John Wick: Chapter 4: Keanu Reeves gave the stunt crew t-shirts that list the number of times they died

Last Updated on March 31, 2023

The very foundation of the John Wick franchise is the entire stunt crew at 87eleven Productions which the director, Chad Stahelski, founded with fellow action movie director David Leitch. 87eleven is a company comprised of stunt performers for the making of such action films as the John Wick franchise, Day Shift and many more. Keanu Reeves has had a collaborating relationship with the company from the ground floor as Stahelski was Reeves’ stunt double in the original The Matrix trilogy. With Reeves being such a giving individual, Variety reports that the actor who portrays the Baba Yaga had gifted the stunt crew of John Wick: Chapter 4 commemorative presents to celebrate the wrapping of such elaborate, demanding action sequences.

According to the New York Times, “At the end of the shoot, Reeves made T-shirts for the stunt performers emblazoned with the number of times they were slain over the course of the entire movie.”

If you’ve seen the movie, you know how relentless and action-packed it gets, and it would leave no stunt person behind as eagle-eyed viewers may notice the reuse of stunt performers among the hordes of bodies that Mr. Wick and his allies would kill. For some of the crew, they died more than 20 times. Stahelski would initiate various methods to reuse stuntmen, including using the various costuming to hide their identities and even having them alter their hairstyle and shave their facial hair.

For the finale in which Wick needs to make his way up 222 steps that lead to the Sacré-Coeur Basilica, which he does twice, the film used 35 stunt workers, many of which had repeated demises in the same scene. Fight coordinator, Jeremy Marinas recalled what Stahelski told him about the scene, “It’s like, of course that’s what you want. You want 100 guys falling down the stairs and you want me to make every reaction and fall different. Of course you do. It was like we were just another day at work.”

Marinas added, “We all know how hard it is just to walk upstairs when we don’t want to. Just to think about how well Keanu — not John Wick — Keanu was able to do shooting upwards while stepping. It’s hard enough to be a marksman on flat ground.” The scene took seven nights shoots to film and each stunt crew member would die four or five times each.