Speed Director Had to Cut $5 Million Action Scene From Keanu Reeves' Cult Movie
This movie became a springboard for an actor's career, but it could have been different.
Keanu Reeves is an extremely "bloodthirsty" actor. He has not let go of a gun in three decades. In his career, he seems to have done everything: romances, horror, thrillers and science fiction. But it is to the action movie that he regularly returns.
The box office hit that finally made Keanu Reeves a star was the action movie Speed. According to the plot, a madman has hijacked an ordinary passenger bus and is holding it for ransom. For this role, Keanu cut his hair, pumped up his muscles, and even performed 90% of all the tricks.
Although the movie had a large number of impressive action scenes, one of the most spectacular was cut from the movie. According to screenwriter Graham Yost, the scene was also intended to introduce another character:
“We called it The Baker Sequence because it was this character named Baker. [Director] Jan [de Bont] was so heartbroken when we couldn’t do this because we came up with this all together.”
However, the scene was never included because it was too expensive to introduce a minor character:
“It was a big sequence but it was like I don’t know, […] $5 million to do that and it was like no, we can’t afford it. […] It’s interesting because it would’ve been spectacular but it’s not about Jack. It’s about another character.”
Graham Yost got the idea for the movie after watching the action-packed drama Runaway Train. Yost decided it would be a good idea to put a bomb on the bus, which would not be able to slow down below 20 miles per hour to avoid an explosion.
A friend advised the screenwriter to increase the speed to 40 miles per hour. The finished script was passed around to agents and studios, eventually catching the attention of Twentieth Century Fox.
Speed quickly became a hit, earning more than $350 million against a $30 million budget. Critics were also almost unanimous in their praise of the movie, which ended up winning two Oscars. So it's not surprising that it eventually achieved cult status.
Source: Script Apart