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Speed poster

Speed

year 1994decade 90sdirector Jan de Bontgenre Actiongenre Thriller

116 minutes

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Cast

Selected cast credits · Film reference

Keanu Reeves LAPD Officer Jack Traven
Dennis Hopper Howard Payne
Sandra Bullock Annie Porter
Joe Morton LAPD Lieutenant Herb 'Mac' McMahon
Jeff Daniels LAPD Detective Harry Temple
Alan Ruck Doug Stephens
Glenn Plummer Maurice the Jaguar owner
Beth Grant Helen
Hawthorne James Sam Silver
Natsuko Ohama Mrs. Kamino
Margaret Medina Officer Robin
Jordan Lund Bagwell
Robert Mailhouse young executive
Susan Barnes female executive
Neisha Folkes-LeMelle Mrs. McMahon
Richard Lineback Sergeant Norwood
Beau Starr Commissioner
Sandy Martin bartender

Speed | The Rewatchables

host Bill Simmonshost Chris Ryanhost Sean Fennesseyproducer Craig Horlbeckproducer Chia Hao Tatproducer Eduardo Ocampoproducer Matt Pevic format Repeat visit
Explore episodeClose episode

Half-Assed Internet Research

Runaway Train, Die Hard, Silver Streak and production connections

In the discussion (8)
Approx. transcript time · 00:27:55Read transcript
  • The cited inspirations are Runaway Train, Die Hard and Silver Streak
  • The train ending is compared with Silver Streak
  • The Goodhew ambulance is connected with Heat
  • Hopper’s dummy head reportedly required a less graphic angle
  • Reeves and Bullock’s later public accounts of mutual crushes are discussed
  • The hosts speculate beyond those accounts; that speculation is not treated as fact
  • Earlier production discussion describes the two bus-jump attempts and lost camera
  • The practical elevator models, de Bont’s additions and Whedon’s rewrites are discussed

Roger Ebert's review

Roger Ebert’s review is discussed: 4 stars

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 00:39:59Read transcript
  • Ebert’s four-star rating is reported
  • His description of the film’s construction and physical audience tension is discussed
  • Sean recalls Siskel and Ebert both praising the film in a brief television review
  • The short review is contrasted with today’s multiple podcast discussions

Casting What-Ifs

In the discussion (10)
Approx. transcript time · 01:29:50Read transcript
  • Speakman is reported as attached during Paramount development
  • Baldwin and Grieco are discussed as other Jack possibilities
  • The Ellen DeGeneres story is explicitly treated as a denied urban legend
  • Berry’s own regret and description of the earlier static-bus script are cited
  • Other alleged Annie candidates remain uncertain
  • Craig T. Nelson reportedly could not leave Coach to play Mac
  • Ed Harris was considered when Harry was the villain
  • McTiernan, Harlin and Tarantino reportedly declined directing
  • McTiernan’s version is imagined as marginally better
  • Michael Bay reportedly sought the job before his feature debut

Recasting Couch

Keep the cast and Los Angeles

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 01:34:02Read transcript
  • No actor changes are desired
  • New York’s FDR or West Side Highway is considered, but crossing Manhattan is difficult
  • Boston is rejected for its road layout

Picking Nits

The bus physics, Harry’s raid and the final chase’s continuity

In the discussion (19)
Approx. transcript time · 01:47:21Read transcript
  • Jack answers an improbably timed payphone
  • He could have disabled the tires before the bus reached fifty
  • LA traffic and the hairpin turn cannot sustain the required speed
  • Weekday-morning college football is implausible
  • Jack’s screwdriver grip and prolonged fuel leak are questioned
  • Harry’s limp disappears before the raid
  • Jack setting down gun and badge is contrasted with period LAPD behavior
  • Helen’s explosion damages surprisingly little and uses up the door bomb
  • Airport access and the delayed choice to use its runways are questioned
  • The blown tire should affect stability immediately
  • Harry should anticipate a bomber’s booby trap
  • A 1994 wireless bus camera is questioned, though the tape-loop trick is praised
  • Paying the ransom is considered against the enormous damage
  • Airport-to-downtown travel time is implausible
  • Howard’s dead-man trigger during the gunfight and fistfight is debated, including an objection that he retains it
  • Doors and Howard’s missing dye stains create continuity problems
  • Howard choosing a fistfight over a gun is questioned
  • News of the bus explosion should reach Howard sooner
  • The panel emphasizes these flaws do not spoil the movie

Probably Unanswerable Questions

Would Harry as villain improve the movie, and who commands the bomb squad?

In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 01:58:42Read transcript
  • The panel prefers the finished version over the reported Harry-villain script
  • Who is the most important Jan? De Bont is compared with Jan Hammer and others
  • What is the bomb squad’s hierarchy when Jack and Harry keep improvising?
  • When does Jack’s attraction to Annie become another motivation?
  • The fictional Chris Ryan obituary tangent is not treated as a fact about him

Producer review

A closing contribution favors Bullock and the grounded practical filmmaking

In the discussion (8)
Approx. transcript time · 02:07:13Read transcript
  • The late contribution calls Speed an ideal movie and chooses Bullock
  • Bullock’s reactions communicate the danger while Reeves stays calm
  • Her response to Helen’s death and the apparent baby-carriage collision is praised
  • The Los Angeles landmarks add character
  • Repeating the unfinished-track obstacle at the end is criticized
  • Practical limitations keep the action grounded
  • The paper warning landing on the windshield is praised
  • The invitation does not name the speaker in this passage, so attribution remains unknown

Speed | The Rewatchables

host Bill Simmonshost Jason Concepcionhost Shea Serranohost Donnie Kwak
Explore episodeClose episode

Producer credits not yet identified.

Most Rewatchable Scene

The bus jump leads; Hopper’s decapitation is another pick

In the discussion (8)
Approx. transcript time · 00:12:50Read transcript
  • The opening elevator rescue is nominated
  • The stretch from the first bus explosion through Annie boarding is nominated
  • Sam’s rescue and Helen’s failed escape are nominated
  • The bus jump is favored for tension and the passengers’ relieved celebration
  • Donnie finds the jump less impressive on rewatch and favors the film’s cumulative tension
  • Hopper’s decapitation is also nominated
  • Jason explicitly chooses the bus jump
  • The absurd upward trajectory becomes part of its appeal

Casting What-Ifs

In the discussion (6)
Approx. transcript time · 00:17:11Read transcript

What’s Aged the Best?

Sandra Bullock, Keanu Reeves and the relentless premise

In the discussion (7)
Approx. transcript time · 00:19:09Read transcript
  • Bullock’s kindness and easy humor are praised
  • Reeves’s close haircut, physique and increasingly dirty white shirt hold up
  • The stay-on-or-get-off exchange remains memorable
  • The bus’s speed threshold supplies an instantly understandable premise
  • The action starts quickly compared with Die Hard
  • One participant prefers Reeves’s trustworthy command of the bus
  • Another chooses Reeves’s haircut specifically

What’s Aged the Worst?

Stereotyped passengers and implausible Los Angeles driving

In the discussion (8)
Approx. transcript time · 00:25:33Read transcript
  • The lack of cell phones is raised
  • The bus jump’s physics are criticized
  • The panel rejects criticism of Hopper’s broad performance
  • Sustaining fifty miles per hour in Los Angeles feels implausible
  • Passengers are reduced to ethnic and personality stereotypes
  • The gun-carrying passenger’s panic and Jack putting down his badge are questioned
  • An oral history reportedly describes passenger backstories removed from the film
  • The panel also defends Jack’s de-escalation and notes that realistic frightened people can seem annoying onscreen

Picking Nits

The tires, surveillance camera, gasoline and bus-jump physics

In the discussion (11)
Approx. transcript time · 00:30:38Read transcript
  • Could Jack shoot the tires before the bus reaches fifty?
  • Others counter that Hopper would have blown up the bus if the tires had been shot out, since he had a camera inside
  • Would Jack answer the payphone immediately after his friend’s bus explodes?
  • Why puncture a fuel tank to hold onto the bus, and why does the gasoline smell never matter?
  • A participant defends the bus stopping for a regular passenger, comparing it to his own father's habits as a driver
  • Would the blast killing Helen also destroy a tire?
  • The airport tire spikes appear to have little lasting effect
  • Hopper’s repeated Wildcat clue is interpreted as taunting
  • The uninterrupted 1994 video feed is questioned, while onboard cameras are defended as possible
  • Harry entering a bomber’s home without anticipating a trap is criticized
  • The bus could not survive either the jump or the landing

Half-Assed Internet Research

Oscars, stunt stories, script changes and the bus jump

In the discussion (11)
Approx. transcript time · 00:30:59Read transcript
  • The hosts report wins for sound editing and sound mixing
  • A claim that Reeves did ninety percent of his stunts is read
  • The surprise-Jaguar-jump anecdote is challenged as likely publicity exaggeration
  • An early script reportedly made Harry the villain
  • Joss Whedon is credited with script-doctor dialogue including Gigantor
  • Bullock reportedly learned to drive a bus
  • River Phoenix’s death during filming reportedly caused scheduling accommodations for Reeves
  • The freeway gap used early visual effects
  • The bus-jump idea reportedly came from de Bont scouting unfinished freeway
  • The practical jump reportedly traveled beyond expectations and destroyed a camera
  • These remain podcast-reported production claims

Roger Ebert's review

Roger Ebert’s review is discussed: 4 stars

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 00:33:00Read transcript
  • The panel reports four out of four stars for Speed and his description of gripping a companion’s forearm
  • They separately report three stars for Speed 2, to their surprise

The Dion Waiters Award for Best Heat Check Performance

Joe Morton gets two choices; Alan Ruck and Helen also receive picks

In the discussion (6)
Approx. transcript time · 00:37:49Read transcript
  • Hopper is treated as a star and excluded from this role-player award
  • Glenn Plummer’s Jaguar driver is nominated
  • Alan Ruck is chosen for his airport-tourist complaint
  • Joe Morton receives two selections for calm authority
  • Helen’s failed escape earns one selection
  • Sam and the construction-worker passenger are also mentioned

Apex Mountain

Reeves and Bullock still had higher peaks ahead

In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 00:40:27Read transcript
  • The panel thinks Reeves later rose higher
  • Bullock’s later star power is judged greater; Amanda Dobbins’s off-podcast Miss Congeniality view is reported
  • Hopper is proposed but Easy Rider is raised as an earlier peak
  • Jeff Daniels’s combined Speed and Dumb and Dumber year is floated
  • Sam the bus driver is jokingly suggested

Unintentional Comedy Award

Helen’s escape, Hopper running and Reeves’s reactions

In the discussion (7)
Approx. transcript time · 00:41:42Read transcript
  • Helen’s attempted transfer and the agent encouraging her are mocked
  • Sam continuing to drive after being shot is mentioned
  • The possibility of sustained freeway speed is funny to locals
  • Hopper’s running is nominated
  • Failure to verify Hopper’s death is nominated
  • Reeves’s Wildcat and cans reactions are cited
  • Jack’s distraught reaction to Harry’s death is finally floated as the winner

The Neil McCauley “A Book about Metals” Award for Best Line from the Movie

Pop quiz, hotshot

In the discussion (6)
Approx. transcript time · 00:49:55Read transcript
  • The panel settles on Hopper’s pop-quiz phrase as the most memorable
  • The stay-on-or-get-off exchange is nominated
  • The warning against getting killed is nominated
  • Annie’s suggestion to base the relationship on sex is nominated
  • Harry’s caution about guts getting someone killed is nominated
  • Jack’s basement answer to what stops a falling elevator is nominated

Probably Unanswerable Questions

Freeways, Nicolas Cage and action-movie titles

In the discussion (6)
Approx. transcript time · 00:51:48Read transcript
  • Was 1994 the greatest summer for Los Angeles freeways because of Speed and the O.J. chase?
  • Nicolas Cage as Jack would be more erratic and less reassuring
  • The panel prefers Reeves in Speed and Cage in Con Air or Face/Off
  • Which action movie has the greatest title?
  • Die Hard, The Terminator and Speed are defended, with Cliffhanger and First Blood also nominated
  • Minimum Speed is reported as an earlier title

Who Won the Movie?

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 00:56:24Read transcript
  • Three panelists choose Bullock for charm, range and making them want to see more of her work
  • Donnie Kwak explicitly chooses Keanu Reeves
  • Dennis Hopper was included among the initial choices
  • Bullock is praised as a substantive heroine rather than an ornamental love interest
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More from the conversation

The panel places Speed in the transition from muscular 1980s stars to more ordinary-looking action heroes. They discuss Die Hard’s influence, the early summer release, Bullock’s breakthrough and Reeves’s uneven intervening choices after Point Break.
Approx. transcript time · 00:01:57Read transcript
The plot recap praises the opening elevator rescue and Jeff Daniels’s ordinary appearance, questions the lack of a body after Hopper’s explosion, and explains the bus-bomb premise.
Approx. transcript time · 00:09:51Read transcript
The panel discusses when Jack becomes romantically interested in Annie, singling out her support after Harry’s death.
Approx. transcript time · 00:43:52Read transcript
An extended action-movie digression covers Face/Off’s identity premise, favorite action titles and a hypothetical rich-people-hunting-strangers film. This is not a new named category.
Approx. transcript time · 00:53:03Read transcript
The closing discussion considers airport escape strategy, whether extra passenger deaths would help, the fate of the gun-carrying passenger, and the sustained pacing of Speed and The Fugitive.
Approx. transcript time · 00:58:07Read transcript
A future Los Angeles show at Largo is announced, with Face/Off and other films only candidates. The current episode is not marked live.
Approx. transcript time · 01:00:42Read transcript