A Lesson in Making Excellent Action Movies

Rating: 10/10 (30 July 2005)

Speed is an excellent action movie. This is how action movies should be made. All producers of schlock ranging from Armageddon to National Treasure need to take a good, hard look at this film and learn something from it.
The storyline from Speed is incredibly simple: madman threatens to blow things up if ransom isn't paid; law enforcement hero & co-workers try to stop him; innocent people in the mix throw in a wild card. The storyline is very simple and very linear and has virtually no complexity. And that is exactly what films like this require. They are action films, don't try to get all fancy with complicated plot lines. The audience wants to see stuff blow up, just get to it.
The plot line is also believable. Sure, some of Speed's setups are pretty complicated (the elevator trick seems like an awful lot of work for a simple ransom gig). But overall it's written with great plausibility. The story has to be simple, but it also has to be believable, otherwise the audience is too busy laughing at the ludicrousness of it all to really get into the excitement of the film.
The writing has to be crisp and to the point. There's not a lot of chatter in this film. This is an action movie, so dialogue is supposed to be short and sweet. No long discussions in a command center about what to do next, just think on your feet, bark orders out, make those snap decisions, and save all the small talk until later. Nothing ruins the pacing of an action film like laborious strategy discussions.
The stunts have to be believable. Fans don't mind spectacular stunts, heck that's why we go to these movies! But the stunts can't be completely outrageous. Yes, the bus jump in Speed is outrageous, but the rest of the stuff is entirely plausible, and you can forgive one off-the-wall stunt. But most of Arnold's or Steven Segal's crap is so full of impossible stunts and crashes, they play like multi-million dollar episodes of CHiPS, where every highway crash involves cars doing cartwheels in the air...
The actors have to be genuine. The best part of Keanu & Sandra's performances in Speed is they really play it with a high degree of believability. Keanu looks and acts like a hard-driven cop, too serious for his own good. Contrast that with his completely unbelievable performance as an undercover FBI agent in Point Break (a truly horrible movie). And Sandra plays it straight as a wise-ass woman who lost her license. She's not just a screaming bimbo but she also has a heart (as seen in the baby carriage scene). And the best part of these two stars? This film is not created as a star vehicle just for them, something you can't say of Nicholas Cage or Van Damme flicks.
The action carries through the whole film. Some films (Bond films like to do this) have action then dialogue then action then love scenes then action then something else. If you're going to make an action flick then devise a way to have action through the whole thing. This film does just that, and without making it boring, either. Just when you think it can't get any worse for Our Heroes it does indeed, and that's good film-making.
Other elements in this film are top-notch as well. The music is the perfect accompaniment to the story. The cinematography is not at all claustrophobic even though most of the action takes place on a bus. The special effects are seamless with the live action. The supporting cast is quite good as well (with the exception of Alan Ruck as the neurotic tourist, but that's really a bad part, not Alan's fault).
All in all Speed is an example of how to make a contemporary action film.
10 out of 10.
Barky