Speed is, like, one of the great films of all time. It has an incredible cast (the stars and everyone else in the cast), an unbelievably terrifying premise, and a lot of interesting extra bits that just blow me away every time. The tension is incredible. But the way in which the people on the bus are this microcosm of how awful (US) society is (I mean unfortunately because of the stupid way the US is, we have to deal with the fact that most of the bus users are poor people, though Sandra Bullock's character isn't, she just has to take the bus temporarily because she's lost her license, and one other very annoying character, the tourist, is I guess not 'poor' but he is a hick and I guess in a sense outside of the LA/LA-adjacent class system. I suppose on reflection a lot of the passengers we just don't hear much from, but they're a bunch of, you know, not great unwashed but great unheardfroms, still, that kind of tabulates with the real world doesn't it...
That wouldn't be much I suppose, and even the amazing effects wouldn't be much, without the brilliant chemistry between the amazing Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves, who are both completely incredible in every way, and the intense ridiculousness of Dennis Hopper, and even the pathetic straight shootin' norminess of Jeff Daniels.
This film is almost thirty years old, and please god never let it be remade, it's so exceptional and a real time capsule (pre-9-11, pre-Trump, obvs). I wonder what Speed 2 is like.
