Speed is a 1994 American action-thriller film directed by Jan de Bont, and set in Los Angeles. LAPD officer Jack Traven becomes the focus of a bomber and extortionist, retired Atlanta bomb squad sergeant Howard Payne. After Payne escapes his first entanglement with Traven, he sets up a bomb on a city bus that Traven boards and must keep moving above 50 miles per hour or the bomb will explode. The film stars Keanu Reeves, Dennis Hopper, Sandra Bullock and Jeff Daniels. It won two Academy Awards, for Best Sound and Best Sound Effects at the 67th Academy Awards in 1995.[3]
Los Angeles SWAT members Jack Traven (Keanu Reeves) and Harry Temple (Jeff Daniels) are among the many officers who respond to a call about a number of bombs planted in one of the express elevators located in a skyscraper. With the cables of the elevator blown, the unknown bomber (Dennis Hopper) gives one hour for the police to give him $3,700,000.00 before he takes out the emergency brakes. Though he detonates the bomb attached to the emergency brakes with three minutes left, Jack and Harry are able to successfully rescue all thirteen office workers before the elevator falls.
After finding the bomber in a freight elevator, Jack and Harry attempt to stop his escape. However, he takes Harry hostage. Jack shoots Harry in the leg, forcing the bomber to retreat without him; the bomber then sets off an explosion, which knocks Jack unconscious and appears to kill the bomber.
Later, Jack and Harry are given a heroes' ceremony, and Harry is promoted to Detective and given a desk job due to his injury.
The next day, Jack witnesses a Santa Monica Transit commuter bus explode, killing the driver. Right after the explosion, the bomber contacts him on a nearby pay phone and, making another ransom demand, reveals that he has planted a bomb on another bus. The bomb will arm itself if the bus exceeds 50 miles per hour, and then detonate if the bus falls below that speed. In addition, the bomber will also detonate the bomb manually if the money is not delivered on time, or if anyone attempts to get off the bus. Since he is told that the bus's radio is nonfunctional, which makes alerting the city's transit authority a waste of time, Jack races to catch the bus on the busy freeways, but arrives too late to stop the bomb from arming. He daringly boards the bus and explains the situation to the driver Sam (Hawthorne James), but a paranoid passenger, believing Jack is there to arrest him, brandishes a gun and fires, wounding Sam. Annie Porter (Sandra Bullock) takes the wheel as Sam is cared for, and with the help of some passengers Jack subdues the gunman and explains the situation.
Jack is able to see and describe the bomb—which includes a cheap-looking gold watch—to Harry, who recognizes the watch as a common retirement gift for police officers. Unfortunately, before an attempt to disarm it can be made, the bus runs into numerous traffic obstacles, forcing Annie to desperately maneuver the bus through the city to keep it above 50 miles per hour at all costs.
In the office, Harry is stumped by the clues: Unlike conventional criminal bombers (who usually stick to using a single type of explosive), the assailant is clearly flexible with his methods and an expert with explosives, yet is incongruously using a poor quality timer.
Meanwhile, Jack's superior, Lieutenant Matt McMahon (Joe Morton), arranges an escort for the bus while he guides Jack and Annie to the currently unfinished 105 Freeway from a following helicopter, a challenge that proves extremely dangerous in itself. Once there, Jack arranges a deal with the bomber to off-load Sam onto a police flatbed truck pacing the bus so his wounds can be tended to, upsetting the middle-aged female passenger who was tending to him. Sam is successfully removed, but the fearful passenger attempts to exit the bus and the bomber detonates a small charge under the stairs, sending her underneath where she is crushed beneath the wheels.
Sometime after this, Jack is notified that the freeway contains a large uncompleted overpass, but he and Annie work together to successfully jump it. From there, they drive on towards Los Angeles International Airport, where they will be able to circle indefinitely on the empty runway without oversight from news helicopters, due to its restricted airspace. Jack convinces the bomber to temporarily let him off the bus, and attempts to use a sled towed by a police vehicle ahead of it to disarm the bomb. Unfortunately, debris on the tarmac makes it impossible and Jack is forced to use a service panel to get back into the bus safely, rupturing the gas tank while doing so.
Meanwhile, the bomber is revealed to be a former Atlanta PD Bomb Squad member, Howard Payne, who retired after losing a thumb as the result of a small charge. His local home is identified, and Harry and other SWAT members raid it. However, Payne is not at home, and it has been armed with a bomb which detonates, killing Harry and his team. Jack becomes violently angry after learning of this from Payne, but Annie calms him down.
After remembering that Payne referred to Annie as a "Wildcat" during a previous conversation with him, which he remembers after noticing Annie is wearing the colors of the University of Arizona, Jack discovers that Payne is monitoring the bus via an on-board camera. The police use the news crew's equipment to create a looped signal to override the one sent by the camera to Payne, so they can surreptitiously remove the passengers from the bus. Unfortunately, Payne soon learns the feed is fake by noticing on the monitor that a woman's purse appears and disappears. Jack and Annie escape on a floor panel after sending the unmanned bus on its own, where it crashes into a taxiing Boeing 707F and explodes. Though Jack has started to fall in love with Annie, she warns him that "relationships started under intense circumstances tend not to work out."
Jack, Annie, and the police regroup downtown to the ransom drop-off point, hoping to catch Payne. However, Payne is several steps ahead of them. Enraged by their deception and posing as a police officer, Payne abducts Annie and straps her into a vest covered with explosives set to go off if he lets go of the pressure trigger he is holding. Jack follows them into the subway system. Payne hijacks a subway train and speeds off, cuffing Annie to the car's frame. However, Jack catches up with the train and is able to board it.
Shortly after the train leaves, Payne shoots its operator to death when the operator attempts to respond to repeated requests to return to the station. Jack then reveals himself and Payne finally gets his money, only to set off dyepack paint bombs that were concealed in the money bag, ruining it. Enraged, he goes up to the roof. A fight between Jack and Payne ensues on the roof of the speeding subway train, with Jack eventually besting Payne by decapitating him with one of the ceiling signal lights.
After disarming Annie's bomb, Jack attempts to stop the train. However, due to the train's control panel being heavily damaged by bullets from Payne's gun, he is unable to. Instead, Jack speeds up the train, hoping it will derail on a curved part of track instead of crashing into a dead end. Jack's plan works as the subway car crashes through a section under construction, and lands on Hollywood Boulevard. Scared but alive, Jack and Annie kiss as bystanders watch, affirming their newfound relationship.
Part of the film featured the bus making its way onto
Interstate 110 through the traffic
Screenwriter Graham Yost was told by his father, Canadian television host Elwy Yost, about a film called Runaway Train starring Jon Voight, about a train that speeds out of control. The film was based on an idea by Akira Kurosawa. Elwy mistakenly believed that the train's situation was due to a bomb on board. Such a theme had in fact been used in the 1975 Japanese movie The Bullet Train. After seeing the Voight movie, Graham decided that it would have been better if there had been a bomb on board a bus with the bus being forced to travel at 20 mph to prevent an actual explosion. A friend suggested that this be increased to 50 mph.[4] The end of the film was inspired in the end of the movie Silver Streak
Stephen Baldwin, the first choice for the role of Jack Traven, felt the character (as written in the earlier version of the script) was too much like the John McClane character from Die Hard. Director Jan de Bont then cast Keanu Reeves as Jack Traven after seeing him in Point Break. He felt that the actor was "vulnerable on the screen. He's not threatening to men because he's not that bulky, and he looks great to women".[5] Reeves did not like how the character of Jack Traven came across in Graham Yost's original screenplay. He felt that there were "situations set up for one-liners and I felt it was forced — Die Hard mixed with some kind of screwball comedy".[5] Jan de Bont brought in Joss Whedon a week before principal photography started to work on the script.[6] With Reeves' input, Whedon changed Traven from being "a maverick hotshot" to "the polite guy trying not to get anybody killed",[6] and removed the character's glib dialogue and made him more earnest.[5] Reeves had dealt with the LAPD before on Point Break, and learned about their concern for human life, which he incorporated into Traven.[5] One of Whedon's significant contributions was changing the character of Doug Stephens (Alan Ruck) from a lawyer, "a bad guy and he died", according to the writer, to a tourist, "just a nice, totally out-of-his-depth guy".[6] Whedon worked predominantly on the dialogue, but also created a few significant plot points, like the killing of Harry Temple.[6] Sandra Bullock came to read for Speed with Reeves to make sure there was the right chemistry between the two actors. Originally, Bullock's character "Annie" was intended to be a comical sidekick to Jack. Instead, Annie became both Jack's sidekick and later love interest. She recalls that they had to do "all these really physical scenes together, rolling around on the floor and stuff".[7] The director did not want Traven to have long hair and wanted the character "to look strong and in control of himself".[5] To that end, Reeves shaved his head almost completely. The director remembers, "everyone at the studio was scared shitless when they first saw it. There was only like a millimeter. What you see in the movie is actually grown in".[5] Reeves also spent two months at Gold's Gym in Los Angeles to get in shape for the role.[5]
De Bont used an 80-foot model of a 50-story elevator shaft for the opening sequence.[8] While Speed was in production, actor and close friend to Reeves, River Phoenix died.[5] Immediately after Phoenix died, de Bont changed the shooting schedule to work around Reeves and give him scenes that were easier to do. "It got to him emotionally. He became very quiet, and it took him quite a while to work it out by himself and calm down. It scared the hell out of him", de Bont recalls.[5] Initially, Reeves was nervous about the film's many action sequences but as the shooting progressed he became more involved. He wanted to do the stunt where Traven jumps from a Jaguar onto the bus himself. Jan de Bont did not want him to do it, but Reeves rehearsed it in secret. On the day of the sequence, the actor did the stunt himself and de Bont remembers, "I almost had a big pain. Eleven GM New Look buses and one Flxible Metro bus were used in the filming of the movie. Two of them were blown up, one was used for the high-speed scenes, one had the front cut off for inside shots, and one was used solely for the "under bus" shots. Another bus was used for the bus jump scene, which was done in one take.[9]
Many of the freeway scenes in the movie were filmed on California's Interstate 105 and Interstate 110, which was not officially open at the time of filming. While scouting this location, De Bont noticed big sections of road missing and told screenwriter Graham Yost to add the bus jump over the unfinished freeway to the script.[8] The jump was filmed on the fifth-level HOV lane ramp of the massive stack interchange. In the scene where the bus must jump across a gap in an uncompleted elevated freeway-to-freeway ramp while still under construction, a ramp was used to give the bus the necessary lift off so that it could jump the full fifty feet. The bus used in the jump was empty except for the driver, who wore a shock-absorbing harness that suspended him mid-air above the seat, so he could handle the jolt on landing, and avoid spinal injury (as was the case for many stuntmen in previous years that were handling similar stunts). The highway section the bus jumped over was a regular highway, with the gap added in the editing process using computer-generated imagery.[9]
On a commentary track on the region 1 DVD, De Bont reports that the bus jump stunt did not go as planned. To do the jump the bus had everything possible removed to make it lighter. On the first try the stunt driver missed the ramp and crashed the bus, making it unusable. This was not reported to the studio at the time. A second bus was prepared and two days later a second attempt was successful. But, again, things did not go as intended. Advised that the bus would only go about 20 feet, the director placed one of his multiple cameras in a position that was supposed to capture the bus landing. However, the bus traveled much farther airborne than anyone had thought possible. It crashed down on top of the camera and destroyed it. Luckily, another camera placed about 90 feet from the jump ramp recorded the event.
Filming of the final scenes occurred at Mojave Airport, which doubled for Los Angeles International Airport. The shots of the LACMTA Metro Red Line through the construction zone were shot using an 1/8 scale model of the Metro Red Line, except for the jump when it derailed.[9]
Speed began filming on September 1, 1993 and completed filming on December 23, 1993, it was filmed for 114 days.
Speed was released on June 10, 1994 in 2,138 theaters and debuted at the number one position, grossing $14.5 million on its opening weekend. It went on to gross $121.3 million domestically and $229.2 million internationally for a worldwide total of $350.5 million.[10]
Speed was a critical and a commercial success. On the review website Rotten Tomatoes, 90% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 41 reviews, and an average rating of 7.6/10.[11] Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars and wrote, "Films like Speed belong to the genre I call Bruised Forearm Movies, because you're always grabbing the arm of the person sitting next to you. Done wrong, they seem like tired replays of old chase cliches. Done well, they're fun. Done as well as Speed, they generate a kind of manic exhilaration".[12] In his review for Rolling Stone, Peter Travers wrote, "Action flicks are usually written off as a debased genre, unless, of course, they work. And Speed works like a charm. It's a reminder of how much movie escapism can still stir us when it's dished out with this kind of dazzle".[13] Hal Hinson, in his review for The Washington Post, praised Sandra Bullock's performance: "The only performer to stand out is Sandra Bullock as Annie ... If it weren't for the smart-funny twist she gives to her lines — they're the best in the film — the air on that bus would have been stifling ... she emerges as a slightly softer version of the Linda Hamilton-Sigourney Weaver heroines: capable, independent, but still irresistibly vulnerable".[14] In her review for The New York Times, Janet Maslin wrote, "Mr. Hopper finds nice new ways to convey crazy menace with each new role. Certainly he's the most colorful figure in a film that wastes no time on character development or personality".[15] Entertainment Weekly gave the film an "A" rating and Owen Gleiberman wrote, "It's a pleasure to be in the hands of an action filmmaker who respects the audience. De Bont's craftsmanship is so supple that even the triple ending feels justified, like the cataclysmic final stage of a Sega death match".[16] Time magazine's Richard Schickel wrote, "The movie has two virtues essential to good pop thrillers. First, it plugs uncomplicatedly into lurking anxieties -- in this case the ones we brush aside when we daily surrender ourselves to mass transit in a world where the loonies are everywhere".[17]
Entertainment Weekly magazine's Owen Gleiberman ranked Speed as the eighth best film of 1994.[18] The magazine also ranked the film eighth on their "The Best Rock-'em, Sock-'em Movies of the Past 25 Years" list.[19] Speed also ranks 451 on Empire magazine's 2008 list of "The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time".[20]
In November 1994, Fox Video released Speed on VHS and laserdisc formats for the very first time. Rental and video sales did very well and helped the film's domestic gross. The original VHS cassette was only available in standard format at the time and in 1996 Fox Video re-released a VHS version of the film in widescreen allowing the viewer to see the film in a similar format to its theatrical release. In 1998, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment released Speed on DVD for the very first time. The DVD was in a widescreen format but other than the film's theatrical trailer the DVD contained no extras aside from the film. In 2002, Fox released a special collector's edition of the film with many extras and a remastered format of the film. Fox re-released this edition several times throughout the years with different covering and finally in November 2006 Speed was released on a Blu-ray Disc format with over five hours of special features.
In 1995, the film was nominated for three Academy Awards for Best Film Editing, Best Sound (Gregg Landaker, Steve Maslow, Bob Beemer, David MacMillan) and Best Sound Effects Editing, winning the latter two.[3] Also Sandra Bullock won the Saturn Award for Best Actress and was nominated for 3 MTV Movie Awards, winning two.
American Film Institute recognition:
A soundtrack album featuring "songs from and inspired by" the film was released on 28 June 1994 with the following tracks[22]
In addition to the above release, a separate album featuring 40 minutes of Mark Mancina's score from the film was released on 30 August 1994.[23] It should be noted that the CD track order was not released in the chronological order of the events in the film.
Speed: Original Motion Picture Score
| Track Number |
Track Name |
Chronological Order |
| 1 |
Main Title |
1 |
| 2 |
The Rescue |
16 |
| 3 |
Entering Airport |
13 |
| 4 |
Rush Hour |
8 |
| 5 |
Helen Dies |
11 |
| 6 |
The Gap |
12 |
| 7 |
Choppers |
10 |
| 8 |
Pershing Square |
17 |
| 9 |
Elevator Peril |
4 |
| 10 |
Fight on Train |
18 |
| 11 |
Dangling Feet |
5 |
| 12 |
City Streets |
9 |
| 13 |
Wildcat |
15 |
| 14 |
The Dolly |
14 |
| 15 |
Move |
3 |
| 16 |
Pop Quiz |
7 |
| 17 |
Freight Elevator |
6 |
| 18 |
Elevator Stall |
2 |
| 19 |
End Title |
19 |
La La Land Records released a limited expanded version of Mark Mancina's score on 2/28/2012. The newly remastered release features 69:25 of music spread over 32 tracks. In addition, it includes the song "Speed" by Billy Idol.
In 1997, a sequel, Speed 2: Cruise Control, was released. Sandra Bullock agreed to star again as Annie, for financial backing for another project, but Keanu Reeves declined the offer to return as Jack. As a result, Jason Patric was written into the story as Alex Shaw, Annie's new boyfriend, with her and Jack having broken up due to her worry about Jack's dangerous lifestyle. Willem Dafoe starred as the villain John Geiger, and Glenn Plummer (who played Reeves' carjacking victim) also cameos as a boat driver. The film is considered one of the worst sequels of all time, barely reaching 2% on Rotten Tomatoes. Sandra Bullock herself mocked this movie's performance and has admitted to regretting being a part of it.[24]
- ^ a b "IMDB: Box office/business for 'Speed'". http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111257/business. Retrieved 2011-05-08.
- ^ Leong, Anthony. "Speed Movie Review". http://www.mediacircus.net/speed.html. Retrieved 2011-05-08.
- ^ a b "The 67th Academy Awards (1995) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. http://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/legacy/ceremony/67th-winners.html. Retrieved 2011-10-23.
- ^ Empire - Special Collectors' Edition - The Greatest Action Movies Ever (published in 2001)
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Gerosa, Melina (1994-06-10). "Speed Racer". Entertainment Weekly. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,302555,00.html. Retrieved 2009-04-09.
- ^ a b c d Kozak, Jim (August/September 2005). "Serenity Now!". In Focus. http://www.natoonline.org/infocus/05augustseptember/whedonuncut.htm. Retrieved 2009-04-09.
- ^ Svetkey, Benjamin (1994-07-22). "Overdrive". Entertainment Weekly. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,303034,00.html. Retrieved 2009-04-09.
- ^ a b McCabe, Bob (June 1999). "Speed". Empire: pp. 121.
- ^ a b c Dennis Hopper (host) (1994). The Making of 'Speed' (Documentary). 20th Century Fox. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0338225/.
- ^ "Speed". Box Office Mojo. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=speed.htm. Retrieved 2008-12-03.
- ^ "Speed". Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1052692-1052692-speed/. Retrieved 2010-03-23.
- ^ Ebert, Roger (1994-06-10). "Speed". Chicago Sun-Times. http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19940610/REVIEWS/406100302/1023. Retrieved 2008-12-03.
- ^ Travers, Peter (1994-06-30). "Speed". Rolling Stone. http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/movie/5948689/review/5948690/speed. Retrieved 2008-12-03.
- ^ Hinson, Hal (1994-06-10). "Speed". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/speedrhinson_a05e76.htm. Retrieved 2008-12-03.
- ^ Maslin, Janet (1994-06-10). "An Express Bus in a Very Fast Lane". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0CE7DA133AF933A25755C0A962958260&scp=14&sq=%22Jan+de+Bont%22&st=nyt. Retrieved 2008-12-03.
- ^ Gleiberman, Owen (1994-06-17). "Speed". Entertainment Weekly. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,302664,00.html. Retrieved 2009-04-09.
- ^ Schickel, Richard (1994-06-13). "Brain Dead but Not Stupid". Time. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,980876,00.html. Retrieved 2009-04-09.
- ^ Gleiberman, Owen (1994-12-30). "The Best & Worst 1994/Movie". Entertainment Weekly. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,305081_3,00.html. Retrieved 2009-04-09.
- ^ "The Action 25: The Best Rock-'em, Sock-'em Movies of the Past 25 Years". Entertainment Weekly. http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20219939_17,00.html. Retrieved 2009-04-09.
- ^ "The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time". Empire. http://www.empireonline.com/500/10.asp. Retrieved 2009-04-09.
- ^ AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills
- ^ "Speed: Songs From And Inspired By The Motion Picture (Soundtrack)". http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000005LC1. Retrieved May 4 2011.
- ^ "Speed: Original Motion Picture Score (Soundtrack)". http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000002VI8. Retrieved May 4 2011.
- ^ Rotten Tomatoes
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