WEAPONS of WICK

Meet master engraver Melissa McMinn, who created Keanu Reeves’ dueling pistols for the hit franchise

- BRANDON FRIEDERICH

An apparently insatiable appetite for the “John Wick” brand of stylized, high-body-count action has led the franchise to an especially notable financial achievement: It’s one of few with an R rating to break the billion-dollar threshold at the box office. The general audience can’t get enough of watching Keanu Reeves’ Beagle-avenging hitman terminate bad guys en masse with “gun-fu”—martial arts but with guns; however, the firearms literate also appreciate the “John Wick” saga for its outstandingly varied on-screen arsenal.

The fourth and likely final installment, 2023’s “John Wick 4,” prominently features well over 25 different firearms. There are pistols, like the Sig-Sauer P365 and array of Glock models, that can be found in many a gun safe, while others, such as the retro-modded Thompson M1A1 submachine gun or the Webley .455 Mk VI revolver, are anachronistic eye candy for history buffs. Taran Tactical Innovations (TTI), the California-based gunsmith and private shooting range where Reeves trained (as seen in viral videos), custom-built the most elite “John Wick 4” firearms one can buy, including the competition-ready, 2011-based TTI Pit Viper pistol and the TTI J4 Dracarys Gen-12 shotgun—an AR-10-style 12-gauge that was loaded with incendiary “dragon’s breath” shells for extra aesthetic effect in a bonkers house-clearing scene.