Directed by: Jan de Bont
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock, Jeff Daniels, Dennis Hopper, Alan Ruck, Joe Morton, Glenn Plummer
A bomb is triggered on a bus once its speed hits 50 mph. If the bus drops below fifty, the bomb will detonate. This is the plot of Speed, and it tensely and energetically delivers as realistically as could be expected, not that realism is even the point. Knowing Los Angeles traffic, how would the bus possibly not slow to under fifty miles per hour? It's up to LAPD's Jack Traven (Reeves) to board the bus and prevent an explosion which would kill everyone aboard and possibly other people. The bus encounters one obstacle after another which would surely slow it down, but the bus, and Speed, finds a way to keep going.
Speed begins not with the bus scenario, but a hostage situation in a high-rise elevator. Two bomb squad veterans (Reeves and Daniels) must rescue the hostages and thwart the bomber, the malicious and money-hungry Howard Payne (Hopper). Hopper isn't doing this just for kicks, although his laugh and demeanor would suggest he surely enjoys his work, but for millions in ransom money.
Jack and Harry ruin Howard's plans, and Howard is presumed dead after the bomb detonates in the building parking garage.
Fast forward to a few days later, Howard is not dead, but even more pissed and demanding more money, while forcing Jack to play his cat and mouse game with the bus. Among the bus's passengers is the perky Annie (Bullock), who is forced to drive the bus when the driver is injured. Annie has to take public transportation due to a suspended license, but Jack can overlook that as she steers clear of one potential disaster after another with nothing but grit and pluck.
Speed has enough chases, crashes, and explosions for two movies. The movie continually tries to top itself, including another chase on a subway train, and it mostly succeeds. The payoff involving the subway train is probably a bit too silly even for Speed, but by that point, the movie has been a nonstop thrill ride with a grounded performance by Reeves, who established himself as a movie action hero years before we ever heard of John Wick.
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