John Wick has a history of teaming up with enemies – we run down five times John has joined forces with former foes.

John Wick has a history of teaming up with former enemies, and it seems that is set to continue in the upcoming spin-off, From The World of John Wick: Ballerina. Set between the third and fourth John Wick films, Ballerina focuses upon Eve Macarro (Ana de Armas), who is trained as an assassin in the Ruska Roma family, under the guise of ballerina training, and sets out to avenge the killing of her father. While it was already known that Keanu Reeves’ would be appearing in the movie as John Wick, the newest Ballerina trailer includes a new reveal of the Baba Yaga seemingly being sent on a mission to kill Ana de Armas’ Eve prior to the two eventually joining forces.

Given that the timeline of Ballerina coincides with John Wick’s own mission of vengeance against the High Table, the circumstances of how and why he finds himself pursuing Eve Macarro are a mystery that will remain unsolved until the movie’s release. However, John and Eve’s eventual alliance could take place as part of John’s own mission against the High Table. Whatever the case may be, there are five other instances in the John Wick franchise of John finding himself forced to temporarily unite with an enemy against a common foe or for a common mission.

Sofia – John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum

The Baba Yaga’s first unlikely alliance comes in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, when he travels to the Morocco Continental to cash in a marker with the hotel’s manager Sofia (Halle Berry). However, she is far from thrilled to see him, opening fire on John upon his arrival and clearly furious when John invokes her promised favor with his marker to her. In the end, Sofia ultimately helps John locate the mysterious High Table Elder with the two fighting their way out of an explosive battle with Sofia’s former employer Berrada (Jerome Flynn).

While it isn’t made explicit why Sofia and John have had a falling out, it seems to have something to do with Sofia’s bitterness at being separated from her daughter. John seemingly played some kind of role in Sofia’s daughter being kept in hiding, a situation that seemingly bars Sofia from ever seeing her again. In the end, John’s temporary re-alliance with Sofia helps him find the High Table Elder and her to honor her marker promise to John, though in Sofia’s eyes, the two still remain “less than even.”

The High Table Elder – John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum

Coming right after John’s team-up with Sofia, he braves the barren sands of the Moroccan desert to locate the High Table Elder (Saïd Taghmaoui), hoping that his Excommunicado status from the Continental can be reversed. After hearing John’s plea, and his reasoning that he now only lives to remember his late wife Helen, the High Table Elder grants John his request, on the condition that John return to New York City and assassinate the New York Continental’s manager and John’s close friend, Winston Scott (Ian McShane). After that, John is to spend the remainder of his life as an assassin under the direct employ of the High Table.

John’s plea to the High Table Elder comes during a time of the Baba Yaga’s greatest desperation. With a contract out on his life, no safe haven in the Continental, and no other allies to turn to, John’s decision to agree to the High Table Elder’s terms is one based entirely in survival. However, John’s declaration to the High Table Elder of “I have served, I will be of service” does not end up lasting long with his next alliance.

Winston Scott – John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum & John Wick: Chapter 4

As soon as John makes it back to the New York Continental in Parabellum, the ever-calm Winston manages to talk him out of his contract with the High Table Elder, reasoning that John once managed to free himself from the High Table’s world and will only be imprisoned in it for good by following their orders. With the help of the Continental concierge Charon (Lance Reddick), John fights off the High Table’s attack after the New York Continental is de-consecrated, but Parabellum ends on a twist. After reaching a parlay with the High Table and maintaining his position at the Continental, Winston is directly faced with the question of what punishment John faces for his defiance. In a split-second decision, Winston determines “Well, he has to die,” shooting at John until he falls from the top of the Continental onto the street below.

Despite Winston’s betrayal, John seems to bear him no ill will in John Wick: Chapter 4, perhaps understanding that Winston was in an unwinnable tight spot with the High Table Adjudicator (Asia Kate Dillon) watching. After the murder of Charon by the Marquis Vincent Bisset de Gramont (Bill Skarsgård), John and Winston amicably join forces to avenge their friend, invoking a High Table duel to do so. This also plays right into not one, but two of John Wick’s other big team-ups with foes of his.

The Ruska Roma – John Wick: Chapter 4

Following Winston’s advice that a High Table duel is how the two can both avenge Charon’s killing and free John and Winston from the High Table once and for all, John heads to Germany to visit his old family clan, the Ruska Roma, from whom John has long since been exiled. John’s bitter adoptive sister Katia Jovonovich (Natalia Tena) has since assumed leadership of the Ruska Roma after the murder of her father by Killan Harkan (Scott Adkins) at the behest of the Marquis de Gramont. Knowing that John cannot invoke a High Table duel without being a member of a High Table family, Katia grants John’s request to be brought back into the Ruska Roma, on the condition that he assassinate Killa Harkan.

John ultimately succeeds on his mission and is brought back into the Ruska Roma, and their re-alliance is a bit different from John’s other team-ups, in the sense that the Baba Yaga himself does all the heavy lifting to bring down Killa Harkan. After John fulfills Katia’s grants, she and the Ruska Roma honor their end of the bargain, bringing John back into the family and enabling him to set up a High Table duel with the Marquis de Gramont.

Caine – John Wick: Chapter 4

Right as John Wick prepares for battle against the High Table, his old friend and fellow retired assassin Caine (Donnie Yen) finds himself coerced into bringing down the Baba Yaga by the Marquis de Gramont. With the life of Caine’s daughter under direct threat, Caine spends much of John Wick: Chapter 4 fighting his old friend until John and Winston successfully set up a High Table duel. However, the Marquis pulls an underhanded trick by selecting Caine as his stand-in for the duel. Moreover, with John and Winston threatened with execution if either fails to arrive for the duel, the Marquis throws every assassin in Paris in John’s way to stop him from making it on time.

In the end, it is with the help of Caine himself that John battles past his last wave of enemies on the Rue Foyatier staircase. As John and Caine fighting the Baba Yaga’s enemies side-by-side, a glimpse of their friendship before they were forced to become foes shines as brightly as the morning sun that greets them. Even as John and Caine draw their dueling pistols on one another, John and Caine ultimately triumph with John taking down the Marquis in a surprise coup de grace and Caine’s daughter being saved.

Despite John’s apparent demise in the duel, fan theories continue to run rampant that Caine, Winston, or both, helped John fake his death. With both a Caine spin-off and John Wick 5 in the works, it could very well turn out that John and Caine’s alliance extended all the way through their High Table duel, allowing the two warriors to finally fight side-by-side once more.

From The World of John Wick: Ballerina debuts in theaters on June 6th.