JOE looks at Speed – Keanu Reeves boards a bus rigged with a bomb to save the day (and Sandra Bullock)
by Genna Patterson
We wouldn’t usually endorse a movie with talking corpse ‘actor’ Keanu Reeves but somehow Speed gets under our skin and we can’t help but like it. It fulfills our movie needs easily – a dangerous threat to humankind, a super-smart bad guy, a hero, guns/explosions and a feisty girl. Oh and of course high speed chases – it is called Speed for a reason. See what they did there?
Incredibly this movie is 19 years old – will they make a 20th anniversary sequel? Lets hope not if it’s anything like the horrendous Speed 2 with replacement corpse actor Jason Patric (can you believe he was worse than Reeves?). That one was on a boat for Jaysus sake, a slow moving boat. Just floating…
Keanu Reeves plays a SWAT Officer Jack Traven, a reckless, fearless cop who will do anything to save the day, including shooting the hostage (Jeff Daniels). When a plan is thwarted, (aptly named) baddie Howard Payne (Dennis Hopper) sets out to finish the job and draws Jack into the mix in revenge for ruining his last mission.
Payne has rigged a bus with a bomb and once it goes over 50 miles per hour, it cannot go back under, or the bus will explode. Sandra Bullock plays Annie, a passenger on the bus who ends up having to drive (despite having her license revoked) when the driver is hurt. Jack has been warned by Payne that he cannot remove any of the passengers or the bomb will be detonated. Payne wants a large sum of money in order to disengage the bomb.
Pop Quiz hotshot. What do you do? What do you do?
And so ensues a bus set on a path of destruction, with many obstacles like unfinished bridges, burst fuel tanks and hysterical passengers. While some aspects of Speed are quite ridiculous (we’re overlooking the reason Payne had to retire from the bomb squad – for blowing his finger off), the whole movie builds up to a fun finale. Listen, it’s stupid, but as we mentioned before THE LEAD IS KEANU REEVES.
Just when you think all is safe, the nightmare starts again for Jack and Annie. Hopper is a delightfully pissed off ex-employee, while Reeves probably has used up all of his acting skills ever in this movie. His face actually shows emotive expression and for once, his monotone voice works for the character. Bullock is earnest and believable as a terrified driver of a bomb-laden bus that could go off at anytime in her break-through role. Reeves and Bullock later reunited in The Lake House, but without a speeding bus and inevitable danger, they just couldn’t make it work.
Speed gives us thrills and excitement, with a reckless hero and a strange, inherant desire to join the bomb squad (we would if it wasn’t so dangerous).
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