From sci-fi classics like “The Matrix” to the high kill-count “John Wick”, Keanu Reeves has achieved a career bookended by titanic titles in film history. Five years before he became Neo, though, Reeves was already starring in genre-defining action films. The 1994 movie “Speed” won over 20 prestigious awards, including the Saturn Award for Best Action/Adventure/Thriller Film, as well as the Academy Awards for Best Sound and Best Effects. You can check out the genesis of Keanu Reeves’ rise as an action star; “Speed” is now streaming on Hulu.
In a filmography decorated by all-time greats, “Speed” is actually the second-highest-rated movie starring Keanu Reeves. It holds a critic score of 95% on Rotten Tomatoes, falling only behind 2019’s “Toy Story 4,” in which Reeves voiced the character Duke Caboom. The highest-rated “John Wick” film, “John Wick: Chapter 4,” stands at 94% on Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences are somewhat more critical of “Speed,” assigning it an aggregated rating of 77%. Even so, there can be no doubt that the 90’s car-chase classic rivals the best “gun-fu” films that have defined Keanu Reeves’ longstanding popularity.
High-speed action that still makes the heart race
When Los Angeles police officer Jack Traven (Keanu Reeves) foils the plans of a bomb expert turned extortionist, the enraged criminal hatches a plan to get revenge on Traven. He arms a city bus with a bomb that’s rigged to explode if the bus drops below a speed of 50 miles per hour. The result is a high-speed action film that literally never slows down. Jack Traven must manage negotiations with a terrorist, diffuse drama aboard a bus filled with passengers fearing for their lives, and fend off obstacles that would cause the bus to fall below the speed threshold.
Keanu Reeves was nominated for Best Male Performance from the MTV Movie Awards for his role as Jack Traven in “Speed.” It was a promising start for a career that would culminate in many awards and nominations for “The Matrix” and “John Wick”, among other standout films. For its part, “Speed” is a quintessential 90’s action flick, with all the thrills, charm, and cheese that entails. It’s streaming now on Hulu alongside a selection of other must-watch movies like Freya Allan’s “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes”.
