The best action scene in ‘John Wick: Chapter 4’ was almost cut by the studio

It goes without saying that the creative masterminds behind the John Wick franchise, be it director Chad Stahelski, scribes Derek Kolstad and Shay Hatten, or leading man Keanu Reeves, absolutely know what they’re doing. Indeed, with the latest entry in the series, John Wick: Chapter 4, having more than quadrupled its production budget during its theatrical run, to say nothing of the franchise-best reviews it received, this is one action mythos that proves exactly what the creatives are capable of.

One of John Wick‘s greatest strengths are its expertly-shot action sequences, and Chapter 4 had some of the most delectable to date; whether it was John’s duels against Caine and Killa or that high-octane car fight, the latest John Wick film served better than ever.

But no action scene hit quite as hard as Chapter 4‘s Hotline Miami-esque segment, the gleefully framed, extensive overhead shot that followed John from a top-down perspective as he and Mr. Nobody cleared out a dilapidated building. It was so good, in fact, that we’re retroactively furious about the timeline in which Lionsgate, who vehemently wanted to cut the scene, got their way.

In an interview with Screen Rant, Chapter 4 stunt coordinator Scott Rogers divulged just how extensive and collaborative the process of building such a scene was, and how that resulted in some creatively-stunted suits to shake their heads at that particular pitch.

You have VFX and all the departments go into that, but it doesn’t happen quickly. Most studios, most people don’t have the stomach for that much prep for a sequence. The studio wanted to cut that scene repeatedly. Yeah, because if you’ve never seen it before you have to have a visionary person to develop it. So most studio executives are not visionary and that’s why they do their job and Chad Stahelski does his job. So to try to describe it to them you’re like, ‘No it’ll be really cool.’ And they’re like, ‘This doesn’t make any sense to me.’

To put things into perspective, the entertainment industry thinks that the people who wanted to cut that Hotline Miami-style scene from Chapter 4 should be paid gross amounts of money while writers struggle to be fairly compensated; it truly paints a dark picture of the state of film and television.

John Wick: Chapter 4 is available for purchase on Blu-Ray, DVD, and 4K UHD.