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One of the greatest “Die Hard in a…” movies ever
The freeway wasn’t finished, so they jumped the bus. The subway track wasn’t finished, so they jumped the track. The script WAS finished, but they threw out the first act. There are 100 more reasons why this is basically a perfect film, and Greg and Joe list them all.
Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock begin their amazing chemistry that continues through their careers, Dennis Hopper is a great bad guy (or not, according to Greg), important questions, glorious descriptions of explosions… This is basically just a lovefest for this amazing movie.
(Meta drinking game, take a sip every time Joe says “spectacular” or Greg discusses helicopters.)
There will be a pop quiz at the end of the episode so start studying. #speed #keanureaves #sandrabullock #bombonabus #diehardina #spectacular #helicopter
Joe’s Back of the Box
Pop quiz, you are on a bus that cannot go slower than 50mph or it explodes, what do you do? What do you do? Strap in and hang tight as a bus rigged with explosives has to navigate rush hour traffic while keeping its speed up. No one is safe, baby carriages are hit, bodies fly, and heads will roll in this nonstop thrill ride. Can Jack (Keanu Reeves) and Annie (Sandra Bullock) stop the madman at the center of this movie or become another casualty of his maniacal plot?
The REAL Back of the Box
This movie has it all. Taking the Die Hard in a (fill in the blank location) it gives you three different cloistered environments. We get a great opening scene in an elevator. The bus that cannot drop below 50mph. And it ends on a subway. If you like real explosions, Dennis Hopper being exceptional as the bad guy, and Keanu Reeves, then this movie is for you. The premise is beyond ridiculous but it all works to perfection. This movie is the chef’s kiss homage to Die Hard and we are all better for it.
Note: This transcript has been auto-generated, so… You know… It’s not our fault.
Greg: Joe in the movie we watched this week, a bunch of cops get together to drink together. Keanu Reeves and Jeff Daniels, Joe Morton and others. Do you have any memories of when we lived together and drinking?
Joe: Not a lot. We were actually pretty good kids when we were when we lived together. We were also, I think, under 21. So that helped a little bit. And we both had a friend, Chad, who lived half a block away. And I remember I went over. I think both you and cam were out here somewhere, so I was alone until I went over to Chad’s and had a few beers with him.
Joe: And we watched, fire walk with me. Oh, no. Twin peaks. Like origin movie. And it still stands as the scariest movie I’ve ever seen. And I remember having to walk home down the alley to our apartment, and it was the scariest thing. And I was a little tipsy. And so I was. And I couldn’t, like, open the door and it was dark and I had I almost got no sleep that night because I was convinced that there was, you know, some horrible creature from the Twin Peaks world in our house.
Joe: So it’s really Chad’s fault for getting me a little drunk and then watching a really scary movie.
Greg: You’ve hated anyone named Bob since then?
Joe: No. Yeah. I can’t. Can’t do it.
Greg: And you never spoke to Chad again?
Joe: No, I didn’t. It’s over. Yeah. I’m not friends with anybody named Chad ever again. As well as Bob or Chad. They’re out. Yeah.
Greg: If you’re going to call two names from your life. Chad and Bob. Yeah, near the top of my list.
Joe: Absolutely. So.
Greg: And Bob shows up in the movie we watched in the elevator. That’s true. It all comes back.
Joe: All comes back to Bob and Chad. Thanks, Jeff.
Greg: All right, let’s get to the show.
Joe: Let’s do it.
Joe: The game began when someone.
Clip: Put the city of Los Angeles to the ultimate test. Pop quiz, hotshot.
Joe: There’s a bomb on a bus. Once the bus goes 50 miles an hour, the bomb is armed. If it drops below 50, it blows up. What do you do? What do you do now? He’s the only solution. We just got a ransom demand for a terrorist. Says he’s rigged. The city bus was jacked. Where do you think? Pop quiz.
Joe: You have a hair trigger aimed at your head. What do you do?
Clip: What do you do?
Clip: In 1994. We are weeks.
Greg: Past the 30th anniversary of this film, Joe John Devine. His friends call him Johnny decided to make a film. His first film that he had directed called speed. We are talking about Keanu Reeves. Dennis Hopper, Sandra Bullock, Joe Morton, Jeff Daniels and a bunch of passengers on a bus. Joe. Sky. Tucker. Why is speed a great bad movie?
Joe: It’s going to be really hard for me to couch this movie as bad. Wow. I’m going to be honest with everybody right now. I love this movie. Well, I love this movie. When I saw it in the theaters in 1994. I remember talking with people after it and, you know, they were, you know, making fun of the funny parts and the Keanu Reeves lines and stuff like that.
Joe: Yeah. But I just thought it was such a great action movie. There are so many great things, and it’s kind of a, avoids a lot of the tropes. It does have some tropes as well get into the ground later on, but okay, it’s got some interesting pieces that I noticed when I watched it the first time. It’s one of the few action movies with cops in it where everybody is as fine as on the same side, like they’re not going rogue.
Joe: You know, and fighting their lieutenant and, you know, being told to get off the case like all the cops are on the same side working together. Yeah. It opens with probably the longest credit shot of, elevator shaft ever. Spectacular. Sure.
Greg: The elevator shaft? Yep.
Joe: Yeah. Then you have the bomb going off in there, and then instantly flying cop car going over a jump. So I. You know what you’re in for?
Greg: Nothing bad there.
Joe: No. That’s perfect. No nuts. You have so many great moments within this movie. You have kind of cocky Keanu Reeves at the beginning of it. He’s great.
Greg: Yeah. He’s great.
Joe: You have Dennis Hopper, who is a spectacular bad guy. I would. I’m. Oh. All right. Fighting words. I will fight to the there. I mean, yeah, I am totally in I love Dennis Hopper, so I feel like this is a continuation of his character from Apocalypse Now. I almost tried to tie in that character to this movie. Wow.
Joe: As the bad guy. So, like, you can combine the Apocalypse Now a verse with a spider verse.
Greg: It’s the proper prequel to this movie.
Joe: Yeah, exactly. You want a three hour epic about Vietnam? I got you. You know, and then you have really awesome action sequences. Real explosions. I’m such a sucker for something, actually, like, actually blowing up really great stunts. Pretty spectacular explosion. Like the end of this when the bus goes into the plane. It’s the most beautiful. Like, while we’ve got the budget.
Joe: So why don’t we just blow up a plane and a bus and you know. So those are some of my favorite moments. We’ll get into more. But I got to ask Bryce Reinhart why is this a great movie. Okay.
Greg: Before we get to me, I have some follow up questions.
Joe: Okay. Awesome. Bring it.
Greg: On. People are making fun of Keanu Reeves. They’re making fun of the movie. And you were like, I don’t see it, guys. I just see greatness in front of me. I see nothing funny.
Joe: Yeah, it’s I, I in.
Greg: 30 years later, you watch it and you say, I see nothing, but you’re.
Joe: I’m a great man, I love it.
Greg: I love.
Joe: It.
Greg: Man, this is two in a row.
Joe: I know it’s great. Great movies, I’m telling you. Now, there are some moments we can get into the some of the bad parts, which are pretty ridiculous.
Greg: I really am surprised by how much I enjoy this movie every time I watch it.
Joe:
Greg: There are elements of surprise because every time it starts I’m like, oh yeah, this movie starts here, I forgot. It’s not just in the bus.
Joe:
Greg: I mean Keanu Reeves doesn’t get on the bus for like 40 minutes in this movie. And then after the bus there’s still quite a bit of movie. And it I feel like this is a fairly simple but disjointed movie. And there are reasons why it feels that way, because the studio kind of forced them to not have just a movie on a bus.
Joe:
Greg: But, I also feel like it’s a movie made for me, like when the car flies from the top of the frame down, it’s like, well, there’s no way a car has ever actually done that. Like it definitely went over a jump. It’s not like over a hill. Yeah. But the fact that they’re just like showing their hand, it’s like you’re playing poker with somebody and they’re just showing you their cards the whole time.
Greg: That’s what it feels like right at the beginning of this movie. That said, this is probably one of the best great bad movies we will ever watch. I mean, this is the reason we’re doing it is because it is one of the pinnacles of the last, 50 years of cinema.
Joe: You know, I agree, I think it’s also one of the best die hard in, movies that we have. Sure. Obviously, we’ll get into get you on the bond. And his his credentials. He worked as a cinematographer on Die Hard and a lot of. Yeah. Director photography on a lot of stuff. This is his first movie.
Joe: Yep. But it is basically three different Die Hard on die Hard in an elevator and Die Hard on the bus. Die hard on the subway 100% the pieces that you’ll struggle with if you’re looking for, you know, continuity in it. You know, you have a bus that takes on a massive amount of damage.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: Making turns that there’s no way it could maintain at 50 miles an hour. You kind of have to suspend all disbelief in that. Yep. The opening scene is great. It’s a really tight scene in the elevator. Just happened to have a crane on the roof that they.
Greg: Can’t sure add.
Joe: In like you do.
Greg: I also have to point out that there has never been an orange or sunset happening inside an elevator. Then that elevator, the sunset behind Bonnie Bedelia is office in Die Hard is inside.
Joe: That elevator.
Greg: For no reason.
Joe: I watched this with Jillian and she’s like, it’s this is like the color filter. You talk about that third world country. So apparently this elevator is in Mexico City.
Greg: Yes.
Joe: Yeah. I want us to.
Greg: Know it’s a deleted scene from traffic.
Joe: Yeah, there’s lots of those little things in it. You know, the bus jumps a 50ft gap in the freeway.
Greg: In a way that makes absolutely no sense.
Joe: Yeah, but you’re just in on it. Like what I love about the the script is one thing after another keeps happening. And so they just keep upping the ante of like oh. And of course he’s gotta you know hit the gas tank at some point so that they’ve had time to the challenge and all of that. And so they just kind of ramp it up.
Joe: There’s a shooter like moment with the snipers where Dennis Hopper is looking at the snipers at the where they’re dropping the money and like, yeah, all of them are very well seen. And so, you know, I don’t know that I could go all the way to. Great. Okay. But as a great, great movie. But it is. Yeah. A really great bad movie.
Greg: It’s one of the greatest bad movies of our lifetime.
Joe:
Greg: Let’s talk about where this movie came from. It’s known as a die hard in a bus. But really, the guy who wrote it, Graham Yost, he was thinking of 1985 Runaway Train. Have you ever seen the movie Runaway Train?
Joe: I feel like I have, but I don’t remember it.
Greg: It has Jon Voight and Eric Roberts and Rebecca De Mornay. It’s from 1985. You probably know that Andre Konchalovsky directed it because you’re a big Tango and Cash fan, so. And we will get to tango in cash. And I kind of feel like we should get to Runaway Train, because I feel like this is a runaway train in a bus with some shades of Die Hard is what happened.
Greg: I’m so curious to go back to this movie. People love Runaway Train. It’s like a real highlight. Both Jon Voight and Eric Roberts, I think, were nominated for Oscars for acting in the movie. So I think we need to get to Runaway Train.
Joe: I do think this script is pretty tight as well. Yeah, he does a good job. He kind of does. There’s some trope stuff in it, but honestly, it’s pretty funny that like, like, you know, the there’s some, you know, giving the cops, giving each other a hard time even in the elevator. So there’s some funny moments. So they kind of add some characters into it.
Joe: Yep. Honestly, Sandra Bullock is amazing in this movie. Oh my gosh, I think she is spectacular. I am 100% in the tank for Keanu Reeves. Yeah, I think of first movie I saw him in was probably Parenthood, and then Bill and Ted’s excellent Adventure. Yep. I’m never going to claim that he’s a great actor, but I just I love him and, you know, have watched almost all of his movies.
Joe: So I’m just a fan of him. And then as he’s, you know, the more and more stuff that comes out about just like what a good person he is, it just makes it even more justified in my mind. He never ruins a movie. You know, I’ve watched some movies with, with their actors, and it’s like, you ruin this movie.
Joe: He’s never done that. He’s never going to win an Academy Award for Best actor. Yeah, but yeah, I think he’s better than he’s given credit for at a lot of times. And so, you know, him and Sandra Bullock together, I think are awesome.
Greg: Really awesome. Incredible. Yeah. To be honest.
Joe:
Greg: Kathryn Bigelow had to fight three years earlier tooth and nail that make him the star point break.
Joe:
Greg: This is three years later. And the studio was fine with Keanu Reeves. But Counter Reeves didn’t want to do it. He’s like, I don’t wanna make another action movie. You undermine got him in it by saying, we’ll let you do as many stunts as you want. Awesome. And so, he did a ton of his stunts. Something like 90% of the stunts are him.
Joe: I can I can see that. That’s that’s pretty fun.
Greg: So he doesn’t ruin movies. Does he make movies?
Joe: Like, I think so.
Greg: Okay. You know, Reeves is good and bad movies. That’s kind of the test.
Joe: Yeah. I think it’s good and bad movies. And I think as he has aged and the writers know how to work with him, they know kind of where his strengths are. I’m a big John Wick fan. If you listen to this podcast, you know, you know how basically John Wick comes up and everyone, he has hardly any lines and like, he’s not asked to do a lot.
Joe: Yep. So and it’s kind of the same in The Matrix. You know, I think so. I think that they know how to use him and what he’s good at and the physicality that he brings, and he’s got that kind of good guy quality that you want to kind of want to root for him and you like him.
Joe: So the likability total.
Greg: Yeah kind of.
Joe: Makes up for it.
Greg: He’s got lots of things strapped to him in this movie. He’s chewing gum. He’s just like us, you know?
Joe: Yeah. I have to say, Gillian’s favorite part of this movie was how politely he chewed his gum. He never chewed with his mouth open in this movie, so. Yep. This is why this is probably the last movie that you will watch of the podcast movies. So listen to them. But she was pretty bored, except for that young Keanu Reeves boy chewing his gum was very polite in this movie.
Greg: The gum wasn’t in the screenplay, by the way. Fun fact. But get this Keanu Reeves and John both agreed that the gum chewing was an ingenious way to foreshadow his character’s gut feelings. This makes no sense to me.
Joe: I get this at all.
Greg: Thus exposing his thought process to the audience. This revelation occurred after Keanu casually ad libbed this, into one of the scene, takes now ad libbed because he’s fake chewing gum the whole time. Oh, that’s why his mouth is closed.
Joe: Interesting.
Greg: He’s miming gum chewing.
Joe: I take back everything I said about him being a bad actor. Yes.
Greg: Something I noticed quite a bit in this movie, though, is there are a lot of times where Keanu Reeves responded with, something nonverbal. And so you have to think he was probably taking a lot of lines out of the script and trying to say it with with an action rather than, a line. And sometimes it’s like, that’s a weird thing to do instead of saying a word, you know, like there’s a moment where Jeff Daniels says, you know, maybe we should check out the freight elevator or something.
Greg: And he just points at him and then walks away and it’s like, that’s not a thing people do.
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: So he’s probably taking quite a bit out of the script. Speaking of the script, got to talk about the script for a second.
Joe: Yeah, let’s do it.
Greg: The script that was written by Graham Yost was actually an ensemble piece where throughout the movie, we got to know all the characters in the bus more. All of them had, like, backstories. A lot of them. We saw them get on the bus and meet like their significant other that, like, kiss them goodbye before they got on the bus.
Greg: And then everybody on the bus had like a special skill. And when you put all of those skills together, that’s how they beat the bad guy.
Joe: Okay, I can see that. I can see that as a movie.
Greg: So two big things happened to the script. The first thing is, they totally took out the first act, or no, three things happened. They totally took out the first act. They basically, while they were filming, gave most of the things that the people in the bus did to either Annie or Jack, to Sandra Bullock or Keanu Reeves. The third thing was all of the dialog was rewritten by Joss Whedon.
Joe: Oh, interesting.
Greg: Graham said all of the dialog is is Joss Whedon. He did an incredible job. They didn’t give him any credit on the movie because that’s how the Writers Guild works. But I give you need to know that Joss Whedon wrote all of the dialog for all of the characters in this movie.
Joe: That makes sense. I can see it. I mean, that’s got that pep to it. And that’s why I wonder that it’s like a 90s thing. Like ghost writers didn’t get any credit for the work they would do, but they come in. Quentin Tarantino famously did that on a few movies.
Greg: Yeah. Oh, it happens all the time in every movie, I think. And then there’s a pretty crazy arbitration process that happens with the Writers Guild.
Joe: Right?
Greg: And they really favor people who kind of originated it.
Joe: All right. So I’ve come up with the idea and then find a ghostwriter. As far as what I’m learning from this. Yes.
Greg: And then called Joss Whedon.
Joe: Yeah. Okay.
Greg: But cutting out the first act really reminded me of John McTiernan, who had directed Die Hard with you undermine as his cinematographer. John Dumont had been doing this for almost 30 years before he directed this movie, and he made, Die Hard with John McTiernan. And then he made The Hunt for Red October with John McTiernan. And John McTiernan famously has said, you gotta just cut to the chase as soon as possible.
Greg: Like cut out as much of the beginning of the script as you can. And so I feel like the underbite kind of took a chapter from the McTiernan playbook and was just like, all right, let’s do it. Let’s cut out the entire first act and see what we have.
Joe: That’s interesting. I can totally see the other. Yeah, because it really the first act is the, the action sequence in the elevator. Yeah. You know, and there’s a little bit that happens between that, you know, kind of reuse and Jeff Daniels get a medal, they go out and then right bam or right on. We’re into the bus sequence.
Joe: Totally. So I think the what makes it for me, a great bad movie is the elevator sequence. It’s supposed to be the bad guy, Dennis Hopper’s, like, big moment to get his money. It’s. They foiled his plans, and then he comes up with a much more elaborate plan on the fly. Days later they like, it’s like okay, somehow he blows up two busses.
Joe: Are they able to rig a bomb to to the speedometer. He’s got all kinds of stuff ready for all of it. As if this was the original plan. So that’s, you know, all the telltale markings of a great, bad movie.
Greg: Okay, so can you tell me why Dennis Hopper is doing this?
Joe: Probably because Christopher Walken passed as my guest.
Greg: Why is his character doing this?
Joe: Oh, right. Because he is trying to get back and get money because he put in his time in Atlanta, not Los Angeles, which is weird. Like he’s getting his money because he something went wrong and he’s not getting his pension. And that’s basically why he’s doing this.
Greg: Do they explicitly say that? I kind of felt like the movie ended and they never told us what his motivation was, just that he was upset.
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: Something went wrong and maybe it wasn’t important.
Joe: Yeah. Or something went wrong. I know that he blows off part of his hand. They make a big point of showing the cracks, and then he’s, like, holding. Like holding a phone on the opposite side of his face with, like, it’s good right hand just to prove a point around. I feel like they do go into it. I’m a sucker for Dennis Hopper.
Joe: I think he’s awesome.
Greg: So here’s my senior year.
Joe: Give me a deal on Dennis Hopper.
Greg: I can’t tell if he’s good or not. There is definitely times where it’s like, wow, this is he’s doing a good job. And then there are other times where we’re like, what? What are we doing here? Is this good? I can’t tell if this is good or not.
Joe: I fair, that’s fair.
Greg: You know what I really like about him, though? And this doesn’t play into, I don’t think his portrayal of of the bad guy whose name is pain, obviously.
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: When he puts on his cop uniform and he goes up to Sandra Bullock, he has such a boy like quality to him. Was there ever a Dennis Hopper movie where he was just like a a boy like character, like a really sweet person because he seems like such a sweet person to me.
Joe:
Greg: But in this era, he kept playing all these kind of nasty people and I just was like, I don’t know, is he the bad guy in this one too?
Joe: Maybe in true Romance is probably the closest we get to him being a good character because he is the father of. Right? Yeah. Christian Slater, who gets killed by, Christopher Walken. So.
Greg: And he was busy in these years.
Joe: If you needed a bad.
Greg: Guy totally.
Joe: Called Dennis Hopper.
Greg: I mean.
Joe: Waterworld. Yeah.
Greg: When did Waterworld come out?
Joe: Right around this time. Yeah. Yeah, I saw that in the theaters. Do. Well, definitely. Get to. Oh, my God, I can’t wait to get to Waterworld because I feel like Kevin Costner is in the conversation of the Keanu Reeves acting school. Like he never ruins a movie, right? He’s never spectacular, either, and he is probably at this time, one of the biggest stars of the of the time.
Joe: He’s not really I don’t know if I would call him an action star at that time. He’s more like, because he’s doing it in Waterworld, but he does like Bull Durham and stuff like that too. But but yeah, I think we’ll definitely get to Waterworld. That that’ll be a fun episode. I’d love to know who else was considered for the role.
Joe: Dennis Hopper’s role.
Greg: I don’t know anybody for Dennis Hopper, but I can tell you, some people who were offered the Canaries role before it came to him, and some people who were considered or offered for the Sandra Bullock role. Stephen Baldwin.
Joe: All right.
Greg: Reportedly turned down the role of Jack William Baldwin.
Joe: Before they run out of options.
Greg: Like Kim Basinger and Halle Berry turned down the role for any. This movie was actually written for, I think, Jeff Bridges and Ellen DeGeneres.
Joe: What a weird fair.
Greg: In the late 80s. Yeah. I think we just have to assume every lead role in every movie ever made was originally turned down by Tom cruise.
Joe: Okay. Yeah. Fair.
Greg: How many people work for Tom cruise to read all these scripts? Yeah. Johnny Depp reportedly turned down the role of Jack Richard Grieco.
Joe: Awesome. Turn it down for 21 Jump Street fans out there.
Greg: Yeah, he said this in an interview and then made fun of himself that he said he didn’t like this script, but then said he was really bad at choosing good roles because there was some other script that he liked, and it was the worst movie in history.
Joe: I think I saw that movie.
Greg: Mobsters.
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: Tom Hanks turned down the lead role.
Joe: Wow. I don’t know, I, I can see some of, Tom Hanks is a hard one for me to see in that role.
Greg: But, yeah, Alyssa milano turned down the role for any.
Joe:
Greg: Parker Posey desperately wanted it, but didn’t get it.
Joe: She would have been awesome in it, too. I can totally see her. I feel like Parker Posey is the independent film’s Sandra Bullock.
Greg: That’s a good way to put it. She’s on that bench of. Just like she should be in everything.
Joe: Yeah I agree.
Greg: Bruce Willis was offered the lead role but declined. Ed Harris was, originally going to play Harry the Jeff Daniels role. Where do you rank this movie in your Jeff Daniels Hall of Fame?
Joe: He’s a great sidekick in this movie. Yeah, I like Jeff Daniels a lot. So I like anything he he’s in, but he plays the classic sidekick role in an action movie that he dies in the. How about halfway through this movie?
Greg: Spoilers. Jeez.
Joe: Yeah. Sorry if you haven’t seen speed. Jeff Daniels dies. Also, the sign of a great bad movie is they find out where the bad guy lives. And he’s a bomber who’s already blown up a bus and an elevator. And they don’t think that maybe he has sabotaged his house.
Greg: You’ll never see us coming.
Joe: No. So they totally get blown up because they walk into his house and then the bomb goes off. But I think this is up there for him because he doesn’t do a lot of these kinds of movies. Like action movies. Right? He’s kind of like a he’s like an actor, you know, although Dumb and Dumber would kind of prove otherwise.
Greg: No, I think that proves your point.
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: He’s just America’s uncle. And I’m saying that because he totally reminds me of one of my favorite relatives, my uncle.
Joe:
Greg: Let’s see. Okay, so let’s talk about Sandra Bullock.
Joe: All right.
Greg: We had seen her in Demolition Man.
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: She was really good in that movie. She was punching way above her weight in that movie. She was just so much funnier. And, And she was like, Sylvester Stallone’s partner. I want to say, in the future, after he was unfrozen. Yeah, we’re definitely getting the demolition to.
Joe: Finish that 100%.
Greg: And this was like the next movie we saw her in, and it was kind of like, okay, well, let’s get Sandra Bullock and everything, and it’s it’s 30 years later and she is in everything.
Joe: Yeah, she’s still incredible. Yeah. She’s incredible. She’s really good in this. This is, I think, her star making turn. But she has this run, so she goes like demolition man I think speed. And then there’s, like, the net. And while you were sleeping all within like. Yeah. And it just like superstar. She’s a better actress than you think.
Joe: She’s funny. I think that’s the other thing that she has. It’s got really great comic timing. And this is really her moment where it’s just as as much her movie as Keanu Reeves movie. I think, you know, without those two kind of having the great chemistry they do. It’s kind of a shell of itself. It really needs her to be kind of the counterpoint to him in this movie.
Joe: And so, yeah, I think she’s great in this movie. And really the, the, the beginnings of her rise to stardom.
Greg: Across the board. Everyone says she’s the coolest. She’s a great person to just hang out with. The people who were on this bus were in that bus 14 hours a day for three months while they were filming this.
Joe: That’s crazy.
Greg: And, Matt has a podcast called I Was there, too, that he did. I don’t know, ten years ago. And one of the episodes was he interviewed a bunch of people who were in the bus in this movie, and across the board they were all like, Sandra Bullock is the greatest hangout you’ll ever have. So fun. Not at all a diva, just the greatest person to hang out with.
Greg: The guy who plays Sam, the driver, he says, I know things about Sandra Bullock that no one else knows because I hung out with her. You know, I guess he was only in there for seven weeks because, spoiler alert, he dies or he gets shot. But, yeah, people who are on the bus, they’re like, everybody was cool.
Greg: There was no bad egg. We all really enjoyed hanging out. And it’s, you know, thank goodness because it was three months, 14 hours a day.
Joe: That’s crazy.
Greg: Isn’t that nuts? And that’s just like an hour of the movie.
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: Same thing with Keanu Reeves. I think there were like 3 or 5 of the people on the bus were on this podcast, and,
Joe: They.
Greg: Said the Keanu Reeves, they, a lot of them alluded to, like, I know people talk about Keanu Reeves, like he’s not cool, but he is really cool. He’s just very quiet. So, and he’s quite introverted so he doesn’t give you much when you’re talking to him. So I think people do think he’s a diva, but they’re like, no, he’s a really sweet guy.
Greg: And in fact over by craft service, apparently Keanu Reeves would make like he’s, like a crock pot of brown rice. And he, he was just, like, obsessed with making the perfect bowl of brown rice, all these seasonings. And they would they would eat it with him. Like they would.
Joe: All just go over.
Greg: To the brown rice. And Keanu Reeves was obsessed with it. Which makes me think I should probably eat more brown rice. To be honest.
Joe: I’ve got a Reeves is eating brown rice and we all should be eating brown rice.
Greg: So he was in, like, action star shape in this movie. Yeah, he worked out for two months to get in that shape, which made me think I should work out for two months.
Joe: That’s it. And that’s it. To become.
Greg: Keanu Reeves in.
Joe: Speed. Yeah, and.
Greg: Maybe some brown rice. Let’s be.
Joe: Honest. Yeah, I’ll put.
Greg: Some seasonings on there. I’m not an animal.
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: Can we talk about Joe Morton?
Joe: Yeah, absolutely. Let’s. Let’s do it.
Greg: Joe Morton, we knew from Terminator two.
Joe:
Greg: Joe Morton is incredible in this movie.
Joe:
Greg: And he gives us the classic. He is on like a flatbed truck right next to the bus. And he’s talking to Keanu Reeves who’s inside the bus. Normal. Pretty much in normal volume. Yeah 50 miles an hour. Totally hearing each other. And there’s even a moment where Joe Morton almost like, whispers to him.
Joe: Yeah, great bad movie, you know, great bad movie.
Greg: Amazing. I do have to say that I he there was that scene as they’re kind of going through the traffic while they’re doing that. He’s in like a chopper. He’s in a helicopter.
Joe:
Greg: Kind of absurdly low flying chopper. Yeah. And when the chopper lands and he gets in the truck to be next to them on the freeway, a little part of me dies. It just a little sadness. Why are we walking away from the helicopter? You can’t go from helicopter to no helicopter. What are we doing here?
Joe: Yeah, if Tony Scott’s directing this film, there are like, seven helicopters at all times. Circling. It’s totally awesome.
Greg: Speaking of which, speaking of Tony Scott, acolytes, Michael Bay desperately wanted to make this movie, but the studio turned him down. But he actively pursued and tried to make this movie.
Joe: I’m glad he didn’t. I have, I have I have beef with Michael Bay if I know. So, yeah.
Greg: Should we just air that beef right now? I mean, you’ve talked about it in the past, but is there anything new you want to to share?
Joe: I feel like his movies are soulless and uncomfortable for me to watch. He’s a great action director. But I just there’s something about his films that just, I just don’t sit well with me. So yeah we’ve had to talk about this before but I think I’m going to have to like watch it with you and the mike.
Greg: It’s hard when you’re a person with a soul to watch a Michael Bay movie.
Joe: Yeah, I feel like I’m at a better place with it. And I could probably, you know.
Greg: You’re standards.
Joe: Are down. Yeah, but. But, yeah. You’re soul. Yeah. My soul standards are now Michael Bay level. So.
Greg: Wow. That is depressing.
Joe: Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Greg: Something really awesome about, Yann Dumont is that whenever there’s a special effect going on or some sort of. Yeah, I guess a special effect. He wants his stars to be in the same shot. So if you think about when Keanu Reeves leaves that coffee shop in the morning, this is like two weeks after the the elevator shenanigans.
Greg: By the way, he knows everybody in the coffee shop like a bus driver drops in and he everybody’s on a first name basis.
Joe: I know I want to go to that coffee shop. I know that was I walked away from.
Greg: I want to know somebody who has this kind of experience in their life. I don’t think this is I guess it’s a movie.
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: That cracked me up. But. So Keanu Reeves walks out of the coffee shop, says bye to the bus as it’s driving by, and then the camera goes around to the other side of Keanu Reeves car, and then behind him, the bus explodes. That’s the kind of thing that he’s trying to show action. And the actor in the same shot.
Greg: So that Keanu Reeves later in the movie actually was, like, strapped underneath the bus. And so they’re shooting Keanu Reeves, and then the camera just, like, goes down to the ground to show how close he is actually to the ground as, as the bus is moving. It’s a really good trick. I think every director should learn from, the two hit movies that John Dumont made and then kind of disappeared forever.
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: It’s a really great trick.
Joe: So, it it reminds me also of Man on Fire, too. There’s a scene where Denzel Washington is walking away, and there’s an explosion behind him. I remember seeing an interview with him and, like, what are you thinking in that shot? And he was like, we only got to do this one, so don’t mess it up. And basically all he’s thinking about how do you get like a real reaction to I mean, that’s a I mean that, you know, this is this is the, the plug for a real explosion.
Joe: You know, you get a true honest response. Like, I’m fine with enhancing things with CGI, but sure, CGI explosion and a real explosion are just they’re just different. And I, I don’t know.
Greg: 100%.
Joe: I can’t pull myself away from that. I know that probably terrible for the environment and all that. And yes, I, I don’t want to like, ruin the environment through explosions and and action movies, but.
Greg: Not I also do want to.
Joe: But I do. And for art it’s okay. Yeah.
Greg: And and throw a fan in the background to make it an action movie. Maybe some smoke going through it.
Joe: Yeah. Oh, done.
Greg: I’m in great use of fan. In the opening scene of this movie, that’s what they lead the, the crane through.
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: And then the crane flat kind of smashes through the fan. Amazing. Yeah. I really loved in the beginning when Keanu Reeves has to pry open the elevator he uses just like a simple Leatherman. Like some pliers.
Joe: Yeah, something that would never open an elevator. He just opens it.
Greg: Yeah, easily opens it. And then he, like, like, jams it into the door underneath to make it stay open.
Joe:
Greg: It’s like, man, I need to get some pliers. What am I doing in this airless existence?
Joe: My favorite part is like if you’ve ever been in an elevator, you can’t really hear what’s happening in other elevators, but somehow Dennis Hopper can hear everything that’s happening in the elevator shaft around him.
Greg: This is maybe, Ding and Dennis Hopper’s performance. He touches his finger to his ear to show us that he’s listening to something so many times, and I recognize there’s. They’re not asking a lot of you, Dennis Hopper, but, like, how many times are you going to. Are you going to touch your ear? Also, how many times is Dennis Hopper going to shoot through.
Joe: The.
Greg: Ceiling of something like that elevator when, Jeff Daniels and Keanu Reeves are on top?
Joe: Yeah. And not hit anything. Great man.
Greg: Shot great bad shots. Somehow he’s missing them. But then when they fall into the elevator, he doesn’t shoot them, because now he’s looking at them eye to eye.
Joe: There’s no reason that they don’t shoot him. Right. And that he doesn’t shoot them, other than we have another two hours of the movie to go through.
Greg: So there is one kind of smart line. When Keanu Reeves goes down into the elevator, he says, maybe they’d give me 3 million just for you, which kind of explains why he’s not going to shoot him now after he tried to shoot him and putting like, what are they like seven inch holes with the shot? And then the top of the elevator.
Joe: Dennis Hopper is out of bullets is why he doesn’t let them in there. Yeah, that’s.
Greg: Right, that’s right.
Joe: They could have shot him, though. End of movie. And it’s just a great short movie about an elevator. So.
Greg: Exactly. Credits roll the end.
Joe: Yeah. Yeah.
Greg: Throw out the first act and then make the first five pages of the second act. Last two hours.
Joe: Yeah. Done.
Greg: How do you feel about the guy who makes fun of Bob in the elevator at the beginning? You know, the the guys, the people who just close the business deal that are stuck in the elevator in the beginning.
Joe:
Greg: That kind of makes fun of my guy Bob.
Joe: Yeah. I felt a little bad for Bob. But also it’s not doesn’t go too far.
Greg: It’s all set up for when something goes wrong with the elevator. He says what button did you push Bob.
Joe: Yeah exactly. It’s all pretty good. That joke basically.
Greg: So it’s just weird. And stretching is what happens right there.
Joe: Yeah, because of that, the payoff is kind of worth it. I’m okay with it. But yeah, it’s on the edge for me.
Greg: It’s it’s a notable moment. It’s like, what are we doing here?
Joe: Why are we making fun of Bob?
Greg: I don’t know the name of the actor who’s playing Bob, but I’m on board with him. He’s in something. I love that guy. Yeah, he’s a real. He’s a real that guy.
Joe: Yeah, he’s a real that guy. He’s in a lot of things for, you know. Oh, I recognize that person. Yeah.
Greg: And honestly, when he pushed the button. But he did a pretty good job.
Joe:
Greg: After the bus blows up, out in front of the coffee shop, Keanu Reeves runs over to it and just doesn’t try to save anybody and nobody tries to get out. We are to understand that these people just immediately died when they exploded.
Joe: Yeah, I think so.
Greg: And kind of a similar thing with the plane at the end. Was there anybody in the plane that the bus crashes into?
Joe: That’s an important question that I don’t think we have the answer to, but it just reminded me of that moment. I remember in the theater, you know, you’re going to get the bus blowing up. Yeah. At the airport. Yeah. And then they do the like, oh, here’s this, they’re pulling this plane. And then you’re like sweet.
Joe: They’re going to blow everything up. That’s basically it’s it’s like well we got the money in the budget. Might as well do it. That’s kind of what I thought with that scene.
Greg: That plane cost $80,000.
Joe: Reportedly worth it. Worth it.
Greg: And it was. And then it was painted. Pacific Courier Freight on its side, which is a fake company that was also on the side of Alan Rickman’s crew. They’re trucks and die hard. And it was an inside joke between, Jackson De Govia, the production designer, and John about.
Joe: Interesting. Yeah. I notice on the back of the bus, too, it’s like, basically it’s all about the money or something. There’s there’s something written on the back of the bus. Yeah.
Greg: The ad. Yeah.
Joe: Yeah. And on both busses that blow up, there’s both references to money on both of them.
Greg: Really. Okay, so that’s Jackson De Govia just having a laugh.
Joe: Yeah. Who’s going to notice us?
Greg: So wait, this movie does take place in the heart of hearse?
Joe: I think so.
Greg: If Pacific Courier Freight is there.
Joe: Yeah. So it’s in the in the universe.
Greg: And it came out the year before Die Hard three, which was also a game.
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: I remember when Die Hard three came out, I was like, wait, this is kind of like speed with the game, and we’re following the rules and the whatever.
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: I actually had that feeling quite a bit in the years after this movie came out because, Mark Mancino, the guy who did the music, the soundtrack to this movie or the music for this movie, the main themes sound like every Jerry Bruckheimer produced movie for the next 10 to 15 years.
Greg: And apparently this was kind of the beginning of the end for orchestras and movies, because, studios realized they could just have someone with a keyboard do everything right. And, and so it’s that sound is the sound of orchestration dying in Hollywood. But also I love that speed, you know, kind of created the, the, the, the music brand for so many movies in the next 15 years.
Greg: It’s really incredible. Like, I think of, like, any I mean, I mean, you could point out any show that Bruckheimer produced, TV show or movie. But like, I want to say Pirates of the Caribbean.
Joe: Absolutely. I feel like this movie is it holds up now in a way that I wasn’t expecting. I hadn’t seen it. I haven’t seen this movie in a really long time. Yeah. So yeah, I was super excited to watch it. Yep. And to me, it was like, if you made this movie shot for shot today, recast it. However, but shot the shot, it’s still it’s a great movie.
Joe: Yeah. There’s a lot of stuff that I feel like they’re using today in action movies that, you know, that they pulled from. There’s not too many cliches either. Like, that was the thing, like, there’s a lot of movies that we watch. There’s lots of tropes or even and, you know, extraction, there’s lots of just like action movie tropes.
Joe: Yeah, they kind of go against the grain on some of that. There’s some interesting things that they’re doing, kind of from a just a cinematic perspective that I really appreciate about this movie and really love, even at the time when I watched it, it’s unexpected and in ways that I appreciate.
Greg: And they find every single way to ratchet up the tension.
Joe:
Greg: I will say that they do start to repeat ideas throughout the movie, like they didn’t finish the freeway, so they have to jump that part of the freeway. And then when he’s on the train at the end they didn’t finish the train track.
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: So it’s like well now guys come on.
Joe: Yeah. That was a little lazy writing for me. Yeah.
Greg: The, Okay. Two things about that. The the jumping the freeway was something that John Dumont thought about as they were scouting the movie. They actually film this on, nearly finished, 105 down in LA, and they finished filming on a Friday. And that highway opened on a Monday. And so throughout the movie, they are driving by.
Greg: The construction crews constantly, who are like doing different things to finish up the job. But that also means that every car that you see in this movie, in the background is part of the movie set. They’re part of the movie crew. And I guess, like resetting a shot was just a logistical nightmare.
Joe: Oh, I can only imagine driving back.
Greg: And so if next time you watch it, there are some scenes where there’s like, nobody outside the window and it’s like, well, let’s just film it. And, you know, that’ll be kind of out of focus, and no one will notice that there’s nobody on the road out there.
Joe: Yeah, nobody cares about that anyway.
Greg: No no no no. But that’s I love that, you know, like for, The Matrix two, they had to build that highway.
Joe: I think. Yeah, I think you’re right.
Greg: But for this, they just, you know, got to use a highway for a couple months. Kind of amazing. So that that jump wasn’t in the script. So maybe the the train track at the end was the only instance of they didn’t finish the track and then they kind of stole that, you know, to do it again.
Greg: That was that was the most expensive shot in the movie. The best jumping. Should we talk about the jump for a second.
Joe: Like yeah we should probably talk about that because it’s, it’s real ridiculous.
Joe: I know that they actually gi remember seeing a making of like when this movie came out and yeah actually jump a bus not like over that. But they did like jump it and film it and then like kind of splice the filming together on that over the gap. But that’s pretty, it’s pretty silly. And and this.
Greg: So in the jump the gap was all digital effects. That’s one of the reasons it was so, expensive. But they floored the bus for I think about a mile to get it up to something like 65 miles an hour. And then it went over that jump, and they did it twice, because the first time it landed too cleanly, it was too it just looked too fake because it landed actually really well.
Greg: Right. And so then they did it again to make it a bit more raucous. And then they filmed inside with the people in the bus. And they went over a little jump a couple times to kind of film them actually going over a jump as well. But I, I don’t think you can call this a great, great movie.
Greg: And if you have to point at one thing, it’s because of the bus jump. Like when it gets to the spot where it has to go over it, it’s suddenly the front of the bus just goes up.
Joe: For.
Greg: Zero reason. It’s kind of like that scene in Mission Impossible two where like, he goes on the front wheel and turns around and is able to shoot somebody. It’s just like, give me a break. And every time I watch this movie, it’s like, what? What bus would do that? Like, like the wind hits it and it just kind of like the front just goes straight up.
Joe: Yeah, there’s like a gust of wind coming underneath the gap. And it actually exactly.
Greg: Like it makes absolutely no sense. I mean, I’m totally here for it. Don’t get me wrong.
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: But it is so preposterous.
Joe: Yeah, exactly. My favorite part, actually, in the end, and I didn’t notice this until this time of watching. And I probably seen this movie 4 or 5 times. Yeah, it’s when they’re on the subway, and of course, it’s not finished. So what are they going to do? And like, the emergency brakes aren’t working. And so he decides to speed up.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: But if he can speed up, he could also slow it down. And I never.
Joe: So it’s like, okay, you just wanted the final scene where they fly through the air and land uses emergency brakes.
Greg: Anyways.
Joe: I know we kind of jump that track. We’re going to speed up and jump the track and all I could think of. Wait, why?
Greg: The movie’s not called brakes?
Joe: Yeah. Oh, my.
Greg: Gosh, that’s really funny. By the way, Richard Schiff was the guy who was driving that that train from the West Wing. Toby from the West Wing.
Joe: That’s awesome.
Greg: He and someone else on the bus was in Jurassic Park to the Lost World.
Joe: Yeah, people on the bus. There’s a lot of that. Like that guy. Like there’s the person from Ferris Bueller.
Greg: Alan ruck.
Joe: Yeah. Alan Ruck, the lady that gets, you know, tries to get off the bus and.
Greg: Helen.
Joe: Blown up. Yeah.
Greg: By the way, we have to call him out. Mac. Joe Morton is the reason Helen died. Because she’s standing by the door and he’s like, come on out, come on out.
Joe: He should have known better.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: Should we get to the back of the box? So let’s.
Greg: Imagine that somebody is listening to this that has never seen this movie, and yet they have stuck with us.
Joe: For.
Greg: 18 hours into.
Joe: This episode. Yeah.
Greg: Somebody is walking down the video store. They’re trying to figure out if they should read speed. They look at the back of the box to read the synopsis. What would the back of the box say for speed?
Joe: It’s the back of the box. Pop quiz. You’re on a bus that cannot go slower than 50 miles an hour or it explodes. What do you do? What do you do? Strap in and hang tight as a bus rigged with explosives has to navigate rush hour traffic while keeping its speed up. No one is safe. Baby carriages are hit, bodies fly and heads will roll.
Joe: In this nonstop thrill ride. Can Jack, Keanu Reeves and Annie Sandra Bullock stop the mad man at the center of this movie or become another casualty of this maniacal plot?
Greg: Amazing. So what is the real back of the box, though? Like what’s what’s Joe’s take on this? What’s the real back of the box?
Joe: Real back of the box. All right, so, this movie has it all taking the Die Hard in a fill in the blank location. It gives you three different cloistered environments. We got a great opening scene in an elevator, the bus that cannot drop below 50 miles an hour, and it ends on a subway. If you like. Real explosions.
Joe: Dennis Hopper being exceptional as the bad guy. Although maybe a caveat there. Well, maybe. And the and Keanu Reeves in this movie is for you. The premise is beyond ridiculous, but it all works to perfection. This movie is the chef’s kissed image to die hard, and we are all better for it.
Greg: Absolutely. Six years afterwards.
Joe:
Greg: And we weren’t tired of it yet.
Joe: I feel like I want to make sure that I’m not overstating this, but this might be the best. Die hard in Fill in the blank movie. Post the Die hard a verse.
Greg: Yep.
Joe: I’m trying to think of a better one. I mean, Under Siege, maybe, but Steven Seagal is such an unlikable hero in that that it’s a little hard. Is this the best die hard in a blank.
Greg: Okay, well, let me throw some important films. Okay. We will definitely be covering Bayou.
Joe: Okay.
Greg: Executive decision.
Joe: I’ll take speed by this. Much like. Okay.
Greg: How much to the listener? I was a little bit. Yeah, a little bit a centimeter. You went metric on that one?
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: Passenger 57.
Joe: I’ll take speed. I passenger 57 is good, but it’s. I will take executive decision over passenger 57 two. Okay. Okay. Movies. We will all for sure get two.
Greg: Absolutely. I have one more.
Joe: All right.
Greg: And it’s. It’s close. Air force one.
Joe: I haven’t seen that movie in so long. I’m giving it the speed only because of, recency bias. Because I’ve seen speed more recently than Air Force One. But I feel like that’s probably. Oh, that’s going to be tough. Well, we’ll we may have to be one of our next few movies and then we’ll, we’ll settle this debate.
Greg: I have watched it recently. Let’s rank these after we’ve watched it. We will definitely be getting to Air Force One. Something I love about speed though. I mean, as you’re ranking it against these others as you don’t think it’s going to be this good.
Joe:
Greg: And so we have no reason to think that this is going to be a great movie.
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: And then they just milk it for every possible kind of stakes they can add. You know like we’re running out of gas because he was underneath the bus trying to defuze the bomb. And he put his screwdriver into the gas tank. And then they went over some spikes so that the tires are also hilariously, slowly falling apart.
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: Just whenever it’s convenient for the plot. Okay. Well we have clearly shown that we love this movie. Joe, should we get to what the critics thought of this movie?
Joe: Yeah. Let’s do it.
Greg: Rotten tomatoes score. And I, I contend that Rotten Tomatoes scores for movies this old can sometimes be a little bit hyperbolic.
Joe:
Greg: Because there’s only 79 reviews and Rotten Tomatoes. But what what do you think this movie has on Rotten Tomatoes?
Joe: I remember seeing the review of this movie on At the Movies with Siskel and Ebert. And they love this movie. So I think it’s going to be pretty high.
Greg: 95%.
Joe: Okay.
Greg: On Rotten Tomatoes.
Joe: That seems really high. Yeah. Seems high. But also for the time this is a great movie.
Greg: So so when you narrow it down to just the top critics and there’s only 22 reviews on here, it’s 86%. But we don’t do that when we’re talking about this. 95 feels quite high to me. I’m going to say it’s it’s what, like 25% high.
Joe: Yeah. About that feels like a 70.
Greg: Yeah. It feels like a 70 to me. Audience score.
Joe: I mean, I, I got to land somewhere around 70.
Greg: It’s a 77.
Joe: Okay. That’s close to 70. In our wheelhouse.
Greg: This is a perfect movie for us.
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: This movie should be called Best Case scenario for a future podcast. Great bad movies I wanted to read. Janet Maslin review from the New York Times. She says clever action films. And then in parentheses, Die Hard two and The Fugitive, for instance. And I just have to point out that critics loved Die Hard two. This much the New York Times is saying that that was a more clever movie.
Greg: Clever action films like Die Hard two and The Fugitive, for instance, deliver more sardonic intelligence, but this one still gets the job done. So can I ask you, Joe? Die hard in an airport versus a die hard in a bus. Which where do you rank those? Die hard two versus speed.
Joe: I do love Die Hard two.
Greg: Wow. Wow.
Joe: I shot like, fired right now. I might have to take speed over die hard to again. I want to put in recency bias. Sure. As a caveat, I haven’t seen Die Hard two in a while. Yeah, I think what I remember about Die Hard two is it’s a little the character is kind of outside of John McClane. It’s like, it’s a little bit more harsh dialog.
Joe: There’s actually something really kind of supportive and nice. All the characters are pretty supportive. And that’s not Die Hard too. So I think I give it the speed. If a ranking on, you know, on a curve. Both of these movies are spectacular. So yeah. If you’re watching Speed or Die Hard two, you’ve made some really good choices in your life.
Joe: Because all I’m saying.
Greg: Totally agree. I’m with you there. And, I have also watched Die Hard two recently, so.
Joe: It’s the second best Christmas movie ever made. So of course, we’re going to get to Die Hard two.
Greg: Roger Ebert, who gives us a four out of four, says, we’ve seen this done before, but seldom so well or at such a high pitch of energy. It’s a great review. I really appreciate the negative reviews for this movie. The Washington Post says the plot becomes so overextended as Reeves and Hopper waged their endless public transportation battle.
Greg: Even the hardest diehard ERS will consider leaping off way before the final stop. This one kind of resonates with me because I do wonder in the last half hour of this movie, what are we doing? Where is this going?
Joe: I’m in the tank for this movie, so I’m, I’m like, yes. Oh, another scene where we’re, you know. Yes, please. More of this.
Greg: I read that the studio realized that they had something good on their hands when during a test screening, they noticed that people would walk backwards out of the theater if they had to go to the bathroom so that they wouldn’t miss as much.
Joe:
Greg: The walking backwards was a good sign.
Joe: Interesting.
Greg: Well, we love this movie. Critics love this movie. And guess what. So did Planet Earth because this movie was made for $30 million. It made 121 million in the US, and it made 229 million internationally for a total of $350 million for speed.
Joe: That’s I mean, well deserved to me.
Greg: Can you even imagine what that number is now after it’s been on VHS, DVD, Blu ray, digital? It’s been on TNT forever, you know.
Joe:
Greg: This movie has made them a lot of money. Oh, another thing I want to mention. To grind this into, you know, to stop our episode the way I do with trivia. Before we get to drinking games. Is that they had 13 different busses that did 13 different things. Whenever the camera was outside of the bus, filming the bus.
Greg: If you look in kind of like the stairwell, there’s someone kind of hidden towards the right side of the bus in the front, actually driving it so that, Sandra Bullock is not actually driving it. She’s pretend driving it. And when the camera is inside the bus, there is someone sitting on top of the bus driving it from the top.
Joe: Awesome. Yeah.
Greg: Amazing.
Joe: If they made that to be, they would probably just put it on a trailer and film all the interior scenes. Like, totally actually driving, but the bus isn’t driving.
Greg: Yeah. So that’s a really good point. Joe, we need to post some pictures on our Instagram feed. Great bad movies show showing the drinking games that are happening out there at Great Bad Movie parties.
Joe:
Greg: People getting together, hanging out, living their best lives, watching movies that we’ve had on our show and they’re drinking and it doesn’t have to be alcohol. They’re assigning drinking games to each other to drink when certain things happen in the movie.
Joe: It’s time for drinking games. You don’t have to be to it. You don’t have to drink alcohol. You can drink coffee. You can drink water, juice. Whatever floats your boat. I’ll start with our stock drinking games. I think some missed opportunities, honestly. They go silent. Helicopter. Actually, there isn’t a silent helicopter. You can drink kind of for this one, because there’s some conversations that happen within the guise of a helicopter being present in the scene.
Joe: Yep. Not not the classic, you know, one kiss good night, silent helicopter that we, we love so much. But, you know, if you want to.
Greg: Let me modify this one, I don’t think you. I don’t think you should drink every time you see a helicopter. But I do think you should drink every time a helicopter is slightly turned to the side and flying sort of sideways, which just looks awesome, which I think is why they’re doing it. But also there’s like, news camera person there, like on the side filming.
Greg: So I think that’s, that’s why they’re doing that. But it just looks awesome when there’s like a sort of sideways flying helicopter in this movie. And they’re also like absurdly low flying helicopters. So whenever there’s a slightly sideways turned absurdly low flying helicopter, take a drink.
Joe: Yeah. Well, what we’ll call the Tony Scott helicopter effect. You know, there’s not a push in and enhance.
Greg: No.
Joe: I kind of gave this one. When two people share a slow motion look in the middle of chaos, because there’s there’s a moments where, there’s some explosions, there’s some stuff that happened. So this one’s like, kind of a gimme just because there weren’t a lot of our stock drinking games in this. Yeah, there was, there wasn’t.
Joe: The silent suffering ringing in the ears with the explosion missed opportunity because there’s lots of explosions in this movie.
Greg: Could have happened so many times.
Joe: Opening credits scene where the title locks in place with a sound. You are drinking a lot at this one. The score is perfect. This is like the classic.
Greg: Is there like a woosh with every name?
Joe: Feels like it. Yeah, it’s like the floors because you’re going down. So you have like the woosh of the floors and then the people and the. And then you have the, the title coming in. So you’re.
Greg: And speed does make a noise when it slides in.
Joe:
Greg: And then it turns and flies at the camera.
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: I think the whole party is starting with a double drink at that point.
Joe: Yeah. Absolutely. Does it flash back to dialog two minutes ago or longer. No not really. No not really crazy CGI which I really appreciate in this film.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: Great. Bad shot. We talked about this. Yes. There are great bad shots. The streets are not inextricably wet. Another missed opportunity. I feel like they could have had the car jumping over a wet street.
Greg: Although they do hit a lot of things with water.
Joe: That’s true.
Greg: But we’ll get to that.
Joe: Oh, we’ll definitely get to that. I feel like we both have that as a drinking game. There is not a give us the room. And there’s no reference to Interpol, which are other doctor. Good game. So I will toss it to you because I have a fair amount of drinking games.
Greg: I think you probably have more than me. So you should start.
Joe: Okay, well, I have every time a median bucket of water explodes or a car crashes into, like, those buckets by the the the exits and off ramps, the top, and that’s incredible.
Greg: I have anytime a car flies over the camera.
Joe: Oh, that’s a good one. I have every time a road or track is not finished, you’re taking a drain.
Greg: I have anytime the bus rolls under the camera.
Joe: Oh, good. Nice. I have every time Sandra Bullock cries. She’s so good at, like, being teary but delivering her lines.
Greg: So anytime somebody hits a baby carriage full of cans.
Joe: That’s that’s like a double right there. Happens once but you’re not expecting it. That was, that was like you know the raising the stakes because I hit it. Yeah. You know and then you’re like oh my God is there actually a baby in there. And then you find out his cans and everyone is okay with that.
Greg: So that’s kind of a two people share a slow motion look in the middle of chaos. Yeah. Moment.
Joe: Absolutely. I have every time someone falls through something. So there’s the elevator scene where there’s an explosion and someone kind of falls through the elevator. Yeah, they fall through the explosion on the bus. There’s multiple times where that happens. So.
Greg: Speaking of the elevator, this is something I forgot to mention. One of my favorite things about this movie is whenever they show an elevator floor and it changes, there’s, like, a tick noise.
Joe:
Greg: This must be the most annoying building on the planet to work in, because every time we hit a new floor, it ticks. So any time an elevator or clock ticks when a digital number changes and a tick should not happen when a digital clock does this.
Joe: That’s awesome. I have every time they show a shot of the speedometer on the bus, you take a drink.
Greg: Oh, that’s amazing how did I not think of that? I have every time Dennis Hopper touches his ear. Oh.
Joe: I have every time Dennis Hopper says pop quiz. That’s better.
Greg: That’s way better than this one. Any time they show a fan.
Joe: Oh, no, I like that one. That’s like a 90s, mid early 90s. Like action movie trope. Yes, you love it. I have, and another one is every time the bus hits a car of I feel like someone you want. That’s especially early in this film or you’re drinking a lot on this.
Greg: That’s rough. That’s rough. Okay. My last one, this is my last one. I don’t have a lotta drinking games this week. Any time Dennis Hopper shoots through the roof of something.
Joe: Shockingly, that’s actually a lot in this movie.
Joe: I have a couple more I have anytime someone is masticating or chewing something. So you have to read fake chewing his gum.
Greg: Mime chewing.
Joe: You have Sandra Bullock chewing gum. So the reason she changes seats early in the film, which.
Greg: She made up, by the way, she can prove that.
Joe: Some good for her. And then you have Dennis Hopper eating a sandwich at another point. Yeah, and then another one. That’s for anybody that you want to see drink a lot. Whether you want them to be hydrated and they’re drinking water, or you want them to be really tipsy. And every time they say bomb, you have to take a drink.
Joe:
Greg: That’s incredible.
Joe: I’ll do our rapid fire trope so I won’t go through all the tropes, but we’ll give you a, color filter on the third world country for just the elevator that we use. We have kind of the Odd couple unlikely partnership with Keanu Reeves and, Sandra Bullock. Yeah, I have friend, colleague or family member, usually a person of color who dies early in the film.
Joe: This is Jeff Daniels taking one for the team. You have a charismatic, although, but a little, asterisk by this one if you’re Greg, charismatic bad guy.
Greg: Yeah. He’s charismatic. I get that charismatic.
Joe: All right. Explosion on impact in a car crash. Lots of that. Lots of conversations in the middle of a car chase or in the middle of. You know. Yes. You know, talking. Yeah. Action movie trope. No women except for the love interest or the mother. So you have, you know, Sandra Bullock really has the the love interest, although I’ve.
Joe: That one’s the iffy one. Just because she has a, she’s got a, a strong character as well. Yeah. Yeah. Duffle bag full of money. We have that. Oh yeah. And one of my favorites especially from this time you end on a crane or elevator shot as you back away from the scene. So yeah.
Greg: So you might have been watching a great bad movie. Yeah. We take off a few of those.
Joe: Yeah, a few of, though. There were more than I thought when I was going through it.
Greg: But, Joe, I feel like there’s some very important questions that we should answer about this movie. Are you ready for important questions?
Joe: Oh, yeah. Bring it on. I am so ready for this. I think it’s gonna blow your mind.
Greg: Okay, I love it.
Joe:
Greg: Did this movie hold up, then? In 1994?
Joe: 100%. Yeah. It held up then.
Greg: Yeah. No brainer. Yeah. Does it hold up now?
Joe: Yeah, I think it holds up just as well, honestly. Yep.
Greg: I think it holds up 1% less than it did then. That’s pretty good.
Joe: That’s pretty good. Yeah.
Greg: Pretty good. How hard do they sell the good guy?
Joe: They don’t really.
Greg: No. Nobody talks about how great Jack is. We’ve been watching all these movies where they, like, show how good the good guy is. But the selling of the good guy is like, someone talks him up because what he’s showing us is not sufficient to let us know. Basically. Is it a Steven Seagal movie or not?
Joe: But.
Greg: How hard do they sell the bad guy?
Joe: They do some. They do sell the bad guy more. And then a little bit, not as much as they have in other other films, but they do sell the bad guy a little bit in this, for sure.
Greg: There’s the classic like rap sheet. Or I guess it’s not a rap sheet. Like they find his like employee file or something. And so they talk about what kind of expert he is and amazing selling of the bad guy even though it’s short. Why is there romance in this movie.
Joe: The beautiful thing about this movie is there’s hardly any romance in it. And I’ve got to shout out to my wife, Gillian, who said they threw romance in this movie because they were, I thought at the end, there’s basically like a kiss between Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock. I’m like.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: And she’s like, oh, maybe women are watching this movie too. So that’s why there’s romance in this movie is maybe some women are watching it all the way to the end and going, oh, we need some romance to keep them interested in that. So that’s why there’s romance in this movie.
Greg: Let’s see. Interesting facts. Sandra Bullock had a mad crush on Keanu Reeves while they were filming this movie, and Keanu Reeves also had a crush on Sandra Bullock while they were making this movie. And they never dated. But in their scenes together, you can tell you can have a crush on each other.
Joe: Yeah, you can feel it. Great. They have such great chemistry in this.
Greg: They totally do. They made a bunch more movies together, right? They made.
Joe: The Lake House.
Greg: Is there another one?
Joe: I feel like that could have been that.
Greg: All right. Does this movie deserve a sequel?
Joe: It probably does deserve a sequel. Keanu Reeves had the foresight to to to bow out of the sequel. Sure. So, but I feel like there probably could be 4 or 5 sequels to this. Easy. There’s only one.
Greg: There is only one cruise control.
Joe: But yeah, which I have not seen, which we will for sure do on this episode are the podcast.
Greg: So I question that.
Joe: Okay.
Greg: To be honest.
Joe: That that it’s that bad,
Greg: There is almost no greatness to it.
Joe: Oh wow. Okay, so it’s just a bad, bad movie.
Greg: Just a bad move. It’s a little bit of a soul crushing experience.
Joe: Okay?
Greg: There’s a reason John Devine doesn’t make movies anymore, and I think it’s mostly speed to. We should get to it. We should do it. Okay. We can watch a bad movie.
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: Does this movie deserve a prequel?
Joe: No, no it doesn’t. No, I.
Greg: Agree with you. There. Yeah. Stop it with the prequels. Yeah. How can this movie be fixed? AKA who should be in the remake?
Joe: Okay, I have I’m going to blow your mind with this. The sequel is Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock are back. Okay.
Greg: Solid start.
Joe: They break up after the first movie. Yeah, he is still a cop. He’s about to retire. Okay. Jason Patrick is the bad guy. Jilted ex-lover from the second movie.
Greg: Yes.
Joe: And they are locked in self-driving cars being attacked by other self-driving cars.
Greg: That’s why I love it. This is the third speed movie. Yes. Which we can all agree should be called Threed.
Joe: Right, 100%. Now everything that’s.
Greg: I love it, green lights across the board. Call anybody you want. They’re gonna be like, absolutely. Threed is self-driving cars. Let’s do it.
Joe: Yeah. How would you fix this movie?
Greg: Something that interested me as I was watching this is. I just feel like there’s not enough buzz. If this movie was made today, there would be more buzz. So if there’s going to be a remake, it would almost exclusively be buzz.
Joe:
Greg: Like the beginning of the movie is they’re getting on the bus and the end of the movie is it crashes into a plane and kills hundreds of people. It’s like a Boeing seven. Oh seven yeah. And thank goodness the bus exploded. Sorry about all those people on the plane. But yeah, when they made this movie, the studio said, we’re not going to buy this script because it’s too much bus.
Greg: And so then he added on the train and they’re like, okay, there’s a train at the end of okay, which I just don’t understand. But I also think that when I heard that the, the people on the bus had larger, more fleshed out parts in the original script, I feel like this could be a TV show similar to that show lost.
Joe:
Greg: Where each episode begins during the events of speed, but then flashes back to tell a backstory of each person that’s on the bus. So I’m kind of sneaking in a prequel. I’m sneaking in dozens of prequels, probably.
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: But I think everybody on the bus, we could get to know more of who they were in the form of, flashbacks and then everything that happens to them in the movie speed maybe means more. Maybe this is a horrible idea.
Joe: I’m. I’m in on that. I totally I would watch that because it’s like, you know, it’s a limited series. They kind of you get a little like elevated a little bit.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: You know, I can totally see that that series. So yeah, I mean.
Greg: But ultimately I think that this movie is pretty untouchable.
Joe:
Greg: It’s perfect in its time. And the only thing I would do is make it mostly Bus Joe, if this movie was to be an album by a musical artist, what album is this.
Joe: I came up with. I took an album from 1994, one that you can kind of make fun of, you know, because people often make fun of Keanu Reeves sometimes for his not always perfect acting. But I took an, an out, a band that kind of doesn’t take themselves too seriously. So I have Smash by The Offspring as the album that this is.
Joe: Wow. From 1994. They’re kind of a silly punk band. Kind of made fun of a little bit not taking that seriously, but they’ve they’ve really stood the test of time, kind of go back and look at some of their work and they’re putting out some good music over time. Don’t take themselves too seriously, being kind of silly. But yeah, you know, not that they’re punk band, but not in the true punk sense.
Joe: So that that was the album I came up with. I’m dying to know what you came up with.
Greg: That’s a really great call. They have way more hits than you think.
Joe:
Greg: So I was trying to think of, basically, what is the album version of a Die Hard into something that is so much better than it deserves to be, but it it is clearly reminiscent of something else. But then at some point you stop thinking about how it’s something else and you kind of just enjoy it on its own merits.
Greg: And so I think this is, the first Interpol record.
Joe: Oh, okay.
Greg: Turn on the bright lights, which when it came out in Seattle, the journalists in Seattle were just either like, loving it or hating it. I remember The stranger, the Seattle Weekly. They were just like, either this is great and everyone should listen to it, or this is I don’t understand, this is just Joy Division. Why are we okay with a band that is just Joy Division?
Greg: Yeah. And then eventually, I don’t know, in the next year or two. See, like most people kind of turn around, they’re like, this is actually just a really good record. And I listened to it a couple weeks ago and I was like, this is just a classic album on its own merits. This is the speed of rock records.
Joe: That’s a really good album. I like that, yeah, because I had the same thought the first time I heard that album. I was like, why? Why did you put Joy Division on? Yeah, yeah. You know, or are they just doing a, an homage to Joy Division or, you know, what is going on here? Yeah. You know.
Greg: Yeah. And there were.
Joe: But it’s also a really good. And I love that album. That’s a great choice.
Greg: I think Peter Caddis produced that record. Or engineered it and he, I kind of tracked him for like the next five, ten years. And there are just so many Peter Caddis recordings that are incredible. And the following decade by the National or Frightened Rabbit.
Joe:
Greg: Or I think that band Gang of Youths.
Joe:
Greg: There’s just something really sneaky about about the way he engineers records that are just incredible. All right, Joe, so we rate every movie that we watch. Hopefully it’s going to be a great bad movie. But sometimes we watch a good, bad movie or an okay, bad movie, a bad, bad movie or like worst case, awful bad movie. I think we both know what you’re going to say right now.
Greg: How do you rank this movie?
Joe: I would love to go. Great, great movie. But this there’s there’s a few too many strings pulling on me. This is a great, bad movie. It is spectacular in its ways. It’s got a fun cast, lots of explosions and silliness and just a really solid action movie. So this is a great bad movie. I would love to like, push it up, but yeah, I can’t.
Joe: What about you, Greg Swineherd? How or how do you rank this?
Greg: Well, I’m right there with you. It’s a great I think it’s a great bad movie. It is probably one of the greatest bad movies.
Joe: A great.
Greg: But there are moments where it’s just like, this is so ridiculous. I, you know, it’s like our our thesis. When it’s bad, it’s sometimes even greater, you know, and, and they’re just moments in this movie where that’s the case. Something I didn’t mention is you alluded to this movie has some funny moments. Joss Whedon wrote some really funny parts to this movie.
Greg: And there’s this is a really funny movie. Throughout like the when the when the elevator at the beginning is falling down and then suddenly the emergency brake turns on and it doesn’t crash. What does the guy say at the bottom? Like, usually this is where the people die or something like that.
Joe: Something like that. Yeah.
Greg: And then there’s the moment where, when Keanu Reeves shoots Jeff Daniels, he shoots the hostage. And he does kind of like a physical take like, I don’t know, I’m just, you know, making this up as I go, you know, there are so many good character based funny moments in this movie that that that’s the great column.
Greg: But I do think this is a great bad movie. All right. Joe, we did it.
Joe: Nailed it. We had the conversation that needed to be had about speed.
Greg: You know, there have been a lot of retrospective pieces about this movie in the last 30 years, but I think this kind of puts the lid on that. I think we’re done from from here on out. The conversation has happened.
Joe: Yeah. Nobody else really needs to talk about this movie. I think we’ve we’ve really shut the door on this and you know.
Greg: So. Oh, oh, I, actually need to get going. I need to go buy some pliers in case I ever need to get into an elevator.
Joe: That’s that’s good thinking. I’m going to go for a drive, but I really sure hope that the road is finished, so. Well, see.
Greg: That is isn’t that makes a lot of sense. And actually, you know, that works for me because I need to go. And there’s this guy that I work with named Bob, and I think he’s starting to get a little full of himself. So I need to go bring him down a notch.
Joe: Yeah, that’s that’s probably wise. Anyway, after I go for a drive, I’m going to get on the subway. And I sure hope the line that’s finished on that too. So who knows.
Greg: Okay, great. Because that works for me. Because, you know, a friend just texted me and said that I really should, come out and check out this beautiful sunset that’s happening inside an elevator.
Joe: Oh, interesting. I sure hope the plane I’m flying on doesn’t get hit by a bus with a bomb on it. For some reason.
Greg: You know what? It happens. Yeah. I don’t know what you’re going to do about it. I mean, honestly, I feel like I should go because I think a future part of this podcast is unfinished, and I should we should get out of here before we hit that part.
Joe: Yeah. Or just jump it, you know? Just jump it. Sure. Let me see that. Yeah. Anyway, I gotta run anyway, I’m giving a pop quiz later, so, we’ll see how that goes.
Greg: If that makes sense. You’re such a hot shot at this. Yeah. It’s amazing. That. You know what? That totally works for me, because I need to go to a coffee shop where I know everyone super well and see them every day.
Joe: Oh, that’s interesting. I just got a tip. I got to go check out this house in the suburbs. I sure hope they don’t rager with a bomb again. So.
Greg: You know what? I’ve got some good news and bad news.
Joe: Okay.
Greg: This is weird. I feel like I should go because I think I hear in the distance a payphone on the street by my house is ringing, and pretty sure it’s the bad guy. And my next adventure.
Joe: Okay, I feel like one, like footnote. We didn’t talk about the payphone enough.
Greg: And can we talk about it right now?
Joe: Yeah. That’s such a trope from those times of, like, you know, someone calling a payphone and then someone answering it. Yes. So what’s,
Greg: A couple years ago, my dad, just out of nowhere, said, you’ll never guess what I saw today. Someone on a payphone.
Joe: I’ve got to go. I’ve got to make sure of the building I’m going to has a crane on top, just in case you’re mad. Man has equipped the elevator with a bomb, and I need to save the passenger. So.
Greg: You know, that really works for me. Because you know what my feeling is, is something’s wrong about that. He’s going to blow it anyway, so you should go.
Joe: Okay. Yeah. Anyway, I’m going to a retirement party for someone from Atlanta. I sure hope he got the gold watch at the end of this. So.
Greg: All right, well, I guess that I’ll see you soon.
Joe: Yeah. Dude.