Speed (1994)

Director: Jan de Bont
Story: Graham Yost
Cast: Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock, Dennis Hopper
Music: Mark Mancina
Time: 116 minutes
Bottom-line: Speed provides a lot of good thrills at the right times, but has few unrealistic incidents and a loose story

  Jan de Bont gives a high octane thriller in his blockbuster Speed. Starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, Speed is an action packed cop-criminal chase, this time on a bus. Often called ‘Die Hard on a bus’, this film makes the viewers sit glued to their chair till the last minute. What makes this film such a great thriller? Read on…

LAPD officers Jack Tavern (Reeves) and Harry Temple (Jeff Daniels) are warned by a person who threatens to blow up an elevator in their office, if he is not given 3 million dollars. Both of them, along with another cop Mac (Joe Morton), manage to save all the people inside just in time, before the lift crashes. The terrorist, later found to be Howard Payne (Hopper), decides to take revenge on Jack, for spoiling his plan. Soon, Jack receives a call from Payne, saying that he has planted a bomb on a bus, and that it will explode if the bus moves slower than 50 miles per hour. Jack finds the bus and warns the driver, before getting on the bus himself. One of the passengers, who has a gun panics at seeing a cop inside the bus and shoots the driver. Annie Porter (Bullock), a passenger, immediately starts driving the bus. As Jack explains the situation to all the passengers, most of them panic and demand that they be let out. Soon, Jack and Annie are faced with loads of problems: one of the passengers tries to get out, and the bomb almost explodes; a freeway on which the bus goes isn’t finished, and there is a 50 feet gap between the roads… Do Jack and Annie, along with help from Harry and Mac, save the passengers and the bus, though Payne threatens to blow it up? Watch the film to find out.

Reeves as Jack and Bullock as Annie

Hopper as Payne

Reeves, Bullock and Hopper have all acted well, and Joe Morton and Daniels have acted well in the supporting roles. Reeves displays the braveness of a cop, Bullock displays the fear and anxiety a common person would show, when he knows that he may die in the next hour or so, speaking of which, most of the characters in the bus, though not formally credited, have acted nicely. Hopper plays an eccentric psychopath, who is quite smart. All these acting performances give a boost to the film.

The camera work and editing are excellent. Many scenes rapidly move from one to another, and there are few action sequences also. All these have been filmed well. About the action sequences: the scene where Jack tries to go under the bus to remove the bomb and the scenes that show how Jack enters the bus have been shot well. Towards the end, Jack has a fight with Payne, and the camera work on these scenes is also good.      

The story is good, but not great. The idea is good, that of a bomb on a bus and that it will explode if the bus goes below 50 miles an hour. However, after Jack enters the bus, it is only action. There is no real plot; just continuous action and few twists that drive the film till the end. The film also has a slow start. As I said, the film begins with Jack and Harry saving a group of people in an elevator that has a bomb. These scenes are very slow, and they don’t tell much about anything. We just get to know that Jack, Harry and Mac are cops, and that a certain guy is a terrorist (his name is told only later in the film). If this is the case, why show these scenes? Why can’t they let the viewers know about all these things through just dialogues?

Another thing is the thrills. There are few satisfying and realistic twists, but few unrealistic scenes to end the twists, especially in the scene when the bus encounters an unfinished freeway. I also felt that there are a few plot holes. Initially, Payne has helicopters that follow the bus, to make sure that no one gets off. Later he removes them. Why? Yet, Jack keeps suspecting that Payne is watching them. If Payne is still watching them, why keep the choppers in the first place? And because of some predictable scenes, I don’t get the same interest in watching the film for a second or third time, except for a few scenes that always provide the thrill.

To sum up, Speed is a highly entertaining thriller. Other than a few unrealistic scenes and a loose story, this film succeeds in almost everything else. Great acting by the leads, excellent camera work and a fast paced story make Speed, in some ways, better than Die Hard (as I said, Speed a.k.a Die Hard on a Bus). If you are a fan of action thrillers, go for it, and get ready for rush hour.

My Rating: 4/5
Rotten Tomatoes rating: 93%