John Wick 3 trailer delivers one perfect Matrix reference

There's a John Wick 3: Parabellum (2019) trailer out right now, and inside it are a few key details. This film is the third of three John Wick movies – so far. Assuming Wick survives this adventure, there's no foreseeable end to the number of AAA films in which Keanu Reeves might participate, John Wick style. Also, this trailer has one VERY obvious reference to The Matrix.

Keanu Reeves has been a film superstar for several decades, but most people know him best from one of two films. They could know him from the Bill and Ted movies. Those movies were recently confirmed to get a sequel with the original Bill and Ted in the near future. Excellent, excellent indeed.

The other film through which most people know Keanu Reeves is The Matrix. He's certainly been in other big-name movies, but The Matrix sent a shock through the filmmaking industry and created for itself an IP the likes of which will continue to make waves for years to come. Now we come to the John Wick series.

In the first John Wick film, references to The Matrix might've been present, but none really popped out in a major way. There were some reunion jokes in John Wick 2 between Reeves and Laurence Fishburne that'd fit the bill for off-rhyme references to their relationship in The Matrix. There's a moment at which Wick says to Fishburne's Bowery King, "I guess you have a choice" – the KEY theme of The Matrix trilogy, and something both characters explore throughout the series.

In the trailer for Parabellum, John Wick literally says he needs "guns, lots of guns." That's about as direct a reference they could've made to the first The Matrix movie as possible without the Bowery King telling John Wick he's The One.

This film has a slated release date for May 17th, 2019. It picks up where the second film left off, just as the second film picks up not long after the end of the first. This film stars Keanu Reeves as John Wick as well as Halle Berry as Sofia, Asia Kate Dillon, Ian McShane, Anjelica Huston, Lance Reddick (Charon the front desk man), Robin Lord Taylor, and Jason Mantzoukas as "Tick Tock Man."

This film's name, Parabellum, is derived from a Latin phrase, Si vis pacem, para bellum. That means that to attain peace, you must prepare for war. We'll be there on opening night, without a doubt. Anything less would mean excommunicado to me.