Spoilers ahead!

After the grand narrative wrapped up in John Wick: Chapter 4, I let go of any expectations for the next John Wick installment. I felt it was a shame, but better for the series to end here as is, without any further amendments. Sure enough, news of a next installment did come, but it wasn’t a sequel to the main series—it was a spin-off. The news of a spin-off sounded like an inevitable move by the production team to capitalize on the anticipation and popularity the John Wick series had built, and honestly, I thought they were about to put an end to the franchise with a forced spin-off. Then I watched the film, and I changed my mind. The production team still has plenty they want to show.

What surprised me is how well Ballerina carries on the previous John Wick series. In some ways, I feel it has faithfully transferred even the core ethos of the John Wick series—the steady accumulation and reuse of narrative and themes. Certain scenes remind me of Chapter 1, Chapter 2, and the remaining Chapters 3 and 4. Some scenes directly reference earlier settings, but many others twist them indirectly. For example, when Eve asks to see the tools for the hunt and is led to a hidden armory, the gun dealer recommending an AR-15 and a Benelli M4 is unmistakably an homage to the sommelier scene in Chapter 2—but just when you wonder if you’ll get a knife as dessert this time, a bullet flies through the door first.

“Carrying on” isn’t a word I chose for a formal reason. The gradual expansion of the world, the plain coin system, the causal chain of revenge, the emphasis on Rules and Consequences—and to add, even the small matter of never forgetting to depict adult entertainment culture and the arts—it’s unmistakably similar and evokes the previous works. A meaningless repetition would be a demerit, but Ballerina is deliberate. So Eve is not betrayed by an ally, nor does she break the High Table’s rules, yet like John Wick, she finds herself in a situation where she must single-handedly take down enemies swarming in from all directions for no reason other than revenge.

One of the reasons this series gained popularity is its fresh action. The steady camera movement, long takes, meticulous bullet-counting—action you can’t see in other films is a unique keyword of the John Wick series. Remarkably, Ballerina follows through on even this point without tarnishing the franchise. In fact, if we look at action alone, it’s so excellent that I’d rank it as the most impressive installment in the series. It faithfully follows all the demanding norms of the previous works while filling the action with fresh ideas—rubber bullets and 3D-printed pistols, bare-handed grenade action, skates instead of knives, flamethrower close-quarters combat, and more. The fact that the protagonist Eve isn’t John Wick, so you can never let your guard down, is a bonus.

I’d like to note one final point: the film doesn’t try to lean on the achievements of the previous series. Ballerina’s Eve enters the world built by the preceding works, briefly surveys the world, and then quickly exits it. The elders we knew—John Wick, Winston, the Director of the Ruska Roma—only exert limited influence on the protagonist Eve. Similarly, aside from symbolic locations like the New York Continental Hotel, the Hunter’s gun shop and Hillstadt seem to be found only in Ballerina, much like the Continental Hotels in Rome and Osaka.