Speed (1994 film)/Trivia

• Dueling Movies: Another movie about attempts to stop a Mad Bomber came out three weeks after Speed: Blown Away. Speed crushed it at the box office anyway.
• Hey, It's That Guy!: Neo and Gracie Hart are stuck on a bus that has been rigged to blow by the mad bomber, Easy Rider.
  • Alan Ruck (Ferris Bueller's buddy Cameron, Rabbit in Twister, Stuart in Spin City, and The Captain of the Enterprise-B in Star Trek: Generations) is Stephens, one of the passengers.
  • Additionally, some may recognize Joe Morton, who plays the police captain, as Henry, from the Syfy series Eureka. (Well, I did anyway). Slightly more people may have recognised him as Miles Bennet Dyson. They have detailed files.
  • And a tiny fraction of viewers might have spotted Leonardo da Vinci on the bus.
  • Apparently Phil left Dharma and got stuck in an elevator.
  • Richard Schiff is the subway driver at the end. Poor Tobey!
  • The sequel features Jesus (as well as King Koopa {Bowser} as its big bad).
• Star-Making Role: Sandra Bullock. To a lesser extent, Keanu Reeves. He had a fairly extensive filmography beforehand, but Speed, and eventually The Matrix trilogy cemented him as an A-lister more than Bill and Ted or Point Break.
• Technology Marches On: Jack having to take the cell phone of the driver of the car he hijacks before getting on the bus was believable in 1994. A little odd today, since Jack would most likely have his own, as would probably every passenger on the bus.
• Tom Hanks Syndrome: While Keanu Reeves was already quite well-known as Ted, this showed he could manage dramatic roles.
• What Could Have Been: The leads were written with Jeff Bridges and Ellen DeGeneres in mind, not to mention that Keanu himself was originally going to reprise his role in the sequel.
  • Halle Berry turned down the role of Annie and calls it one of the dumbest decisions she'd ever made in her career. This was before Catwoman of course.
  • Quentin Tarantino was originally the first choice for Director after the success of Reservoir Dogs. Tarantino turned down the offer, instead choosing to focus on the creation of Pulp Fiction.

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