WMG / John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum

Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.

We're going to see Carrie Anne Moss in the fourth sequel.

• Come on, EVERYBODY wants to see the power trio from The Matrix. And their combined presence would be pure magic.

Winston and the Bowery King will be killed off in the movie’s middle act for assisting John Wick.

• Both are still alive (the latter despite getting slashed seven times); Winston fakes betrayal by shooting John and allowing him to escape only to be picked up by the Bowery King.
  • That's assuming that Winston's betrayal is faked. It's hard to know for certain at this point in the story.
    • The Adjudicator lets Winston know that if Wick turned out to have survived the fall (which the audience knows he did), he's in trouble with the High Table regardless. We'll just have to wait for JW4 to find out.

John Wick will die at the end.

But his death may result in the downfall of the High Table, possibly exposing the entire criminal underworld to the public.

• Nope.

John Wick will lose a finger on his left hand.

Set photos have John wearing black tape around one of his fingers on his left hand.

• Confirmed. John is forced to cut his ring finger on his left hand to demonstrate his loyalty to the Elder.

John's dog will die once more.

In the recently released IMAX poster, the dog is positioned behind a table, so only his head can be seen. Therefore, a possible decapitation of the poor pet may happen.

• Nope. The dog is perfectly fine and actually can be seen trotting off towards where John fell.

The High Table will cross the Continental.

The second trailer has a woman giving implied threats to Winston about what will happen if John Wick survives then John is later seen getting help from Winston. Perhaps the High Table tries to take over the Continental and Winston offers to rescind John's excommunication in exchange for his help.

• The movie shows these scenes backwards. Yes, the High Table does indeed try to take over the Continental and Winston does indeed ally with John against them but Winston does not have the authority to rescind the excommunicado. The Adjudicator (the woman) is commenting on Winston's apparent betrayal by shooting John off the roof
  • The High Table can still try to take over as a punishment.

Winston didn't betray John Wick at all.

The ending twist sees Winston apparently betraying John Wick by siding with the High Table and shoots John off the roof. However, if Winston really wanted John dead, he would've shot him in the head instead of shooting in his bulletproof suit multiple times, and he clearly didn't bother to send someone to check whether John is really dead despite knowing full well how Made of Iron John Wick is. We also never really saw what he's doing inside his safe room while John and Charon are out fighting the High Table hit squad. Perhaps he made a deal offscreen with the Bowery King, whom he knew is still alive and arranged for his men to secretly rescue John after Winston shot him off the roof. The reason he did that in the first place is that he wanted to spare himself and Charon from the High Table's wrath by pretending to side with The Adjudicator. After the Adjudicator sees him shooting John Wick and seemingly display his regained loyalty, the Adjudicator leaves them alone, and even if it is discovered that John actually survives that, the Adjudicator can't punish Winston because technically, he fulfills his end of the bargain and shoots John just as he was ordered to. That way, Winston is spared and regain his Continental business while leaving John another chance to survive as well.

• There is the fact the Bowery King makes a remark of "I would have done the same in his place" which seems aimed to defuse John's rage at Winston, also suggesting he's working with Winston in this matter.
• Add to this the fact that we're shown another Continental manager's proficiency with headshots, when the manager of the Casablanca Continental headshots one of the assassins in his domain.

The next movie will involve John and the Bowery King forming up an underground alliance to take the fight to the High Table.

The theme of this movie is consequences. Many people who have crossed paths with John in the previous movie all suffered from consequences of their actions, including the Bowery King, Winston, the Director, and Sofia, and all are punished by the High Table accordingly. All of them have a good reason to hold a grudge against the High Table, and the ending of the film is a clear Sequel Hook that at least John and the Bowery King are gonna go to war with the High Table. That's why in the next movie, every single person that the High Table has slighted will come together and go to war with the High Table, with John Wick at the center of it all.

• In addition, it's a war for survival on both sides. A good part of the High Table's power comes from the fact that nobody who defies them survives. But now John has survived the first wave and has a sanctuary to heal up for the next round in. Saying nobody who defies you lives out the night is impressive. Killing your enemies in a week if they flee instead of fight is also impressive. But a month? A year? Every moment that John Wick is not dead or broken is a statement that the High Table couldn't kill or break John Wick. And given enough of those statements, others chafing under their rule might think "if John Wick could defy them and live, why can't I?" And even if the Table kills most of them, the fact that they have to is a sign of weakness, and could bleed out resources. The only way to stop this, to restore the High Table's reputation as unbeatable, is to kill John Wick.

The next film will be titled John Wick: War

Given that the subtitle of this film is Parabellum, as in the phrase "If you want peace, prepare for war," the next film will be the "war" in question, where John Wick, the Bowery King, and any allies they can muster will wage war on the High Table.

• Alternatively, it could be called John Wick Chapter 4: Civil War.

In the fourth or fifth film, John Wick will get an Expy of the Infinity Gauntlet and kill half of the world.

In the first film, Viggo was more than just a mob boss; he was High Table.

• It had been questioned elsewhere on this wiki why Viggo in the first film thought of himself as an all-powerful crime boss once the later films revealed the sheer number of powers and politics in the assassin world. Barring Early-Installment Weirdness, another answer is possible: Viggo was a member of the High Table, with New York as his domain. Specifically, John's "impossible task" involved killing whoever a High Table member that controlled New York before him. This would make his statement that Iosef was set to become the "King of New York" and, assuming that members of the High Table may have a UN-esque "don't kill each other" truce, Viggo felt safe and secure as the ruler of New York. Once John killed him, a spot at the Table opened up, with the Santino siblings both trying to grab it. Now, things have descended into chaos, with New York City the most contested territory in the Assassin world.
  • Not likely John would have caught hell for it far sooner and it's implied the open seat the Santino siblings were vying for was their father's.

The High Table consists of more than just criminal organizations.

• The Serial Escalation in this films has reached such an extent where it seems like damn near everybody is at least tangentially aware of the society that the characters live in, to the point where if assassins stab somebody in broad daylight, the only acknowledgement this gets from the crowd is people casually walking around the body. The fact that they can get away with these actions in New York City, Rome, Casablanca, and almost certainly countless other cities around the world suggests that government officials from all over might be involved in ways that go beyond just being paid or intimidated into allowing it. And considering that a cardinal can be seen at Gianna's party in Chapter 2 (and in a deleted scene, John got a Cardinal's approval to assassinate her) the Table might even have seats for religious or other legitimate NGO authorities as well. If the High Table really is as old as it seems to be, it might even have been that its initial members would have been from the organizations that predate modern nations and criminal syndicates by hundreds of years (such as the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches, the signs and symbols of which we see all over the films). And if all of it started with The Hashshashin in the desert, that would explain why the Elder has the authority to overrule High Table decisions; He and his predecessors (Or maybe even just him, if he's that old) can "sit above the Table" because they were the ones who created it. This hypothesis also puts the Roman Continental manager's fear of John being there "for the Pope" in a new light. Did he think John was there to kill the Pope, or did he think John had been summoned by him?
  • Based on the manager's relief that John is not there for the Pope, is seems likely that he assumed John may have been there to kill the Pope. The religious angle, however, is certainly interesting, especially with the myriad of religious symbols throughout the series.

Earl is a mole for the High Table.

• The Adjudicator displays awareness of events that very few people were there for. Particularly when they reveal the Kimber 1911 that the Bowery King gave John Wick in Chapter 2, and knew about his plans to stand against Santino, despite the King having plausible deniability ("I didn't know what John Wick was going to do with the gun, he just asked for one"). Besides the Tick-Tock Man introduced in this film, the only other person who seems to have pull within the Bowery King's organization is Earl, his right-hand man from the second film. Earl is also conspicuously absent when Zero's shinobi are slaughtering the Bowery King's forces. Given the High Table's connections and influence, it would make sense that they would have moles at every level of every organization, no matter how small. Earl being a mole is the only explanation that makes a decent amount of sense, barring some sort of clairvoyance on the part of the Adjudicator and High Table.

The Elder is Ra's Al Ghul.

• The High Table is in fact the board of the League of Assassins/Shadows. The Elder as "the man who sits above the High Table" is in fact the Demon's Head himself.
  This would explain why he is called the Elder and is discussed with such reverence and mysticism despite appearing so young. He is the immortal Ra's Al Ghul keeping himself young with the Lazarus Pits.

Evidence:

• He is the ultimate authority in the Assassins world.
  • He is called the Elder despite appearing so young.
  • He uses an antiquated lexicon and calls John "my son" - again suggesting he is older than he appears.
  • He, much like Ra's, is also middle-eastern.
  • He, like Ra's, has a very mystical reputation and has several superstitions built around him, such as only being found by following the Canis Major constellation across the desert as a form of pilgrimage.
  • His demand that John sacrifice a finger as penance again suggests cultish, mystical trappings to his organisation.

Makes sense.

"Be seeing you" is a sign of respect within the criminal underworld

• In all three films, someone says the line to another, usually to John himself. In the first film, Viggo, whom John has a lot of history with, says it to John is he lays dying and John repeats it back. In the second film, Ares, whom John doesn't seem to think much of, signs it twice to John. The first time, he retorts "Not if I see you first" and the second, he merely replies, "Sure". Then in the third film, John and some Russian Mooks whom he's implied to have once worked with exchange the phrase as a farewell.

The reason for Winston’s code

• In the first two John Wick films, Winston is played up as the founder of the system of assassins, particularly reinforced when we hear that his code for calling in hits is just zeroes and a “1”. But in this film, we find out that the system goes back to at least Middle Ages and possibly older, so why is Winston treated as “the first”. If we take Winston’s service time into account (“over 40 years”) it puts the beginning of his tenure into the 1970s, when the digital age was just beginning. My guess is the Continental revised their system with modern improvements in a big way, and gave Winston the first number because A) he was the one to suggest/implement it, or B) they started the renovations in New York and it was the most convenient.

If John Wick ever dies, it will be an anticlimax

• Things have been building up so much and Wick so unkillable, the only way this franchise could end is not with tanks or attack helicopters or nukes, but with a lucky shot from a complete novice or someone poisoning his drink. Preferably after defeating all of the above. Ultimately, he isn't invincible and his luck will run out and someone will eventually catch up and surpass him. He chose to reenter the life and probably won't come out.

The Continentals are the embassies of the underworld

Function-wise, the Continentals can easily be seen as embassies. Business cannot be done on their grounds, they facilitate members' outside business, and so on. But more than this, they may essentially be local representatives of the High Table's power, the center of the machine of the underworld for their region. This would explain the power that Winston holds, and that he seems to only answer to the High Table itself. It's possible that the coinage for a region is even handled by that region's Continental as a practical matter especially as the Continental is the center of exchange in gold coins. The coins seem to be something of a physical token of a favor-based system, but beyond a method of assassins compensating one another for favors, all use of gold coins involves the regional Continental and its services.

The Coins Represent Reciprocal Favors

Contracts are paid in terms of real cash, which makes sense as you can't buy groceries with Assassin money. Coins are seen used as a method to pay for services within the assassin underworld, such as body disposal, a room at the Continental, or being outfitted with gear. But when you add in members paying for drinks with coins, it gets odd. There is no possible way of establishing a conversion rate between cash and a coin that can buy you the disposal of one body, a small arsenal, two bullet proof suits, or a stay of indeterminate length at a hotel all for the same price. Therefore, a coin represents a favor. When you make a dinner reservation, you are being done a favor. When you ask for a tasting, you are being done a favor. A suit fitting is a favor, as is being boarded by the Continental. A drink at the Continental likely does not cost a coin, it may be covered under your boarding, or it may be payable with cash (or, it's payable by cash if you are not staying there currently). It may be that giving the bartender a coin for a drink is a courtesy, but not strictly expected. Perhaps John Wick is a phenomenal tipper, and this is part of why he is so respected.

• While the reciprocal favors thing is undoubtedly true (though that can describe how currency works in general), there's also the possibility that drinks at the Continental are just insanely overpriced. Like, suppose you run the bar at the Continental; most of your customers are going to be guests at the hotel, and most of those guests are going to be there because their lives are in danger and the Continental is their one guaranteed safe haven. So, you've got a bunch of people dealing with stressful, life-and-death problems; in other words, people who need a nice, relaxing drink. But since leaving the hotel means being constantly on guard against assassins, the only place they can get a nice, relaxing drink is at your bar. High demand, plus a complete monopoly on supply, means you can charge pretty much whatever you want.