Written by: Graham Yost
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Dennis Hopper, Sandra Bullock, Joe Morton, Jeff Daniels
Rating: [4/5]
Simplicity at times can be your best friend in not overly complicating things by presenting a premise and giving us characters worth following in their endeavor. Something Speed provides to its audience. Though simple, nothing about this feature feels ordinary as it provides quite the thrill ride of a story giving Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock the opportunity to have a blast.
After saving an elevator group of hostages from a free-hanging elevator, Officer Jack Tavern (Keanu Reeves) learns the bomber has rigged a Los Angeles bus with a bomb where if the miles-per-hour of it drops below 50, it will explode and kill anyone within it. Now on the bus, Jack must help coordinate with the passengers on how to survive the situation while the LAPD tries to find the bomber in question.
Sometimes nothing scratches the proper itch like a 90s action movie, those with charismatic leads and some epic set pieces to deliver the thrill everyone seeks. We receive just that with Speed because of the way it navigates this logistical nightmare of this bus as the feature operates on two levels: within the bus and the on the outside searching for this bomber. Within the bus lies the far more intriguing plotline as it’s where the action lies and where the stress of this situation ratchets up to the extreme, justifiably.
The opening sequence with the elevator gives us an initial introduction to not only Jack and his partner Harry Temple (Jeff Daniels) but also the bomber. This serves as their first interaction before the big event most of the plot covers. It certainly displays the combustible nature of the bomber in more ways than one and demonstrates how Jack will take the necessary risks to get the job done as a bomb diffuser. Having this setup then allows for the stakes to rise precipitously in the story as this ransom demanded by the bomber consists of his pursuit of the money but also a way to get at Jack as the thorn at his side.
When the set piece on the bus occurs, you get all of these individuals who each got on the bus for the pure transportation purpose it serves, but somehow find themselves in this terrifying circumstance. They cannot get off of the bus because it will blow nor can they slow it down because it will blow. They’re left helpless to follow Jack’s order as the LAPD tries to locate the whereabouts of the bomber and lock things down. Each of them enters the film with their own stories and the collective actions they must do for the good of the group gets quite inspirational. In such an individualistic society, people of different classes sit on this bus and while moments of selfishness flare up driven out by fear, the collaborative effort built between these strangers really does warm the heart.
Having the bus need to drop below 50 miles per hour feels like quite a daunting challenge seeing as this feature takes place in Los Angeles, a city that has notorious traffic problems. It then becomes a means of survival for the LAPD to find open freeways to keep the bus continually going to avoid dropping below the required speed limit. Something presenting quite an impossible scenario, but the feature certainly devises some creative ways to create the possible runway for this bus to maintain its speed. However, with all that said, limits exist and the inevitability of having nowhere else to go looms over these characters as they need to find a solution very quickly.
Having Dennis Hopper serve as the villain of this feature proved quite the treat in how he can effortlessly be such a menace simply in how he expresses his words. He delivers his lines of dialogue with such vigor displaying he means business serving as quite the adversary for Keanu Reeves. Very much on a role in the 90s, Reeves captures everything that worked with the action movie stars of the era delivering a charismatic approach to the film making it quite easy to root for him in quest to save the day coupled with the always-charming Sandra Bullock. She portrays Annie Porter, who steps up to save the day in navigating this bus and brings the layperson into this situation. Porter comes with no training to handle this circumstance yet steps up to do what’s necessary. Quite the trio at the center of this film all delivering good stuff.
Certainly one of the best action films of the 1990s, Speed has its staying power by excelling with its fairly simple premise. Something so engaging and thrilling powered through the strength of the leading three actors bringing exactly what they needed to the table. Running on stress throughout, this film has the juice and ensures we stay on the edge of our seats for the entire ride.
Films with Josh 
