The story of John Wick borrowed a large part from a forgotten romance film by Keanu Reeves forgotten

In four films, John Wick killed nearly 500 people, injured countless others and left an absolute devastation track around the world. While he mainly sent his enemies by using his combat style fiercely effective pistol, the Keanu Reeves assassin also offered opponents in various ingenious ways, including pencils on the neck and books on the face. Since “John Wick” from 2014 to “John Wick: Chapter 4” of 2023, we have seen the hunting killer of the thug waste using each weapon shape and using all types of physical fighting. And think, if Lostf Tarasov (Alfie Allen) had just left this poor puppy alone, none of this would have happened.

As all fan will know, John Wick took his deadly outburst simply because the son of a Russian crime boss killed his Beagle puppy, Daisy. This puppy had been given to the assassin retired by his deceased wife, Helen (Bridget Moynahan), who returned to “John Wick” was recently died of a terminal disease. The first moments of this film see John receive the puppy and bond with the little guy, before Lostf enters his house and poses the poor dog. This incident triggered the Odyssey filled with carnage that we now know under the name of “John Wick” squilogy – but it was not the first time that one of the characters of Reeves has received a boyfriend of a fur interest in terminal phase.

After Keanu Reeves replaced Brad Pitt in “The Devil’s Advocate”, he played alongside Charlize Theron in this supernatural horror of 1997, marking the first time that the two stars shared the screen. Reeves played the defense lawyer Kevin Lomax and Theron played his wife, Mary Ann Lomax. The pair recovered in 2001 for the romantic drama “Sweet November”, in which they once again had a romantic tangle. But this time, there was nothing supernatural in their love story.

Directed by Pat O’Connor, “Sweet November” follows Nelson Moss (Reeves), director of advertising based in San Francisco, who meets Sara Deever (Theron) during her driving exam and made her fail because of the word during the written part of the exam. Despite this first clumsy meeting, and the fact that he is a corporate shill and she is a free dog groomer, Nelson and Sara are attracted with each other. Sara offers to “help” Nelson by making him move with her for a month, after which they will separate for good. Finally, Nelson agrees, and the first evening in November, he moved. As you can expect that the pair falls in love and everything turns out to be pink. Except – and it is a major spoiler in case you plan to look at “Sweet November” – it turns out that Sara has terminal cancer.

Before their love flowers, however, Nelson finds a package at his door with the word “November” written on the top. He opens it to find a puppy, which he returns to Sara, forcing the pair to reconnect and trigger the love story – which ends when Sara leaves a newly reformed Nelson in order to spend her last days with his family. Despite the parallels of the plot, it seems that the co -directors of “John Wick”, Chad Stahelski and David Leitch were not aware of the previous drama of Reeves puppy.

Brian Davids of the Hollywood Reporter was the first person to establish this link between “Sweet November” and “John Wick”. In an interview with Charlize Theron, the writer revealed that he had told Chad Stahelski and Dave Leitch about the dog of “Sweet November” and the way the character of the actress “in the November” in terminal phase ‘posted a dog at Keanu 13 years before the end of John Wick’s terminal phase sent him a dog. “According to Davids, Stahelski learned it shortly after” John Wick “made his debut and Leitch had no idea of the parallel between his film and the romantic drama of the early 2000s of Keanu Reeves. Theron, meanwhile, was amused to hear about it, saying” you are obviously a lover of the film because few people knew it “.

When Davids previously spoke to Leitch of the parallel between the two films during an interview in 2024 THR, the director said that he “had never connected these points”. In a separate interview, Davids also talked about it with Stahelski, who said: “Curiously, I didn’t know that at the time. After” John Wick “came out, I read something about it, and I said to myself:” Really? How did I not know that? “So maybe we’ll go for three.

Unfortunately, “Sweet November” was not quite surprised that “John Wick” turned out to be. The film only made $ 65.7 million with a budget of $ 40 million and has a critical score of 15% on Rotten Tomatoes. But who cares if John Anderson de Newsday called the film “Dumb enough for” the wedding planner “to look like a film by Ingmar Bergman” if it can claim to be the first time that a character from Keanu Reeves has received a dog of an interest in terminal phase?

Reeves and Theron may not have appeared together since this bad county in 2001, but it was not the end of their collaborations. During the production on “Atomic Blonde”, the actress found herself to train in the same airport hanger as Reeves while he was training for “John Wick: Chapter 2.” The two even ended up struggling together, which is fair since she was her original Helen Wick.