John Wick’s reasons for going back to become a hitman are rooted in his sorrow over losing his wife Helen, whose demise sets off the conflicts in the movies.
In each new installment, such as John Wick: Chapter 4, Helen Wick, the wife of the titular assassin, leaves a more profound imprint on the series. Although Helen passed away before the first John Wick film, Bridget Moynahan has played Helen in all of the franchise’s installments through flashbacks and images. Before the movies started, Helen was a well-known photographer who met John Wick, the man who would become her husband, in a restaurant. The two fell in love right away. The reason John Wick retired from the hitman business and would later return was because of his late wife.
The first John Wick movie opens with Keanu Reeves’ hitman mourning Helen’s passing and starting to take care of a dog, the final item his wife had discreetly given him. The larger conflict of the franchise begins when the grieving assassin comes out of retirement to get revenge after John’s puppy is killed and the automobile Helen bought him is stolen. Despite her fate, Helen remains one of the main protagonists and her death has a significant impact on John Wick’s quest for vengeance and his conflicted desire to return to the world of the hitman. Even before the franchise begins, John Wick is surrounded by death, beginning with the tragic circumstances surrounding the death of his wife.
Helen, John Wick’s wife, passed away before the first film due to a terminal illness.
The very first victim is off-screen and much quieter, unlike most deaths in the John Wick films are caused by action-packed gunfights, personal attacks, and spectacular confrontations. Shortly before the 2014 John Wick film, Helen passed away from a fatal disease, however, the franchise doesn’t specifically name the condition. Long before she passed away, John Wick’s wife had time to prepare for her husband’s gift of a dog and come to terms with her own mortality.
The John Wick movies suggest that Helen’s terminal sickness overshadowed a substantial amount of their relationship, even though they were only married for five years. Helen is mentioned or depicted in images that John keeps hidden from his opponents throughout each film. John’s commitment to completing these activities and keeping Helen’s memory alive demonstrate how much he loved Helen and how much her loss continues to affect him throughout John Wick: Chapter 4’s narrative.
How Helen’s passing affected John Wick’s Story.
In order to retire, John Wick undertook one final task for Viggo Tarasov, and it was her passing that motivated his angry return to the criminal underground. The beagle Daisy and the antique vehicle, Helen’s two most significant gifts to John, are what spurs him to resume his life of violence and murder after the mobsters in the first John Wick movie stole two of his most precious mementos of his wife. The mobster to whom Keanu Reeves’ action figure swore a blood oath in order to escape the world of assassins and live a tranquil life with Helen is later confronted in John Wick: Chapter 2.
As Helen is John’s primary source of inspiration throughout each film, many of John Wick’s antagonists turn against him as a result of the activities he committed to be with Helen before she passed away. If John hadn’t met Helen, he wouldn’t have stopped working as a hitman, but he also wouldn’t have returned if Helen hadn’t met a tragic end. The narrative of John Wick is inextricably linked to John’s sorrow at the passing of his wife Helen, his love for her and the life they shared, and his attempts to fulfill her request that he find peace in his future. Naturally, he must first dismantle the most dangerous and formidable criminal enterprises in order for it to occur.
