Writer: Graham Yost
Plot:
A young police officer must prevent a bomb exploding aboard a city bus by keeping its speed above 50 mph. - IMDB.com
Cast Character
Keanu Reeves ... Jack Traven
Dennis Hopper ... Howard Payne
Sandra Bullock ... Annie
Joe Morton ... Capt. McMahon
Jeff Daniels ... Harry
Alan Ruck ... Stephens
Glenn Plummer ... Jaguar Owner
Richard Lineback ... Norwood
Beth Grant ... Helen
Hawthorne James. ... Sam
Carlos Carrasco ... Ortiz
David Kriegel ... Terry
Natsuko Ohama ... Mrs. Kamino
Daniel Villarreal ... Ray
Simone Gad ... Bus Passenger #1
Thoughts:
Speed is a great action movie that never slows down. The two lead Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock are good looking stars that are easy on the eyes. There is one part which is silly and impossible and that is the bus jumping a 50 foot gap in the freeway but that's Hollywood for you. Other than that one part the film works well. What the film does well is have great action in confined spaces like in a bus or on a subway train. In that sense it works well. It is still over the top but a fun ride nonetheless.The bomb maker played by Dennis Hopper is our villain. He used to work for the LAPD. Jack and Harry volunteer to look at the bombs rigged to the elevator with the passengers on board. He asks Harry why did he take this job. Harry tells him 30 more years he gets a tiny pension and a cheap gold watch.
I think one of the best aspects of the film is the suspensful score by Mark Mancina. It always keeps you on your edge of your seat. They use effective canted camera angles to denote the crazy situations the terrorist bomber, Howard Payne, puts them through. This is seen in the elevator scene where the passengers all escape.There is good handheld camera shots that intensify the story with there "you're there with them" feeling.
A bomb explodes on a bus and Jack gets a call from Howard on the payphone. He tells him on bus 2525 there is bomb on the bus that will arm at 50 mph and detonate when the speed goes under 50 mph. No one can get off the bus. He wants 3.7 million dollars by 11am.
In the highway scene they use a camera low to the ground which makes the speed look faster than normal which intensifies the scene. This is good cinematography at work.
Jack tells the bus driver there is bomb on the bus and to stay above 50 mph. Harry thinks the suspect is a cop. So he digs in the files.
They get off one highway and onto another that is empty and under construction. They dodge people, cars and everything in sight for a tense ride. Harry has the other cops go through the police files to get a match on the suspect. He thinks he is drawing disability through a pension.
They get the driver off the bus since he was shot by a petty criminal on the bus by accident. Jack finds out there is a 50 foot gap in the freeway. He jumps the gap miraculously somehow.After that he enters the airport runway to circle and circle to buy themselves some time.
Jack boards a cart that lets him look at the bomb under the bus. A rubber tire piece hits the cart and he has to grab the bottom to hang on.
As he recovers Jack is told by Howard Payne that the drop off is at Pershing Square to offload his money at the trashcan.
They can unload the passengers since they found the signal and loop the video over and over for a course of a minute.
The bomb blows up with no one inside. Everyone is safe except Helen who died. Annie is accosted by Howard Payne and later he rigs her with explosives. Jack sneaks onto the subway train.An ink bomb explodes and ruins his money. There is also a tracking device in the bag. Payne goes after jack. Both now don't have guns. He fights him on the subway car and a light approaches which Jack pushes Payne's head up and the light hits and knocks off Payne's head.
Final Thoughts:
Despite its star power the real stars of the movie are the soundtrack and the cinematography. It's a tense ride, one not to be missed.
Works Cited:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_(1994_film)
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