Assassins in movies are often fascinating characters who can range from unassuming everyday types to shadowy warriors who almost seem like they’re from a whole other world. The John Wick franchise has demonstrated all sides of this dynamic better than perhaps any other media franchise ever.
PERKINS
Taking on John Wick is a rather bold move, even if he’s fresh out of retirement. That didn’t stop a treacherous Ms. Perkins from going after him. Granted, Perkins is actually working for the Russian mafia boss, Viggo Tarasov at that time. It was Viggo who placed a $2 million bounty on John’s head in order to protect his good-for-nothing son.
Perkins even had the audacity to conduct business on The Continental grounds in an attempt to get the bounty on John’s head. She was clever enough to attack John at his most vulnerable and nearly killed him as a result. However, Perkins was duly penalized for this brash action, and the cost was her life but not before she killed Harry to make her initial escape.
ERNEST
John encounters Earnest at the New York Public Library while trying to gather supplies before he becomes excommunicado at the beginning of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum. John still has time left on the clock but Earnest, in a similar fashion to Perkins, forgoes the honor of the assassin’s code and tries to kill John anyway.
It’s perhaps this lapse in discipline that seals his fate more than anything as, despite his far greater height and reach to John, he loses after stabbing the already-quite-wounded John in the shoulder. He’s taken down with a large hardback book in a kill reminiscent of The Bourne Ultimatum.
HARRY
Harry is one of the many, many characters from the movies that John has some kind of a vague history with, providing a helping hand by keeping the unconscious Perkins captive after John leaves. She gets the upper hand on him and kills him but still Harry ranks above both his killer and Earnest for one simple reason.
The audience has no real indication of Harry’s skill as a killer but what he does–that Perkins and Earnest don’t do–is abide by the code that assassins follow. Not just the strict rules set by the High Table but an even deeper sense of honor that the assassins above lacked in their final moments.
ARES
Ares is an enigmatic assassin from John Wick: Chapter 2, played by Ruby Rose. She communicates through sign language her silence allows her to make an even bigger impact in the movie. She managed to give John a tough fight as well as some memorable threats.
Sadly, she was merely in the way of John and his actual prey, which is Ares’ boss, Santino D’Antonio of the Camorra crime syndicate. Ares didn’t go down without a struggle, however, and even gave John a bit of trouble in a Hall of Mirrors straight from Enter the Dragon. While she lost, Ares went down like a true badass for opting to use her knife instead of her gun in their fight.
MARCUS
As fans might recall, Marcus, played by Willem Dafoe, accepted the bounty offer on John’s head not because he wanted to do it, but because he wanted to protect John.
He could have easily ended John as a sniper several times but chose not to. He clearly shows that his loyalty cannot be bought or bullied. It’s too bad this cost him dearly; Viggo came after him for betrayal and had him tortured and before killing him.
CASSIAN
In all John Wick movies, there’s always that one assassin who is nearly John’s equal. They are also respectable assassins in their own right and John retiring for several years gave them a chance to catch up. One of these guys is Cassian. He ran into a huge complication with John since he was tasked with the safety of the Camorra boss and that boss just happens to be John’s target.
The two of them seemed evenly match in their first fight, though John still won by the skin of his teeth in their subway deathmatch. Instead of killing him, however, John gave Cassian a chance to live. Hopefully, fans will see more of him one day.
ZERO
Zero is hired by the High Table to deal with insubordination in the third movie. He’s pretty much the “Cassian” in this entry, meaning he’s more than a match for John. Their first fight was an exhilarating highspeed big bike joust with several others while the second one is a sort of “clean” one-on-one.
Zero actually would have won in their first fight if not for The Continental. Eventually, John turned out to be a better assassin than Zero after their second battle. The formidable assassin got stabbed by his own sword. Oddly enough, Zero himself worships John. But he can’t catch up to the master.
THE SHINOBI
The Shinobi are the top assassins working for John’s main foe in the third movie, Zero, and they prove to a very worthy match for Baba Yaga. The pair of blade-preferring killers are played by Indonseaisn martial artists and actors Cecep Arif Rahman and Yayan Ruhian, who both rose to international fame through the Raid movies.
The Shinobi are shown to be swift and silent enough to both hide in plain sight and kill in crowded public spaces without being noticed. They even beat John in their initial brawl with him during the finale of the movie, helping him to his feet after they stay their blades and telling him what an honor it is to fight him. After John beats them, he shows them the same respect and offers to spare their lives, which is something that they’re smart enough to accept.
SOFIA
Played by Halle Berry, Sofia is so formidable that even her dogs are trained assassins and could probably be sent on their own missions.
John, as he often does, has a long history with her and holds a marker with her thumbprint in it, which seems to be the only reason that she doesn’t kill him. She works together with John and shows that she’s just as talented when taking down an entire complex full of enemies. Like Cassian, she’s one of those assassins that fans hope to see again soon.
JOHN WICK
Who else could be number one other than John himself? He may not always have the most flawless or elegant technique, and he may get out of a lot of scrapes through sheer luck or the will of others, but John Wick always gets the job done.
Though often ruled by his emotions and bound by codes of honor that not everyone else in his life observes, he makes it through seemingly by the will of the gods. Skill and determination are famous attributes of John’s character but it shouldn’t be overlooked that John continues to win because it appears that fate simply wills it so.
