Tyler Rake vs John Wick: who would win the challenge?

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special Tyler Rake vs John Wick: who would win the challenge?
Tyler Rake Vs John Wick Who Would Win The Challenge.jpg

special Tyler Rake vs John Wick: who would win the challenge?

In original it’s called Extraction but in Italy we opted for a title with a different color, something less depersonalizing and more character. So characterful that the film directed by Sam Hargrave and written by Joe Russo turned into Tyler Rake, name and surname of the protagonist played by Chris Hemsworth. An initially incomprehensible choice, given the ease of the English title, which however made sense after the vision of the dynamic action-thriller set in Asia, in Bangladesh. Relatively small screenplay, sense of narration and the evolution of the small story but an action show that alone is worth the whole production. Indeed, it is precisely the sense of the project, directorial debut of a stunt coordinator (that of Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Endgame) who was called into question by the Russo brothers in a productive capacity. Impossible to say no, especially for a title so inserted in a genre context that today attracts a lot of public, if then streamed much more.

Interesting element is however a certain analogy created with another action title quickly became cult and then film saga, born from two stunt coordinators, with a deliberately poor and synthetic screenplay but with combat sequences and shootings already entered right into the spongy memory of pop culture. We are obviously talking about John Wick, another film “name and surname”, weapons, blood and splinters, which we want to try to compare with Tyler Rake. Nothing to do with the films themselves, however, because we are interested in the outcome of an imaginary clash between the two protagonists, the two badasses plus badasses of contemporary genre cinema.

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A mercenary meets an assassin

It seems the beginning of a joke and instead it is the imagination that drives us to create this scenario in which a mercenary like Tyler Rake meets a professional hired assassin like John Wick. The extraction “professional“of the two is very important to frame their respective origins. For what little we know (and which will perhaps be further explored in the announced Tyler Rake 2), the soldier of the SARS (Special Air Service Regiment) and mercenary on sale on the black market has developed his strategy in the military, trained therefore to a type of context that contemplates urban guerrilla warfare and throw behind the enemy lines, therefore also survival in a hostile area. After the death of the son, we can say that his only purpose of life is the search for a suicide mission to atone for his fear and guilt of absence during the child’s illness. There is nothing but work, and time spent off the battlefield is spent drinking and trying adrenaline and extreme experiences, like jumping off a cliff far too high.

At work, however, he is precise and attentive to every detail his training proves exceptional and suitable for really difficult circumstances. His fighting style is heavy and frenzied, focused above all on the attack and on the violence of the blows net of a certain fluency of the movements. This is consistent with the size of Chris Hemsworth but weapons are nevertheless playing a fundamental role, being almost always present even in the clashes. White or firearm, Rake uses them and faces them directly and without too much hesitation. This is moreover respectful of the character’s character guidelines.

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That said, in a one-on-one clash with Keanu Reeves’ John Wick we are almost certain that it would not survive, at the end. We must take into account the structural elements that codify the style and personality of both characters, and the more varied “criminal” training received by Wick it is essential to convince us of his victory. He too is driven by loss but the added strength comes from revenge and from deep sense of survival which pushes him to increasingly complex situations to manage.

While Rake even fights a little out of his limits, going beyond his own strength (just look at the end of his film), all the moveset and the experience in hand-to-hand clashes, gunfire, Wick’s chases and shootings they fall within the character’s total abilities. Two important elements articulate the movements of the killer played by Keanu Reeves: martial arts and knowledge of weapons. The first is fundamental as it fights following a mix of different styles, ranging from Jujutsu screenings to the defense of Kung Fu, up to perhaps those more important than Israeli Krav Maga, on which everything else is molded.

It means that within his knowledge there is so much an effective defense and submission style, as an extraordinary attack, contact and counterattack. In addition to this, he is much more used to hand-to-hand combat against multitudes of armed and more dangerous enemies, which he obviously also faces with pistols, rifles or other. A particularity that we have not seen in Rake, however, is that of knowing how to make even a common object such as a pen or a book a truly dangerous weapon, which translates knowing how to manipulate something with the precise purpose of killing.
A heated fight between Tyler Rake and John Wick would last that would last long and intense minutes. They would break bones, splash a lot of blood and we don’t know how useful the weapons would be in a one-on-one fight. Let’s put only one gun into play, then source of narration within the action. The aim would be to take it to kill the other. The contact would be close, the confrontation open and violent, but Wick’s agility, sixth sense of action and knowledge would lead him to victory. Certainly not easy and not without physical repercussions, but still victory. Definitely, the Australian mercenary still has some way to go to really compete on par with the killer Continental.

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But he has a record: Rake is the character who boasts the highest bodycount in the history of cinema in a single film, a good 183 kills. Most of the victims, however, were not represented by professionals like those faced by Wick, and this will have to count.