There’s a bomb on a bus … again?
“Speed” star, acclaimed nice guy and lover of age-appropriate women, Keanu Reeves, revealed he’d be game for reprising his role as Jack Traven in a third installment of the action franchise.
During a joint interview on the “50 MPH” podcast, Reeves and his “Speed” co-star Sandra Bullock discussed the possibility of joining forces for “Speed 3.”
Reeves confidently noted, “We’d freakin’ knock it out of the park.”
The original “Speed,” directed by Jan de Bont, was released in 1993 and grossed $350 million worldwide. The film’s success is owed in no small part to the obvious chemistry between the pair, both 59.
Bullock likens their onscreen sizzle to foreplay.
“We didn’t really look at each other in this movie except for maybe three or four times, because we were constantly battling the elements. And I think that’s what made it so electric, too … you want them to connect. That was a really clever setup, to sort of keep people apart. Foreplay, I guess.”
Reeves originally turned down the role of Jack but reconsidered when the script was revised. Bullock was less discerning.
“I was just looking for a job,” she joked, “What was I going to say? No? Yes! It was all yes.”
Bullock recalls she wasn’t the first pick to play Annie.
“I wasn’t the second choice. I don’t think I was the third choice. But I was a choice, and I was so excited and happy to be there. Some of the best moments of my life, I wasn’t the first choice,” she said. “I had the best time and I was allowed to be who I thought Annie should be. I was just grateful and excited to be with who I was with, and I just adored, and still adore, Keanu.”
For more with Reeves and Bullock, read what they had to say about the action thriller.
Mutual admiration society
And the feeling folks, is mutual.
“I think we had an affection,” Reeves said. “And the characters themselves have an affection. I think Jack and Annie’s is different than Sandra’s and Keanu’s, but I think we played off each other and I think it was just fun and we also just trust each other.”
The film, which cast Dennis Hopper as its explosive (pun intended) villain, remains one of the most beloved action movies ever.
It’s sequel? Not so much.
The shame of ‘Speed 2: Cruise Control’
Reeves turned down the 1997 sequel “Speed 2: Cruise Control,” because of the screenplay.
In 2021 he told Graham Norton, “At the time, I didn’t respond to the script. I really wanted to work with Sandra Bullock, I loved playing Jack Traven, and I loved ‘Speed,’ but an ocean liner? I had nothing against the artists involved, but at that time I had the feeling it just wasn’t right.”
“Speed 2,” which saw Bullock return to her role as Annie Porter, was a commercial flop and a critical failure; one of the most disparaged movies of all time, “Speed 2” has a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 4%.
Bullock herself is among the detractors, admitting to “TooFab” that the movie remains a source of enduring shame. “I’m still embarrassed I was in it,” she said. “That’s one I wished I hadn’t done and no fans came around that I know of.”
Reeves reunion?
The co-stars, who reunited in 2006 for the supernatural romance “The Lake House,” are both committed to sharing a screen again. “Before I die, before I leave this planet, I do think that Keanu and I need to do something in front of the camera. Are we, you know, in wheelchairs or with walkers? Maybe. Are we on little scooters at Disneyland?”
Reflecting on the wild ride that brought them together, Bullock chalks it up to magic.
“In this extreme circumstance of a bus with a bomb on it … it’s the most bizarre setup but somehow it works for me and Keanu, no idea why,” she said on the podcast. “There’s no formula, it just is.”
While no official plans for “Speed 3” have been made; fingers crossed, bombs away we’ll see the triumphant return of Jack and Annie.
