John Wick succeeded largely because of its stylish "gun fu" action sequences, in which the title character, a retired hitman played by Keanu Reeves, shoots up New York City on a quest for revenge. You might assume that a stuntman took Reeves' place in filming some of the more complicated gunfights, but this training video proves that Reeves can certainly handle himself when it comes to firearms.
The 37-second video features Reeves at a training ground with Taran Tactical Innovations, a Simi Valley, California-based gun manufacturer, doing target practice with multiple weapons. It's like a Call of Duty level come to life: Reeves runs around the field swapping between an AR-15 rifle and a semiautomatic pistol, and then picks up a semiautomatic shotgun.
On Facebook, Taran Tactical posted the brief clip with the title "Taran training with 'The One'" — a reference to The Matrix films. On YouTube, the video is simply titled "Keanu shredding."
Production on John Wick: Chapter Two, the sequel to John Wick, began last October; footage of Reeves on set leaked online in November. The film is set for release Feb. 10, 2017.
"The firearms action alone [in the movie] will be unlike anything you've ever seen," said Taran Tactical in a Facebook comment. "So much of it is revolutionary stuff that we gun owners have known of for years, but never made it to the big screen."
Correction: Reeves is using an AR-15 rifle in the video, a firearm that is not technically an assault rifle. We've edited the article to reflect this.
[Thanks, Daniel]