Speed the movie
“Speed” is one of those rare, seemingly mindless actioners that manages to mix enjoyable performances, a slick story, plenty of gratuitous car-crunching destruction, and white-knuckle thrills into a feature that is both guilty-pleasure fun and highly influential. After all, it would get pretty dry if Jack had to outsmart a brilliant madman with little more than monotonic machismo. Meanwhile, Bullock talks way too much, though it befits her character and provides a few moments of genuine comic relief. It’s something of a cross between “Blue Velvet’s” indescribably aberrant Frank Booth and “True Romance’s” wary, honorable Clifford Worley. The looming, appropriate severity is largely thanks to Dennis Hopper, who plays a villain so amusingly malevolent that it’s difficult not to cheer for his devilishness. Talkative and sarcastic Annie Porter (Sandra Bullock) winds up on the wrong bus at the wrong time, to be roped into driving the out-of-control vehicle, becoming a hostage, and falling in love with the fearless Traven.Įven though the introductory moments show Reeves and Daniels arriving on the scene of a bomb threat in an airborne cop car, rambunctiously careening around a corner like something pulled from the midst of a “Die Hard” chase sequence, the rest of the film manages to put a more serious tone on the plot. In a high-stakes stratagem of life and death, Jack must board the transport, negotiate remotely with the madman, settle unruly passengers, and struggle through hard right turns and a gap in a bridge – all while also dodging pedestrians, baby strollers, highway traffic, school crossings, and more. In a twist that would be endlessly parodied in future comedies, the weapon becomes armed once the bus reaches 50 miles per hour, and will detonate if it drops below that speed. But just as the two New York cops are celebrated for their achievements, the maniacal terrorist resurfaces, pulling Jack into a revenge scheme and warning him about City Bus 2525, rigged with a particularly unique explosive (“enough C4 to put a whole in the world”). It’s a two-years-in-the-making scheme by an unknown bomb expert (Dennis Hopper), but it’s foiled by the risk-taking, quick-thinking Traven, ending in the culprit blowing himself up.
#SPEED THE MOVIE FULL#
Officer Jack Traven (Keanu Reeves) and by-the-books detective Harry Temple (Jeff Daniels) are called in to investigate an elevator full of hostages that is wired with dynamite.
#SPEED THE MOVIE MOVIE#
Mile-a-minute stunts, tricky cat-and-mouse mind games, a stirring score by composer Mark Mancina, and great character actors collide in this awesomely intense hijack movie that set the bar just a little bit higher for every action flick after it.
Op quiz, hotshot: What do you get when you combine enough nonstop action to compose more than one movie with scorching visuals, an indelible villain, an outlandish yet culturally relative premise (in the face of current terrorism acts and transportation accidents), a speeding juggernaut bus, and the straight-faced Keanu Reeves? Why, “Speed,” of course – and what a riveting, mind-blowing adventure film it is. Release Date: June 10th, 1994 MPAA Rating: Rĭirector: Jan de Bont Actors: Keanu Reeves, Dennis Hopper, Sandra Bullock, Jeff Daniels, Joe Morton, Alan Ruck, Beth Grant, Hawthorne James, Carlos Carrasco P