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Babayka (an alternate cut of John Wick 1 & 2) RELEASED

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 (Edited)

To inquire about this edit, email krausfadr at gmail dot com and include the word fanedit in the subject line.

Fanmix + Fanfix
Original runtime (with 2 end credits) 3h 43m
Edited runtime (with end credits) 1h 58m

A complete restructure that interweaves John Wick Chapter 1 & 2 into a new storyline to get your John Wick fix in half the time. Also removes a lot of filler, tightens up the fighting, and depicts John as a more brutal killer— while he still somehow remains relatable. Released in 1080p with 5.1 surround (from a high quality 4K Master).

SPOILERS BELOW !!!

Major Changes:
A few scenes regraded mostly if there was a drastic and unpleasant change to the center white point— but still retaining the comic book inspired color schemes
Multiple fight scenes tightened up for better action
Linear storyline
The ending callback is now a muscle car, not a dog. Opening and closing scenes are muscle cars.
No flashbacks of John’s wife
Marcus, Perkins, Vigo’s brother, and the pit bull are all removed (Perkins is the only character I regretted having to cut)… more explanation below at the end
The mute hench-woman no longer has a prominent role
Wife’s narrated letter to John is more subtle
Corrected the Russian word for boogeyman which the screenwriter got wrong. BABA YAGA is an old witch who lures kids into her hut to eat them. BABAYKA is the boogeyman.
Other than Vigo, no one narrates about how strong, intimidating, and/or vengeful John is.
John is more brutal and on the offensive instead of defensive, he doesn’t need Marcus to keep saving him, and he gets his car back at the beginning
Vigo (not his brother) is in the warehouse as John steals back his car— John walks into Vigo’s office and pours him a drink, telling him to step aside and surrender his son
Santino now uses the Marker at Vigo’s request, effectively slowing down John’s rampage against the Russians
John’s house is not blown up / burned down— instead, the assassins arrive after John refuses Santino’s Marker
Removed the friendly cop that lets John get away with murder (John should not seem to operate in god-mode where there is never any real danger)
Events in Rome happen before the shootout in the Red Circle
John is not James Bond with a team of Q-like helpers
Cut back the intensity of the rave party in Rome (in the Red Square)
Gianna dies by suicide without John’s goodbye bullet (assassins prefer stealth)
Removed / trimmed some of the less than amazing action sequences with Cassius
The Red Circle is treated as more of a finalé, launching the 3rd Act
John runs into Santino in the Red Circle (the scene where the crowd parts in suspenseful silence before John draws and fires), regraded to match up with the club
The contract on John’s life is not lifted
No hall of mirrors boss battle with Santino
Right after killing on Continental grounds, John kills in a church, a continued theme of damnation
No boss battle with Vigo in the rain— John matter-of-factly shoots Vigo down in cold blood
When John becomes excommunicado he escapes into the night instead of day
New music for end credits

A few words on cutting Marcus, Perkins, and the pit bull with no name:

While Marcus, played by Wilem Defoe, was meant to give extra gravitas to the film, his scenes were not necessary to the overall story progression. And in multiple instances he was reduced to being a Deus ex machina plot device (randomly saving Wick’s life which made John survive by luck, not skill).

Perkins was a great character with a lot of sass but there’s no room for her in this new storyline. If you didn’t like her bitchy face then anyway, now it’s gone.

The pit bull with no name was not truly John’s pet. It was a prop to look cool running around the city alongside John, and the repetitive comic relief scenes with the dog were not amusing. Finally and thankfully they dumped the whole dog sidekick schtick in Parabellum.

A few words on action sequences:

I tried to reduce the time it looks like a stuntman (or the large Asian man) is literally standing there letting John kick their ass without fighting back. I removed some of the wrestler takedowns that went nowhere; the choreographer must’ve gotten bored and couldn’t figure out what else to do. But the important thing is– the killings by pencil are still in this edit!

heil Palpatine!

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 (Edited)

Very interesting krausfadr 😃
Perkins is indeed a tragic loss, but as you said, there is no place for her in your edit.
Regarding Gianna: I always got the impression that John has to shoot her afterwards, otherwise it wouldn’t be a finished task (kill from his end).
How did you interpreted this scene?

Any thoughts of doing a parabellum cut?

PS: Thanks for fixing the baba yaga bull****

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Thanks CMMAP. And as usual please feel free to post a critique on this thread.

For Gianna, yes I thought about that too but in the end, dead is dead and no need to raise the alarm with a gunshot.

I would like to make a Parabellum edit (there are some pretty awful meta scenes with the Asian henchman breaking his character). But this would be after Chapter 4 is released to see if another Fanmix makes any sense at all.

As a writer, myself, I was surprised at the mistake done in the research of the folklore. Everyone makes mistakes but that’s a pretty embarrassing one.

heil Palpatine!

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 (Edited)

Watched it last night.
Technical-wise there is very little, better nothing to criticize. Splendid job as always.
Despite the low bitrate, the video quality is indeed very good, most people won’t recognize the low bitrate.

  • scene at 30:36 needs color grading in my opinion, so it matches better with the scenes before with John in the room (more warm/yellow)
  • 22:43 didn’t you want to change that to „Babayaka“ also?

Narrative: Overall i was excited to read about your structure, after watching the edit it decreased a bit, due to several reasons:

  • Johns injuries don’t always add up (face, limping)
  • why proposing peace („mir“) with Vigo when he still has to hand over his son?
  • i would have placed his shower scene after santino leaves and before the henchmen are arriving. This way you would show, John is well aware of the consequences rejecting the marker and underlines his composure towards the nearing escalation
  • what didn’t worked for me was the scene at 1:44:07, outside of the church there is the shoot out with Vigos guards, one of his man enters the car and drives off and then John storms out of the building again. He was already outside. Although i get why you arranged the scenes that way
  • Vigos death can work for some people, for me it didn’t unfortunately
  • i was a bit confused by the following scene change
    —> John checks-in in the continental, goes downstairs in the hidden club, meets Winston (talking about the marker, this audio had a echo/hall effect, was this intended?) and then scene change, we see john in his white dirty pullover and rome. Is this supposed to be a flashback scenario?
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Thanks for watching and for the feedback. I’ll take a look and comment more.

heil Palpatine!

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 (Edited)

my comments below in ALL CAPS to differentiate from your comments but not to yell.
scene at 30:36 needs color grading in my opinion, so it matches better with the scenes before with John in the room (more warm/yellow) - I WENT AHEAD AND TWEAKED THE GRADING FOR ALL THE SHOTS OF VIGO IN THIS SEQUENCE
22:43 didn’t you want to change that to „Babayaka“ also? NO SINCE HE DIDN’T ACTUALLY SAY BABA YAGA I WASN’T AS CONCERNED WITH THAT LULLABYE, THOUGH POSSIBLY THE SUBTITLES COULD BE CHANGED THERE
Narrative: Overall i was excited to read about your structure, after watching the edit it decreased a bit, due to several reasons:
Johns injuries don’t always add up (face, limping) NOT A LOT MORE I CAN DO THERE-- BUT I MYSELF WAS OK WITH IT OVERALL AND DIDN’T FIND ANYTHING OVERLY DISTRACTING
why proposing peace („mir“) with Vigo when he still has to hand over his son? THERE WOULD BE PEACE BETWEEN THEM IF HE HANDS OVER HIS SON
i would have placed his shower scene after santino leaves and before the henchmen are arriving. This way you would show, John is well aware of the consequences rejecting the marker and underlines his composure towards the nearing escalation THAT WOULD BE AN ACCEPTABLE APPROACH TOO BUT I’LL LEAVE AS IS FOR NOW… EDIT: I MAY DO THIS!
what didn’t worked for me was the scene at 1:44:07, outside of the church there is the shoot out with Vigos guards, one of his man enters the car and drives off and then John storms out of the building again. He was already outside. Although i get why you arranged the scenes that way I AGREE VERY MUCH. I CHANGED IT SO HE’S NOT COMING OUT OF THE BUILDING
Vigos death can work for some people, for me it didn’t unfortunately OK. I’VE ALWAYS HATED THE BOSS BATTLE WITH VIGO , SO HIS NEW DEATH WORKS FOR ME
i was a bit confused by the following scene change
—> John checks-in in the continental, goes downstairs in the hidden club, meets Winston (talking about the marker, this audio had a echo/hall effect, was this intended?) and then scene change, we see john in his white dirty pullover and rome. Is this supposed to be a flashback scenario? I SEE WHAT YOU MEAN. I TWEAKED THE AUDIO SO THERE IS NOT A LOT OF REVERB. PERHAPS I CAN DO SOME VFX WORK SO THE SHIRT APPEARS TO BE LAUNDERED INSTEAD OF DIRTY.
THANKS AGAIN FOR YOUR FEEDBACK!!!

heil Palpatine!

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My pleasure krausfadr.

Regarding the white dirty pullover, perhaps you can cut that scene and just use the audio „John speaks to Santino whom he should kill“ as he looks over rome?

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Good idea. Though, I have found a way to launder his pullover so it will longer be obviously dingy. The VFX tools built into Resolve are awesome.

heil Palpatine!

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 (Edited)

Yeah resolve is kind of awesome. I use it myself.
Just now an idea came back to me: why did you cut the scenes where he prepares the underground?
It would add up nicely to his walk with his bags.

I think why i‘m not font of him in his white pullover (when he visits Santino) is, that it took me out of the movie, because as he kills the henchmen before, he‘s wearing a suit and again a suit afterwards as he reaches rome.

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 (Edited)

Prepares the underground? The catacombs with weapons? Yeah I left that prep in there. EDIT: Hmm well I thought I did. I did not!

And I take the dress down into a t-shirt as a peace sign that he’s not conducting violent business.

heil Palpatine!

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The catacombs , yes. Oh boy, i am questioning my awareness 😩

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Krausfadr, are you able to post an update once you have made the above revisions please?

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I made the changes but have to get around to rendering and posting.

heil Palpatine!