Filmmaker John Woo Finally Reveals Why He Uses White Doves So Much

Despite his countless feature films as a director and his storied career, the recurring motif of white doves in John Woo’s movies is something that cannot be escaped when discussing the filmmaker. The trope became his signature as he would use multiple times over the decades, incorporating it into not only his Hong Kong movies but his American films like Hard Target and Face/Off; they even appear in his only franchise feature, 2000’s Mission: Impossible 2. So what’s the deal with the doves? While taking part in a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) this week, naturally the subject came up, and it was the most up-voted question in the entire thread.

“I think the white doves represent purity and spirit. White doves to me are a messenger from god,” Woo replied. “They are a noble creature with many symbolic meanings. When I was in middle school, every Sunday there was a service at my church. I was tasked with drawing the poster and I used white doves for it all the times. When I was making the Killer. The story is about a cop and an assassin. Each of them has their own ideas about justice. I was trying to come up with an idea of a Montage to show their righteousness.”

He continued, “When I was shooting the final sequence, I had this idea to have the white doves flying past the candles to represent the precious spirits within them. I’ve been using them ever since and sometimes when I don’t use them, my crew will tell me, ‘John, we have to use the white doves!’ So sometimes I use them because the crew say so. Ha!”

Woo’s next feature film as a director is the upcoming Silent Night which features Joel Kinnaman in the lead role. In the film Kinnaman stars as Godlock, a father on a mission to avenge his young son who was tragically caught in the crossfire of gang violence on Christmas Eve. Shot and nearly killed while in pursuit of the murderers, Godlock vows to avenge his son by any means necessary. During his AMA the filmmaker confirmed that the movie is currently in post-production. No word yet on how many doves will appear in the film.