If you are a fan of John Wick, you may want to check out the Nobody movies. The John Wick franchise exploded in popularity after the first movie was released. Part of what fans loved about it was the fact that Keanu Reeves underwent extensive firearms training for the movie.
Of course, these are action movies, so they are not realistic, but it is noticeable when the actor has had some firearms training. I’ll get more into that later, but first, let’s go over the general plot of the movies.
Nobody
If you are a fan of Breaking Bad, you are already familiar with Bob Odenkirk. He played the slick lawyer who pretended he wasn’t part of the criminal empire.
In the movie Nobody, Odenkirk plays Hutch Mansell, a guy who appears to be your average Joe, just trying to make a living. The movie opens with a scene of Hutch in an interview room, shot, dirty, and handcuffed at a table. He’s being interviewed by the feds, but it doesn’t give much info about what happened.
After that scene, the movie jumps back in time, showing his daily routine of going for a jog, doing some pull-ups, forgetting to take the trash out on trash day, etc.
As the beginning unfolds, you get the impression he is a calm guy with a lot of patience, and maybe something he is hiding.
When burglars break into his home, his ID bracelet is stolen, and it pushes him over the edge. He tries to play the ordinary dad who doesn’t want to be violent and fight back. But he secretly starts tracking down the people who robbed him.
The best scene of the movie
The most iconic scene of the movie, however, has nothing to do with the burglars. It’s simply a group of guys on a bus that start harassing the passengers. Hutch almost looks relieved that there is someone to fight with, and politely asks the bus driver to get off the bus. He then turns to the group of troublemakers and lets them know he’s ready to fight.
This close-quarter, hand-to-hand fighting scene is probably the best part of the whole movie. Especially when he gets thrown through the bus window and limps back into the bus, and proceeds to fight again.
Of course, the “troublemakers” he beat up happen to be connected to the mob, which brings the heat on Hutch. While it’s not the exact same plot, it’s very similar to the plot in the first John Wick movie.
CQB and guns
Once the mob figures out who Hutch is and where he lives, they go after him. This is when you start seeing some of that close-quarter fighting and a variety of firearms. This first fight scene involving firearms at Hutch’s house is also great.
As a small criminal “tactical” team enters Hutch’s house with shotguns and silencer-equipped machine guns, Hutch takes them on with a baseball bat. They eventually capture him and haul him off in the trunk, only for him to escape, causing them to crash in the process.
In a nod to the John Wick movie, Hutch finds out where the mob keeps their money and burns it all to ashes. Even though this scene feels a little déjà vu, the calmness and near boredom that Bob Odenkirk displays with his character makes it a great scene to watch.
The Alamo
Like any good action movie, everything leads to one big showdown at the end. Hutch receives some help from his father (who lives in a retirement home) and Harry’s half-brother.
They set up some traps in an industrial building, and the three of them take on the entire mob that shows up with all kinds of firearms. Just before this be battle, the head of the local mob can be seen shooting at Hutch from a car window. He uses a Sig SG 552. Throughout the movie, you also see some AK variants, MP5-PDW, CZ-75, Mossberg 500, Remington 870, UZI, and even a Claymore Mine.
Overall, I thought this was a great movie, made in John Wick style.
Nobody 2
I’ll admit up front, I liked the first movie a little better than the sequel. But that’s how I am with most movies that have sequels or prequels.
In Nobody 2, Hutch is back to the life he tried to leave behind, now working for the government as an assassin. His rogue shenanigans created a debt that the government forces him to repay by making him an “auditor.” Though his goal remains regaining his old, “normal” life, the government won’t grant it until he works off his debt
In the first few scenes of the movie, you get to see some action involving hand-to-hand combat and a variety of firearms.
One improvement they made in Nobody 2 is the length of the fight scenes. Except for the bus scene in the first movie, most of the gun battles were short. In this movie, you can expect a little more elaborate fight scenes using a combination of martial arts and firearms, at the same time.
After working a few jobs that didn’t go as planned, Hutch decides to take his family on a vacation. But trouble appears to follow Hutch around wherever he goes. In the first movie, Hutch was pushed over the edge when his kid’s kitty bracelet got stolen. In the sequel, a man smacked his daughter in the back of the head, pushing Hutch over the edge once again.
As you would expect, Hutch goes ballistic on the man and does what he does best. But of course, this leads to a person getting hurt who is connected to a local mob.
And here we go again…
You can almost fill in the blanks from there. The bad guys come after Hutch and his family while they are on vacation, and he must go after them to protect his family. Even though this group is not connected to the ones from the first movie, he feels the need to burn their money again.
The lady in charge of this local mob summons all her people to go after Hutch and his family. Just like the first movie, we get a family trio of Hutch, his dad, and his half-brother. But this time, they have some help from a former member of the local mob.
They rig up a theme park with all kinds of traps and explosives, and we get a big, dramatic gun battle at the end.
Even though this feels a lot like a repeat of the first movie, they did change just enough to keep it interesting. And really, what most of us like watching are the action scenes anyway, right?
Even though I like the first movie just a little more, there are some aspects of Nobody 2 that were improved from the first one.
How does Nobody compare to John Wick?
It’s hard to find a movie that is better than John Wick, at least when it comes to fiction. For me, Nobody is a close second. I like the gun scenes, the character played by Bob Odenkirk, and the overall theme of the movies.
Like Keanu Reeves, Odenkirk reportedly spent a lot of time training for this movie. This included physical conditioning, martial arts, and weapons handling. I can’t find any reports of him doing actual firearms training like Reeves did, but that’s still some great dedication.
Nobody has just a little more humor in it than John Wick does, but it doesn’t go too far. Both follow somewhat of the same storyline, but they managed to make Nobody its own movie. I think most people who enjoy watching John Wick movies will also enjoy the Nobody movies.
