Keanu Reeves And Sandra Bullock's 1994 Action Movie Gets The TV Treatment In Apple TV's 2-Part Thriller Series

While Apple TV’s action thriller show isn’t technically part of the Speed franchise, the show borrows a lot of its- fast-paced, high-octane premise from the ’90 blockbuster. After the success of 1988’s Die Hard, a string of action thrillers tried to cash in on the movie’s basic premise. The idea of an unprepared antihero facing off against a group of villains holding civilians hostage in an unlikely location gave rise to movies that could be dubbed “Die Hard on a submarine” (Under Siege), “Die Hard in a stadium” (Sudden Death), or even “Die Hard in the White House” (Olympus Has Fallen).

While the Die Hard movies themselves ironically moved away from their original siege thriller setup and took on more of a buddy cop formula from 1995’s Die Hard With A Vengeance onward, that did not stop the franchise’s imitators. In 1994, director Jan de Bont perfected this premise with Speed, an action movie where Keanu Reeves’ LAPD officer and Sandra Bullock’s flustered passenger must work together to ensure that an LA city bus doesn’t dip under 50 miles per hour, or else it will explode and kill everyone on board.

The terrific simplicity of this premise, combined with stellar central turns from Reeves and Bullock, slick direction from de Bont, and a wild villainous performance from Dennis Hopper, made Speed an instant classic and a huge hit. However, it took a good three decades before this basic premise hit the small screen in Apple TV’s equally inspired Idris Elba vehicle Hijack, wherein Elba’s experienced business negotiator is tasked with taking down a band of hijackers during a lengthy seven-hour flight from Dubai to London.

Hijack Is A Small-Screen Version of 1994’s Classic Action Movie Speed

Unlike Speed, which reveled in the simplicity of its setup, Hijack has all manner of subplots to keep its story juicy. With the longer runtime of a full-blown TV series to utilize, the show explores not just the story of Elba’s Sam Nelson, but also the plane’s hijackers, Nelson’s estranged ex-wife, Marsha, her new boyfriend, the Metro Police officer Daniel, and both the Special Ops members trying to stop the villains and the criminal kingpin they work for.

All this combines to ensure that Hijack season 1’s story has way more characters, twists, and turns than Speed’s stripped-back plot, but this is no bad thing for the show. Taking place largely in real time, Hijack makes the most of its seven-hour flight time by leaving Nelson with no option but to negotiate his way out of the trap that he and the rest of the passengers find themselves in.

Hijack Proves Longer Action TV Shows Can Be As Thrilling As Movies

In doing so, Hijack proves one contentious claim untrue. Often, since action movies tend to have bigger budgets than action TV shows, it can seem as if small-screen entries into the genre simply can’t pack the same punch as their shorter, big-screen equivalents. However, Hijack season 1's critical acclaim proves not only that this isn’t true, but that the opposite can sometimes prove to be the case. By utilizing its longer runtime, Hijack tells a more immersive and involving version of this action-packed story than a shorter movie would have.

Hijack’s many subplots could have felt compressed without the relatively lengthy, luxurious runtime of a full TV series, but viewers would have less reason to care about the characters and their plight if the show were shorter. Thus, while action movies can sometimes seem more bombastic, action TV shows also have a unique place in the genre when it comes to offering more suspenseful, lengthy stories a chance to succeed. Thus, Hijack proves that a small-screen version of Speed can succeed entirely on its own terms.