By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
It’s often said that action movies are mindless entertainment, and while it’s true that there are countless examples of films with musclebound meatheads or improbably indestructible heroes overcoming all odds if you look at the greatest of the genre, it’s clear: good action movies involve intelligent, creative heroes who outwit and don’t outfight. Bruce Willis in Die Hard as John McClane is the classic example. Six years later, another unconventional star turned to action when Keanu Reeves took the wheel in Speed, and the 1994 movie blockbuster is still finding new fans today, where, 30 years later, it’s been in the Max Top Ten for a week.
The Bus That Couldn’t Slow Down
The premise of Speed is deceptively simple for an aciton movie: even though over the decades it’s been parodied to death, it still works; after all, a bus that blows up if it goes under 50 miles per hour is an ingenious concept. What makes it work though, is that the film starts out with what, in any other action movie, would be a climatic moment involving a bomb, but here, it’s the appetizer before the non-stop main course. It does serve to show the audience that Officer Jack Traven of the LAPD (Keanu Reeves) is intelligent, skilled, and able to remain calm under pressure.
What we don’t see Jack do in Speed is mow down waves of bad guys like in other action movies, which Charlie Sheen parodied so perfectly in Hot Shots Part Deux. Instead, he’s trapped on a bus full of commuters, tourists, and the fearless Annie (Sandra Bullock) as he tries to outwit an evil mastermind, played by Dennis Hopper, that he can’t see or touch. Jeff Daniels, as Jack’s partner Harry, even manages to pull off an acting master class with just a facial expression, conveying more emotion and meaning in one split-second shot than you’d ever think is possible.
That isn’t to say that Speed is devoid of any action, far from it, as the film pulls the same trick as Twister by having a climax every 15 minutes, constantly upping the stakes and increasing the tension with a new problem constantly getting thrown at our heroes. Like the initial elevator scene, careening through Los Angeles is only the start of the action which includes a freeway jump that, though the gap is CGI, includes footage of a very real city bus flying through the air. A great action movie doesn’t need explosions and bullets whizzing through the air, though it has those too; it simply needs great setpieces and great characters.
Pop Quiz Hotshot
Speed would not be a timeless classic action movie if it wasn’t for the performances of Reeves, Bullock, and Hopper. Reeves plays Jack as the perfect eye of the hurricane; sure, he gets frustrated, but he never lets his composure go for too long and balances out the insanity of a bus that can’t slow down. While Bullock takes what could have been a standard love interest role and turns Annie into her own character, similar to how Hopper, with a deranged tinge to his voice throughout, manages to tiptoe up to the line of being a Looney Tunes villain but somehow keeps it grounded enough to be menacing.
Sandra Bullock became a star thanks to Speed before finding her niche in romantic comedy movies, while Reeves, who had success prior to the film, was suddenly on the path to becoming a major star, and Hopper, a legend in Hollywood, had a career resurgence. Stars were even made behind the scenes thanks to Joss Whedon getting credit for his eleventh-hour script punch-up and kickstarting the career of Graham Yost, who went on to make Justified and Silo. Hollywood takes notice when a film made for $30 million earns back 10 times its budget at the box office alone, not counting the countless millions from the VHS, DVD, and broadcast rights.
Speed Should Have Become The Standard
Unlike other action films of the 90s that aged as well as bucket hats, Speed has been a massive movie hit for decades. The film should have been an example of great characters and great writing that doesn’t treat the audience like idiots as being more important than special effects or bloodshed, but instead, it gave way to Speed 2, one of the worst sequels of all time. Instead, it stands out as one of the greatest action films ever made because there are few films like it, and given the current state of action in Hollywood, it will never be surpassed.
If you haven’t watched it in a while, or you somehow missed the bus, Speed is available to stream on Max.
