Excommunicado Order
A global bounty that turns every shadow into a hunter and leaves no sanctuary safe.
To be declared excommunicado is one of the most severe penalties of the High Table's underworld: it terminates a person's privileges and access to the Continental and its underworld services. It is a death sentence disguised as a legal decree, turning the entire underworld against a single target while denying them access to the very systems that usually sustain their survival.
Quick Facts
- Authority
- The High Table
- First major appearance
- John Wick: Chapter 2
Lore & Background
The Excommunicado Order is a formal decree issued by the High Table, the council of twelve high-level crime bosses in the underworld. John is declared excommunicado for 'conducting business' on Continental grounds, one of the underworld's two unbreakable rules; the other is honoring the marker. In the film, after John Wick executes Santino D'Antonio in the Continental lounge, Winston explains that per the High Table's rules, he is forced to declare John 'excommunicado,' terminating his privileges and access to underworld resources. However, due to their friendship, Winston delays the excommunicado status by one hour and provides him with a marker for future use. As John departs, Winston formally initiates the excommunicado contract process, setting it to go live in one hour. The Camorra then doubles the bounty on John's head, offering it globally.
Reader's Guide
The Excommunicado Order functions as an immediate and total revocation of citizenship within the criminal underworld. When John is declared excommunicado, the bounty on his head is doubled and offered globally, and phones start ringing around him as the contract goes live. In Chapter 3 the status activates while an underworld doctor is treating John, and he has to finish the suturing himself. It is declared under the High Table's rules: Winston, manager of the New York Continental, has to declare John excommunicado, and in Chapter 4 the Marquis declares Winston himself excommunicado. Only the Elder, who sits above the High Table, can rescind it: he agrees to do so if John kills Winston and serves the High Table for the rest of his life.
More in Powers & Artifacts
Elsewhere in John Wick
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