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Keanu Reeves and Jimmy Fallon face off in Pup Quiz on 'The Tonight Show'

"First of all, I’m not taking a puppy away from John Wick," Fallon said. "Just saying that right now.”

By Gina Salamone
Keanu Reeves with so many puppies on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon

It's a dog-eat-dog world and Keanu Reeves and Jimmy Fallon took no mercy on each other when competing in a ruff game of Pup Quiz on The Tonight Show Thursday. The game — which has been played before on the late-night NBC talk show by guests like Jerry Seinfeld, Kaley Cuoco and Salma Hayek — sees the players facing off in animal-inspired trivia. 

Some might say Reeves has a bit of an edge, since he stars in the John Wick film franchise (the first three films are now streaming on Peacock!), about a hitman named John Wick who sets out for revenge in the first flick after Russian gangsters break into his home and kill his puppy, a beagle that his sick, dying wife arranged for him to receive after her loss. Reeves stopped by the talk show to promote John Wick: Chapter 4 (in which he'll play a part in saving a dog), which hits theaters next week. 

RELATED: 'John Wick' director says first movie's puppy death was written out of the script several times

Tonight Show announcer Steve Higgins hosted the Pup Quiz, explaining that he'd be asking both Reeves and Fallon animal trivia questions, and that if a contestant correctly answers, they'll get a golden retriever puppy, and if they answer incorrectly, their opponent gets a puppy. Whoever has the most puppies at the end of the game wins.

Watch Keanu Reeves and Jimmy Fallon play Pup Quiz on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon:

"I’m so terrible with this," Reeves said before Higgins even finished reading him the first question. "I just know it’s just gonna be a disaster." The question he got was, "What is the only species of reptile native to Ireland?" The three answers to choose from were: snake, lizard and turtle. Reeves initially said turtle, but then was given a chance to change his answer and correctly guessed lizard, scoring his first pup. "This is not fair," Fallon complained. "First of all, I’m not taking a puppy away from John Wick. Just saying that right now.”

The Tonight Show host was then up, with Higgins asking him, "Which of the following species is not the name of a real animal?” The options were Sarcastic Fringehead, Spiny Lumpsucker and Shorty Bobbit. Fallon went with the first one, but the answer was the last one. The loss earned Reeves his second pup. “Do the puppies know each other? Is this like a common litter?,” the actor asked, to which Fallon responded, “We have like 50 puppies backstage.” 

It was then time for Double Puppardy, with questions now being worth two puppies. “A dik-dik is what kind of animal?,” Higgins asked Reeves, with the possible answers being platypus, bird or antelope. The actor correctly guessed antelope and won two more pups, for a total of four. One got antsy and ran over to Fallon. “That’s a good boy,” the talk show host said, scooping it up. Reeves yelled, "That’s my puppy, Fallon!"

The next question, for Fallon, asked why male dogs raised their legs when they urinate. He guessed that the reason was to tell other dogs they're happy, but the correct answer was to signal to other pups that they're tall. So Reeves got two more dogs. “Who’s the puppy king? I’m the puppy king," he bragged. 

During the Final Puppardy round, the contestants had the opportunity to take all of their opponent's puppies — even though Fallon hadn't technically won any and was just holding the ones that got away from Reeves. "How many dogs were used to film the movie Air Bud?," Higgins asked. Chaos ensued as the contestants scrambled to scrawl their answers on an iPad as the puppies in their arms escaped.

Fallon guessed 10, to which Reeves declared, “Uh, six, but if it’s not six, then it’s a nine,” flipping the iPad over to show both numerals. The answer was six, meaning that Reeves correctly guessed every answer (except for maybe that first one, when he was given a second chance), and Fallon did not get any.

John Wick: Chapter 4 arrives in theaters March 24. 

New episodes of The Tonight Show air weeknights at 11:35 p.m. ET on NBC. If you missed the Pup Quiz madness and want to check it out, that episode, and all episodes of the current season of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon are now streaming on Peacock.

Refresh yourself on all the puppy snuggles and gunplay with the first three John Wick movies — also streaming on Peacock.