Keanu Reeves Only Rewatches Three Films — One Cemented His Destiny as John Wick
Keanu Reeves has headlined countless hits, but he says he almost never watches his own work—admitting at The New Yorker Festival he only makes time to rewatch three of them.
Keanu Reeves loves making movies. Watching them? Not so much. At The New Yorker Festival, he copped to almost never revisiting his own work… unless he stumbles across a few very specific titles while channel surfing. The choices are very Keanu, and yes, one of them absolutely tells you how we got to John Wick.
The three Keanu movies he actually rewatches
Reeves told the crowd (via People) that he does not sit down and press play on his old films on purpose. But when a couple of classics pop up on TV, he lets them ride:
"Maybe while I am scrolling it is like, there, oh yes, Point Break is on. Or, oh wow, Matrix… all right. Reloaded, f*ck yes. I have not just put one on."
He singled out his 1991 undercover-FBI-surfer-banks saga and two of the Matrix films. Everything else? He is more interested in making the work than rewatching it himself.
- Point Break (1991) — Director: Kathryn Bigelow — Rotten Tomatoes: 68%
- The Matrix (1999) — Directors: Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski — Rotten Tomatoes: 83%
- The Matrix Reloaded (2003) — Directors: Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski — Rotten Tomatoes: 74%
Point Break was the first hint of the John Wick era
No, he did not name a John Wick movie among his go-to rewatches, which is kind of funny considering he is the face of that franchise. But the Wick DNA shows up way back in Point Break. Directed by Kathryn Bigelow, Reeves plays Johnny Utah, an FBI rookie going undercover with a crew of surfer bank robbers. It is packed with big, nutty set pieces — skydiving (yes, the no-parachute bit), monster waves, foot chases — and Reeves sells the physicality with that calm, locked-in intensity he would later weaponize as Wick.
He has even said the movie pushed people into trying the adrenaline stuff for real, and it clearly pushed him toward becoming a different kind of action lead — less quip machine, more focused ferocity. No Point Break, no Wick. Simple as that.
About that John Wick 5 situation
If you walked out of John Wick: Chapter 4 thinking that was the end… fair. It ends with Wick wrecked, then a tombstone, and a very deliberate lack of an explicit death scene. That tiny bit of ambiguity turned into what we figured it might: Keanu is returning for John Wick 5.
Director Chad Stahelski told Empire he is not just bolting another chapter onto the same arc. The Wick saga as we know it is closed, and the next movie will pivot without rehashing the High Table war or the grief story that drove 1–4.
"The saga of John Wick was pretty wrapped up. So the only way to do a 5 is to have a new story that involves John Wick. It is not a continuation, with the High Table. John dealt with his grief. It will be really different, and everybody will see the trailer and go, 'Holy f*ck... I gotta see that.'"
Translation: do not expect the same enemies or the same emotional engine. New mission, same legend.
Where to watch
In the US, Point Break and the John Wick movies are streaming on Peacock.
What do you think John Wick 5 is going to throw at him this time? Drop your best guesses.