Film Review: Speed
Background
In 1994, Jan de Bont released Speed. Starring Keanu Reeves, Dennis Hopper, Sandra Bullock, Joe Morton, Jeff Daniels, Alan Ruck, Glenn Plummer, Richard Lineback, Beth Grant, Hawthorne James, Richard Schiff, Carlos Carrasco, David Kriegel, Natsuko Ohama, Daniel Villarreal, and Patrick Fischler, the film grossed $350.4 million at the box office.
Synopsis
After police officer Jack Traven foils a Howard Payne’s scheme to hold an elevator’s passengers for ransom or else he’ll blow up the emergency brakes, the mad bomber returns. This time, there’s a bus with a bomb attached which will explode if it falls under 50 miles per hour or if he doesn’t get his original ransom.
Review
A thoroughly intense film, Speed might not have a far-reaching and intricate plot, but it manages to be incredibly entertaining for the basic plot it does employ. The film presents a story of a bomber deciding to try again following his first plan being derailed by a cop. He puts a bomb on the underside of a bus, calls said cop to inform him of the plan and the officer races to ensure the passengers on the bus stay alive. The intensity comes in the multiple moments where it looks as if the vehicle will slow down enough for the device to go off. The only flaw the film has in its story comes in the ending’s subway sequence. The scene seems to exist only as a way to make it so Traven and Payne can have a showdown. The two did need one, since Payne couldn’t exactly get on the bus itself, but having the way the two characters find themselves on the subway feels forced.
Nevertheless, Payne is a good villain for the film, holding the persona of a homicidal maniac. Feeling cheated by the severance package his former police department gave him when he lost a finger, he wants the money he believes the department owes him. As such, he goes to numerous lengths to get it, including rigging an elevator filled with people to drop unless he gets the $3 million, resorting to an attempt to kill the hostages when Traven and Harry work to save them, moving to a bus full of people upon the failure of the original ploy. Furthermore, Payne has smaller bombs he’s able to detonate should the need arise to not fully destroy the bus and reveals he’s always one step ahead of Traven with both the trap he springs to kill the SWAT members circling his house as well as the camera he installed prior so he can see everything Traven tries to accomplish. Additionally, as a former police officer, Payne is smart enough to know he won’t get the ransom money with just Traven and Harry in the wake of his first scheme failing and he knows the foolishness of walking up to the drop point to get the money and makes use of a hole beneath the trash can so he can pick it up unnoticed, though he doesn’t consider the possibility of a dye pack to ruin the money.
Complementing Payne as a villain is Traven as a cop alongside the Los Angeles Police Department. The film demonstrates Traven’s dedication to protecting civilians through his innovation during the first ploy with the elevator and in how dedicated he is to chasing and boarding the bus in order to ensure the bomb doesn’t go off. As for the other police officers, instead of the film playing up their uselessness, it depicts them as on top of the situation, providing an escort, mapping a survivable route from a helicopter and blocking off side streets.
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Awards won
Academy Awards
- Best Sound
- Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing
BAFTA Awards
- Best Editing
- Best Sound
Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films Saturn Awards
- Best Actress (Sandra Bullock)
Awards Circuit Community Awards
- Best Stunt Ensemble
- Second Place - Best Achievement in Sound
- Honorable Mention - The Next Ten Best Picture Contenders
Blockbuster Entertainment Awards
- Favorite Actress - Action/Adventure (Sandra Bullock)
BMI Film & TV Awards
- BMI Film Music Award
Golden Screen Awards
- Golden Screen
Jupiter Awards
- Best International Actress (Sandra Bullock)
Motion Picture Sound Editors Golden Reel Awards
- Best Sound Editing - Sound Effects & Foley, Domestic Feature Film
MTV Movie Awards
- Best Female Performance (Sandra Bullock)
- Most Desirable Female (Sandra Bullock)
- Best On-Screen Duo (Sandra Bullock/Keanu Reeves)
- Best Villain (Dennis Hopper)
- Best Action Sequence (For the bus escape/airplane explosion)
Nikkan Sports Film Awards
- Best Foreign Film
Nominated for
Academy Awards
- Best Film Editing
BAFTA Awards
- Best Special Effects
Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films Saturn Awards
- Best Action/Adventure/Thriller Film
- Best Director
American Cinema Editors Eddie Awards
- Best Edited Feature Film
Awards Circuit Community Awards
- Best Film Editing
- Best Visual Effects
Awards of the Japanese Academy
- Best Foreign Film
Chicago Film Critics Association Awards
- Most Promising Actress (Sandra Bullock)
Cinema Audio Society Awards
- Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for Feature Films
Edgar Allan Poe Awards
- Best Motion Picture
Kids' Choice Blimp Awards
- Favorite movie
- Favorite Movie Actor (Keanu Reeves)
- Favorite Movie Actress (Sandra Bullock)
MTV Movie Awards
- Best Movie
- Best Male Performance (Keanu Reeves)
- Most Desirable Male (Keanu Reeves)
- Best Kiss (Sandra Bullock/Keanu Reeves)