Speed 2: Cruise Control

Speed 2: Cruise Control
Film poster for Speed 2: Cruise Control
Directed by	Jan de Bont
Written by	Randall McCormick Jeff Nathanson
Produced by	Jan de Bont
Starring	Sandra Bullock Jason Patric Willem Dafoe Temuera Morrison
Cinematography	Jack N. Green
Edited by	Alan Cody
Music by	Mark Mancina
Distributed by	Twentieth Century Fox
Release dates	June 13, 1997
Running time	121 min
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$110 million
Box office	$164,508,066

Speed 2: Cruise Control is a 1997 action movie produced by Twentieth Century Fox and Blue Tulip Productions, directed by Jan de Bont. It stars Sandra Bullock, Willem Dafoe, Temuera Morrison and Jason Patric. It is a sequel to Speed, although Keanu Reeves chose not to star in it. In the movie, Bullock is trapped on the Seabourn Legend, an out-of-control luxury cruise liner. Its navigation computers were reprogrammed by a computer hacker, setting the ship on a collision course with a supertanker.

Plot summary

Annie Porter (Bullock) is thrilled when her boyfriend Alex Shaw (Patric) surprises her with two tickets for a cruise to the Bahamas aboard the Seabourn Legend. The trip is a peace offering presented because Annie has just learned that Alex is a police officer who has been lying about his choice of profession. What the couple do not realize is that the disgruntled John Geiger (Dafoe), the person who created the software that operates the ship's computer systems, has plotted a violent takeover of the vessel and a diamond hijacking that puts everyone on board in mortal danger.

Production details

Casting

Sandra Bullock agreed to star in the movie in order to get financial backing for a pet project, Hope Floats (1998), a low-budget drama. Jason Patric also used his $8 million fee to help finance Your Friends & Neighbors. Gary Oldman turned down the role of the villain, and instead chose to star as another villain in Air Force One.

Two other characters from Speed reprised their roles in the film: Joe Morton, who was uncredited as Lt. Herb "Mac" McMahon, and Glenn Plummer, who played Maurice (only credited as "Jaguar owner" in the first film). Maurice's boat name is "Tuneman," the same title on Glenn Plummer's licence plate in the original film. Susan Barnes played the frightened woman on the elevator in Speed, however appeared in this film as the character Constance.

Comedian Tim Conway makes a cameo in the beginning and the end of the movie as Annie's driving instructor. The band UB40 also appears, performing at the cruise banquet hall.

The ship

A total of three different ships were used in this film, and all other shots of the ship were CGI effects. Seabourn Legend, a Seabourn Cruise Line ship, was used for most exterior shots of the ship, while the Sturgeon Atlanic, a freighter built with a false hull and bridge, was used for shots of the bridge and the scene where the ship crashes into boats through the marina. A false hull built on an underwater rail was also used for the island crash finale scene.

The movie is known for numerous technical inconsistencies with the reality of how ships operate:

• Bow thrusters are depicted in the movie to turn the ship's direction radically at high speeds. However, in reality, they only can be operated at very slow speeds, otherwise they will have no effect on direction.
• Ships also do not have ballast rooms. They have ballast tanks which are only accessible through small hatch at the bottom of the ship. Also, filling/emptying a ballast tank is done with a pump and a pipe, not by opening/closing gigantic doors in the hull.
• A ship running aground will not continue moving across land for hundreds of yards. It will stop almost immediately.
• The ship takes about three minutes to decelerate across those few hundred yards. In reality, this produces acceleration so tiny as to be undetectable. In the movie, people are thrown horizontally through windows.
• Water moving past a ship's hull at 15+ knots would exert tremendous pressure that, in real life, would have likely broken Alex's safety line and caused him to be sucked into the ship's massive propeller.

The finale boat crash scene in the film cost more than the entire budget of Speed.

Other details

At the end of the movie when the oil tanker explodes, a cow can be seen flying out with the rest of the debris from the tanker. This is a reference to the flying cow from Twister, directed by Jan de Bont. Additionally, the oil tanker bears the name Eindhoven Lion, named after Eindhoven, Netherlands, the hometown of director de Bont.

At the end when Annie is taking her driving test again, when she goes to pull out of the carpool, she nearly gets hit by a bus. The bus is number 2526, while the original bus used for Speed was number 2525. She apologises to her driving instructor, saying "That bus was driving way too fast."

Reception

The film was generally regarded as a critical failure and received mostly negative reviews. However, according to the video release cover, Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel gave it "Two Thumbs Up," while Sky Magazine said that it was "Brilliant in all the ways that a disaster movie should be".

Currently the film has a 4% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 28 reviews. Speed 2 was also nominated for 8 Golden Raspberry Awards including Worst Actress, Worst Director and Worst Picture. It "won" the award for Worst Remake or Sequel.

Although the movie is considered to be a flop in U.S., as it only made $48 million, it made USD $164,508,066 worldwide.

Cut scenes

The network TV version of the film makes the following changes:

• The post-credits scene of the theatrical version of the film where Annie is repeating her drivers test is shown at the very beginning of the credits.
• An additional scene was added showing Annie and Alex driving to the port and riding a dinghy to the ship where Annie first meets Geiger.
• The name of the cruise ship was changed to "S.S. Legend."
• An additional scene was added showing crew of the Eindhoven Lion extinguishing the oil tanker after the bow thruster scene.
• An extended boat crash scene was added with more dialogue between the crew on the ship.
• An extended scene was added showing Alex walking through a crashed house and through St. Martin after jumping off the ship.

See also

• Films considered the worst ever

External links

• Speed 2: Cruise Control at IMDb