"Consider your origins. You were not made to live as brutes, but to follow virtue and knowledge."

—Ernest quoting Dante Alighieri^[src]

Ernest was a hulking Serbian assassin and one of the many hitmen and killers hunting down John Wick after the latter's assassination contract.

History

John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum

After The High Table doubled the open contract on John Wick, John went to the New York Public Library to collect several helpful items he'd stashed there previously. After this, Ernest appeared, approaching John while quoting from a library book. John told Ernest that he still had time before the contract went live, but Ernest says it's almost up, and that nobody would know the difference. John sternly asked Ernest if he's sure this is what he wants to do. Ernest confirmed so, wishing to claim the $14 million bounty for killing John. John taunts 'not if you can't spend it', and the two begin to fight.

Ernest attacked John with a knife, but John blocked the attack with the book he was holding, and allowed himself to be stabbed in the suit fabric on his right shoulder. John then disarmed Ernest, keeping the book in his hands, as a fight ensues. Ernest's towering height and physical endurance gave him an edge against John at first. After being thrown around, John managed to land repeated strikes on Ernest with his book, brutally slamming it into the man's mouth.

Having stunned Ernest, John moved him to a nearby table, placed Ernest's head on top of the book, and killed him by breaking his neck on the edge of it. Ernest was left dead on the floor of the library, and the entire fight had lasted barely a minute. John returns the book to its shelf and leaves.

Trivia

• According to director Chad Stahelski, Ernest is inspired by the famous James Bond henchman Jaws from The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker.
• An interesting fact about the fight with Ernest and John that possibly symbolizes the story of David and Goliath. Goliath used strength trying to defeat David, but in the end, David used intellect by using a stone and a sling to beat Goliath. In the other hand, Ernest makes a mistake of attempting to kill John with strength, but in the end, John kills Ernest with a book. Both Ernest and Goliath were killed in a final blow in the neck. In addition, it also relates to the line that Ernest read in the book of Dante Alighieri.