Speed Memorabilia & Collectibles

 

“Speed” is a 1994 action movie starring Keanu Reeves as Officer Jack Traven and Sandra Bullock as Annie Porter. The movie is directed by Jan de Bont, a Dutch director who at the time was on his first directorial job. The movie was a surprise hit despite the fact that it was filmed on a meager budget. The movie starts with main protagonist Jack Traven and his partner Harry Temple played by Jeff Daniels foiling a hostage-taking inside an elevator orchestrated by a disgruntled ex-Atlanta bomb squad expert named Howard Payne played superbly by Dennis Hopper .

 

The hostage-taking ends after the Payne was believed to have...   more

 

“Speed” is a 1994 action movie starring Keanu Reeves as Officer Jack Traven and Sandra Bullock as Annie Porter. The movie is directed by Jan de Bont, a Dutch director who at the time was on his first directorial job. The movie was a surprise hit despite the fact that it was filmed on a meager budget. The movie starts with main protagonist Jack Traven and his partner Harry Temple played by Jeff Daniels foiling a hostage-taking inside an elevator orchestrated by a disgruntled ex-Atlanta bomb squad expert named Howard Payne played superbly by Dennis Hopper .

 

The hostage-taking ends after the Payne was believed to have been killed in a succeeding explosion which he himself caused. But apparently he survives and has made Traven his target for making fail in his extortion attempt. He rigs a bus with explosives and challenges Traven to stop him and risk the lives of the bus passengers. He has again asked for a ransom of 3.7 million that has to be paid at 11 of that morning or he will detonate the bombs. Payne has wired the explosives in a way that if it exceeds or drops its speed from 50 mph, the bus will explode. Traven finds a way to board the bus and with help of Annie and the other passengers, they all manage to get off the bus before it explodes. But the action does not end there; Payne manages to kidnap Annie and straps her with explosives before boarding a train on the LA subway. The high speed chase continues until Jack manages to finally kill Payne. The movie ends with the two main protagonists falling in love with each other.

 

According to sources, a sequel was released in 1997 entitled Speed 2: Cruise Control. Although it still starred Sandra Bullock, Keanu Reeves opted out and was replaced by Jason Patric who portrays another police officer Alex Shaw. The story picks up from the break-up of Annie and Jack and now Annie is dating another Alex without knowing he is also a police officer. When she learns the truth, he books a cruise for Caribbean for both of them aboard the Seabourn Legend, which now becomes the setting for the new story. The new antagonist here is Willem Dafoe in the role of John Geiger, disgruntled former software designer of cruise ship computer systems. He is out to get revenge for what he thought was an unfair termination from his job. The second installment did not do as well in the box-office as the first movie.