‘Eccentric’ bomber Howard Payne’s (Dennis Hopper) plan to blow an elevator in a downtown high rise is foiled by LAPD Bomb Squad specialists (Keanu Reeves and Jeff Daniels), so in retaliation, he rigs another bomb to a LA city bus. The device is pretty simple, as once armed, the bus must stay above 50 mph otherwise, yes, it explodes, pretty simple right, well, not quite, as if anyone tries to unload any passengers off the bus, Payne will detonate the device.
I saw Speed at the cinema, I didn’t read up on it, knew Sandra Bullock in her second major role after the brilliant Demolition Man was in it and knew Keanu Reeves was in a role with slightly more ‘excellent’ dialogue, how would this work?’
Well, it does work, sure it is your typical standard action movie but perhaps just a notch below its contemporaries like Terminator 2 and Die Hard. The premise is so simple and is your traditional ‘popcorn flick’, fortunately this movie is much better to watch than if you were to read a review and interpret the story yourself and for me, it’s one of the most entertaining films of the 90s.
As for the movie itself, it’s pretty much non-stop action from the start as the LAPD foil Payne’s first act of terrorism, which grants the viewer an introduction to all the key characters bar Sandra Bullock’s ‘Annie’.
It continues without any real exposition and allows the viewer to grasp what these guys do and how they will be involved for the next 90 minutes or so. Ok, so Payne is foiled and soon plots his next act of terror, which is to blow up a city bus packed with innocent people, this is where we are introduced to Annie, who has the misfortune of just about catching the bus after chasing it down.
LAPD officer Jack Traven (Reeves) boards the bus to inform the passengers of their situation but a passenger who thinks Jack is after him accidentally shoots the driver and Annie is charged with taking the wheel and spends the rest of the movie under Jack’s supervision, manoeuvring the vehicle through several obstacles in an effort to keep it above 50mph. Now, strangely, even though I knew she’d succeed, it still had me on the edge of my seat, the unfinished highway jump being one of my favourite scenes in particular.
The movie as I say is by the numbers but Bullock and Reeves are great and do enough to make you root for them and Hopper does an equally good job as the ‘eccentric’ Payne, who ultimately and quite simply, is after money he feels he’s owed after years of service as police officer.
If you want to kill to couple of hours and not have to think too much, then this is the movie for you.