Johnny Utah, Point Break (1991)
According to his IMDB page, Reeves’ affair with playing characters named “John” started with 1991’s Kathryn Bigelow-directed Point Break. In it, he plays a former college quarterback and current FBI agent, who has to go undercover with a group of bank robbing surfers. Maybe it was the surf, maybe it was the sand, but he seemingly caught the John bug and was instantly hooked.
Jonathan Harker, Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)
Having just played a John, Reeves needed a fix and got it with the role of Jonathan Harker in Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula. However, since Jonathan isn’t quite the same as John, his performance suffered and so did his English accent
Don John, Much Ado About Nothing (1993)
As the bastard Don John in the Kenneth Branagh-directed Much Ado About Nothing, Reeves was reviewed in the New York Times as “elegantly handsome and speaks his lines with authority.” It appears the return to a real John was the reason for the glowing review.
Johnny Mnemonic, Johnny Mnemonic (1995)
By 1995, Reeves was onto his fourth John in under five years, and the toll of playing Johns finally caught up to him. As the cyber-data courier Johnny Mnemonic, Reeves received a Golden Raspberry nomination for Worst Actor that year, thankfully losing to Pauly Shore in Jury Duty. The silver lining is that this movie finally broke his dependence on playing a John.
Well, for a time, that is. In the interim, Reeves would play a Kevin (The Devils’ Advocate), a Neo (The Matrix), and even a Conor (Hardball).
John Constantine, Constantine (2005)
A decade is a long time to be clean, but old habits die hard, and right when you think you’ve beaten them they resurface. After the atrocity that was The Matrix Revolutions, Reeves needed to feel comforted, so he dove head first back into a John. The movie, about a cancer-riddled demon hunter is, I believe, a metaphor for Reeves fighting his own personal demons and his dependence on John roles.
John Wall, Generation Um… (2013)
This was Reeves’ bottom: he plays a John in a movie that has a 0% on Rotten Tomatoes. Yet, like most bottoms, it’s not what you do when you get knocked down, it’s what you do when you stand back up.
John Wick, John Wick (2014)
He’s baaaaaaaack! Right when you thought Reeves couldn’t handle anymore John, he says, “Fuck that,” and takes a megadose of it. Playing an ex-assassin, Reeves is great and has his John-ness under control. Maybe screenwriters are making Johns purer these days or something, but whatever it is Reeves is back on the John train.
John Rain, Rain (TBD)
Hell, Reeves is so pumped on John he’s all, “Give me any John. I’ll even do a goddamn TV show, that’s how much I love being a John. Not on a network yet? LOLOL Who cares?! When I play a John they’ll be knocking down my door! Now, who has more John?! WHO?!?!”
