10 Most Heartbreaking John Wick Scenes, Ranked

In the last decade, the arrival of the John Wick series has signaled a renewal of interest in fast-paced action and heroes with high kill counts. While the movies do have a lot of these hard-hitting scenes, the sad moments tend to go underrated. 

This is too bad, as the John Wick movies actually have the emotional aspect at the heart of things. After all, the premise is supposed to appeal to one’s empathetic side. In order to understand where and why these scenes occur, one needs to look at the most heartbreaking moments. To this end, let’s see which scenes made the cut.

10 Gianna Taking Her Own Life

Although she was barely in the movie, Gianna’s death is a tough pill to swallow. This stems from the fact that John didn’t want to kill her in the first place and had to due to his blood oath to Santino. Not only that but Gianna’s own acceptance of her doom simply spells a hopeless situation.

Not wanting to suffer the ignominy of being assassinated, Gianna took her own life by bleeding to death. It’s clear from the faces of both characters that they wished it didn’t go this way and that Santino was the one who deserved this fate.

9 John Hunted By Everyone

After everything he went through in the second film, where he engaged in the hardest-hitting fight scenes and emotional turmoil, John was made excommunicado by Vincent for killing on the Continental premises. This made him the target of every assassin out there.

The desperation with which John ran through the streets — he was paranoid that everybody was out to kill him — is hard to watch since John never asked to be brought back into the assassin life. It was a hopeless situation for the protagonist, who had nowhere left to go where he wasn’t a hunted man.

8 John Explaining What Daisy Meant To Him

The sheer emotions that John displayed in this scene is a testament to the work Keanu Reeves put into the role. Despite being caught by the antagonist, John kept seething over his need to avenge his puppy’s death. When asked what the big deal about a dog was, John admitted his inner despair.

He confessed that the dog symbolized how he could find happiness again after his wife’s death and that by being with his new pet he could hold on to how his wife had brought him peace. It also made for painful viewing when the grief-stricken and incensed John was then gagged from behind.

7 The Adjudicator Punishing John’s Allies

There’s a serious lack of heartwarming moments in the John Wick series, mainly due to almost all the characters being so heartless. Due to this, it was nice to see John still had some allies after being excommunicado, only for these people to be punished by the Adjudicator.

While violence is normal in the series, it’s the look of helplessness on the faces of the Director and the Bowery King that garners one’s sympathy. It’s the price to pay for being faithful to someone, along with being punished for having some shred of humanity.

6 John Getting Betrayed By Winston

“He has to die” has become one of the most famous quotes from the John Wick series. If there was one person whom John could trust, it was Winston. Unfortunately, Winston accepted the Adjudicator’s deal to reinstate him as the head of the Continental, leading him to shoot John as part of the agreement.

While it’s speculated that Winston did this as a ruse, John was still seen feeling betrayed, being shot repeatedly, and falling down multiple stories from the top of the building. After traveling around the world to save himself, this was the least of what he deserved.

5 John Shooting The Doctor

The doctor was the only character who didn’t treat John with hostility at any point in time. He wanted to treat John’s wounds but was bound by the deadline of the excommunicado. He even went so far as to request John to shoot him so it looked like the doctor was forced into helping him.

The doctor might be the most genuine person in the entire series, what with his willingness to help. Due to this, it’s sad seeing him having to bear the pain of being shot just because he helped a man in need.

4 John Walking Along The Boardwalk

If anybody was still uncertain if this role was meant to be played by Keanu Reeves, the final shot of the first movie should confirm it is. Here, John came across another dog who was scheduled to be euthanized, freeing it and walking away.

The hope for most would have been for John to have a happy ending during the movie, but all they got was this shot of John alone once more. He had another dog with him, but it was more like two beings whom life had dumped and were together to share their solitude. John wasn’t at peace, he was just alive.

3 Berrada Shooting Sofia’s Dog

By now it should be clear that the series derives the most emotions out of tragedies against dogs. In Chapter 3, after Sofia’s former boss Berrada told John the location of the Elder, he asked for Sofia’s dog as compensation. Upon being refused, he straight-up shot the poor animal.

John Wick fans certainly wouldn’t be prepared to see this considering the series had already killed a puppy in the first film. However, here was another case of a dog being caught in the middle of violence, and it was equally sad to see Sofia’s deeply traumatic response. Fortunately, this dog did end up making it out alive and fans saw one of the best action sequences in the franchise ensue.

2 Memories Of John’s Wife

It’s at the beginning moments of the first film but remains one of the best of the entire series, as John was shown both living without his wife and in the seconds during her death. It’s a great parallel to how he was still showing signs of life even when his wife was dying compared to John essentially being a dead man walking after her demise.

The scene showed that John didn’t really have any purpose left anymore and was basically living his life because he wanted to hold on to his wife’s memories. And yet, it was these memories that were making him wish he were dead as well.

1 The Death Of Daisy

Of course, the most heartbreaking scene has to be the one that set the stage for the entire series. Fans wouldn’t have become so interested in trivia about dogs had Daisy the puppy not been sacrificed. It remains a haunting moment for John, despite him having seen all manner of death.

Mainly, it’s the representation of the killing of innocence that makes this such a harrowing watch, with Daisy simply lying dead amid all the carnage. Her death took away the possibility of John finding happiness once more, all of which was sealed the moment he saw the dog’s body.

About The Author

Saim Cheeda
(1351 Articles Published)

Saim Cheeda is an entertainment writer covering all of Film, TV, Gaming and Books. He’s been a writer for Valnet since 2017, contributing 500+ articles for The Gamer, The Things, Game Rant, Comic Book Resources and Screen Rant. Apart from freelance writing, Saim is a lifestyle blogger, co-owning the blog 3 States Apart.

http://3statesapart.com

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