Secret societies rule the world

Exactly 237 steps lead from the park area Square Willette up to the Montmartre hill in Paris to the Basilica Sacré-Cœur. A man tries to climb it in "John Wick 4" but keeps getting thrown back at the bottom of the stairs.

Now it could be Sisyphus, but he doesn't have a stone with him. It could also be an actor in a computer game where the hero has to constantly try new attempts to overcome the obstacle. But the man's name is John Wick and he's trying to appear in front of Sacré-Cœur in time for a pistol duel before dawn in order to be able to pay off his debt to the Upper Chamber.

A few brief explanations for the uninitiated. John Wick's real name is Jardani Jovonovich (the reference to Milla Jovovich is certainly not accidental), comes from Belarus and was trained by the Ruska Roma crime syndicate to be a contract killer. He's actually retired, but in the first "John Wick" movie he's out for revenge because someone killed his puppy, in the second he's killing someone he doesn't mean to kill, and in the third he's being hunted himself, for breaking the rules of the High Chamber.

In the tenth year of the "Wick" cinema series, we have arrived at the fourth part, in which Keanu Reeves - the expressionless, taciturn, mercilessly effective title hero - now in turn mobilizes against the High Chamber. This "chamber" is like a materialized fantasy of the wildest conspiracy theories, twelve super-rich world leaders who place their "order" beyond all laws. You never really see them, so you can't tell if Bill Gates is among them.

They have their own killers, their own currency and their own honor system - a cross between Freemason and Mont-Pelerinist. It is the pre-modern mythical image of secret elites, unions and tribes, set in a present that is increasingly beginning to believe that our world is actually governed in this way. The "Order" is held together by blood oaths and branding.

That being said, the "Wick" series works according to the good old Bond principle: we hop across the continents from one attractive place for action to the next. In part four, that's New York (where a hotel is blown up in the middle of the city), Osaka (with the subway as an attractive spot for slaughter), Berlin (where the city staggers along as if stunned by the rave) and, of course, Paris.

Fighting - and it's fighting in long shots, not with quick cuts - is the lifeblood of "John Wick" just as fast machines are the lifeblood of James Bond. The driving heart of the "Wick" series is called Chuck Stahelski, stood in for Bruce Lee's son Brandon as a body double when he was accidentally shot by a pipe burst while filming "The Crow", Keanu Reeves doubled for the " Matrix” and became a stunt choreographer.

John Wick has been his child from the start, living-object proof that real-life stunts can still look far better than special effects and that nothing continues to beat the awe-inspiring big screen.

You can't help but be amazed. The giant rave machine hall in Berlin, where waterfalls run down the walls everywhere and the fighting/running/shooting people are not even noticed (or hit) by the trance dancing. The combination of Jiu Jitsu, Judo, Nunchaku and who knows what kind of fighting on the rooftops of Osaka. And above all, the battle for the Arc de Triomphe, where Keanu Reeves has to deal with a killer army - and the constantly flooding traffic on the twelve lanes of the roundabout.

"Wick 4" has an unbelievable will to style and, if he wants, also a bad sense of humor. The High Chamber runs a private radio station in Paris, whose seductive female voice cryptically asks its listeners to hunt down John Wick. And they start moving, in taxis, on wheels, from the bistro table, and strive towards the triumphal arch like zombies. It is a parallel world that unfolds in the midst of the real one and obeys only its own laws. Otherwise, John Wick could have taken the cable car up to Sacré-Coeur.