Speed

It's hard to believe that Speed is 25 years old today. It was a surprise breakout hit in the summer of 1994 that confirmed Keanu Reeves, then best known as playing Ted "Theodore" Logan in the Bill & Ted films, as a a bona fide action hero and at the same time launched the film career of Sandra Bullock. After all this time, the still holds up as a non-stop thrill ride all it's own too.   

When mad bomber Howard Payne (played by Dennis Hopper) has an extortion attempt foiled by SWAT team members Jack Traven (played by Keanu Reeves) and Harry Temple (played by Jeff Daniels), he comes up a new scheme. He plants a bomb on a Los Angeles City Bus. The threat is simple: Once the bus goes over 50 miles an hour, the bomb is armed. If the bus goes below 50 miles an hour, the bomb explodes. He even calls out intrepid hero to give him the details. Jack races off to find the bus, but he's too late, the bomb is already armed. Leaping from a moving car onto the bus, Jack finds himself amongst the assortment of morning commuters, including one who thinks Jack is there for him. He pulls a gun and in the ensuing scuffle, the driver gets shot. A fellow passenger, Annie (played by Sandra Bullock) takes the wheel, who ironically is taking the bus after losing her license due to speeding. With no other choice, Jack and Annie have to figure out how to keep the bus above 50 while making their way around the city of Los Angeles and it's incredible traffic, while Harry and their boss Mac (played by Joe Morton) try to track down the bomber and figure out a way to defuse the bomb. 

Speed marked the directorial debut of famed blockbuster cinematographer Jan de Bont, who keeps the action running at an intense momentum. From the moment Jack finds out about the bomb on the bus, the film kicks off and barely slows down for the duration of the run time. It's a testament to the filmmakers, de Bont and screenwriter Graham Yost (along with uncredited re-writes from Joss Whedon) that the film works as well as it does. They manage to pile one problem onto another onto another, including the big action sequence of the film, jumping the bus over is missing section of freeway. This was pulled off for real, with a specially rigged bus to perform the stunt, with the missing piece of freeway removed digitally. With a fleet of specially rigged buses, a small army of stunt drivers, and the free reign of a recently completed section of Los Angles freeway, the filmmakers had the freedom to create a number of incredible and tense action sequences. The momentum of the film is helped by a fantastic score by Mark Mancina that keeps the momentum of the film going from beginning to end. I remember vividly the first time I saw this movie and feeling physically exhausted by the time we got to the third act of the film.

Keanu Reeves had dipped his toes in the action genre with Kathryn Bigelow's fantastic thriller Point Break, but it was here that he really came into his own as an action hero, making the role of cowboy cop Jack Traven his own. Cinema is littered with cop heroes and with Jack they take things up a notch, with his character being a bonafide daredevil and maybe a bit nuts. At the beginning of the film, Harry is quizzing Jack about what he would do when facing a gunman with a hostage, Jack responds he'd shoot the hostage. When that very scenario plays out a short time later and Jack actually does it, Dennis Hopper gives a priceless reaction that clearly says, "Damn, and I thought I was crazy." Speaking of Hopper, he makes for a great adversary, delighting is making Jack and the rest of LAPD jump through his hoops as he manages to stay a step ahead of them at almost every turn. Sandra Bullock was a rising star at the time Speed came out and filled the role with a perfect level of girl next door charm that made her character so memorable. It didn't hurt that she had really good chemistry with Keanu Reeves as well. Jeff Daniels makes the most of his sidekick role to Reeves, making his character funny and lovable even though for the most of the picture he's stuck in the office, talking to Reeves via phone. 

Speed still holds up remarkably well 25 years later and is just as thrilling as it ever was. It helps that the majority of the action was all done with practical effects and real stunts as CGI as we know it today was still very much in it's infancy. It's the perfect combination of a simple but effective premise, great actors and some truly daring stunts to make this one of the more memorable action films of the 90s.