The Greatest Action Franchise of All Time Is Officially Streaming for Free

Published Sep 19, 2026, 9:41 PM EDT

Those looking through their options on Pluto TV will notice an iconic action quartet available to watch completely for free — the full John Wick saga. While the first film grabbed audiences with a simple set-up, the sequels would broaden the canvas, making Keanu Reeves’ hero a rogue element in a complex network that punishes rule-breaking. Fast, frenetic, and unforgettable, now is the perfect time to discover, or rediscover, the world of Mr. Wick.

‘John Wick’ is a Roaring Rampage of Revenge

Image via Summit Entertainment

In 2014, Reeves starred as the title character in John Wick. He played a man twisted with grief at the loss of his wife from illness, slowly finding hope again because of a puppy she gifted to him posthumously to help him move on. This healing is short-lived, however, when a chance encounter tears his world apart. He encounters criminal Iosef (Alfie Allen), who demands he sell his classic car to him. When Wick refuses, the criminal invades his house later that night, killing the puppy and stealing the car. What Iosef doesn’t realize, however, is that John Wick is no ordinary widower – he is a former assassin, so deadly that he has become almost mythical among the criminal elite. Enraged by the offense, Wick comes out of retirement to wreak havoc, killing everyone who stands between him and revenge.

The movie was a surprise hit, considering that the production had struggled to gain distributors due to Reeves’ recent run of box office disappointments. However, it opened up a new avenue for the revenge thriller genre that mixed action with intricate fight choreography and a deceptively simple story. As the man said himself, John Wick was never just about a dog, it was about opening a vast and fascinating world few action franchises have matched.

The Sequels Open Up a Complex World of Assassins

Image by Jefferson Chacon

The success of the first movie led to three John Wick sequels – 2017’s John Wick: Chapter 2, 2019’s Chapter 3 - Parabellum, and the fourth and final (for now), Chapter 4 in 2023. It’s the second film in which audiences are truly immersed in the world of assassins, here portrayed as a dense network of disciplined agents working to strict rules overseen by shadowy organizations. The High Table, an anonymous group of crime lords who govern global criminal enterprise, keep a strict code of ethics, with their own currency, vows systems, and sanctuary. The latter comes in the form of The Continental Hotel chain, where assassins may stay and discuss “business,” provided no blood is shed on hotel grounds.

Suddenly, the world of John Wick becomes much larger than a man avenging his dog. It’s about Wick fighting to not be drawn back into the system that he fought so hard to escape, and that system punishing him for breaking their rules. Chapter 2 sees him refusing a job from a crime lord who helped him before his retirement, while Chapter 3 sees him become “excommunicado” in the criminal underworld, making him a target for anyone carrying a gun. We also meet The Soup Kitchen, a global underworld of spies posing as homeless people and tailors, who provide assassins with the clothes and firepower for their missions.

Like the world of James Bond, half the fun of John Wick is exploring these locations and the people within them, learning the rules, and watching with glee as Wick burns them to the ground. Whereas most action franchises are simply happy to replicate what came before, John Wick widens the aperture a little more each time, drawing you further into the story.

Keanu Reeves Remains the Unstoppable Heartbeat of the Action

In the ‘90s, Reeves was the fearless cop who tried to save innocent bus passengers from a bomb in Speed. In the 2000s, he became the savior of humanity in the landmark sci-fi franchise The Matrix. Those two characters alone may have been enough to cement him as an icon of the action genre, but in John Wick, he found a role that fit him like a well-tailored suit. Reeves’ softly spoken, minimalist screen presence perfectly suited someone described in the first film as a “man of focus, commitment, and sheer will.” He took the “One Man Army” trope of action movies and gave it discipline, showing the single-minded nature of a man with nothing to lose, with elaborate fight sequences turning brutality into an art form.

John Wick’s fate appeared to be sealed in the fourth chapter, although he returned briefly in 2025 spin-off Ballerina (set before the fourth film) and a fifth installment is reported to be in the works. Whatever the future, the character will be remembered for generations for his execution, resilience, and style.