What is excommunicado?

Excommunicado is a Latin term that means "excommunicated." In the context of the movie John Wick, it refers to a state in which a person is banned from certain privileges and protections within the criminal underworld. In the movie, when someone is declared excommunicado, it means that they are cut off from all communication, resources, and assistance from members of the Continental Hotel, a neutral territory for assassins. This essentially marks the person as a target for other assassins to kill without consequences. In the John Wick series, the protagonist, John Wick, is declared excommunicado due to breaking the rules of the criminal world.