“Speed” (1994) is a brisk reminder of the mid-Nineties summer-spectacle moviegoing experience. It’s forgotten in this era of relatively grounded action movies, but high-concept premises (rather than franchises) briefly ruled Hollywood. “Speed” was appealing in 1994 because it’s about a bus that will explode if it dips below 50 mph. Not in spite of it.
In the genre of dumb (but internally consistent) action, “Speed” is one of the best – for the first three of its four acts. In the final act, it hits a snag that was the bane of the Nineties, as also seen in “True Lies” (1994) and “The Lost World” (1997); it wants to turn the spectacle up to 11 before the end credits.
If “Speed” ended with the explosion at the airport, with Jack (baby Keanu Reeves) and Annie (baby Sandra Bullock) sprawled but generally unharmed on the bus floor panel they use as an escape skateboard, then writer Graham Yost and director Jan de Bont (“Twister”) would’ve left us feeling great.
“Speed” (1994)
Director: Jan de Bont
Writer: Graham Yost
Stars: Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock, Dennis Hopper
No slowing down
The subway showdown is a sour experience, although I understand the villain (Dennis Hopper’s Howard) does need to be captured or killed. Annie, taking over for the injured bus driver to become an impromptu hero alongside LAPD cop Jack, turns into a damsel in distress. The fourth act sets the forward-looking film back a couple decades.
Till then, “Speed” is a masterpiece of action set pieces, pacing and spectacle; it’s one of those dumb movies that knows it’s dumb, and thus it’s smart within its own context. Could a bus going 80 mph jump a 50-foot gap, if allowed a slight incline? Maybe. In a dumber movie, the gap would be 100 feet, and the answer would be “no way.”
Still, “Speed” seems dumber today than it did in 1994. People have forgotten that it is parodying something that was fairly new at the time: TV news being immediately on top of bizarre visual spectacles. It’s not commenting directly on the O.J. Ford Bronco chase, because that happened one week after the film’s release, but it is poking fun at local TV news and its rabid consumers.
The technological trick wherein looped footage of the bus passengers sitting there quietly tricks Howard is a stretch. But it’s downright smart compared to final-act tech trickery in “Batman Returns” (1992) and “Independence Day” (1996).
“Speed” also touches on strained race relations in L.A., particularly in regards to cops and vehicles, in the wake of the 1991 Rodney King beating. I’m pretty sure the respect between Jack and Hispanic passenger Ortiz (a.k.a. “Gigantor”) (Carlos Carrasco) is meant to show that L.A. denizens can all get along.
The leads’ time to shine
But it’s scared to explore L.A. race issues and cop-citizen conflicts in depth. Howard is a disgruntled ex-cop, feeling like he was underpaid. But he’s doing the bomb threats for money, not because of any hatred of specific people or groups. (One perhaps accidentally funny moment: The mug of Howard in his newspaper retirement story has him looking evil as hell.)
I suspect Yost’s screenplay was reworked. There’s that fourth act, plus the opening elevator-bomb-threat sequence seems tacked on, too. Howard is the villain the whole way, but weirdly it takes the brains back at HQ – led by Harry (Jeff Daniels, ironically in the same year he played another Harry in “Dumb and Dumber”) – a long time to figure this out. The still-at-large Howard should be foremost in their minds in every anonymous bomb threat.
Hopper and other supporting actors (including Joe Morton as the captain and Alan Ruck as a talky tourist) are cursed with goofy, underdeveloped or cliched roles. Reeves and Bullock get to shine, though.
You could put anyone in these roles and “Speed” would still be a cult-classic actioner because of the premise and execution of the stunts. But Reeves and Bullock make the movie likable, even sweet. Jack is one of those movie cops you immediately want to trust; Annie is an Everywoman you immediately root for. They have such good chemistry that I wish “Speed” let that speak for itself rather than having them get too obvious at the conclusion.
“Speed” literally runs off the rails in the subway train sequence, quickly hitting us with a couple absurdities too many (The track is unfinished! The emergency brake doesn’t work!). It crashes safely enough though, because those first 90 minutes remain fast, fun and spectacular.