Top Movies Of The 1990's: #39 Speed
Box Office: $121.2 Million
Oscar Nominations: Best Film Editing, Best Sound, Best Sound Effects Editing
Oscar Wins: Best Sound, Best Sound Effects Editing
MovieRankings.Net: 88/100
Available To Stream: Starz
You aren't going to find Speed 2:Cruise Control on this list but the original is one of the greatest action movies ever. The plot structure is simple yet perfect. It's such an obvious concept yet the entire movie felt unique and refreshing when it came out in 1994. Die Hard deserves most of the credit for being the one to break action movies away from muscle bound guys with huge guns like Stallone and Schwarzenegger. Speed took that energy with a younger cast and without the claustrophobic nature of Nakatomi Plaza.
Keanu Reeves is perfectly stoic in this but it's the rest of the cast that really elevate this movie. Having good actors like Joe Morton, Alan Ruck (who is much more famous now after Succession) and Jeff Daniels in smaller roles is such a luxury. 1994 shows how great of an actor Jeff Daniels truly is. Not many guys can be great in both this and Dumb and Dumber in the same year.
Dennis Hopper is ideal casting for a brilliant lunatic but Speed's humanity is all Sandra Bullock. I wouldn't call her an unknown when this came out but she certainly wasn't a household name. She had been in Demolition Man with Stallone and Wesley Snipes the year before (if you haven't seen it, check it out. It holds up really well and just missed making this list). Speed obviously made her a star and she's so likable and charming here. It's the perfect balance to Keanu.
I love how this movie is laid out. You have the three acts taking places in different modes of travel: elevator, bus and subway. Speed never lets up for a second and you are on the edge of the seat for the entire movie. It's a fantastic job by first time director Jan de Bont (his next film was Twister (#94 on this list). He only ended up directing five films before leaving Hollywood. It's a shame because he was a brilliant cinematographer. The bad reviews from Speed 2 and The Haunting didn't help but the shift back to major studios calling the shots in the 2000's seems to be the main reason.
1994 was such a unique year for movies. It was the year that Jim Carrey had three blockbuster comedies (Ace Ventura, The Mask, Dumb and Dumber). You had a Oscar battle of two very different movies with Forrest Gump and Pulp Fiction. The biggest box office hit was The Lion King. It was a wide variety of movies where the writers and directors held so many more cards than they do now. It wasn't about who owns what IP or the success of a franchise. It was about making entertaining movies.
Speed did that exceptionally well. Hopefully action movies can back to thrilling us as opposed to being focused on the next.
39. Speed
40. Gattaca
41. Misery
42. Tombstone
43. Ransom
44. Wayne's World
45. The Insider
46. Back To The Future Part III
47. A Bronx Tale
48. The People Vs. Larry Flynt
49. Eyes Wide Shut
50. The Sandlot
51. Happy Gilmore
52. Contact
53. The Green Mile
54. Man On The Moon
55. Boyz N The Hood
56. Grosse Pointe Blank
57. Independence Day
58. The Rainmaker
59. Go
60. The Firm
61. Magnolia
62. The Talented Mr. Ripley
63. Tommy Boy
64. The Usual Suspects
65. In The Line Of Fire
66. My Cousin Vinny
67. Awakenings
68. JFK
69. Toy Story
70. Home Alone
71. Jerry Maguire
72. Titanic
73. Billy Madison
74. Apollo 13
75. Braveheart
76. Edward Scissorhands
77. Cape Fear
78. The River Wild
79. What's Eating Gilbert Grape?
80. 12 Monkeys
81. Stir Of Echoes
82. Mission: Impossible
83. Total Recall
84. Quiz Show
85. For Love Of The Game
86. Being John Malkovich
87. Men In Black
88. Scream
89. Alive
90. Three Kings
91. Glengarry Glen Ross
92. Die Hard With A Vengeance
93. The Blair Witch Project
94. Twister
95. Dirty Work
96. Election
97. Tremors
98. Any Given Sunday
99. The Wedding Singer
100. Clerks