Speed (1994 film)

Speed
Theatrical poster
Directed by	Jan de Bont
Written by	Graham Yost
Produced by	Mark Gordon Ian Bryce
Starring	Keanu Reeves Sandra Bullock Dennis Hopper Joe Morton Jeff Daniels
Cinematography	Andrzej Bartkowiak
Edited by	John Wright
Music by	Mark Mancina
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date	June 10, 1994
Running time	116 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$28,000,000
Box office	$350,448,145

Speed is a 1994 American action/thriller film directed by Jan de Bont, and set in Los Angeles. It focuses on police officer Jack Traven who tries to arrest an insane bomber/extortionist. After the bomber escapes, he sets up a bomb on a city bus which Traven boards and must keep moving above 50 miles per hour (80 km/h) or the bomb will explode. The film stars Keanu Reeves, Dennis Hopper, Sandra Bullock, Joe Morton and Jeff Daniels.

Plot

Jack Traven (Keanu Reeves) and his veteran partner Harry Temple (Jeff Daniels) are SWAT team explosives experts in Los Angeles. A retired Atlanta Bomb Squad specialist, Howard Payne (Dennis Hopper), is holding a group of office workers trapped in an elevator for ransom. Jack and Harry manage to rescue the hostages before Payne sends the elevator plummeting to the basement. They find Payne in a freight elevator. After a brief standoff, with Payne holding Harry hostage, Payne escapes and sets off a small explosion that knocks Jack unconscious and appears to kill Payne. Jack and Harry are then commended for their bravery by the LAPD in an official ceremony.

Later, as Jack heads to work, a city bus explodes in front of him, killing the driver. Payne calls Jack on a nearby pay phone, revealing he is alive and that he has rigged another bus to explode. The bomb will arm itself when the bus reaches 50 mph and will detonate if the bus goes below that speed. In addition, Payne will detonate the bus manually if anyone gets off the bus, or if the ransom is not delivered on time. Jack locates the bus and jumps aboard, but the bomb has already been armed.

File:Speed94.jpg

Traven and Annie aboard the moving bus.

When Jack identifies himself as a police officer in an attempt to calm the passengers, one man draws a gun, believing Jack has come to arrest him. He accidentally shoots the driver Sam (Hawthorne James) as he struggles to escape. Another passenger, Annie Porter (Sandra Bullock), takes the wheel. Annie is left to drive the bus throughout the city while keeping it at the necessary speed and avoiding other cars. Jack is in contact with his SWAT team Lieutenant "Mac" McMahon (Joe Morton), who arranges an escort and directs them around the city from the air to try to get them away from traffic. News of the bomb on the bus quickly makes the TV broadcasts and soon there is a long line of police cars and news choppers trailing the bus, which is on an unopened freeway. During the ride, the wounded bus driver is allowed by Payne to be evacuated off the bus but a scared passenger named Helen tries to get off as well. Payne detonates a smaller bomb under the exit, and Helen is crushed beneath the bus wheels.

The bus comes to a 50 ft (15 m) gap in the freeway and must jump it, after which they are able to go to the Los Angeles International Airport so they can safely maintain their speed by driving in circles on a runway while the news choppers are unable to observe the action in the restricted airspace. Jack goes under the bus to try to defuse the bomb, but ruptures the fuel tank instead. Meanwhile, Harry leads a SWAT team on a raid at Payne's residence. However, his residence is rigged with a bomb that kills Harry and his team.

Meanwhile, Jack notices that Payne has a video link on the bus that lets him see everything happening. Using a news van, he is able to find the feed and record it. The news team loops the footage being transmitted to Payne while the passengers are safely evacuated. Jack rigs the bus to keep going in circles so he and Annie can get off by riding on the bus' floor panel. Meanwhile, Payne is about to detonate the bomb when he notices that the feed is being looped and realizes that everyone has gotten off the bus safely.

Jack falls in love with Annie but she warns him that relationships started in intense situations don't always work out. Payne, in his old uniform, kidnaps Annie as he comes to collect the ransom, then escapes into the subway. Jack pursues him and they fight on top of a subway car, which is damaged during the fight. In the end, Jack pushes Payne's head into a tunnel light, decapitating him. Jack and Annie still can't get off the subway, which derails and crashes through the ground and lands on Hollywood Boulevard. Jack and Annie survive once again. They admit their love for one another and kiss as shocked pedestrians look on.

Cast

• Keanu Reeves as Officer Jack Traven
• Dennis Hopper as Howard Payne
• Sandra Bullock as Annie Porter
• Jeff Daniels as Det. Harry Temple
• Joe Morton as Lt. "Mac" McMahon
• Alan Ruck as Doug Stephens
• Glenn Plummer as Jaguar Owner (later known as "Maurice" in the sequel)
• Richard Lineback as Norwood
• Beth Grant as Helen

Production details

Part of the film featured the bus ploughing its way onto the Interstate 110 through the traffic

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. The jump was filmed on the fifth-level HOV lane ramp of the massive stack interchange. Filming of the final scenes occurred at Mojave Spaceport, which doubled for Los Angeles International Airport. The shots of the LACMTA Metro Red Line through the construction zone were shot using an 1/8th scale model of the Metro Red Line, except for the jump when it derailed.

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.

The bus jump

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 save for the driver, who wore a shock-absorbing harness so he could handle the jolt on landing. The highway section the bus jumped over was a regular highway, with the gap added in the editing process using CGI. In a commentary track on the region 1 DVD director Jan 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 failure 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 further 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.

The Official Soundtrack

A soundtrack album featuring "songs from and inspired by" the film was released with the following tracks:

Speed: Songs From And Inspired By The Motion Picture

1. Billy Idol - "Speed"
2. Plimsouls - "A Million Miles Away"
3. Gin Blossoms - "Soul Deep"
4. Cracker - "Let's Go for a Drive"
5. Blues Traveler - "Go Outside and Drive"
6. Ric Ocasek - "Crash"
7. Pat Benatar - "Rescue Me"
8. Rod Stewart - "Hard Road"
9. Carnival Strippers - "Cot"
10. Gary Numan - "Cars ('93 Sprint Remix)"
11. Saint Etienne - "Like a Motorway"
12. Kiss - "Mr. Speed"

In addition to the above release, a separate album featuring 40 minutes of Mark Mancina's score from the film was released.

Speed: Original Motion Picture Score

1. Main Title
2. Rescue
3. Entering Airport
4. Rush Hour
5. Helen Dies
6. The Gap
7. Choppers
8. Pershing Square
9. Elevator Peril
10. Fight on Train
11. Dangling Feet
12. City Streets
13. Wildcat
14. The Dolly
15. Move
16. Pop Quiz
17. Freight Elevator
18. Elevator Stall
19. End Title

Reaction

Box office

Speed was released on June 10, 1994 in 2,138 theaters and debuted at #1, grossing $14.5 million on its opening weekend. It went on to gross $121.3 million domestically and $229.2 million in the rest of the world for a worldwide total of $350.5 million.

Critical reaction

Speed was a critical and a commercial success. Rotten Tomatoes reported that 93% of critics gave the film positive reviews. 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". 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". 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". 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". The film also ranks 451st on Empire magazine's 2008 list of the 500 greatest movies of all time.

Awards

In 1995, it won two Academy Awards for Best Sound and Best Sound Effects Editing. The film was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing.

Sequel

Main article: Speed 2: Cruise Control

In 1997, a sequel Speed 2: Cruise Control, was released. Set on a cruise ship, it features Sandra Bullock returning to reprise her role, Willem Dafoe as the new villain, and Jason Patric as the new protagonist and love interest.

External links

• Speed at IMDb
• Template:Amg movie
• Speed at Rotten Tomatoes
• Speed at Box Office Mojo