Film · Tertiary · since 2014

John Wick

Four films built out of a dog, a car and a decision to hold the shot. Directed by stuntmen, which is the only fact needed to explain any of it: if the actor has trained for months, the honest camera is the impressive one and the edit is the enemy.

Underneath the fighting is the better invention: an assassins’ guild with a hospitality arm, its own currency, an arbitration process and paperwork. Nobody on screen ever explains it, and that is why it works.