John Wick 4 VFX: how the Arc de Triomphe scene was made

John Wick: Chapter 4: How the Arc de Triomphe Scene Was Made

John Wick: Chapter 4 looks like a film with few effects, but the John Wick 4 VFX run to about 1,500 shots, shared between 13 studios. Most of them are meant to be invisible. We looked at two famous sequences to see how.

Jonathan Rothbart was the production VFX supervisor on set. Janelle Croshaw Ralla supervised post-production.

1. The Arc de Triomphe chase

The traffic circle around the Arc de Triomphe wasn’t shot in Paris. The production shot it at the disused Tempelhof airport in Berlin. Real Paris traffic plus stunts was judged nearly impossible.

Rodeo FX built the Paris around it. Supervisor Javier Roca’s team made 113 shots for the sequence. They rebuilt about 200 metres of surrounding streets and hand-animated around 1,500 cars. Only two shots were fully digital. The rest blended real plates with CG. The lighting setup used 99 light groups to handle headlights, taillights and brake lights.

2. The stunts were real

Stunt coordinator Scott Rogers and Rothbart blocked the action with toy cars and iPhone footage before previs. Keanu Reeves did a lot of driving training.

Special effects supervisor Gerd Nefzer built sled rigs. Each had a padded front shaped like a specific car, so stunt performers could take impacts safely. A digital car front replaced it in post.

3. The top-down Dragon’s Breath shot

This is the shot looking straight down on John Wick as he moves through an apartment. It was inspired by a video game, The Hong Kong Massacre. The production built a dedicated set for it.

Rothbart designed the shot with Chad Stahelski and production designer Kevin Kavanaugh. Each room got its own floor look so the viewer can read the space from above. According to befores & afters, the action was shot room by room, using a cable-cam above the set, and stitched into one continuous take.

Practical mirrors carried reference cameras. But the reflections in the mirrors are digital. One stunt performer was set on fire for a single pass. Other passes used LED tubes to give a fire glow without flames.

4. The desert

The opening desert scene was filmed in Wadi Rum in Jordan. Sand is hard to work with, because tracks and equipment show. Some desert material was also shot in California and finished digitally. The team replaced sand and added skies.

5. The invisible effects

Muzzle flashes, bullet hits and blood were all digital. Rothbart said no real gun was fired on set. Stahelski’s note on the flashes was to make them more gaseous, so they wouldn’t look like stickers. Rodeo FX built a shared effects library so every studio matched.

Wick’s missing ring finger was removed digitally too. Reeves wore a black cover on that finger on set.

What this tells you

  1. Shoot what you can. The stunts here are real.
  2. Plan the shot before the shoot. Toy cars and phone video cost almost nothing.
  3. Share a library. Thirteen studios matched because they used the same elements.
  4. Invisible work still needs a lot of shots. This film needed about 1,500.

If you need invisible effects for your own project, see our work or get in touch. Happy to talk it through.

Which John Wick moment would you want us to break down next? Let us know.

Sources and references

  1. Art of VFX: John Wick: Chapter 4, interview with Janelle Croshaw Ralla and Jonathan Rothbart.
  2. AWN: “Teaming up on John Wick: Chapter 4 VFX”.
  3. befores & afters: “Inside John Wick 4’s insane Arc de Triomphe scene and the top-down Dragon’s Breath gunfight” and “I’m very passionate about cobblestones now” (Rodeo FX).
  4. Wikipedia: John Wick: Chapter 4.
  5. Light VFX: John Wick 4 project page. SlashFilm: how John Wick 4’s crew removed Keanu Reeves’s finger.