In the screenwriting book, Save the Cat, the author lays out his theory on the archetypical plots of story. Humans can only do so many different things. What are the abstracted plots across all stories, the plots we repeatedly see over and over while watching movies? One of the plots he names is called the Superhero plot, where we watch someone extraordinaire do a lot of fun and exciting things. It’s a wish-fulfillment plot, where, for 2 hours, we can forget about our mundane lives and dream of being extra-ordinary.

Here’s Blake describing this genre:

Somewhere up on Mt. Olympus is a special guy or gal who is on the way down here. Poor dope! Though imbued with amazing powers, and sent to save us dumb clucks from ourselves, he’s the one who’s stuck: Not quite human nor quite god, unable to date — or tell his plight to anyone who’ll “get it” — Mr. Square Jaw must bear the brunt of the hostility, jealousy, and fear from us Lilliputians. He don’t get no respect, he don’t get no love — he don’t get nada! And yet he has no choice but to be our savior.

John Wick is the People’s superhero, one of the subsets of this genre. He’s an ordinary guy who rises up the ranks to set things right. These are some of my favorite movies, such as Gladiator and the Patriot. In the first of the series, we sit back and watch John do amazing things while he takes revenge on the guys who killed his puppy.

Easy viewing, lots of action, legendary fight scenes. Give it a watch!