Speed (film)

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Speed
Speed movie poster
Directed by	Jan de Bont
Produced by	Mark Gordon Ian Bryce
Written by	Graham Yost
Starring	Keanu Reeves Sandra Bullock Dennis Hopper Joe Morton Jeff Daniels
Music by	Mark Mancina
Cinematography	Andrzej Bartkowiak
Editing by	John Wright
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	June 10, 1994 (1994-06-10)
Running time	116 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$30,000,000^[1]
Gross revenue	$350,448,145^[1]
Followed by	Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997)
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Speed is a 1994 American action thriller 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. The film stars Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock, Dennis Hopper, Joe Morton and Jeff Daniels.

1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production details
- 3.1 The bus jump
4 Reception
5 Sequel
6 References
7 External links
- 7.1 Reviews

[edit] Plot

Jack Traven (Keanu Reeves) and his partner Harry Temple (Jeff Daniels) are SWAT team explosives experts in Los Angeles. A retired Atlanta Police cop, the malevolent 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. After a brief standoff, with Payne holding Harry hostage, Payne appears to escape and sets off a small explosion that knocks Traven unconscious and appears to kill Payne. Traven and Temple are then commended for their bravery by the LAPD in an official ceremony.

Later, as Traven heads to work, a city bus explodes in front of him, killing the driver. 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 leave the bus, it will also explode. Traven locates the bus and jumps aboard, but the bomb has already been armed.

Traven and Annie aboard the moving bus.

A man on the bus pulls a gun, believing Traven has come to arrest him, and shoots the driver accidentally as he struggles to escape. Another passenger, Annie Porter (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 lieutenant (Joe Morton) who directs them around the city to try and get them away from traffic. News of the bomb on the bus quickly makes the TV broadcasts and soon there is a long line of both police cars and news vans trailing the bus, which has been directed to head for the main airport.

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 at his residence but it turns out to be rigged with a bomb which explodes and kills Temple and several other officers.

Meanwhile, Traven notices 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 that everyone had gotten off the bus safely and that no one was killed when the bus finally exploded.

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. Payne is eventually decapitated on a train light during the fight, 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.

[edit] Cast

Keanu Reeves as Off. Jack Traven
Dennis Hopper as Howard Payne
Sandra Bullock as Annie Porter
Joe Morton as Lt. 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
Natsuko Ohama as Mrs. Kamino

[edit] Production details

Part of the film featured the bus ploughing its way onto the Interstate 110 through the traffic

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 1/8th 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]

[edit] 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, 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 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]

[edit] Reception

Speed debuted at #1 grossing $14,456,194 on its opening weekend. It went on to gross $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 Editing. The film was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing.^[3]

[edit] Sequel

Main article: Speed 2: Cruise Control

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.