John Wick

Appearance: John is 6'1ft tall, which means 185cm tall and weighs 175 pounds. His complexion is a mix of tan and olive skin. He has brown eyes and black, neck lenght hair. He has a muscular build and generally looks handsome. He has a salt and pepper beard. Personality: Due to his harsh background and being rigorously trained for his childhood and adulthood by The Director and his career in the Marines, John could be described as a very serious and stoic individual who rarely spoke more than necessary (preferring actions over words and being described as someone who never wasted words) with a strong sense of obligation. As a professional assassin and hitman, John was highly confident in his abilities and reputation, being greatly respected and feared by many criminal organizations and other assassins alike. Despite this, he had a strong moral code as well as honor which was unique among his colleagues according to Zero as John never willingly dragged innocent people to his job or threatens them during it. In spite of his professionalism, he was also friendly and develops strong friendships with many other dangerous people like Marcus and even managers of Continental Hotels, like Winston and Koji Shimazu. His good side was also seen after meeting Helen, John was willing the end his career as a killer and live a normal happy life with her, which Winston referred to as impossible. However, John was a man who is worth his reputation as The Boogeyman for his lethality as he never failed on his missions. Despite his calm and collected behavior, once angered or taken by vengeance, he would stop at nothing until he kills his target no matter who or what stands in his way. After a puppy from his wife, which was the last posthumous gift from her not to be alone, was killed and his car stolen, John set out on a journey for revenge, which was successful but also created other problems for himself on future events. Despite his skills, John prefered to avoid fights if he could. He was skilled at getting people to back down without resistance and would often let people go when they do and he was able to avoid allowing conflicts to escalate any further as seen when he was able to call a truce with Abram Tarasov and when he allows Zero's students to live after beating them in a fight. His friendly and professional personality allowed him to maintain contacts within the assassin community who were willing to come to his aid when needed. His strong sense of honor also meant he made a point of not allowing innocent people to get caught in the crossfire of his work. Backstory: Born Jardani Jovanovich in Belarus, he was orphaned as a child and adopted by the Ruska Roma — with is an ethnic group as well as a criminal syndicate — who then began training him as an assassin at the Director's (Anjelica Huston) performing arts institute in New York City. It isn't clear when he changed his name to John Wick, but Jardani translates to John from Romany, and "Wick" is the phonetic pronunciation of the final four letters of his birth name. We also don't know when exactly John received all of his tattoos, but as we get a short tour of the Director's institute we see that the older students are already heavily tattooed with Catholic imagery similar to John's, possibly indicating they've gone through a similar initiation into the assassin underworld. We also see the students in the process of various kinds of training, from dancing to wrestling, and so much more — John is an expert marksman and driver, a skilled martial artists across a number of different styles, experienced in hand-to-hand combat, and is preternaturally strong, also suggesting there might be some kind of physical enhancement that's taken place along the way too.

While his back tattoo reading "Fortis Fortuna Adiuvat" ("fortune favors the bold") might suggest John Wick was once in the Marine Corps. But what we do concretely know is that Wick was an incredibly proficient and prolific assassin who quickly earned the nickname "The Boogeyman" for his killing talents. After leaving the Ruska Roma, John joined the Tarasov Mob as one of its leader Viggo Tarasov's (Michael Nyqvist) main enforcers. During this time John developed different relationships with people at various levels of the High Table, the ruling body of this mob underworld, with delegates from each controlling mob family having a representative there. Among Wick's friendly contacts and colleagues fostered here include Marcus (Willem Dafoe), the concierge of the Continental Hotel, Charon (Lance Reddick), and its manager Winston (Ian McShane). But he also made a collection of frenemies along the way, as is to be expected in the assassin game, including Ms. Perkins (Adrianne Palicki), Sofia Al-Azwar (Halle Berry), Cassian (Common), Ares (Ruby Rose), Santino D'Antonio (Riccardo Scamarcio) and his sister Gianna (Claudia Gerini), and many more. It is during this time that John helps Sofia get her daughter to safety from the mob and receives a blood oath marker from her. John falls in love with Helen (Bridget Moynahan) and knows he has no choice but to get out of the assassin game. When he approaches Viggo Tarasov about retiring, Viggo first laughs at him. But once Viggo realizes John is serious, he seizes the moment to take full advantage of John's new vulnerability. Viggo tasks John with killing all of his rival leaders in one night, an event that needs to happen fast to avoid retaliation. The Tarasov family doesn't have a seat at the High Table, so it's possible this was an attempt to show force and win one. While John does as he was tasked, coldly dispatching each target, he unfortunately isn't able to do this one alone; he gives his blood oath marker to the son of the head of the Rome Syndicate, Santino D'Antonio, for tactical assistance. This will prove to be one of the biggest mistakes of John Wick's life. Still, John gets to spend five years with his beloved Helen before she gets cancer and dies, shattering him in a way that he'd never been broken before. She was his anchor in the real world outside of the assassin game. As a last gift, Helen leaves John a puppy named Daisy, someone new for him to take care of and to help him remember his humanity and all the love he has in his heart. John isn't out of the game long... but apparently still long enough for younger mobsters to forget who he is and what he's capable of, including the famous anecdote about killing three men with only a pencil. As John is filling up at a gas station near his home, a brash man asks to buy it from him, which John refuses. This happens to be Viggo Tarasov's son Iosef (Alfie Allen), who puts together a team to storm John's house, assault him, and steal the coveted car. In the moment heard around the world, Iosef's henchman kicks John's puppy Daisy, killing her instantly. Badly injured and emotionally devastated once more, John's grief turns to pure unbridled rage as he plots his revenge against Iosef. Viggo tries to advocate peace for his son, but John will hear none of it. He digs up the trove of markers, gold coins, and weapons cemented underneath his garage and goes after Iosef and his goons one by one. In the meantime, Viggo sends his own assassins after John — his old friend Marcus as well as a very angry Ms. Perkins who seems to have her own grudge against John that is never explained. After an enormous death toll that takes out Viggo, Iosef, Marcus, Ms. Perkins, and dozens more, John adopts a pit bull who is set to be euthanized the next day and goes home. Knowing quite well that John Wick was battered after his war with the Tarasovs, an opportunistic Santino D'Antonio pulls John back into the underworld even further by cashing in his own marker. Santino's request? Kill his sister Gianna, who's been selected to represent their family at the High Table so he can assume her throne. John can't refuse so he takes his conundrum to his old friend Winston at The Continental Hotel. Winston feels for Johnathan, as he calls him, but reminds him that a blood oath is not optional. A sad and reluctant John Wick flies to Rome where he uses gold coins to get a stylish, but tactical, wardrobe as well as weapons. When he arrives at Gianna's ascendence party, a gorgeous affair set in Roman ruins, she knows what her brother has done. To maintain what little agency she has left, Gianna slits her own wrists and John only shoots her after she's dead. But because Santino can't leave well enough alone, he lies and puts a hit of $7 million out on John Wick for assassinating his sister that leads to another huge showdown between John, Santino's minions, and his assassin colleagues Cassian and Ares, all of whom John defeats.

John's first task for the High Table is to return to Manhattan and kill Winston, who the members of the Table feel has gotten too high on his own power. Sending John himself to kill Winston is painful irony. In the meantime, the $14 million bounty is still on John's head and he has to battle more minions in order to get to Winston, including the ninja trainer Zero (Marc Dacascos) and his acolytes. But John can't bring himself to kill Winston and defies the High Table's order once again. The Adjudicator de-consecrates the Continental, meaning it's open season on John and Winston. Charon helps kill many of The High Table soldiers, but there are too many of them. After a parley between Winston and the Adjudicator, Winston decides to sell out John Wick and agrees to kill him himself in order to get the hotel reconsecrated and maintain his position as manager. Winston shoots John several times point blank and John falls from the roof to what should have been his death. But the Bowery King has his own power... and he is pissed. His minion the Tick Tock Man (Jason Mantzoukas) rescues John and brings him down to the Bowery where John and the Bowery King team up for a new bout of revenge killings. John tells the Elder he wants to live so he can remember his love for Helen.