Speed (1994) 20th Century Fox/Action RT: 116 minutes Rated R (violence and language) Director: Jan de Bont Screenplay: Graham Yost Music: Mark Mancina Cinematography: Andrzej Bartkowiak Release date: June 10, 1994 (US) Cast: Keanu Reeves, Dennis Hopper, Sandra Bullock, Jeff Daniels, Joe Morton, Alan Ruck, Glenn Plummer, Richard Lineback, Beth Grant, Hawthorne James, Carlos Carrasco, David Kriegel, Natsuko Ohama, Daniel Villarreal. Box Office: $121.3M (US)/$350.5M (World)
Rating: *** ½
There’s absolutely no reason in the world that Speed should have been any good. It’s Die Hard on a bus, for Pete’s sake! But it is good. In fact, it’s great! It’s exciting, suspenseful and a thrill-a-minute. What a wonderful surprise.
I didn’t really know what to expect when I attended the prerelease screening the Tuesday before it opened. It’s fair to say I had more confidence in Speed than City Slickers II which screened the same night at another theater. My biggest concern was whether leading man Keanu Reeves would cut it as an action star. He did well in Point Break three years earlier, but he had the strong support of co-star Patrick Swayze. Besides, I (like many others) still associated him with the dimwitted character he played in the Bill & Ted movies. As it turns out, Keanu does a decent job as the hero in Speed. It’s true he’s a wooden actor, but he has a high likability factor which goes a long, long way. It doesn’t hurt that he has the support of a great cast and a tight screenplay. This is one of those movies in which everything comes together exactly right.
SWAT Officer Jack Traven (Reeves), recently recognized as a hero for saving a group of elevator passengers from mad bomber Howard Payne (Hopper, Blue Velvet), finds himself in a dire situation involving a city bus. Angry at Jack for foiling his earlier plans, Payne has rigged a bus full of passengers to explode if its speed drops below 50 MPH. Upon learning this, Jack boards the bus while it’s still in motion and informs everybody of the situation. After the driver is put out of commission, passenger Annie (Bullock, Demolition Man) takes the wheel. Considering that she lost her driver’s license for excessive speeding, she’s the perfect choice to keep the vehicle above 50.
Meanwhile, Jack’s fellow officers, led by partner Harry Temple (Daniels, Dumb and Dumber), clear the streets and freeways (during morning rush hour no less) while trying to zero in on the mad bomber who won’t allow any unloading of passengers under threat of detonating the bomb. He threatens to blow the bus any everybody on it to kingdom come unless he’s paid a large ransom.
Speed contains what I consider the biggest “Yeah, right!” scene of the past 20 years. Upon learning that they’re approaching an unfinished section of freeway, Jack has Annie accelerate the bus and jump over the gap like Fonzie on a motorcycle. Yeah, it’s a cool scene. At the same time, you’re sitting there saying “Yeah, right!” because you know this would never work in real life. That’s where suspension of disbelief comes into play. You need that in order to fully enjoy one of these action flicks.
Speed is a good one. It combines elements of Die Hard and Airport to make a truly exciting popcorn movie. We get some interesting passengers like the good-natured tourist (Ruck, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off), the hulking Hispanic construction worker (Carrasco, Parker) and the frightened, panicky woman (Grant, The Mindy Project). Personally, that’s always been my favorite part of disaster flicks, the collection of possible victims.
Hopper is awesome as the crazed villain, but he was born to play parts like that. Bullock makes a real name for herself in Speed. It’s the movie that catapulted her to stardom. Plucky and spirited, she makes an excellent right-hand woman. The action scenes are very well done. The pacing is dead-perfect. It’s a solid directorial debut for cinematographer Jan de Bont (Basic Instinct). It may be derivative, but the storyline is really quite good. I wish more action movies were this much fun. That’s what it boils down to in the end. Speed is a fun movie. It’s perfect entertainment for any time of year, especially summer.
