John Wick 4's Spectacular Top-Down Scene Was Inspired By Hong Kong Massacre
John Wick 4 is out in theaters, and it's a nearly three-hour rollercoaster of non-stop action, which is exactly what you'd expect from the franchise. What fans didn't expect was a particular scene where the camera pans all the way up to provide viewers a top-down view of the action. People immediately started calling it the "Hotline Miami" scene for its similarity to the popular twin-stick shooter, but it turns out we should actually be calling it "The Hong Kong Massacre" scene.
According to Twitter user and action film critic ChristianV (via New Blood Interactive's Dave Oshry), John Wick 4 director Chad Stahelski said that it was The Hong Kong Massacre that inspired the scene and not Hotline Miami.
Related: John Wick 4 Is Almost Too Much Of A Good Thing
Without getting too far into spoiler territory, the scene features John Wick shot from above as he wields a fire-spewing shotgun to take out dozens of bad guys, blasting away through walls and bodies like they're not even there. The scene does bare a resemblance to Hotline Miami, but looking at a trailer for The Hong Kong Massacre reveals that it's even more similar to the antics you get up to in the lesser-known indie game.
The Hong Kong Massacre was first released in 2019 by a duo of Swedish developers calling themselves VRESKI. Although clearly inspired by Hotline Miami, the game instead sets itself in the Chinese underworld and tells a hard-boiled story of revenge through ultra-violence. You dodge behind walls and duck behind cover as you fill storefronts and street stalls full of lead from a variety of armaments, including a shotgun that spits plumes of fire much as John Wick does in the movie.
The Hong Kong Massacre is currently available on Switch, PS4, PC, and
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