Speed
Jan de Bont made two of the very best action films of the 1990s, and by 2003, his career essentially ended. That fact blows my mind almost as much as “Speed’s” collective success does. After “Speed” and “Twister,” he did “Speed 2: Cruise Control,” “The Haunting” and “Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life,” and that was it for the master cinematographer as a director…and a Hollywood filmmaker. To be fair, those last three were financial, and creative, failures. Still, considering how his directing career began, the fall is stunning.
“Speed” should not work even half as well as it does. Before it came out, it seemed like one of the most ridiculous riffs on “Die Hard” that had been concocted- “Die Hard on a bus.” And with Keanu Reeves- the dude from “Bill and Ted”- in the lead, that only ramped up the silly factor on the film. Then, we saw it, and it was one of the biggest hits of the summer. The film has many secret (and not so secret) weapons at its disposal, but the two most important ones were De Bont, who was making the jump to directing after two decades shooting films like “Roar,” “Cujo,” “Lethal Weapon 3,” “Basic Instinct” and the first “Die Hard”; and writer Graham Yost, who would later write John Woo’s “Broken Arrow,” and whose simple structure was enhanced by a well-known uncredited polish by Joss Whedon that made the characters come to life.
The three act structure of “Speed” comes down to three primary action sequences: the opening elevator hostage situation that first pits Jack Traven (Reeves’s character) and Harry Temple (Jeff Daniels) against “mad bomber” Howard Payne (Dennis Hopper); the second battle of wits where Payne has rigged an LA bus to explode if it goes under 50mph, which brings the character of Annie (Sandra Bullock) into the equation; and the final showdown, where Payne thinks he’s going to get his money, but he gets a big surprise that leads to a subway standoff between the two. This is kind of genius because Yost and De Bont are not messing around with needless overplotting, and the exposition is layered in with the action sequences. The film is always moving, with the exception of one scene between acts one and two where the cops are celebrated, and Harry has some sage advice for Jack about how survival requires more than luck if he’s going to be keep doing what he’s doing. Everything in this film fits into the larger narrative, and while there’s not a larger meaning besides thrilling its audience, there doesn’t need to be for this to work.
I will always go to bat for Keanu Reeves giving a legitimately great movie star performance in this film. No, he doesn’t have the best range as an actor, but if you want to see how important he is to this film, and especially, how important his chemistry with Sandra Bullock is in this film, watch “Speed 2: Cruise Control” and get back to me. He has moments like this and “The Matrix” (the first one, at least) and “Constantine” and, I’ve heard, “John Wick” where he just works in a role, and this is one of them. (No, I haven’t watched the “John Wick” films yet, and yes, I feel guilty about that.) He and Daniels and Joe Morton as Mac have fine teamwork together in the scenes they share together, but he is great opposite Dennis Hopper (as one of the best action film villains) and Bullock, who rightfully became a star after her role here. Without those key dynamics, this film would fall apart, and Reeves was just the person for the role of Traven, and Yost (and Whedon) knew how to right to his strengths.
Every element of “Speed” aides in making it great. Reeves, Hopper, Bullock in the leads. Alan Ruck, Daniels, Morton and others in the supporting cast. Yost’s initial ideas, and Whedon’s polish. The cinematography by Andrzej Bartkowiak that keeps this movie on the run along with John Wright’s editing and Mark Mancina’s score. And De Bont orchestrates this with the confidence and lean storytelling strength of someone who has finally been given his moment in the driver’s seat, and he came out of the gate with an all-time classic.
