25 things you didn’t know about your favorite action movies

John Wick – Loosely inspired by a real incident

This movie features one of the saddest deaths out of all the films on this list… the death *sniff* of a puppy.

John Wick (Keanu Reeves) still isn’t over the untimely death of his wife. But thankfully, the former assassin still has his pet dog Daisy, the last gift he received from his wife. A group of Russian mobsters, fronted by Iosef Tarasov (Alfie Allen), invade Wick’s home and take two of his most beloved possessions away from him. First, they kill his innocent dog (those monsters!) and then they steal his prized Mustang.

If that’s not a good enough reason for an ex-hitman to come out of retirement, then what is?

The story of John Wick is actually loosely inspired by a real incident in Texas. Former Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell was given a yellow Labrador puppy, named DASY after the members of his fire team. One night in 2009, he was awakened by a gunshot, and as he saw four men driving away, he saw his poor dog, dead in his front yard from a gunshot wound.

He chased the men through four counties in his truck, armed and dangerous, until the police apprehended them. They were charged with animal cruelty, and Luttrell said he didn’t kill them because he had killed enough people already.

The film’s directors were actually worried about how people would react to the death of a dog, so while casting the part of villain Iosef Tarasov, they knew they needed someone who looked like a complete jerk in order for the audience to hate him. When they met Alfie Allen, they thought he was perfect for the role of a dog killer.