Reeves played an LA police officer in the original 1994 action movie
Keanu Reeves’ 1994 movie Speed is a fan-favorite for a lot of viewers, but its success wasn’t enough for the star to come back with Sandra Bullock for the sequel.
The original action movie placed Reeves in the role of Jack Traven, a young police officer who’s forced to keep a city bus traveling above 50mph in order to prevent a bomb exploding onboard.
The synopsis alone is enough to tell you that it’s a fast-paced, intense movie, and following its release Speed quickly became one of the highest grossing movies of 1994, earning more than $350 million worldwide.
Fans of the movie praised Reeves’ performance as well as that of his co-star, Bullock, who played a passenger on board the bus.
“Thinking about Keanu Reeves in Speed (again),” one Twitter user wrote 30 years after the movie was released, while another fan posted: “Keanu Reeves is Phenomenal in SPEED.”
The movie’s success made it a natural choice for a sequel, but despite starring in the original, Reeves chose not to come back for a second time.
Instead, Speed 2: Cruise Control was released in 1997 and saw Bullock this time pair up with Jason Patric, who played her partner.
Fans praised Bullock and Reeves in Speed (20th Century Studios)
In the sequel, the couple go on vacation to the Caribbean, only to find their cruise ship hijacked by a bad guy named John Geiger, played by Willem Dafoe.
Reeves’ decision not to return was no doubt disappointing for a lot of fans, but in 2021 the actor opened up about why the sequel just wasn’t right for him.
Appearing on the British chat show The Graham Norton Show, Reeves explained that at the time he simply ‘didn’t respond to the script’.
He continued: “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.”
Keanu Reeves didn’t like the script for Speed 2 (Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images)
Reeves’ comments on the show came after he previously shared a similar explanation to Jimmy Kimmel in 2015, saying: “I didn’t get to be in that [sequel]. Well, I decided not to be in that.
“I loved working with [director] Jan de Bont and Sandra, of course. It was just a situation in life where I got the script and I read the script and I was like, ‘Ugh’.
“It was about a cruise ship and I was thinking, ‘A bus, a cruise ship… Speed, bus, but then a cruise ship is even slower than a bus and I was like, ‘I love you guys, but I just can’t do it’.”
Reeves’ decision seemed to be the right one at the time, as Speed 2 did not perform as well as its predecessor and earned $164.5 million at the worldwide box office.
Featured Image Credit: Momodu Mansaray/David Keeler/Getty Images
