John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum: around the world

The John Wick saga really came out of nowhere, but it completely shot its way into our hearts. It’s not everyday that a movie such as John Wick sees the light. Full of stylized violence and action scenes, this movie saga has some of the best, choreography fights in all movie history.

One of the key elements that make these movies so amazing is without a doubt, the fact that none other than Keanu Reeves stars all the three films as the main character. The three movies show us some amazing locations, but none of them get more exotic than Parabellum’s.

The third film picks up pretty much exactly where the second one left us. John is now ex comunicado and has a $14 million bounty on his head. He now has to escape (or fight) through half of the world with everybody that tries to kill him, and boy do they try.

If you’ve seen the movie you’ll realize that most of it takes place at night and raining, and that’s how it was filmed, but right now it’s not a matter of how, but where they were shot. So here we’re going to be exploring some of the iconic locations from the third installment of the saga. Keep in mind that the movie does try to keep a real-world feel, that’s why most of its locations are actually the real thing.

The Continental Hotel

Always a key location in the three films, The Continental Hotel gets more and more screen time every movie. By this third film it pretty much becomes another character, with an evolving personality. The building used for the exterior location is the Beaver Building in New York City. However, the lounge of the hotel is actually the Williamsburgh Savings Bank.

The Tarkovsky Theater

Serving as a base for the Russian assassination and ballet academy, this beautiful theater is like traveling back in time with modern touches. The place used to film these scenes is the United Palace of Cultural Arts. It is one of the few times they used the whole package, the exterior, lobby and auditorium, However the backstage was not the real thing, but rather an empty state house in Yonkers.

The motorcycle chase bridge

The amazing chase scene with the motorcycle and swords takes place in the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. This bridge is the double decked viaduct that connects Staten Island and Brooklyn. This is a very famous bridge, but it apparently wasn’t aesthetic enough, since they even used yet another bridge entrance for the Bridge Closed signals scene. This starter scene for the chase was actually filmed in the triumphal arch and colonnade of the world-famous Manhattan Bridge.

General locations around New York

There are a bunch of locations in the movie that are taken straight from real life, such as the streets of Chinatown, the New York Public Library and numerous streets in Manhattan and other parts of the city. So, pretty much taking a tour in NY would be taking a tour into the John Wick filming locations.

Essaouira AKA Casablanca in the film

The citadel of Essaouira takes the place of Casablanca for the film. And so, all the places that are supposedly located in Casablanca in the movie were actually filmed in Essaouira, Morocco.

The Big Desert

Taking the place of the Sahara desert in the film was… well, the Sahara desert. Much like a lot of the other locations in the film, it was also shot in the real-life location. More specifically shot in the Erg Chebbi dunes in Merzouga, near Erfoud. This was actually the first time ever Keanu Reeves had seen the Sahara with his own eyes. Can you imagine wearing a full suit in the Sahara desert? Well, Keanu can.

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