Speed Is The Daddy of All Action Movies

A public bus isn't the most pleasant place at the best of times. I would know, I take it every day. No elbow room to be found, constantly jockeying for position, listening to someone's too-loud phone conversation or trying to avoid eye contact with the weirdo sitting across from you who smells like mothballs and is wearing gumboots in May. Nobody wants to be there. Now imagine you and everyone around you is trapped on board. Someone is yelling about how they are going to be late to work, someone else is yelling at them to shut up, someone's uncle is sitting in the back trying not to cry, and Mr. Weirdo has taken this opportunity to sit right next to you. Oh, and if anyone tries to get off the bus, you'll all explode.

"Pop quiz, hot shot. There's a bomb on a bus. Once the bus goes 50 miles an hour, the bomb is armed. If it drops below 50, it blows up. What do you do?"

I dare you to find a better '90s action movie than Speed. Just hearing the theme play is enough to make me feel the heat of a dazzling summer day. I can smell freshly mown grass from the neighbour's yard. I can taste a slightly freezer-burnt popsicle. It's June, 1994, and I'm sitting down to watch one of the most iconic summer blockbusters out there. What a time to be alive.

Well, technically I wasn't born yet, but I'm there in spirit.

I was definitely not what the studio had in mind when they pictured the target audience for this movie. I almost never am. But just because I'm not a 20-something dude who loves cheap beer and Playboy pinups doesn't mean I can't enjoy Speed. Or any other action movie, for that matter. Action movies are what primed my love of cinema. Before I found Bresson, Fincher, Kurosawa and Fellini, I worshipped at the altar of Rambo, the T-1000, Ellen Ripley and Indiana Jones. Movies weren't insightful, or complex, or slow-burn masterpieces. Movies were awesome, full stop. That's all I wanted, and that was what I got.

Speed gives me the feeling I crave whenever I watch a straight-up action flick, a feeling that I've been struggling to find in recent years. Maybe there was something in the water in the '80s and '90s that gave movies that secret sauce. Maybe it was just the cocaine. Or maybe tastes have just changed. I wish they would change back.

I mean, come on. Speed has a simple premise pushed to its absolute limit. It's sheer perfection. Keanu Reeves plays Jack Traven, an LAPD officer who must rescue a bus full of hostages, from a madman who has rigged the bus too explode if anyone gets off, or the bus slows down. Pedal to the metal, baby—that's a perfect metaphor for the movie. Speed is the good kind of turn-your-brain-off entertainment that grabs my attention and doesn't let go. I never think about checking my phone while I'm watching it. All of my problems, my worries of the day, are wiped from my mind. All I care about is whether Jack and Annie get out alive, and if they catch the bad guy. That's why it's one of the best, at least for me.

I'll never forget the first time I watched it. I had my heart in my mouth during the iconic bus jump sequence. (And yes, I did watch the Mythbusters episode about it). I was right there in the bus, along with the rest of the characters. I'd like to imagine that I would be the most like Bullock's Annie in a similar situation. Scared, yes, but capable and with a sardonic sense of humour. In reality, I'd probably be more like Alan Ruck, muttering to myself about how terrible public transit is to distract myself.

I challenge anyone to have a bad time watching Speed. I've shown the movie to countless friends, and even the ones who are self-proclaimed action movie haters ended up enjoying themselves. It's hard to resist top-tier Sandra Bullock, as charming as she's ever been, and a story that ratchets up the stakes at every given opportunity. Speed could have been just another poor-man's Die Hard. In fact, Keanu almost declined the project because he feared it would be too similar. But the film uses every aspect of the setting to the fullest. Jack finally got on the bus? Well, everyone panicked and someone shot the bus driver. Annie finally got the bus under control again? Oops, there are pedestrians in the way, and she certainly can't slow down. They found an open stretch of highway? There's a 50 foot gap that they have to jump the bus over. Oh, and now the bus is leaking gas and has a bunch of flat tires. For any lovers of bottle narratives, Speed is a great example of how to manage stakes and keep a story engaging every single second. Not only engaging, but relatable too.

I think the reason I always jump to Speed when someone asks me about my favourite action movies is the characters. For lack of a better word, they're real. I believe that these are the people I would run into onboard city transit. They react the way normal people would react in their situation, and they aren't superheroes. In modern action movies, everyone seems to have a whole arsenal of one-liners to dispense, and worse than that, they seem virtually unphased by anything that is happening around them. Surprised, sure, but never actually scared. Speed has some comedic relief moments, particularly with a very disgruntled Jaguar owner and the aforementioned Alan Ruck, but the jokes are never there for the sake of jokes. They don't read as studio re-writes added in to "lighten up" the story. Not the case here.

There are some genuinely emotional moments sprinkled throughout the kinetic action scenes. Real moments of character reveals and growth. Not just tragic backstories thrown in so that we feel something when everyone is in danger. In fact, we know almost nothing about any of the characters' backstory. Despite that, their personalities shine through crystal clear. I don't need to know whether Ortiz coaches his daughter's soccer team on the weekends, or if Mrs. Kamino is on her way to have lunch with her estranged daughter. I root for them anyway, because I know who they are. I can see it right in front of me. Especially when it comes to Annie. Instead of just a love interest for the hero, she is a nuanced character capable of taking her fate into her own hands. Nuance that was well beyond what you would normally see in other movies of the era, action movie or not. Speed delivers on everything audiences have come to expect from a big-budget action thriller, and it manages to do all of that while still taking itself seriously. That's what I'm really missing from action movies nowadays.

Make no mistake, Speed still has all the classic action goodness to be found underneath the hood. Keanu is doing his Keanu thing, in his prime post-Point Break L.A. cool aesthetic. Every time he talks, I just want to yell "I am an F.B.I. agent!" He gets in his fair share of mic drops and setpieces, my favourite being the one where he is trapped underneath the bus trying to disarm the bomb.

Sometimes it feels like there are only two options when it comes to modern action: dark and gritty, or straight-up goofy. I miss when I could have a good time and still be sitting on the edge of my seat. Maybe miss isn't the right word. You can't really be nostalgic for something that you never experienced firsthand, can you? I'm really not sure. Even though I wasn't born until after the 20th century, I still carry a special reverence for action movies of that era, and current ones that manage to capture some of the same magic, the same feeling. Speed delivers on the heart and the thrills that only the best can offer. And it has one of the best explosions ever. Seriously stellar stuff. When was the last time you saw a plane and a vehicle explode at the same time?

In a word, Speed is awesome. That was the pinnacle of cinema to me growing up. In many ways, it still is.