John Wick is a man of few words, and it speaks volumes that Wick’s total 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁 count is even higher than John Wick: Chapter 4’s word count.

Keanu Reeves is the lead actor in the John Wick franchise, but is surprisingly economical with his words. With the release of John Wick: Chapter 4, the titular assassin’s total 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁 count has risen to 439. The character has 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁ed enemies with everything from guns to pencils to books to horses, and it has been wildly entertaining. However, while his 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁 count is impressive, his word count is surprisingly limited. Nevertheless, audiences have formed a connection to Wick, and despite being an unstoppable 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁er, he’s an extremely emotional and loving human being. Keanu Reeves has impressively managed to convey this trait through everything but words.

Even though the first John Wick was action-packed and it seemed impossible to stuff any more epic fight scenes into a full-length movie, director Chad Stahelski found a way, with one approach to give Keanu Reeves much less dialogue. Reeves clearly groans a lot and there are countless screams in agony, but when it comes to literal words, the John Wick series is noticeably scant, especially for a character who is the face of a franchise. However, Wick has never been a man of many words, and his silence, and his guns, speak volumes. Here’s how many words John Wick says in every John Wick movie.

RELATED:How Many People John Wick Kills In All 4 Movies

Keanu Reeves Says 484 Words In John Wick

Ironically, despite being the shortest movie in the series by far at just 101 minutes, 2014’s John Wick has the second-highest word count of the four movies and more words per minute. John says 82 words before he 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁s his first victim, but when Wick comes out of retirement, the lines of dialogue come to a halt. However, relative to the following movies, John is way more verbose in his first outing, but that might also be because there aren’t half as many supporting characters in John Wick. Nevertheless, Wick’s dialogue still makes up less than 20% of the dialogue in the screenplay, which doesn’t even include the Russian dialogue.

Keanu Reeves Says 499 Words In John Wick 2

Reeves has a sentence worth of words more in John Wick: Chapter 2 than in its predecessor, but it feels like less given that the movie is 21 minutes longer than the first John Wick. Wick says an average of four words per minute in the sequel, but something had to give way to the ambitious, globe-trotting John Wick fight scenes. Other characters have tons of dialogue, most notably the movie’s villain Santino D’Antonio, who has many evil monologues, to which Wick often hilariously responds with a curt “yeah,” or “huh.” In fairness, the 2017 movie does feature some of Wick’s longest monologues, but they’re still sub-20 words.

Keanu Reeves Says 410 Words In John Wick 3 – Parabellum

John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum’s runtime is 131 minutes, which is 10 minutes longer than John Wick: Chapter 2 and a whole 30 minutes longer than the first John Wick. Nevertheless, the threequel still has way fewer lines than both of them. Wick says 410 words in the threequel, which is an average of 3.1 words per minute. It isn’t only John who has very little dialogue in the movie, as only 20 minutes of the two-hour-and-10-minute movie features dialogue. Interestingly, the most used word in the John Wick: Chapter 3 script outside of pronouns is “Excommunicado,” the word used to explain that John has been disavowed from the world of assassins and has a price on his head.

ADVERTISINGKeanu Reeves Says 384 Words In John Wick: Chapter 4

Outside of John Wick: Chapter 2, the John Wick series has a trend where Wick has fewer words of dialogue with each consecutive release, which is hilarious given that each movie is significantly longer than the last. Given that Wick has 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁ed 439 enemies on screen, he has literally 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁ed more people than has words of dialogue in John Wick: Chapter 4. Reeves did originally have much more dialogue in the fourquel’s screenplay, as the actor cut out half of John Wick’s dialogue. Stahelski commented on the decision, “he’s mysterious, and the mystery lets the audience fill in the gaps.”

Stahelski’s comments are exactly right, as the reason why audiences are so connected to the character and the John Wick franchise is because of his mysteriousness. Where most action heroes are eccentric and outgoing, Wick is enigmatic, and that’s refreshing to see in an action movie. John Wick: Chapter 4 is 169 minutes, meaning that Reeves has an average of 2.2 words per minute. The actor’s longest, interrupted dialogue is just 14 words; “You and I left a good life behind a long time ago, my friend.” The choice to limit Reeves’ dialogue also means that the few words he does say really pop, even if he mostly only ever says “yeah.”