Keanu Reeves in John Wick: Chapter 4 (Lionsgate)

In the nine years since its unsuspecting 2014 debut, the John Wick franchise has thoroughly dominated Hollywood to the point that countless action films have molded themselves in the John Wick school of filmmaking. Those movies either wanted to be the next Wick (Gunpowder Milkshake, Kate) or were directed/produced by its creators (Atomic Blonde, Day Shift). Yet John Wick: Chapter 4 is another reminder of why Keanu Reeves’s aged assassin reigns supreme. Its stylized visuals and slick gun-fu choreography remain as strong as ever, and more significantly, Chapter 4 commits to topping itself at every turn.

More importantly, it delivers. With the likely exception of Tom Cruise’s next Mission Impossible film, John Wick: Chapter 4 is 2023’s standout action flick, and quite possibly the best Wick sequel to date.

While not an immediate sequel like its predecessors, John Wick: Chapter 4 more or less picks up where Chapter 3—Parabellum left off. Having recovered from an insane building fall, Wick is out for blood against the enigmatic High Table that dictates his underground assassin culture’s laws and legalities. Thus, he gains a new foe in the Marquis de Gramont (Bill Skarsgård), a shrewd, extremely privileged High Table member who sees Wick’s rule breaking as both a sign of chaos and an opportunity for glory.

Unfortunately for Mr. Wick, the Marquis is armed with all the resources and hitmen at the High Table’s disposal, as well as full authority to punish anyone who lends protection or even a weapon upgrade. Thus, Wick must rely on his extraordinary set of skills to beat this foe at his own game, with longtime allies Winston (Ian McShane) and the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne) joining his crusade.

That’s all you need to know story-wise. John Wick: Chapter 4 commits to a simple plot with vast worldbuilding elements, while introducing new locations and characters that help make the Wick universe engaging across a whopping 169 minutes. People like and respect Wick, regardless of whether they must kill him or endanger themselves protecting him. At the same time, all of Chapter 4’s new faces look like they’re having a blast, from the Osaka Continental owner Shimazu Koji (Hiroyuki Sanada) to the blind assassin-turned-frenemy Caine (Donnie Yen) and the German Shepard-assisted tracker Mr. Nobody (Shamier Anderson), who does everything he can to bump up Wick’s bounty. So too are newcomers Clancy Brown, Rina Sawayama, Natalia Tena, and Scott Adkins (kicking ass in a prosthetic suit like a gold-toothed Wilson Fisk), joining Reeves, McShane, Fishburne and the late Lance Reddick in a world that’ll never give Wick peace.

Once again, Reeves and director Chad Stahelski deliver on the action and then some. Every fight is crisp, beautifully choreographed, and outright, if not playfully, brutal as characters dispatch armed goons with their own unique fighting style. Wick’s gun-fu has a more serious vibe than Caine’s Little Tramp–inspired gun-and-swordplay combos, but each combatant is a joy to watch. Almost as much fun as the imaginative set pieces: a Frogger-inspired gun battle around Paris’s Arc de Triomphe, testing Wick as he dodges both bullets and incoming cars; an overhead tracking shot of Wick blasting goons with incendiary rounds in an abandoned building, even as he’s outnumbered 50 to one. Chapter 4 just never lets up, and it is awesome.

That pacing, and the vulnerability that springs from it, are key to John Wick’s icon status. Reeves might play an unstoppable badass, but he also stresses how tiring these stunts and kill shots are for Wick. You see it in the way he hobbles away from a gun fight or struggles to walk off a painful fall or stairwell tumble. Indeed, Wick’s skills are humbled by how herculean a task he faces, not just beating the Marquis, but fighting off entire cities full of assassins to achieve his particular brand of justice. Yes, this entire global crusade began with avenging the death of a dog he received from his late wife. But we still root for Wick because, however skilled, he’s an underdog just trying to make it out alive.

John Wick: Chapter 4 enters theaters a juggernaut among action franchises, but it still has a classic underdog vibe: stylized, yet scrappy. Violent, but darkly humorous. It constantly guides viewers through fights modest in setup but remarkable in execution. And despite how satisfyingly it ties up loose ends, Chapter 4 is just the start. Ana de Armas’s Wick spinoff, Ballerina, is currently in production, as is Starz’s The Continental series, both of which intend to keep this franchise’s mythos alive. John Wick isn’t just back, he’s still building an action empire.