The Bus that Couldn’t Slow Down

OK, here’s on that has been on my Saved list for a long time that finally came off: Speed (1994). Yes, even though I am a legit Keanu Reeves fan, I’d never seen this one.

It starts with Reeves and partner Jeff Daniels as a bomb squad trying to get a bunch of businesspeople off of a bomb-boobytrapped elevator. They succeed through a combination of action movie banter and unlikely contrivance. But the bomber (Dennis Hopper), even though Reeves shoots through a hostage to get him.

Later, Reeves gets a call from the bomber, telling him about a bus that is rigged to blow up. The bomb will be armed when they first go over 50 mph, and blow when they go below 50. He makes it onto the bus and tries to keep things cool until he can figure out what to do. That doesn’t work out, and the driver gets shot. So America’s Sweetheart Sandra Bullock has to take over the wheel.

And that’s about all you need to know about the plot. The movie was directed by Jan de Bont, from a script by George Yost, with quipped dialog by Joss Whedon. The “elevator pitch” of Die Hard on a bus” is pretty accurate: cool protagonist in impossible situation, lots of amazing set pieces and cute banter. But it doesn’t all take place on a bus - it starts on an elevator and ends on a subway.

There’s also a cute romance, and one of the better quips: Bullock tells Reeves that relationships built on extreme experiences never work out. “So we’ll have to base ours on sex.”