From John McClane to John Rambo, Watch a Clip About the Toughest Action Movie Names

The name of apostles, popes, and presidents is also overwhelmingly the go-to first name for ass-kicking action heroes.

Keanu Reeves’ new film, John Wick, is out Friday and follows a former hit man who goes back on the job to seek revenge for the death of his dog. In the great tradition of gun-toting onscreen warriors, Reeves’ character carries one of the more common first names in the English language. This week, the Wall Street Journal ranked the top 10 toughest Johns in the action-movie universe. And in the video above, writer Don Steinberg discusses why it is that “John” seems like such a popular choice for a macho movie moniker. "have a suspicion it’s kind of in the script-writing software as the default name," he joked.

Let’s just look at the roll call: John Rambo won Vietnam, John McClane refuses to die (hard), John Shaft is straight up bad mother, John Kimbal hangs with kindergarteners, and John Connor hangs with the terminator. Check out the video above and the WSJ report to see what’s in a name.