https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-WyWK8ypdg
Keanu Reeves doesn’t fuck around when it comes to training. For the last several years, there’s been a steady trickle of behind-the-scenes clips showing how the actor went from playing space cadets who only seem to know how to look confused and say “whoa” to a bespoke-suited murder machine who once killed a man using just a pencil.
Now, thanks to Vigilance Elite, we can see what new tricks Reeves has up his sleeves when John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum premieres on May 17.
A pair of new videos uploaded to YouTube on Monday show Reeves working with Shawn Ryan, a Navy SEAL veteran and former CIA contractor who runs Florida-based Vigilance Elite and provides tactical training for law enforcement personnel and civilians.
In the clips, Ryan and Reeves go over how to enter a room, discuss weapon’s handling, foot placement, and the importance of getting the ever-loving fuck out of that doorway.
“We call the doorway the fatal funnel, because that’s where all the rounds are going to come,” when a person enters a room, Ryan explains in the clip.
The training in the video took place at a range in Simi Valley, California run by Taran Tactical Innovations, which handles Reeves’ training for the John Wick franchise.
It’s not the first time footage of Reeves’ training has surfaced, but unlike the past clips that show the actor flipping around on a mat, grappling, knife-fighting, and breezing through a three-gun-drill, the most recent ones are slower — and a bit more informative.
In a way, the new videos offer a peak behind the curtain so we can see how Reeves was able to transform into a deadly killing machine for the John Wick franchise. And given how attentive of a student he is in the videos, Reeves might just be as deadly as his onscreen character (well, okay, maybe not that dangerous, but I definitely wouldn’t screw with him).
The latest chapter in the series picks up right after the events of John Wick: Chapter 2, which finds Wick excommunicated from the world of stylish super assassins and forced to either run or fight. Given the training Reeves’ has undertaken for this and previous films, it’s pretty clear which choice Wick will make.
Update 4/5/2019: This story has been updated to note that the room clearance training took place at Taran Tactical Innovations in California.