Speed (1994 film)
| Speed | |
|---|---|
 Speed movie 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 | $30,000,000[1] |
| Box office | $350,448,145[1] |
Speed is a 1994 American action film directed by Jan de Bont 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 mph or the bomb will explode.
Plot
Jack Traven (Keanu Reeves) and his partner Harry Temple (Jeff Daniels) are SWAT team explosives experts in Los Angeles. A retired cop, Howard Payne (Dennis Hopper), is holding a group of office workers trapped in an elevator to ransom. Traven and Temple manage to rescue the hostages before Payne sends the elevator plummeting to the basement. They find Payne in a freight elevator. When they get in the elevator and end up in the basement, Payne sets off a small explosion that knocks Traven unconscious and appears to kill Payne.
Later, as Traven heads to work a city bus explodes in front of him, killing the driver with whom he had just conversed. Payne calls Traven 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 back below that speed. If anyone tries to get off the bus, it will also blow up. Traven locates the bus and jumps aboard, but the bomb has already been armed.
A man on the bus freaks out, believing Traven has come to arrest him, and shoots the driver. Another passenger, Annie (Sandra Bullock), takes the wheel. Annie is left to drive the bus throughout the city while keeping it at the necessary speed and avoiding hitting other cars. Traven is in contact with his SWAT team captain (Joe Morton) who directs them around the city to try and get them away from traffic.
The bus comes to an unfinished road and must make a 50 ft jump at an intersection, after which they are able to go to the Los Angeles Airport so they can drive in circles on a runway. Traven goes under the bus to try and defuse the bomb, but ends up rupturing the fuel tank instead. Meanwhile, the police go after Payne but they end up at a decoy house which explodes and kills Temple.
They realize that Payne has a video link on the bus that lets him see everything happening. Using a news van, they are able to find the feed and record it. They loop the footage being transmitted to Payne while the passengers are safely evacuated. Traven rigs the bus to keep going in circles so it doesn't explode, then he and Annie get off by riding on the bus' floor panel. Payne is about to detonate the bomb, but he notices the feed is being looped. He quickly realizes it was too late and no one was killed.
Payne, disguised as a police officer, kidnaps Annie as he comes to collect the ransom, then escapes into the subway. Traven pursues him and they end up fighting on top of a subway car, which is damaged during their fight. Traven manages to kill Payne, but Traven and Annie can't get off the subway. It derails and crashes through the ground to land on Hollywood Boulevard. Traven and Annie survive and share a kiss.
Cast
- Keanu Reeves as Officer Jack Traven
- Dennis Hopper as Howard Payne
- Sandra Bullock as Annie Porter
- Joe Morton as Capt. McMahon
- Jeff Daniels as Det. Harold 'Harry' Temple
- Alan Ruck as Stephens
- Glenn Plummer as Jaguar Owner
- Richard Lineback as Norwood
- Beth Grant as Helen
- Hawthorne James as Sam
- Carlos Carrasco as Ortiz
- David Kriegel as Terry
Production details
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 HO scale model of the Metro Red Line, except for the jump when it derailed.[2]
Twelve buses 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.[2]
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, both sides of the gap are at identical heights which would make it impossible for a bus to make the jump in real life. To complete the stunt, 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 and the driver wore a 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.[2]
Reception
Speed debuted at #1 grossing $14,456,194 on it's opening weekend.It went and grossed $121,248,145 in the U.S. and $350,448,145 worldwide.[1] In 1995, it won two Academy Awards for Best Sound and Best Sound Effects. The film was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing.[3]
Sequel
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. It was a critical and commercial flop.[citation needed]
References
- ^ a b c Box Office Mojo: Speed
- ^ a b c Dennis Hopper (host). The Making of 'Speed' (Documentary). Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation.
{{cite AV media}}: Unknown parameter|year2=ignored (help) - ^ Academy Awards Database: Speed; accessed on October 4, 2006
External links
Reviews
- Review by Roger Ebert at Chicago Sun-Times Template:Rating-4 (4/4)
- Review by Janet Maslin at New York Times Template:Rating-5 (5/5) (reader's rating)