Speed (film)

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Speed
Image:Speed movie poster.jpg
Directed by	Jan de Bont
Produced by	Mark Gordon
Written by	Graham Yost Joss Whedon (uncredited)
Starring	Keanu Reeves Sandra Bullock Dennis Hopper Joe Morton and Jeff Daniels
Cinematography	Andrzej Bartkowiak
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	June 10 1994 (USA)
Running time	116 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$28,000,000 US (est.)
Followed by	Speed 2: Cruise Control
IMDb profile

Speed is a 1994 action film directed by Jan de Bont, starring Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock, Dennis Hopper, Joe Morton and Jeff Daniels. The film is a high concept film about a bomb on a bus. It is considered Bullock's breakout role.^{[citation needed]} It grossed USD $121,248,145 in the U.S. and USD $350,448,145 worldwide.

In 1995 Speed won an Academy Award for Best Sound and Best Sound Effects. The film was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing.^[1]

Contents 1 Plot summary 2 Notes 3 Additional production notes 4 External links 4.1 Reviews 5 References

Plot summary

The story is about a Los Angeles police officer (Keanu Reeves) who has to stop an insane bomber/extortionist (Dennis Hopper) who has rigged a bomb on a public transit bus (a Santa Monica Intercity Bus Lines GM TDH-5303 New Look bus, which looks similar to City of Santa Monica Big Blue Bus). The film is often cited as an excellent example of a high concept film: "a bomb on a bus."

Jack Traven (Reeves) is a hot-shot Los Angeles police SWAT officer who is willing to do unconventional things to resolve hostage situations. Howard Payne (Hopper) tries to extort money by threatening to send an elevator full of people plummeting to the ground, using remote controlled explosives attached to the cable. Jack and his partner Harry (Daniels) foil his plan and nearly catch him. Payne takes Harry hostage, only to have Jack shoot Harry to deprive him of a shield. Payne ducks through a door and an explosion follows almost immediately, leading them to believe he killed himself.

Later, Jack stops at a coffee shop, and speaks to a friend of his, a bus driver, who proceeds to walk off to his bus and begin his route. As his friend leaves, Jack is called back to the counter to collect his muffin. Jack finally leaves the coffee shop and is about to get into his SUV when the bus explodes, his friend with it. Jack chases after the moving wreckage, shielding his face with an upraised arm against the heat of the flames. He is unable to get near the bus. A nearby pay phone rings and Jack answers the phone. A very-much-alive Payne has phoned Jack, telling him that another bus has also been rigged with explosives. When it exceeds 50 miles per hour (mph), the bomb is armed and set to explode if the speed drops below 50 mph thereafter. Additionally, no one is allowed off the bus.

Jack races to intercept the bus in his SUV and later commandeering a sports car to do so. He locates the bus on a freeway, but he is too late to stop the bomb from arming. Now forced to keep the bus moving at all costs, Traven jumps from the car to the fast-moving bus. A passenger, mistakenly believing that Jack is there to arrest him, produces a handgun and demands the bus be stopped. While Jack tries to explain the situation, another rider tackles the hoodlum, causing the gun to go off and hit the bus driver.

A young woman, Annie (Bullock), takes the wheel. Even though she lost her license for speeding, she must, ironically, speed through the congested city. In one of the film's most memorable scenes, the speeding bus strikes a baby carriage - which turns out to be full of aluminum cans instead of a child. The police are alerted to the crisis and provide an escort, clearing traffic and eventually directing the bus to an unfinished section of freeway clear of traffic.

The police commandeer a large flatbed truck to try to unload the passengers. Jack warns his superior that the attempt would be seen by the bomber (since television news helicopters are filming overhead) and the passengers killed. However, the young cop convinces Payne to allow the bus driver off the bus. Seeing the injured man taken off safely, a woman named Helen attempts to get off too. Payne, who is indeed watching, detonates a small charge below the floor of the bus near the door; Helen falls through the floor, and is run over and killed.

The situation takes a terrifying aspect when the police learn of a wide gap at an approaching overpass. With no other option, Traven tells Annie to speed up in hopes of jumping the gap. Against all probability (and the laws of physics), the bus successfully makes it while still maintaining the necessary speed.

Following Jack's instructions, Annie drives into Los Angeles International Airport, whose airspace is prohibited to the media helicopters. Once there, Jack persuades Payne to allow him to disembark to negotiate the ransom and then attempts to disarm the bomb by riding a service cart, towed by a preceding truck, under the carriage of the bus. Unfortunately, the tow line breaks and the bus passengers are forced to rescue Jack by hauling him back into the vehicle. However, Jack pierces the bus whilst attempting to hang on underneath, causing a gas leak. Meanwhile, Harry finds the bomber's identity. It turns out that he is Howard Payne, a retired Atlanta police bomb squad officer, invalided out when he lost a thumb on duty, who is living in Los Angeles. Unfortunately, Payne is prepared, and as they go to arrest him, the house explodes, thus killing Harry and the rest of the officers.

Jack, thinking Harry is going to call him and tell him that they have caught Payne, instead gets a call from Payne himself and informs him that Harry is dead and he knew that the bomb's timer (a gold watch) would lead the police to his identity. After the call Jack flies into a fit of rage, smashes the phone, and then tries to calm himself. Jack then sees Annie's sweater and notices that it's from the University of Arizona. Through that he realizes that Payne kept referring to Annie as a wildcat because of the football team. Realizing that Payne must have a camera watching the interior of the bus, the media detects the camera's wireless feed, and he tries to have several minutes of the transmission taped. Unfortunately, the gas leak cuts time short, so the police can only get a minute of tape fed back into the camera in an endless loop. This allows the passengers to get off without being detected. The driverless bus then collides with a cargo plane and the bomb explodes with such force, setting the plane on fire in the process. While his supervisor is going to call off the payment to Payne, Jack convinces him to go through with it because Payne would not know that the bus exploded.

Whilst the police set up a sting operation to try to capture Payne, they keep a watchful eye but with no sight of him. Payne, thinking they have made the drop, is getting ready to pick up the money only to catch on the video of the security monitor that was on the bus an irregularity. A female passenger puts her purse on the ground, and then when the loop starts again, it snaps back to her lap. In a last ditch attempt to get his money, Payne puts on his old bomb squad uniform to lure Annie away from the authorities and takes her hostage. He then retrieves the money using a tunnel under the drop point, before taking Annie onto a Metro Red Line subway train. Realizing Payne's plan, Jack boards the train. The two fight on top of a subway car and Payne is decapitated by a hanging light. However, the train can't stop since Payne killed the operator and destroyed the controls. In the end, it crashes at what is now the Hollywood/Highland Red Line station. (In 1993, the North Hollywood extension was under construction.) The train derails and is sent up an equipment access ramp on Hollywood Blvd. outside Grauman's Chinese Theater.

As they emerge unhurt from the wreckage, Jack says to Annie jokingly "I was told that relationships formed under extreme experiences never worked" to which she replies "We'll have to base it on sex, then."

Notes

One of the most famous scenes in the film shows the bus jumping across a gap in an elevated freeway-to-freeway ramp while still under construction. Both sides of the gap are at identical heights, making it impossible that the jump would work in real life. According to the "Making of..." feature that accompanied the DVD release, the stunt used a ramp and really did traverse fifty feet in the air. To handle the sudden jolt on landing, the stunt bus had no passengers aboard and the driver was wearing a shock-absorbing harness. The gap in the highway was added through CGI; note the flock of digital seagulls added by the special effects company to enhance the realism of the scene. You may also note if you look closely, when the bus is flying over the bridge that is under construction the gap between the two bridges was edited in. If you look below the bridge closely you can still see the shadow of the completed bridge.

The jump, as well as most freeway scenes in the movie, was filmed on California's Interstate 105, which had not been officially opened at the time of filming. Filming of the final scenes occurred at Mojave Spaceport, which doubled for Los Angeles International Airport. Those familiar with the local geography could easily identify the stand-in by mountains visible in the background.

There is a sequel called Speed 2: Cruise Control set on a cruise ship. Only Sandra Bullock returned to reprise her role. Willem Dafoe played the villain, and the new protagonist/love interest was played by Jason Patric. It was a critical and commercial flop. In an uncredited role Joe Morton returned as Mac.

Additional production notes

• As a former writer on Full House, Yost at one point pitched the story with the bus driven by Ellen DeGeneres as a comical driving instructor for the deaf.

• Jack's sidekick, Harry, was originally to be played by Ed Harris and in this version was going to be revealed as the mad bomber. However, when Ed Harris opted out, and Jeff Daniels signed, the producers felt that the audience would not accept the sudden twist in character so Harry was kept as a good guy throughout and the mad bomber written as a separate character.

• According to the DVD commentary, Walter Hill was considered as a director. Another director talked himself out of the job when he said the whole film should be shot against bluescreen.

• Twelve buses were used, including two which exploded; one for the freeway jump; one for high-speed scenes; and one used solely for 'under bus' shots.The bus jump scene was done twice, as the bus landed too smoothly the first time.

• Keanu Reeves breaking the glass on the bus door in the beginning of the movie was an accident, however it was left in the final cut.

• Jan de Bont pitched an idea that Lois (Beth Grant) had a twin on the bus. When Lois fell under the bus, her head would fly up and her twin would see it through the window. Mark Gordon thought this was too macabre, but de Bont's creative mind got him hired.

• Jeff Bridges, Johnny Depp, and Tom Hanks were all considered for the lead. When they turned it down, the filmmakers decided to make Annie the lead character. Halle Berry turned down the role after being shown an early draft of the script in which the bus went round and around Dodger Stadium. Winona Ryder also turned down the part. After Keanu Reeves was cast, producers set their sights lower. Sandra Bullock was cast on a recommendation to Jan de Bont by Die Hard and Lethal Weapon producer Joel Silver.

• At one point in the film, the bus crashes into an airliner and explodes, destroying both. The airliner is a freight airplane for the fictional Pacific Courier, the same company whose name appears on the truck used to transport the terrorists in Die Hard and is also blown up by an explosion in the Bonwit Teller department store in Die Hard 3.

• According to a deleted scene, Annie trained as a graphic designer but works as a waitress (just until she can get enough money to “buy a gun and shoot herself”).

• Payne's line "Be prepared, that's the Boy Scout's marching song" is a quote from a song by the satirist Tom Lehrer.

• The fifty foot jump was not in the original script; it was de Bont's idea.

• According to Graham Yost, screenwriter Joss Whedon wrote "98.9 percent of the dialogue"^[2], but didn't receive a credit. Whedon created several original characters and was credited on early posters; Joss boasts that he has the only such poster left. Overall, Whedon described the finished film as one of the best he had worked on (previous to Serenity). [1]

• Yost also felt in retrospect that the movie should have ended at the airport, and the subway sequence was too much.

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