It is extremely difficult for a film to maintain a fast-paced and thrilling story from beginning to end, but Speed does it better than most action movies. It all starts with a great opening sequence and the movie doesn't slow down from there. The relentless fun and excitement of the movie keeps one glued to the screen.
Los Angeles police officer Jack (Keanu Reeves) angers retired bomb squad member Howard Payne (Dennis Hopper) by foiling his attempt at taking hostages. In revenge, Payne arms a bus with a bomb that will explode if it drops below 50 miles per hour. With the help of spunky passenger Annie (Sandra Bullock), Jack and his partner Harry (Jeff Daniels) try to save the people on the bus before the bomb goes off, while also trying to figure out how Payne is monitoring them.
Less hand-to-hand combat, but still a very violent sequel. Intense, but many teens will be able to handle it.
"Speed" is like an ingenious windup machine. It's a smart, inventive thriller that starts with hostages trapped on an elevator and continues with two chases - one on a bus, one on a subway - so that it's wall-to-wall with action, stunts, special effects and excitement. We've seen this done before, but seldom so well, or at such a high pitch of energy.
The movie stars Keanu Reeves as a member of the Los Angeles bomb squad. He and his veteran partner (Jeff Daniels) are called in after a mad bomber severs the cables holding an elevator in a high rise building. Now the terrified passengers are trapped between floors, and the bomber wants $3 million or he'll push a button and blow off the car's emergency brakes. This situation in itself might make the heart of a thriller, but it's only a curtain-raiser for "Speed," which turns into a battle of the wills between Reeves and the madman.
The bomber is played by Dennis Hopper, the most dependable and certainly the creepiest villain in the movies right now. He's a former cop with a grudge, an intelligent man with a big bag of tricks who seems able to anticipate every one of Reeves' moves. He wants not only the ransom money but also the satisfaction of humiliating the LAPD, and when he's outsmarted on the elevator caper, his next trick is truly diabolical.
He rigs an ordinary Los Angeles rapid transit bus so that if it exceeds 50 mph, a bomb will be armed - and then, if its speed falls below 50 mph, the bomb will explode. This is an inspiration that will raise many questions for anyone who has ever been in L.A. traffic, but never mind: It provides the basis for an extended, suspenseful chase sequence that comes up with one ingenious crisis after another.
Reeves manages to get himself on board the bus, of course.
And after the driver is shot by a passenger, another passenger (Sandra Bullock) grabs the wheel while Reeves tries to think a way out of the dilemma, and the bus cruises at 55 mph - in the wrong lanes, in the wrong directions, sideswiping other cars, causing accidents, and eventually ending up on an empty freeway that would provide clear sailing - if it weren't for a 50-foot gap in an overpass. Can a bus really leap a 50-foot space? This is the kind of movie where you don't ask questions like that.
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