Speed

365 Films

Entry #33

Speed (1994)

Directed by Jan De Bont

Speed is a film for which, I have a tremendous amount of personal fondness.  There are a myriad of reasons that could account for my predilection, as such, it is hard to pick merely one.  Speed is the first film that I remember participating in the most sacred of current movie going rituals: hype.  I don’t remember exactly when the film came to my attention but the five words that practically leapt into my cerebral cortex and began tap dancing all over my skull were “Die Hard On A Bus”.  Bear in mind, I had not even seen Die Hard at this points so I can’t even be positive I knew what those words meant.  I’m not even sure I literally knew what they meant. (That’s a joke…or is it?)  I just remember the excitement and bravado with which the stamp of approval was given in the tv spots.  If memory serves it was Peter Travers of Rolling Stone who came up with that ostensible tagline and if you’re at all familiar with his reviews…I’ll just leave it at that.  So we have a pretty kick ass marketing campaign promising you that if you liked X and enjoy Y you will definitely love their combination to produce Z.  In this case, that means if you liked Die Hard and enjoy riding on buses, do we have the movie for you!  Then came the HBO First Look, at least I think that’s what it was called back then.  I don’t know if Fox and HBO had some sort of special relationship but they seemed to go all out for their behind the scenes specials.  Further evidence for this claim will be introduced in a forthcoming Die Hard With a Vengeance entry.  I remember the special because I taped it and watched it over and over again.  I was so taken with it!  I remember it was hosted by Dennis Hopper as he casually walked around the Fox lot showing off all the busses they used and blithely tossing off how fucking awesome this whole enterprise was.  This looked commonplace for him, part of the every day, and knowing now what we all about Dennis Hopper, making movies was possibly the tamest enterprise in which he ever participated.  It was a total and complete unveiling of the magic curtain on the Speed production and obviously full of spoilers.  I knew the entire story before I saw the damn thing and I wasn’t the least bit bothered by it.  Just so we’re clear, I watched the HBO special so many times that I knew certain scenes of dialogue by heart.  None of it mattered because Speed is the kind of movie where that knowledge prior to viewing does nothing to detract from the fact it was and continues to be one of the most successful and engaging thrill rides from beginning to end.  I am hard pressed to find an equivalent cinematic experience of sitting in that theater opening day and feeling the pulse of the crowd rise and fall on every cliffhanger and close call.  Ultimately, that is why Speed endures and why it secured a spot on this most coveted of coveted lists (that I’m being absolutely and completely serious about), it gets you excited about movies.  That and it features two truly great performances by Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock.  Fulfilling the dictate of this blog that “most movies would suck without Keanu Reeves.”  Seriously, try imagining Speed without those two. Go ahead, I’ll give you a minute.