The original launched Keanu Reeves as an action star, but he passed on Speed 2 with good reason. While he had fronted Point Break a few years earlier, it was Speed that transformed Reeves into an action lead. The movie's success led to all the Keanu Reeves action movies that followed, but he was wise enough to pass on 1997's Speed 2: Cruise Control when it was offered. This saw Sandra Bullock return as Annie, with Jason Patric replacing Reeves as new hero Alex as the couple become trapped on a cruise ship seized by a vengeful hacker.
Speed 2 was a critical and commercial disaster, and sits at only 4% on Rotten Tomatoes and it barely recouped its budget. Bullock has confessed more than once that Cruise Control was a huge mistake, while Reeves appeared like a genius for passing on it. That's not to say his decision didn't come with consequences; Reeves later admitted to GQ he was effectively blacklisted by Fox for a decade after passing on the sequel. Speed 2 would have sucked with or without Reeves regardless, as it was burdened with a fundamentally flawed premise.
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Keanu Reeves Was Not Happy With The Script For Speed 2
Even Keanu thought the cruise ship idea was dumb
When Keanu was handed the script for Cruise Control, the star immediately pointed out the sequel's flaw; namely, calling a movie Speed while setting it on a cruise ship, which have max speeds of around 30mph. This is even less than the speed the bus had to maintain in the original, and Reeves recounted on The Graham Norton Show (via CNN) his feelings on passing on the sequel.
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.
Of course, time proved Reeves right, with the chief complaint of most critics and viewers being the basic premise. Seeing the onscreen reunion between Reeves and Bullock may have eased some of the pain of Speed 2 - especially considering the complete lack of chemistry between Bullock and Patric. Still, there was little even Bullock and Reeves could have done to overcome a doomed concept.
Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock eventually reunited for the 2006 romantic drama The Lake House .
Speed 2 Revealed Jack Traven And Annie Porter Broke Up Offscreen
As Bullock's Annie stated, "Relationships based on intense experiences never work"
One of the greatest tricks that Speed pulled was forging a convincing romantic relationship between Jack and Annie over a matter of hours - while they're both constantly trying to stop the bus exploding. The movie ends with the two kissing after surviving the final attack by Dennis Hooper's bomber, but by the time Cruise Control comes around, Jack and Annie have already broken up. Speed 2 doesn't spend much time explaining why the romance ended, with Annie plainly stating she and Jack broke up and that she's in a new relationship with Patric's Alex.
This is seemingly breezed past so audiences don't spend much time thinking about the sequel's lack of Keanu. The sequel has an in-built excuse for Jack's absence though. In the original film, Annie joked that "relationships based on intense experiences never work." Of course, the events of Speed qualify in that regard, so maybe after the intensity of that day wore off, Annie and Jack learned they didn't have much in common and decided to end things.
One annoyingly lazy aspect of Speed 2 is how it essentially just swapped out Jack for Alex, who is another daredevil cop...
One annoyingly lazy aspect of Speed 2 is how it essentially just swapped out Jack for Alex, who is another daredevil cop with the LAPD. The story also involves Alex working up the nerve to propose to Annie amid the chaos of the ship being taken over, but this would have felt more organic for viewers if Jack was the one doing the proposing.
Speed 3 With Sandra Bullock And Keanu Reeves Could Still Happen
Maybe there's hope for Speed's Jack and Annie after all
2024 marked the 30th anniversary of Speed, and it feels like love for the movie is stronger than ever. Reeves and Bullock even reunited with director Jan de Bont for an anniversary screening and expressed a tentative interest in a third Speed - if the right concept came together. It seems 20th Century Studios are mulling Speed 3 also, with studio exec Steve Asbell telling THR that:
It is one of those last movies that we haven’t remade. And to really be a reason to come back, it’s got to be a great idea and an idea that excites (Bullock and Keanu Reeves). Because that’d be the reason to see it. It’s obviously a really important title for us, but it’s not something we would handle lightly or just try to press them into service.
While nothing is greenlit, it feels like the possibility of a third Speed feels closer than it has ever been. That said, Bullock has a well-known aversion to sequels, following her experiences with Cruise Control and Miss Congeniality 2. The actress has expressed a lot of love for the original - which essentially launched her onto the A-list - and has expressed a desire to work with Reeves again. Even so, any screenplay for Speed 3 would presumably need to be really impressive to lure her back.
Speed (1994) | $30 million | $350 million | 95% |
Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997) | $160 million | $164.5 million | 4% |
Reeves has been more willing to reprise roles in recent years, as Bill & Ted Face The Music and The Matrix Resurrections has shown. The idea of seeing Reeves and Bullock back in action for Speed 3 is intriguing, but what the sequel needs is a killer hook to sell its audiences. The original had one, while Speed 2 did not. If they can nail the core premise, there's no reason to think a belated third film couldn't work.
Source: Rotten Tomatoes, GQ, CNN, THR, Box Office Mojo
Speed 2: Cruise Control follows a thrilling ordeal aboard a hijacked cruise liner, where vacationing cop Alex Shaw and his partner Annie Porter face a desperate race against time. Lacking communication, they must thwart the plans of a rogue saboteur to save the passengers and prevent an environmental catastrophe.
Release Date June 13, 1997
Runtime 125 Minutes
Director Jan de bont
Writers Graham Yost , Jan de bont , Randall McCormick , Jeff Nathanson
English (US) ·