanded but direct sequence from John Wick Chapter 3, Parabellum, which is John getting his ticket torn with the Ruscaroma, the director, in exchange for passage to Casablanca. Now, we recall from John Wick Chapter 3, Parabellum, John is, at the time of the ticket tearing, excommunicado. Excommunicado.

The director will be punished for helping him. I'll come back to that in a second. Okay. Here's another thing that we know. It is explicitly stated in this movie with words on the screen. Two months pass from that until basically the rest of the action in this movie. Mm-hmm. The director sends John, this is just another fact, an orphan of the Ruscaroma after Eve, an orphan of the Ruscaroma. Mm-hmm.

And John arrives in Halstatt to participate in the climax of the movie. Those are the facts. Now, I would like to present to you some additional timeline markers across the franchise that orient us, but alas, also disorient us. Set us adrift on a sea of lack of continuity. Okay, go for it. John is missing the finger. The ring finger. He is missing the ring finger in the Halstatt sequence of Ballerina. Mean it.

definitively and undeniably, and again, I went back to see the movie a second time to look at his hand. The climax of Ballerina takes place after John went to see the elder in John Wick Chapter 3, Parabellum. That is where he cuts off the finger and offers it up in exchange for the bargain that they make in that scene. The director...

does not have scars on her hand in the movie Ballerina. I have a counter for you for that. Tell me. Somehow, between...

The events of John Wick 3 and the events of Ballerina, even though some of them take place concurrently, the film legend Angelica Houston has had so much plastic surgery on her face. Do you think she got it on her hands? Could she not perhaps have gotten plastic surgery on her hands? I feel like that has to be the case then because...

sure. There's actually no, no imagination. Watching ballerina. I was like, and I told you, I had recently seen another thing with Angelica Houston where I was like, when did Angelica Houston do this to her face where she looks something like a Muppet? And then I watched John Wick three efforts. I was like,

See, her face still looks pretty normal in this one. Like she's had a procedure or two, but like this is a face of a... Now she's just like ballooned out with filler. Anyway, point being, perhaps it's plastic surgery on the hand. What is your next point of order? Okay, I am not an expert on hand plastic surgery, but if that's a thing, then maybe that's the answer. And maybe that would be why the scars are not visible because...

If it's not that, then here's what the absence of the scars on the hands implies. It implies that this part of this movie takes place before the adjudicator and Zero are

punish the director by stabbing her through the hands and that just doesn't to be blunt does not make sense or track because sequentially in john with chapter three parabellum the hands are cut before john loses his finger so that just doesn't work and is incredibly confusing okay yeah sorry go ahead keep going no more hand thoughts scar hands no just sort of like we have to ask like

What is the status of the director's relationship to John? This is, okay. So here's some other timeline markers. Mm-hmm.

This is a really big one, I think, in terms of placing the events of this movie in just a clear parameter. And then we consider where the relationships are inside of that parameter. The New York Continental is standing at the end. Again, spoilers for the other movies. The New York Continental is standing at the end of this film. Meaning, this all takes place before the marquee blows up the New York Continental very early in Chapter 4. Similarly, our beloved...

Sharon is alive at the end of Ballerina, meaning, again, this all takes place before the Marquis kills him very early in Chapter 4. So I'm thrilled that John Wick is here, to be clear. I'm glad he's here. But this basically means it cannot take place pre-Elder visit in Chapter 3 because the figure's gone. It can't.

After John cuts his finger off at the elders, he goes back to New York under the elders' orders to kill Winston. He battles Zero and Zero's students and route to the Continental. And then there's the whole sequence at the Continental at the end of the film, ending in, of course, Winston...

shooting him to appease the adjudicator, knowing John will survive, which he does. The Bowery King, shout out, Manzoukas, friend of the pod, friend of ours, TikTok man. TikTok John Wick. TikTok! Scoops him up, shelters John to heal. So, okay. Then we ask, when could this have happened? When was there a day, half a day, in that stretch where this could have happened? How do we make sense of it? Did he swing by Halstatt before going back to New York? Which seems impossible. That's Keanu's answer in interviews.

that between killing the elder a different elder yeah uh in the beginning of john mcfor and the destruction of the hotel john mc took a detour to austria to help eve so okay it's that's just sure i'm just saying kianni's answer it doesn't make sense to me especially since

I believe John Wick 4 takes place like six months after John Wick 3, whereas this is supposed to be only like two months after. He's the most wanted man in the world at this point. Yeah. The most wanted man in the world at this point. And the director, this is where that relationship question that you're noting really surfaces. Because on the one hand, they have a long history of...

So it's totally plausible to me that, like, that history would be called upon. But post-ticket tearing, post-punishment from the high table, while John is the subject of this worldwide manhunt that will lead to the sequences in Osaka and beyond...

She calls him up risking future punishment after what just happened. And he says yes and goes to this setting where all of these people would then know where he was. Your hand plastic surgery is still healing. You don't want to get cut again, man.

No, it makes, it just like clearly makes no sense. Yeah. I have, here are my further John Wickian questions. Okay. Something I discovered on the John Wick subreddit is a very extensive post from someone who went through and figured out exactly how much time has passed in the John Wick franchise. And it stunned me to learn. Mm-hmm.

that the first three movies take place over three weeks. Yeah. I mean, that's stated by the adjudicator, right? In the... Yeah. Per... Weeks. Yeah. Movie. Mm-hmm. Yeah. That's insane to me. There's a lot of global travel for that to be the case, but it's... Does John Wick have a teleportation device? That's my first question. Yeah. Because it's not just like...

How do you, I'm a wanted man. How many passports do you have? Surely a million. How do you get in and out of various countries? But also, yeah, just time spent hopping around the globe. So are we teleporting? And I'm willing to accept it. If you reveal to me that in some way,

slick neon lit gleaming and you know neo-futuristic building somewhere in new york there's a teleportation device that john wick uses to get around the world i'll believe you uh it's fine uh probably couldn't be using it when everyone was looking for him while i was excommunicado though well maybe they've got a funky one in the bowery and old computers so they can't that's the other thing this is a question i was gonna ask but i didn't but like

So for that all to be true, three weeks and then a couple months and then it's John McFour and then Ballerina just slips in sort of right in between the cracks of three and four, allegedly, but it doesn't, but it does. That means it is 2014. These movies all take place in 2014, maybe 2015 at the latest for John McFour. The cars have moved beyond the timeline of the film, for sure. Yeah.

they've missed so much. Like there's so much they haven't experienced. Like Eve Macaro is like several Taylor Swift albums behind. Like, you know what I mean? There's just like a lot of real strong cultural connection that these characters don't have. I just thought that I would put that out there in the world. Also, not that I need to watch him do it though. Maybe I would enjoy it. How many showers do you think John Wick has had over the course? How bad does John Wick smell? Yeah.

over the course of these movies. That's the question. You know, we have a memorable shower scene so that we can really like linger on the back tat, which of course is back tat canon central to the new film. So good to have that context. But in general, I have the hygiene question is a great one. I often wonder about food

You know, it just must be exhaust. It's obviously clearly exhausting work and like you need. Do you think he's on the soylence? Like, what is he doing? Perhaps. Yeah. Like, how are we staying hydrated? One of the moments in chapter four that I really love is when Mr. Nobody breaks up the drink at the end on the bench and gives us gives us some. But, you know, we're rarely seeing John stop for a bite for a nosh. Yeah.

And a beverage. So yeah, the travel question, that's part of why that ticket tearing passage sequence is so notable is because it actually is like, I need you to help me get from place A to B, which is not something that most of the movies focus on at all. He's just like bouncing around. But on the travel front, we should just say quickly while we're

Just questions, you know, inquiring minds want to know. It's fine. Just questions. We really have some questions. If anyone is like, oh, well, what about, could it have been when he was in Berlin in the fourth movie because that's so close and also could it have been after his ticket was mended and, you know, he needed to get the crest so that he could challenge the Marquis de la Dulle. Could that have been because he gets there right away. It's like by, you know, right by midnight. That would explain the director question.

being willing to call him except but no that simply cannot be and let's just say it explicitly because the continental is already in rubble it just can't it can't happen that far into chapter four and so we have questions and so it doesn't make sense and that's okay we benched the space-time continuum we did to uh allow some pearl jam in the last of us and to allow john wick to be where they needed him to be when they needed him to be there

For the health of the franchise. For the health of the franchise. For the health of the franchise. Okay. Great stuff. Love it. That was sort of a combined one from us. Do you want to go again or do you want me to go? Go for it. Okay. Two of my questions are John Wick 3 based because I did quite recently watch this film for the first time. How long? And using what...

meaty treats do you think it took Halle Berry to train her dogs to bite dicks almost exclusively like what thank you for asking yeah thank you for asking yeah you're welcome

This one's for you. You know, I swear this was part of my prep process for this pod. Not the how do you train a dog to bite a dick. I did not look into that. Nor do I intend to. However, I was, as you've already discussed thoughtfully on this very podcast, fight like a girl was like a key part of our initial journey here with Eve. And I was thinking there's a lot of...

dick attacking in this movie. And so I was like, huh, is that part of... But no! Because if we pan back across the prior films...

attacking the dick is just a central part of the canon. It's a go-to move. You've just noted that it's a big part of Sophia and her pup's lives. The dog's... Mr. Nobody's dog? The dog bites dicks and then she shoots him in the dick is my understanding of the... There's some shooting of the dick. There's some stabbing of the dick across the films. And of course, yeah, Mr. Nobody does this too with his wonderful pup, right? Just shouts nuts and then the dog...

goes to the nuts. Bites someone in the nuts and then Mr. Nobody will shoot that person in the head because it is a

John Wick film. So how do you train, whether you're Sophia or Mr. Nobody, your dog to bite somebody in the nuts? I don't know. I think it's a great question. And this is why you were one of our leading scholars and journalists. Yeah. Well, okay. So my question is like, do you have a series of like dummies and you've attached like snoshages to their groin area to like train the dog that like, that's where you want to go first. It's like go straight for the crotch, no matter what.

But also they have to be able to separate friend from foe. I was really astounded in watching that sequence, which is a great sequence in John Wick 3 in Morocco. Those dogs are biting everyone but John Wick. John Wick's dick is safe. Thank God. Yeah. So yeah, how do you say that's a friendly dick, don't bite it? Like, I don't know. I have a lot of questions about dog training, but this is my main ones. Like, it's quite dick-centric in this particular case.

Some really intense dick-mulling for Braun. My questions only get better from here. I'm thrilled. We're going to come back to Braun, let me assure you. Oh, okay. Great stuff. What's your next question? Okay, here it is. I've got some Continental stuff for you here. Does the Continental need a stronger policy, like need a better rulebook regarding no business being conducted on the premises? Because this rule, which is designed to ensure...

Secured sanctuary, right? If you have secured sanctuary, you are safe. You put a hand on the lowest step, you are safe. Exactly. Is violated, and let me be clear here, in every single John Wayne property, every single one.

single one. Now, you might say, that's nothing. Think of how many Continentals there are and think of how many members of the Wickverse criminal underworld are in a Continental at any given moment in time. We are seeing something that is exceedingly rare when somebody violates that. However, I would posit in turn that, again, we have seen this in every single John Wick installment. The first John Wick film, of course, our beloved Miss Perkins.

Could not care less that No Business is supposed to be broken down on the premises. By the way, what a great character who should have survived so she could have had her own spinoff. Honestly. That would have been great.

So Ms. Perkins was a fucking badass. Also, the conversation with John and Sharon after the Ms. Perkins attack, it's like, do you need a dinner reservation? So that's kind of an interesting like, oh, well, you didn't do this. Somebody did this to you. But like, we understand that you might need to do something in turn. All sorts of loopholes inside of the no business. Okay. John Wick 2, obviously, how does everything happen that sets up the events of the next couple films unfold? Yeah.

John wasn't in the mood for a bourbon. He shot Sandino in the head at the New York Continental. That's a pretty big violation. John Wick 3, 0-1.

Zero students, John, everyone, Sharon. It is just full-on war in the New York Continental after it is deconsecrated, allowing this battle to unfold, which brings me to John Wick 4, where there's once again a full-on battle at the Osaka Continental after it is deconsecrated. So it's like, you have sanctuary, you're fine, until someone walks in and says, this place is deconsecrated, and then we can just kill everybody. And then in Ballerina...

All of the goods, three people, all it took was the Daniel Pine bounty going from $2 million to $4 million for them to be like, fuck the rulebook. I'm attacking. This is not an effective rulebook, if that's all it takes. I'm sorry. There are bounties at $4 million all the time in the John Wick universe. Contracts of $4 million? I will say, actually, there's a leaderboard.

Yeah, it's pretty high. It's very high. Like that's very high. Like when they put the bounty on Eve at the end of Ballerina, like that is five mil. Crazy high. That's another continuity question that people had, which is like, sure, bounty's five mil. So when we see the leaderboard in John McFour, if the events took place when Keanu said they did, she should have been on the leaderboard at the top of the leaderboard.

It's another timeline question. Also, Joanna, things are, I will tell you, happening, violent things are happening all the time at the New York Continental and the television show The Continental. I think the 1970s Continental didn't have that rule yet, I think is. No, there's rules. Like it's still, there's a red light that can go on, but it's still, there's a violation happening of a code. So as I mentioned a few times, I have not seen this show, but that was like something I. They need another rule book.

They need another rule book. The deterrents are not working. I don't have a great answer for you for this, obviously. Like, quite clearly, you are right. But also, I would say maybe strange and unusual shit happens when the Baba Yaga is in town. And so, like, maybe everything's fine until John Wick or Eve Macaro gets involved. And then shit goes crazy. Okay, I don't mind it. So, like, if one of them checks in, you should probably just check out. Yeah.

I like this. You've solved it. We don't need a new rule book. We're good. I would like to hit you with a smuggle, and this is just not a question, but just an opportunity for us to express some passion for travel and real estate. While we're on the continental front, I'd like to ask you, now that the Prague Continental has entered the chat, which continental is officially your favorite continental? Is it Osaka? It's Osaka. Has to be. No offense to Winston and the New York Continental, but... Oh, that's pretty low on the list. It's...

Obviously Osaka. Now it is deconsecrated. So that's tough. But in our brief time there, I mean, the cherry blossoms, the bamboo, the water features, absolutely beautiful. The architecture was breathtaking. Koji, RIP, Akira. Like, just, I wish we had spent more time there. That was funny. I'm going to be, I'm going to say that Prague has moved to number two on my continental power. I thought that structure was gorgeous. I know why. The green marble. I know why. Their robust ice cream offerings. Yeah.

If I hear that I can have ice cream delivered to me via room service, I'm pretty much set. And if it is being delivered to me in a room with a fun slanted window and beautiful green marble, and they, as we know, because the remote was changing the channels actively when it was being used to break someone's jaw. John Wick. Not John Wick's jaw. Just John Wick. They've got Buster Keaton. They've got a number of things that you can watch. They've got lots of channels to watch. So prox number two. I'm going to say New York is third.

Just in the middle. And then Rome and then Casablanca. Because we didn't see enough of Casablanca. I would put Casablanca number two, personally. But like, something I do know. I'll remain open. Here's an asterisk. Yeah.

We didn't talk much during movies because we're polite people and we don't talk during movies. But when they did the establishing shot of Prague, did I not lean over to you and say, should we go to Prague? And he said, I've always wanted to go to Prague. So the fact that it's number two on your list is not wholly surprising to me. I've always wanted to go to Morocco. So I think Morocco number two on my list and then probably Prague. Yeah.

And nothing against the Rome Continental. It seemed great. Julius, I will say, genuinely one of my favorite moments in all of the John Wick movies is when Julius, the manager of Rome, greets John and says, you know, I'm paraphrasing. Tell me one thing, John. Are you here for the Pope? Incredible. Just an absolutely incredible moment in the history of film. And I've always wondered, like, what if the answer to that had been yes? I mean, it wasn't. It was no. But what if it had been yes?

The question is which Pope? American Pope? I don't know. Okay. Got to put us in the timeline. And you know what? Actually, Rome maybe should be higher on the list because that's stretched in Rome in chapter two where we've got the sommelier, which is just about the weapons, the tailor, the seamstress, the cartographer. Great shit. All good. Great shit. World-building wonderfulness.

Here's my next question to you. What do you got now? We saw a ballerina together. We did not talk to each other through most of the movie because again, we are polite people, but I did out loud with my own mouth when the credits roll said, Oh,

brother when we got the evanescence fight like a girl song that played over the closing credits so I want to ask you is this one of the worst needle drops of all time now I do think evanescence was the right mood I think evanescence is a great choice but

But when the lyrics are, tell your lies, yeah, you can run your mouth, but can you fight like a girl, fight like a girl and take this world? You swallowed your fate, stone cold, feed the snakes, hold that fire, say my name. Baby, can you cry, can you fight like a girl? Um...

I hated when they had the line earlier in the movie, you got to fight like a girl. And I hated this song so much. I'm on record as hating the I'm just a girl needle drop in Captain Marvel. I am now 100% at peace with that because this has displaced it for me. I hated this song. It really annoyed me. So is this one of the worst needle drops or did you love it? Were you vibing with it?

No, I'm aligned with you on this one. I thought this was unfortunate. I think we don't need to knock the Captain Marvel needle drop down the list. There's room for both at the top. They're both really bad. They're so bad. What I will say about... So learning that Sharon Duncan Brewster's character, Nogi, was added. So all the training, lecturing and stuff like that was added. Yeah.

When we were watching that sequence in the movie, I was like, this all feels like it's in here to preempt any complaints online that she's a Mary Sue and she fights too well. Or how can she go toe to toe with John Wick? We should say John Wick is like,

kind of toying with her. Like he's not trying, like he could easily take her. So that's not really a question, but like, I feel like nowadays in movies, whenever there's like a female protagonist who can fight, there's always, you know, we got it in last of us. We have to see Ellie training before she hits the road. Like, you know, we have to like see them training so that they're not like, how can Ray do that all of a sudden so far? You know? So it's just like, it all felt very much that, but can you find like a girl? It's just like,

I think the wrong note to hit at the end of this movie. So yeah, I'm with you there. I did enjoy the training sequence because I tend to enjoy a training montage and I thought the paintball stretch looked pretty fun. No, I like, I like a montage. It was more like everything that was said. It was less like watching these people get flung around, though. I will say you watched a second time. So you know better than I did. I'm probably not in, in the, in,

I was just on finger watch and I had a scar watch. You're often on finger watch, I find. So like in Don Wick 3, when he goes to visit the Rumoruska. Yeah. And he's seeing them train in their blue and red outfits. Yeah. They're in little like shorty kimonos. And so like their legs are out. My memory is in this movie, they've got full blown pants on.

Yeah. I miss the little shorts. I thought the little shorts under the kimonos in or whatever you call, it's not a kimono, obviously, the little like martial arts jacket. I'm sorry. Please don't fire me. I'm not a martial artist anyway. I thought that was like a great look in three and I felt like it was a downgrade in ballerina. Here's the thing, though. Both of those sequences in chapter three and in ballerina do feature...

peeling bleeding toenails yeah so you had that at least and that's a comfort i will say that um actually follow-up question i have is the ballerina that we see in john wick 3 even though it's played by a different actress and we do see her face do we think that's supposed to be eve

I think the tattoos are the same. You know what I mean? Is the tattoo inscription the same? I think so. It is? Yeah, I think so. Well, that would be the tell, right? Because they all have different... Different tattoos. Yeah. So if the inscription across the top of the back matches, then that would be the tell. Actually, this was not one of my five questions, but now that we're talking tattoos, do you think...

Does everyone get to pick? Does every member of the Riskeroma get to pick their inscription? Did John get to say, like, fortune favors the bold will be mine? And did Eve get to say light in the darkness will be mine? Obviously, I'm giving the English translations here. Or were those assigned? It's a great question. I wonder. I don't know. I don't know. Me neither. Me neither. What's next for you? Okay, here you go.

How much of any given city or town in the Wickverse is made up of assassins? Like, this has always been a question of mine in the Wick films. 25%. I would say 25%.

easily minimal. Like, yeah. So I would say in the New York stretches in particular, this is obviously always top of mind for us watching WIC films, particularly during the excommunicado stretch, of course, because basically anytime John goes anywhere, whether it's through a subway station or into a public

library uh there is an assassin waiting to attempt to execute the contract against him um obviously like something like the genius of the bowery king operation is like this idea that it's

they're hiding in plain sight they're all around you you don't even know the people you're not looking for people you're not paying attention to like they're also by the way not that i'm surprised jason's great and john wick great not that i'm surprised at all but like he's the best he's actually should have had way more screen time yes but like there's the moment when the adjudicator like hands him her umbrella to like hold for them incredible moment and he's just like i

Yes. It's a pretty great moment. This is kind of a question everywhere in New York the most, but it was also then very keen in the Paris stretch where...

It seemed that every third person John Wick passed was a trained and highly lethal, though ultimately unsuccessful, assassin attempting to kill him in the Arc de Triomphe, the stairs, anywhere he might have gone in Paris on his way to challenge the Marquis in the Dole. But despite this always having been a question, a full-on...

mountainside cult community where every single person who resides there, every single person, including the children, is trained to kill is just obviously like another level. I mean, the mom and daughter at the pub who leave and then the mom grabs a shotgun and you're like, oh, it's everyone. I know you have, I believe you have some questions coming on the children later and I do as well. So then it made me think how many other

murder village groups like this do we think there are where just every single inhabitant of a town is a trained hitman. Now, and like the Chancellor's cult is described as

okay, in contact with, right, like the chancellor and the director have met, there's a necessary truce between those organizations, like with the cult and the Ruskaruma, and like they're able to use the Continental, we learn that in the movie, but also they're described by Winston as like clearly separate, right? Not abiding, despite being able to use the Continental by the polite rules of society like everyone else. They don't follow rules, but we let them use our...

heavily rule-enforced hotel. Well, again, maybe this is part of why the rules are never in here. It's just a note and they're free to take it or not. And then that made me wonder, like, I guess this is a smuggle question, but this is more just, I'm wondering if this will be clarified in future films. Like, is the cult under the table?

Because kind of like everything is under the table, but also then it like doesn't really seem... I feel like they're at an adjacent table. And this is just like an uneasy truth. So not under the high table with the 12 seats. I don't understand why we're so scared of them. Because like, no offense to Gabriel Byrne, but like John Wick makes like fairly easy, like, you know, he cuts through this town pretty quickly. Here's my Halstatt question. Halstatt, Austria is a real place. I actually answered my own question, but I'll just like spiral it down. At first, one of my questions was,

Do you think the Hallstatt Austria Tourism Board has a case to sue Lionsgate over the fact that they're idyllic and it looks beautiful? And the real Hallstatt Austria, that's what it looks like. It's just gorgeous. On a hill, it's beautiful. But...

In my in-depth research, aka looking up Halstead, Austria on Wikipedia, I found... Not a commune for murder cults? I found that they're... What is it? It's an area of over-tourism, which means they have way more tourists than they can handle. So maybe they're delighted to have a deterrence built in of like, we are the murder cult town from ballerina Joanna.

I got to tell you a John Wick story. You want to go to Halstead? I'm going hard the other way on this. The conversation that Adam and I had driving home was like, what do you think the property values are? Okay. How hard would it be to rebuild one of these stone and wood structures? Let's do all my Halstead questions.

place. How much, and I asked you this outside the theater, but I'm gonna ask it again for the general public. How much do you think their entire economy is based around ballerina music boxes? Is it ice skates and ballerina music boxes? That's like our main exports from Halstatt, Austria. Can you use those music boxes to barter for other goods? I have some questions about this. Also, and this is the main question. Eve leaves with Ella.

Pine's daughter. Yes. Safe and sound. Don't worry. They are not going to turn you small, adorable child into a child assassin. Leaves town. As far as we know, she and John are just like, bye to Halstatt.

Leaving behind just an entire school full of children who are being trained to be assassins. Yeah. Fuck them, I guess? Question mark. Okay. Their parents made their choices? I don't know. And they're all dead now. I don't know. So, like,

Obviously, this could set us up to a Last of Us-esque thing down the line of sort of like the children of Halstatt rise up to take their revenge on the people who cut through their town lo those many years ago, perhaps. But I just like, why save one child when you can save all the children? I have questions about that, about the future.

the future of these children assassins. So I knew this was going to be one of your questions because we talked about this in the wake of the movie. So I have prepared a... My next question is a sub-question to your question. It's related. I think you're asking the important things here. What happened to all those kids? I mean, the dude who walked by... The little kid who walked... Dude. The little kid who walked by the car who Eve almost hit and then he, like, points the gun, his handgun. And then, obviously, when we see the school and they've got the targets at, like, the schoolyard. I mean...

The mind wanders with what those kids are up to now. Here's my follow-up question to your question. Will the director and the Ruskaroma slide in to recruit? Because their whole thing is...

Orphans. The whole thing. They love an orphan. Is like, okay, so we have a scene. You could just like picture Angelica Houston like sweeping in and saying, children of Hallstatt, come with me. Sadness isn't enough. I need pain and you've got it. You've got it. Come on in. What percentage of Hallstatt, Austria do you feel like was wiped out by this visit from Eve and John?

Good question. Whether they were roasted and toasted by a flamethrower gun that we have questions about the mechanics of those flames or like, but again, that's under the loony tunes umbrella. I'm not that worried about it. But what do you think? How many of the people that John and Eve killed were parents of these child assassins?

So many. I think basically everyone, my understanding is that basically everyone who's there is like, I was trained to be an assassin elsewhere and I'm like here now to raise my family. So I think like they, right. It's like a bunch of families and they killed many of the parents. So I think not all put a pin in that for a second. This will come into play with my last question that I have. Um, but before I get to, I think a person who might be alive, which I'll hit you with in a minute. Um,

And by I, I mean the internet and the people making the movie who are talking about it in interviews, just to be clear. So I think that like one of the questions that people seem interested in in the wake of the film is like,

Could the remnants of the cult be like the next big thing beyond this movie? Like, is there and that gets to, again, the question of like, if they're not under the table, maybe that's helpful because. So here's a quote from an Empire interview with Chad, with Chad Stahelski. Quote, the saga of John Wick was pretty wrapped up.

So the only way to do a five is to have a new story that involves John Wick. It's not a continuation with the high table.

John dealt with his grief. It will be really different and everybody will see the trailer and go, holy fuck, I got to see that. End quote. He's probably right. If they put out a trailer for John Wick 5, most people are going to watch it and say, holy fuck, I got to see that. But so like that seems, and could things change? Sure. Like a very clear, and I would say this is the right impulse. We did the high table thing. We're done. We need to move on. So then that would indicate maybe it's something else entirely, but like the idea that the cult could be the germ of that. Yeah.

Possibly? Sure. I don't hate it. But then I don't think the director can take all the children. The children have to stay there and continue their murder village. You know, and I love that you really want to go to murder village. I love that you're calling it murder village. It's just so pretty there. And you want to go see it. Do you think then that whatever this thing is,

should be called From the World of John Wick, murder village. Is that what you're pitching right now?

Why not? Okay. Now, I think the fact that the franchise is John Wick, John Wick Chapter 2, John Wick Chapter 3, dash Parabellum. John Wick Chapter 4 is borderline sociopathic and just should not have been allowed. Correct. So I would love some title continuity moving forward. That said, while Parabellum is the outlier, I do think that's a sick movie title. It is. Honestly. So I would lean into that a little bit more. And Murder Village, does it stem from a key...

you know, to, to, uh, if you, if you want peace ready for war, I'm paraphrasing. I believe it's something like that. It is, uh,

I don't know that Murder Village has similar roots in a phrase of note like that, but we can workshop it. We can workshop it. So what do you think? Do you think the director is going to go recruit the kids? Because like, OK, so John, we know we should just say is an orphan of the tribe, right? We don't know yet who John Wick's parents are. I will say this has been one of my recent discoveries now that I've entered the Continental Hive. Huge theory about

a couple characters in The Continental being his parents. Oh, fun fact. Which, should I say it or not in case it's so few people listening to this have seen it? It's not confirmed, to be clear. There's just a very popular theory. There's also the, like, question when Winston at the end of John McFour puts his...

hand on the tombstone, you see the tattoo. Yes. And then says, son. Son now does not mean anything to me because you can call anyone son. But, you know, is Winston his dad, for example? If you don't want to hear the theory, fast forward twice. The theory is it's Winston's brother, Frankie. Oh. And so that would make Winston his uncle. His uncle. That Frankie and Yen from the Continental TV show are John's parents, which I think would be actually really interesting for Winston to have a blood tie but not actually be his dad. Yeah.

And again, it's not a spoiler because it's not a note thing. It's just a theory. But like, I don't know if you don't want to know that those are characters from the show. I'm glad you mentioned Winston in the tattoo because I think it's possible that if somebody missed out or forgot about that, you'd see Ballerina and you'd be like, why is Winston showing up and taking Eve to the Ruscaroma? But that tattoo implied that he had a connection, a prior connection to that. By the way, yes.

I am always listening to you and paying attention, but I also happen to do some tattoo research and that is not the same ballerina, different tattoos. So don't worry about it. Different ballerina. And I guess all ballerinas at the Rizk Aroma are forced to do that exercise where, I don't know, do you think the director...

perforates their toe shoes so the blood gushes out of the bottom of it because that's not a lot of blood that's not what toe shoes like you could fill your shoe with blood if you're a ballerina that can happen but it's not then gonna like gush out all over the stage so the fabric holds the blood there's there's not just fabrics there's like layers of like

cardboard inside of your toe shoes. It absorbs the blood. Yeah, yeah. Unlike the plastic bag that Eve was holding the severed hand in when that iconic New Yorker woman was like, ma'am, your bag's leaking. And she's like, thank you. It would hold the blood better than that plastic bag is what you're saying. I think so.

a good toe shoe now again if the director just for shits and gigs likes to poke holes in their toe shoes so that they have to slip around in their own blood on the stage I wouldn't put it past her she's a sociopath one more thing on the will the director recruit the children let me just throw this out there on the like conspicuous lines and moments in the film front does she know who her parents are

Well, she knows the location. I just thought they made such a point of her saying to the chancellor, well, you got I'll send someone, but you got to tell me where you are. And don't worry, I'll do nothing with that information other than send this one help for you now. That's it. It's like she knows where that place is. Yeah. Is she going to do nothing with that?

Seems unlikely. I like the idea of her child snatching. From the world of John Wick, colon child snatcher. Sounds great to me. I mean, it's their whole thing, recruiting the orphans and then being like, yeah, sorry, Tatiana had to go. She only had sadness. I need pain. Wild stuff. But it's okay because now she's just a ballet dancer and that seems like a better existence, to be honest with you. Okay. I mean, crushing it. Crushing it on the theater scene in New York. Here's my last question. Hit me. Does anything capture...

the continental global appeal of the John Wick universe better than the absolutely garbled, mish-mashed accents that we hear from Jerome Flynn in John Wick 3 and Sharon Duncan Brewster in Black

From the world of John Wick, Colin Ballerina. There's a lot of accent work happening. It is the shock of the century to me that you waited this long to go to accent corner. It's my last hurrah. Gabriel Byrne is doing his own very special thing in this movie. Don't worry about it. I actually really love Angelica Houston's cartoonish Natasha and Boris Russian accent. I think it's hilarious. I think it's great. Sharon Duncan Brewster is like...

who a very talented performer is swinging all over the accent map inside of this like i don't know they hired her and they're like you're from africa actually no you're russian now i don't know what she was doing and then jerome flynn i that's one of the worst accents i've ever heard in my entire life i was like looking up where this character is supposed to be from and the internet was like italy question mark because his name is barada not to be confused with the cheese it's spelled differently but like

Sounds almost Dutch to me. I don't know what good old Braun in Blackwater is doing.

with his accent work in John Mc3. But I was delighted when he got bit in the dick for the crimes against my ears. That was his accent. Also for shooting a dog. But yes, and for the accent. Equally heinous. Equally heinous accent. Same level, honestly, of a violation. Not to be confused with the cheese is going to stick with me for a while. Thank you for that. Yeah.

Incredible stuff. Oh, man.

Yeah. The, the accents are a journey. I mean, even, you know, going back, we love Alfie Allen going back to the first movie. Like again, there's some again, wandering accent work there for sure. I don't know what it is. There's something about a cartoonish Russian accent that I'm usually just like, that's fine. Whatever you're doing over there, that's vaguely Slavic. That's fine. But some of these other ones, I love Alfie Allen and John Wick. I think he's great. Fantastic stuff. Well,

Would you ever go... I mentioned the clubs earlier. Would you ever choose to go to Minus 11, an ice club instead of the Red Circle, a hot tub bathhouse club? It's definitely a hot tub club over ice club. Imagine going to the ice club? I've got friends who love an ice club.

Because there's like, you know, you can do like various sauna treatments and one of them is like you can sit in an ice room. Could never be me, but I know people who love it. A treatment? Sure. Yeah. A night at the club. Let me be clear. Not a thing that I know anything about or have like ever done or intended to do. What do you do some really nice outerwear you want to show off?

You're like, look at this tremendous fur coat. Yeah, Eve had the fur when she walked in, which struck me as quite practical given the temperature and that, but obviously impractical for combat. But it just, I'm like, do we have like, do we need to be worried about frostbite? Like what sort of like ice burns do we have from the contact between like the thigh and the ice floor? This is to be clear, not my actual final question, but it is on my mind. It's up there. It is on my mind. What's your last question?

My last question is an actual plot question and a canon question about the movie and where we might go from here. Okay. Who do you think placed the hit on Eve? Who opened the contract on Eve? Because this is an open question. And you noted the $5 million is like a hefty price tag. There's also just the...

like widening of the eye when the call when the contract is open and the hit is ordered and i took that as like a because it's in the response to like the confirmation number part so it's like about who is calling that leads to that facial expression and response uh i thought it would oh but it can't it can't be to the amount because that hasn't been stated yet i don't i think it was about the like who is placing the call more than the amount but

I'll have to go see it a third time to know for sure. Okay, so I would say most people seem to think it's someone associated with the cultists. Though we should note, it is, I think, at least possible that it was the director who ordered the hit. That would be my number one guess. That would be my read actually seeing the movie because I think we linger on the director and then we go basically like immediately another hit. And obviously, like, you know, there's the prior, like, but she's family and the director's basically like,

Tough shit. So, you know, we know that the director is thinking about preservation of her family and her operation over the individual members inside of it. So the director, I think, leading candidate. It seemed like most of the internet thought it was someone associated with the cultists, which I was surprised by because when we left, Adam was like, it's definitely someone with the cultists. And I was like, wasn't it the director? So I think this is an interesting debate. Do you feel like the cultists have that power to put that bounty out? Um...

Maybe that could be part of the like, oh, we haven't heard from you guys in a while. But I think this gets to the question of how associated are they with the larger machine here. Okay. Could it have been Eve's mother? I would like to share a couple quotes with you. Oh, tell me. Director Len Weissman.

who may or may not have actually made the movie, as you previously explained. Made at least some of this movie. But I will refer to him as the director of the film for the purposes of sharing these quotes. To Brian Truitt, USA Today. Quote, For those looking for a tease of where Eve could go next...

Director Len Weissman says to pay attention to the bounty on Eve at the end of the movie. That was, quote, a Keanu idea, the filmmaker says. And it speaks to, quote, the spirit of the consequences behind this world. But, quote, it's ambiguous who put that contract out. And, quote, and while the audience will have to wait to see who that mystery person is, quote, I have my fun, really dark ideas.

Second quote to throw your way from Big Len here. This is to Entertainment Weekly. Big Len. To EW's Sydney Buxbaum. Quote, At one point, I had in the script that she meets her mother, and we never got there. We were maybe going to shoot the scene, but that's always something that we hear. Her mother's dead. But in this world...

You never know who's really dead. I mean, there was an element of when Eve does get the contract on her at the end, we don't necessarily know for sure who put that contract on her. Again, this is a quote from the director. And if that path led to that, maybe her own mother put the hit on her. That would be brutal. End quote. What do you think? I mean...

I guess that's Len's theory. So it's a fine theory. Len is saying in general, theorize, speculate. It's an open question. So that's fine. But also he's like, but what if it's the mom? Okay. First of all, there was zero down in my mind that her mom was still alive. Like, of course her mom is still alive. For sure. Like, of course she is. Um, this is very Ailey season two. Shout out Lena Olin. Always a Sydney Bristow's mom, uh, a Russian operative, uh,

I mean, it worked really well in Alias season two. So if you just want to do Alias season two, but make it John Wick, I will happily show up. You were asking me about Schools of Child Assassins and I was like, well, that's just Alias. They did that on Alias. And if they want to do mom working against you, but for you, with you, against you, question mark, constantly, I would watch it for sure. Five mils a lot. That's a lot.

Who would you cast as Anna and Armis' mom? I have no idea. Okay. Who would you cast? That's a great question. Someone stunningly beautiful. Yeah. The most beautiful person that has ever existed, but is the right age demographically. That's interesting. The sister stuff. Very handsome father as well. Oh, yeah.

I thought David Castaneda was like really good in this. Same. Wish we'd gotten more. Reddit seems to have hated that whole action sequence, but I like a smoke grenade. So I had fun, a fun time with it. Red smoke. Well, it was just like, it was just funny. Here's what's happening with the reshoots thing. Basically everyone's like the part of the movie I didn't like that was obviously originally there. And the part that I did like, that's obviously a reshoot. And I'm just like,

Right. It's not that clear. If they cast David Castaneda during the reshoots, then all of the opening stuff is Chad's house. And if that's true, then you can't disavow that fight scene. I quite liked David in all of that. I thought the sister stuff was really wasted in the movie. So yeah, if they want to do something, she could have other siblings. And if they want to do something, half siblings, they want to do something with the mom. They should do it. Love that. Wonderful. Sounds great. Um,

Those were my questions. I can't believe you didn't ask about the flamethrowers. I know we sprinkled it in. It's loony tunes. Okay, fine. This is not okay. The flamethrowers, the everlasting gobstopper tanks that are on those flamethrowers, fine. That's fine. Yeah. Tommy could have really used it against the bloater, as we said in real time. We did. Yeah. Great capacity. Pals.

Do you think those tunnels in Hallstatt, Austria, once again, a real place that you can go visit, they're famous for their salt. Do you think those tunnels were coated in petrol? And that's why they all like lit on fire. Like stone is lighting on fire. Again, it's Looney Tunes. It's fine. That guy's that henchman's, his name is Dex, I believe. His foot gets lit on fire and we thought it would come back to play, but it doesn't. It's just a thing that happens. Yeah.

made a Harry Potter comp with, like, the two flames, sort of. Yeah, the... Oh, the water. The water and the flame. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The water and the flame was just, like, I throw up on Catabra, you throw Expelliarmus. It's so...

Like, you said it blew by. I feel like she's slowly pressing forward with that, the world's strongest fire hose for so long. Yeah. Anyway. Ballerina. Do you have any commentary on the hair not catching fire? Obviously, the jacket is this. Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. How does she still have her hair?

Oh, Targaryen blood inside of the ballerina. You love to see it. Here's my suggestions. Chad Stahelski, when he was doing reshoots for this movie, I think it resulted in him either like losing. I don't know exactly what happened with the custody of the Highlander movie with Henry Cavill. I think it's gone to Amazon now. I don't know if Chad's still involved, but the implication is that he had to put that on pause in order to help with the reshoots to this movie because Lionsgate was also supposed to make Highlander. Now they're not. Um,

do we think there's a way in which we could have a John Wick Highlander crossover? Because I would be quite excited. It's a real alien versus predator situation and I would enjoy it. So what do you think the weapon of choice would be in that? Well, Highlander is always sword. So yeah. So we've got a lot of sword play across John Wick, but like not as much. It's,

Not as much room for the grenade action. It's true. It's true. Sword versus gun. A lot of people are exploded with grenades in the film ballerina. And it was memorable. Does that. So the way you kill a Highlander and you take their powers by cutting off their head, do you think it still works if you explode their head with a grenade? The grenade.

probably did you have a favorite grenade exploding oh a person moment was it high between the guy on the hanging yeah the table and the hanging the dangling the joy in the table moment yeah is the way in which the visual effects or whatever you know because she's got a thing like

stretched taut around him and then he explodes and whatever you know the grenade belt then like falls forward with her that was cool because you're just like yeah because that guy's goo now so there's nothing holding that grenade belt up anymore gone and the guy previously who she'd like put behind the metal door oh yeah and had shoved the grenade in his mouth and then he's exploded through and the wall the wood wall um

He's also gone. Just paste. Just mist. Gone. Pink mist. And the guy in Halstead is duct taping into his face, dangling with the rope. And then as everyone looks, like the guy in the eye looks through, everyone's like, spray paint. Mist. What do you think is happening? Here's a question. Okay.

What do you think is happening? What's the state of Eve's hearing after the events of this film? She's like within inches of multiple explosions. A question Reddit had a lot of thoughts about. Yeah. Does she have earplugs that we just haven't seen? Flame-retardant hair products and earplugs. She needs a cue. Like, I know that they have like

Somalis and stuff like that. And I know they've got tailors and stuff like that, but I think they need more gadgets in the John Wickverse. They need a Q. What is Ben Whishaw doing? Can he come over and... Oh my God, what a dream that would be. Be Q in a John Wick movie. What a dream that would be. Ah, boy. Great stuff. All right, I think we did it. Yeah. Yeah. I had fun. The eye survives, right? I feel like the eye survives. I think so. The character, the eye in Halstatt. Yeah.

I would see more of him. He's in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. I like that guy. I would love to see him again. Okay, so the eye? Yeah. Eve's definitely a living mother who potentially ordered a hit on her own child and like dozens and dozens of murdered children. Murdered children. Sounds like we have a second movie. Okay, well, that has been our journey through the John Wickverse. Will Mallory continue watching The Continental, Mallory?

Oh, yeah. I've only got one. I mean, it's only three episodes. Again, each episode is the length of a movie. But I only have one of three left, so I will be finishing my journey. Okay.

I can't say I recommend the show, which is unfortunate. Too bad. But there's some fun stuff in it. There is some fun stuff in it. And then also some stuff that is... If they did another season... Is it one of those things where you watch the first season and you're like, I could see the good show here. I would like this to get a second season because they could really figure it out. I could definitely see the good show there. Okay. Yeah. There's stuff to work with for sure. Overall grade, what's your final grade on Ballerina? Oh, okay.

We don't do grades, but like a letter grade. A letter grade? A letter grade? I want some more. Let's see. So I would say that John Wick 4 and John Wick 1 are A pluses for me. Oh, wow. Like A pluses. Okay. I would say that 3 is like an A minus and 2 is a B plus. So I will give Ballerina a B minus. I'm just...

It's a B-. I'm somewhere on the border between B and B-. It's a B-. It's a B, B-. B- can be fun. But probably B-. And we had a fun, fine time at the movies. Yeah. Mallory cackling around people turning into goo. Is it a great movie? No. Do I probably want to rewatch it? Not until there's the next one. But it is a movie we saw and it's a movie that exists. Thank you to Mallory Rubin.

Thank you to you. You're my Baba Yaga. Oh. There's only one of you, a creature of myth and legend. Yeah, terrifying. Terrifying, right?

No, awe-inspiring. Oh, awe-inspiring. Okay. Deconsecrate your continental in advance of my arrival. I'm Joanna Robinson. Thank you to all the folks who worked on this pod today. Jesse Lopez, John Richter, Arjuna Rangapal, and Jomi Adeneron. Lots going on in Los Angeles right now. Our thoughts are with everyone down there. And thanks to our team for working on this pod today. And we will see you later this week.