Movie Breakdown: Speed

I'm Jenna Fischer.

And I'm Angela Kinsey.

We were on the office together and we're best friends, and now we're doing the ultimate office rewatch podcast just for you.

Each week, we will break down an episode of The Office and give exclusive behind-the-scenes stories that only two people who were there can tell you.

We're the office ladies.

Hello everybody.

Hey, today is a big day you guys.

This is a very special episode of Office Ladies. we are not breaking down an episode of the office. Oh, no.

Well, you better buckle in.

We're breaking down speed.

Speed with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, Dennis Hopper, Jeff Daniels, Lady.

I am very excited to break this down. We did a lot of research for this. We have watched speed more times in a row than I thought I ever would.

So much.

I was telling Sam and Cassie this last week. I've been having a little trouble sleeping. I think it is the cortisol from watching these tense bus chase scenes for five days and nights. But I'll tell you one thing, this movie holds up.

It really does.

I have watched all of these behind-the-scenes making-of videos, where I watched them intricately perform all these stunts as part of my research today. And yet when I watch the movie, it's seamless. I am so impressed by this movie.

I cannot believe the stunts they did and that the actors did them. We're going to get to it. Here's the research I did. Ready, folks.

Yes.

Got an old tech alert for you? I got the DVDs with the extras.

Of course you did, I love it.

Let me tell you what is on this DVD extras because it's worth it. Audio commentary with the director Jan de Bont, audio commentary with writer Graham Yost and producer Mark Gordon. Action sequences, behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with director and stunt coordinator Gary Himes. Behind-the-scenes of all the stunts on the subway train. Inside Speed, on-location stunts, visual effects, HBO, first look, the making of Speed, extended scenes, trailers and TV spots, gallery of photos and a music video by Billy Idol.

Wow.

And guess what?

And this was his directorial debut, right?

Yes, that's right.

I saw many behind-the-scenes videos and he gave an interview where he said they could fit so few people on the bus besides the cast. That you kind of had to do more than one job. And so, yeah, he did the clicker and all the things.

He did all the things and he really wanted you to feel like you were in these shots with them. So that's why he was up up in their business with the handheld.

Also, we interviewed Beth Grant, you know her as Dwight's babysitter and date to the dinner party on the office. You guys, she's on the bus.

She's on the bus.

She's the lady who gets blown up trying to get off the bus when she shouldn't. Yeah, so we had the loveliest interview with her and we are going to release that as a bonus episode in a couple of days.

It's so good you have to listen to her behind-the-scenes stories. We have so much to cover in this speed breakdown that we wanted to give Beth a standalone.

Should we get started?

We better. My document's 45 pages.

Oh, dear, here we go. Buckle in Everyone Speed, written by Graham Yost, directed by Jan de Bont, produced by Mark Gordon, with a running time of 116 minutes. Here's your summary.

It's simple.

Fast fact number one Graham Yost said that the original title for this movie was Minimum Speed.

No.

Yeah, minimum speed, no, that's not a....

What?

You guys, I want you to go to minimum speed.

He said he changed it when he realized it probably wasn't a good idea to have the word minimum in a movie title.

That's so funny.

Graham was a writer on Full house when he wrote this script. He was a TV writer. He was inspired by the Akira Kurosawa movie Runaway Train, and he thought, Well, what if we put a bomb on a bus? He wrote this movie on spec.

That is crazy. Also, I want you guys to know. Many people on the commentaries talked about how hot it was because September is our hottest month in California. And they were on a freeway in September, on a bus, on a bus, and then in between scenes, they'd be like, on the side of the freeway.

Yes, this reminded me of us standing outside in our heavy coats in the Dunder Mifflin parking lot, pretending like it was winter, when, really, it was so, so hot.

We are just like Speed, you and I. We are cast on the office, you know what, though?

All the people are trapped in the bus all the time, and it made me think of our conference room scenes, I know.

I did think about that. I was like, I get how you get punchy in one room all day. Yeah, what if the cast of The Office did a remake of Speed? Hear Me Out?

No more.

Come on.

I'm in right.

This is the reunion no one's thought of.

Dwight is the madman. Yes, right?

Of course, yes.

Toby tries to escape, he gets killed.

Do I get to drive the bus?

You get to drive the bus.

Michael is the annoying tourist.

Oh, for sure.

Right?

Yeah, oh my gosh, oh, I'm seeing all the characters now.

We can do it.

I think I'm the lady with the purse that gives us all away.

Reed is the one who pulls the gun because he thinks that Jim is after him.

After him, yes.

Yeah, it's all there.

It's coming together, you guys.

Who do we need to talk to about this? We need to get Fox, Searchlight and Universal to do a collab.

Fire up the phone to the studio.

All right.

Fast fact number two casting you want some casting dish? Do I all right?

What is that voice?

I don't know.

I don't know.

Hold on to your hats, you are literally wearing a hat.

I know because I have really bad back of the head. Cowlick Day.

Well, you look cute in the hat, but hold on to it.

Okay.

Keanu was not their first choice for the role of Jack the Rabbit.

How dare you get out? How dare you? Who was?

Stephen Baldwin.

What?

Yeah, he turned it down because he thought it was too similar to die hard. He felt like it was a die hard redo. They also went to Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks, Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson. Finally, they decided to meet with actors for the role, and Keanu was one of the people they met with.

Yeah, I know, Jan. The director said that what you see in the movie is actually a little bit grown in. Oh my gosh, I thought he looked amazing with that haircut.

I have no complaints, I have no complaints.

I mean, I guess I think I like his hair anyway. There you go, whatever your hairstyle is, keanu.

The face is so great, I don't need to even worry about what's happening with the hair.

It all works, you can wear any hair.

It all works.

She could not be more adorable in this movie.

Oh my gosh.

Not possible.

Talk about launching someone's career, yeah. The role of Annie was originally offered to Halle Berry, but she turned it down, she said. Quote I turned down speed because I thought I don't want to drive that bus and there wasn't a whole lot of dialogue. But then later she saw the movie and she said she loved it, and she thought to herself, Wow, the movie. Gods sure didn't talk to me that day, the day she turned it down.

But she does get to eventually star with Keanu.

Yes, they star in John Wick 3..

Yes, which you haven't seen, but I have.

I know, and we're going to go see John Wick 4. We are. It's a big hole in my John Wick anthology. I'm just jumping to 4..

Yeah, I read that, he said. There were these driving school classes at the time, that it was like a comedy driving school, and that maybe this character taught comedic driving lessons.

And that's why she could drive a bus then through the traffic.

But she also was funny and like cracking jokes.

Well, eventually, over two dozen big-name actresses auditioned for the role. At this time, Sandra Bullock had done two lead roles she had been in Love Potion No 9 and Demolition Man. She still had to do a chemistry read with Keanu.

Yes, everyone said they had amazing chemistry.

She got the part. They were both 29 years old when they made this movie and after this movie. Sandra Bullock went on to be the world's highest-paid actress in both 2010 and 2014..

It was big, big deal, it was a big deal.

Well, rounding out the cast, of course, we have Dennis Hopper as our villain. Yes, Jeff Daniels, who is so good in this movie.

So good, Harry.

Yes, and also Joe Morton as Captain Mac.

I loved him.

So good. We're going to talk a little bit more about them in our breakdown, but let's get to fast. Fact No 3..

Let's.

The other star of this movie? Mm-hmm, the bus.

Bus 2525.

They used 12 or 13 buses for this movie.

We discussed.

Mm-hmm. In all of the official behind-the-scenes material that I watched, they repeatedly say there were 12 buses.

Yes, well, I want you to know. In the director's commentary, he says 13 buses.

Angela and I might have gotten in a tiny argument about this while doing our research.

Might have Jenna's like, there's 12, I said, No, there's 13. She's like, Lady, lady, lady. I have listened to so-and-so and so-and-so and so-and-so, and I'm like, I'm listening to the director.

Well, I made a list of all the buses from all the videos I watched.

You do your list and then I'm going to tell you what the director said.

And I tracked 12, maybe 13.

Is a couple two? is a couple three, right?

Well, here's what I've got. Two buses for exterior photography when we see the bus. Long shot of the bus going down the highway, clearly shot by a helicopter. Two of those buses, two stunt buses that they used for running into things. One of those was rigged to just go really, super fast.

Great.

Then there was a bus that was rigged with special hydraulics so it could tilt up onto two wheels. And one side of it was actually attached to a pickup truck so that it would not actually tip over when it went up on two wheels. That was a whole special bus, one bus that was stripped down to be made very, very light for that jump across the missing piece of highway. One bus to blow up at the beginning of the movie.

That's what the whole crew called it, because the little clear glass-.

Yeah.

Yes.

There was also a process bus, which was higher off the ground for all the shots when Keanu was under the bus, and then a carcass bus. I don't know what that is, and I also could not nail down if there were one or two of those, but let's say there was one.

Okay, here it is, Jenna, Jan said. The first take of the big jump, you know, the big big jump.

The highway jump.

The Big Highway jump, the first take. The stunt driver missed the ramp and crashed the bus. Oh my gosh.

That is not on any of the behind the scenes material.

Then he sort of quietly says on the commentary I never told the studio because they only had one chance to do this. So two days later, we got another bus and we did it again, and the driver jumped and landed it perfectly.

There's your 13th bus.

Is that bus 13?

Yes, that is bus 13..

And I guess the studio has not listened to Jan's director's commentary.

I love it.

No one was injured in the crash, but they missed the ramp on the first try.

Well, I have a bunch of really cool details on how they did that jump.

Oh, you think you do?

Well, we do.

Because you're looking at two ladies who googled the shiitake out of speed, including since we're talking about the bus. The original movie poster For this, there are two images on the original movie poster. Any guesses?

Keanu and Sandra.

Keanu and the bus, What?

Yes.

They totally cut her out, you know what? They didn't know she was going to explode, they didn't know.

They didn't know, maybe not the right word for this breakdown.

That she was going to blow up, no, no, that she was going to become a huge star. Rise to stardom.

Well, let's take a break and when we get back.

We have a lot of elevator facts.

Oh, so many.

We are back and we are going to start this movie with a credit sequence that is a little over three minutes long. We are going to go down an elevator shaft, starting at floor 41, all the way to the basement.

Here's the thing, you guys. This elevator shaft was a miniature. It was an elaborate, direct replica of one of the elevator shafts they were filming in a building downtown.

Yes.

Yeah, and here's the other thing, you guys. The miniature elevator shaft, 85 feet of it. They had to lay it horizontally, and they designed it so that as the camera travels from one floor to the next floor. That's in the title sequence, when a new person's name would appear. And at the very end of this long tracking shot down the elevator shaft, it would end on this door.

That is amazing.

All right.

Are we ready to get into the first act of this movie? Speed consists of three primary action sequences the elevator sequence, the bus sequence, and the subway sequence. Producer Mark Gordon said he wanted to buy the script after reading the elevator sequence.

I get it, it's so good.

Yes.

In the first scene, we are in the basement, it looks like someone is maybe fixing an elevator. But building security says, Wait, who are you? what are you doing? where's your work order? And he gets stabbed in the side of the head.

With a screwdriver.

Yeah.

Very brutal opening.

This is when we meet Dennis Hopper, who plays Howard Payne, a retired Atlanta police officer who lost his thumb in service. And guess what, guys, he's wanting payback?

He is, but what's he doing, we don't know yet.

We don't know he's up to no good, we know that.

We sure do.

Jenna, Did you know that Dennis Hopper wasn't cast until the third week of filming?

They shot three weeks of this movie without a villain.

Yeah.

That is bonkers to me.

They had a lot to do, maybe they spent a week in the elevator miniature shaft.

Well, something I noticed is that Dennis Hopper has almost no scenes with other human beings in this movie. He is almost exclusively on the phone in his weird apartment, with all the monitors. I mean, he did a lot of phone acting.

Yeah.

And incredibly, so, guess what? A bunch of executives have had a very successful board meeting upstairs.

They're very happy.

Yeah, after the elevator, Bob is going to press a button.

Oh, Bob, what button did you press, Bob?

I know Bob was played by Patrick Fishler, and the guy giving Bob grief is Robert Mailhouse, who is one of the founders of the alternative rock band Dogstar with Keanu Reeves.

That's right, he was the drummer, mm-hmm.

After Bob presses the button, our madman in the basement is going to blow up the cables. And the elevator is going to start plummeting until the emergency brakes kick on.

I mean, uh-oh is right.

But don't worry, the SWAT team is arriving, and oh, do they arrive?

We see a car fly through the air and like land.

Unnecessarily.

Unnecessarily, the director said. He wanted this establishing shot of action. Normally with your lead, you establish just the lead, right? you just push in on your lead actor. But he wanted the car jumping to be like, this movie's about action.

Keanu Reeves is going to get out of the driver's seat, he's out of the passenger seat, they go to the trunk, they start putting on all their SWAT gear.

Keanu, in an interview, said It was really cool to wear all that gear.

Well, I looked it up. I was like, how much does that gear weigh? because they're about to run up like a gazillion flights of stairs in that gear? So I had to know. It weighs 16 pounds, like military-grade hard plate vests weigh 16 pounds.

That's a lot.

It really is.

Yeah, he actually wanted the main characters and the background performers for the SWAT team to be as authentic as possible. He actually had squad officers on set at all times to consult with, he said. Once they put the gear on, even how you walk changes and the earpiece and how they talk to one another.

Amazing, well, Captain Mac, who, as we said, was played by Joe Morton, who is a Tony-nominated actor and who is just fantastic. He's going to give us the lowdown on what's happening.

He is, you know? Jan talked about a writer's trick that they do in movies called Set the Clock. And throughout this movie, there'll be a clock ticking. Whether it's 23 minutes, or they only have 10 minutes, or they only have six minutes of fuel, there's always the reminder of the clock.

I mean, also, just the speedometer is a kind of ticking clock in this movie, too. This is why I think I haven't been able to sleep, I know, because I've been under the ticking clock of this movie for so long.

Well, Harry and Jack are going to climb into the elevator shaft and they're going to find the explosives on the top of the car. Mm-hmm. They're going to start trying to figure out what to do here.

They do their first pop quiz Oh, do you want to do it? I printed it out. Ang do I?

This is, like, my favorite runner of the movie.

All right, I'll be Harry, you be Jack, ready?

Oh, I get to be Keanu.

You can be Keanu.

Okay, okay.

All right, pop quiz the airport gunman with one hostage. He's using her for cover, he's almost to a plane.

Shoot the hostage.

What?

Take her out of the equation, go for the good wound, and he can't get to the plane with her clear shot.

You're deeply nuts, you know that.

Lady, After this movie came out, my friends and I would say pop quiz all the time to each other, of course, just like running errands like going to the grocery store. POP QUIZ Do you want to grill hot dogs tonight or hamburgers?

I feel like it's one of the more quotable moments from the movie, for sure.

Jack is going to figure out how to diffuse the situation.

How to take the hostages out of the equation?

Yes, mm-hmm, there's this giant. What do you call that thing?

A crane.

A crane on top of the building. And he's like, let's get a cable. We're going to run up there, we're going to loop this down, we're going to attach it to the elevator.

Well, as you know, spoiler alert this crane idea is going to work at first, but it's not ultimately going to hold. But when Jack says, How much does an elevator weigh? and he gets this idea, I looked it up.

How much does an elevator weigh?

The average weight of an empty elevator ranges from 2,000 to 6,000 pounds. That's a lot. That's an empty elevator. We've got 13 hostages inside.

Well.

By the way, the hostages are kind of freaking out. It's very tense in the elevator, so they attach the hook. Keanu Reeves is upside down.

He really did that, he really hung upside down on those cables, you guys.

I almost googled, How long can you safely hang upside down? but I let it go.

Well, okay.

Anyway, these are the things I think of. So our madman is going to realize that they're up to something and he is going to blow the brakes. This blows out a hole in the bottom of the elevator. The elevator starts plummeting all the way down to the 23rd floor. When our crane finally catches, there is so much mayhem and panic inside this elevator.

No, it's so scary. I have never been trapped in an elevator. But Lady, the director shared about something that happened to him on die hard that inspired him for this scene. You've got to hear it.

Die Hard inspired Speed.

The reason I came up with this whole elevator scene, I was going to say earlier, is that.

During the filming of Die Hard, I once myself got stuck in an elevator, I mean, actually at the building of the Fox Plaza building.

And it was really eerie. We were sitting on the 40th floor and we were out, and finally, the fire department.

Came and took us out via the top and we had to climb out and jump from one elevator to the other elevator.

If anybody would panic, it would instantly be chaotic.

It was kind of a traumatic experience and that whole feeling of claustrophobia. I thought this would be ideal for this type of for my movie. I wanted to make sure that people could identify with it.

Oh my gosh, yeah, can you believe that?

He got stuck in an elevator while filming die hard, and then he used that experience to inform speed.

Yeah.

This is maybe my favorite fact ever.

He's fascinating, I would say. Of all of those DVD extras, the best thing on it is Jan's commentary and also all of the behind the scenes of the stunts.

What about the Billy Idol music video?

Oh, no.

Well, listen, like I said, that Crane is not going to hold. But they are going to try to get all the passengers out of this tiny space as it continues to kind of like, like fall.

Yes, Jan pointed out he loved the sound design in this elevator sequence because he really wanted the elevator to be its own character. Groaning and making these really scary noises, the sound design team crushed it.

It had the same effect as like in Jurassic Park, when you would hear the like, the sounds of the T-rex. You know, it's like the elevator was its own kind of monster. Yeah, you know, there's one woman who doesn't want to leave the elevator.

No.

She was played by Susan Barnes, who ironically turns up again in Speed 2 Cruise Control as Constance. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, does she get stuck in something and have to get pulled out?

I haven't watched Speed 2, so I'm not sure yet. Will we?

I kind of feel like I should like, go see it, because, okay, so here's the thing. When I was hired at 1-800-dentist, I was doing my training and there was this story, kind of like a legendary story. There was an operator that worked there before me and he came in one day and he was like.

Suck it, eat it.

I'm out of here because I got cast on Speed 2, I'm going to be on the boat, so kiss my ass. I quit. I don't know if it was that dramatic, but it was like he quit. He was going to go be on a boat for two months. He filmed for two months, lady.

Go see the guy, blah, blah.

They went to the movie and I was like, How was the movie? and they were like, he's not in it.

Oh my god.

I was like, what he'd been cut out there was like his shoulder, his shoulder was in it. He was in the background for five seconds and I was like, Oh, my God.

So I feel like I need to go see it.

I need to go see it for shoulder guy.

Lady That so reminds me of when I got cast as the sixth member of the International Spice Girls. What, remember? But it was really it was like a front for a call girl ring. I told that story on the podcast.

I know all of a sudden I thought you were cast in a movie and then you got cut out of.

The international Spice Girl. And I was explaining to people like, I don't know if I can come to your wedding, I might be on tour. You know, it's just like, I don't even know if I can come home for Thanksgiving this year.

This is what this guy did, he told everyone. Yeah, everyone, I'm going to be in Speed 2..

Everyone in my life.

This is a big deal.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

And then everyone was like, Hey, whatever happened, you're like, Oh, I don't want to talk about it.

So they get all the hostages out just in time. I mean, Susan lost a shoe, she's lucky she didn't lose a foot.

I know, right? Yeah, she had not a second to spare.

Not a second to spare, and now Harry and Jack are going to lower themselves on the elevator.

Because Jack realizes, I think the bomber's still in the building. Yeah, I think he's in a freight elevator.

Yeah.

Well, they land on top of the freight elevator, and the bomber hears them, and he starts shooting through the top of the elevator. Jeff Daniels got 11 stitches in his chin in real life from the shrapnel from that stunt.

Yeah.

And I became sort of obsessed with trying to see if I could see his injury. Because in the EPK interview, he's got like this elaborate nude bandage over his chin because he's still filming, he was filming with 11 stitches in his chin. And the thing that really upset me, Angela, the thing that really, really got me because I know how I feel about re-injuring injuries. We've talked about this.

We have and we're going to see John Wick 4 together, and I don't know how you're going to get through it.

I'm worried also. John Wick 4 is two hours and 49 minutes long.

It's a commitment.

We're seeing it in iMax.

It's a commitment.

Okay, back to the subject at hand after Jeff Daniels falls through the top of the elevator and then Dennis Hopper picks him up by his nose.

Yeah.

That was not in the script. No, oh, I should say I found a script for speed, I don't know which iteration it is, but I found the script. That picking him up by the nose is not in it. But at 21 minutes and 23 seconds, Dennis Hopper puts his fist underneath Jeff Daniels chin, and he is like jamming his fist into his chin.

Dennis Hopper, aka Howard Payne, has shot up the roof of the elevator. Harry falls in, right? We've established that.

With the fist to the chin, all of it.

And now, I mean, Howard wants to smush, you know, Jack?

I love it that you just called it smush, I mean, it's true.

He wants to smush him, and Jack is like, Oh, no, I'm going to get smushed. So he jumps in to the elevator with Howard and Harry.

Mm-hmm.

And this is when we learned that Howard has been listening to them all the time because now he's saying pop quiz.

Yep, he's going to trick everyone. Everyone is going to think that he's getting off on floor number three, but he's really going to P1. That's his escape route. He's got Harry by the chin.

Shoot the hostage. Howard Payne is like, What the heck just happened here? But he makes his way into the parking lot and then he hits a button and they think he blows up and Jack goes-.

There's quite an explosion.

Quite an explosion, Jack goes flying through the air.

I watched many videos on how they did that stunt.

So did I.

I don't understand how you wouldn't get injured just from the controlled stunt doing of that stunt.

I know.

I watched them fly on like some cables, and they like, yanked him like eight feet.

Yeah, flying backwards, there were pads and whatnot there were. But it still looked like your back might hurt later in the day. My back would hurt later in the day.

For much less than that.

The stunt guy that did that was Brian Smurs, if I'm saying your last name, right? Brian, and Brian was also the stunt driver of When the Subway Jumps, Yeah.

Well, Jack and Harry are going to get medals for their bravery, they're going to go out and get super duper drunk.

That's what you do, you get drunk, you dance kind of awkwardly at a bar.

The next morning, Jack is going to get some coffee at what is clearly his favorite coffee house. He's a little hungover, he's going to run into Bob, who is a bus driver.

That's our second bob.

I noted that, yes, this bob was played by John Capadiche, who is putting on gloves that are way too small for him. I watched it several times.

The other rewatch was The Glove Moment.

Watch it, watch it. He's never going to get those gloves on his hands.

I'm going to say this with love, I don't ever want to see this movie again. I loved it. Maybe, you know what, I need a break. So in six months, I'll rewatch it again and I'll go to this glove moment.

I understand, I get it, I get it. So bus driver with gloves that don't fit goes outside, he gets in his bus and it blows up.

This whole shot had to happen over Jack's shoulder. It was super hard to achieve the timing, they only had one bus to blow up, so the timing had to be perfect.

Also, the bus that they blow up is not the bus that you see driving by moments before it blows up. They did what is called a Texas switch. Hmm, Jan said. The real bus goes past Keanu and it takes a left turn, but you don't see it because it's behind Keanu. And then when the camera sweeps back around their shell of a bus. That had like a mannequin for a driver and it was being pulled by a truck, that was their bomb bus. That's the one that then you see blow up.

Fakie Bus Okay.

Guess what?

What?

That bus was sitting there for a second before it started being towed.

Because they weren't on a set, right? This was actually in Santa Monica, yes.

This was really on the street, they thought they shut it down. A woman got past the production and ran onto Bomb bus thinking she had missed her bus.

That is terrifying.

She saw the Mannequin driver and was super confused. And the radios, like everyone on the radios, was like, don't blow up the bus, do not blow up the bus. And they had to start the shot over again and get that woman to safety. That woman almost got blown up on the bus. That is so scary, I know.

Well, if you go to 28 minutes and one second. When there is a high camera angle shot of the bus, you can see a red van with a giant. I don't know what do you call it? cable, cable pulling the bus.

You can see the tow car.

All of it, you can see all of it at 28 minutes, one second.

Jan would be heartbroken.

Jan shares about it very openly on commentary. Oh, okay, we had cameras everywhere and we caught some things. It just is going to happen.

Payphone's going to ring for some reason, Jack feels compelled to answer the ringing payphone in the middle of this bombed bus.

I just feel like if I saw something blow up and then all of a sudden the payphone started ringing, I would think I better answer it.

You would?

Yes, 100%.

I think I would run over, I would notice that there is a payphone, because this is the days before smartphones before.

Cell phones? Oh, don't get me started on how this movie would change if just someone had an iPhone to take a picture of a bomb. Oh my gosh, I have a whole rant about it later. Okay, okay.

We're on the same page. But if I suddenly saw the payphone and it was ringing, I would answer the phone and say, I have to call 911. And I would hang up immediately. I wouldn't even say anything, I would just pick it up and hang it up and then call 911. I wouldn't be like, hello.

I would pick it up and say, Did you do it?

You would?

Yes.

You would know the bomber was calling you.

Yes, I would.

Well, on the other line is our bomber, and he is going to tell Jack, this is not the only bus with a bomb. No, he's going to lay out the whole plot of the movie. I thought we should hear it.

We should, and I want to point out you guys, this whole scene that you're about to listen to was Dennis Hopper's first day of filming.

Pop quiz Hot shot.

There's a bomb on a bus. Once the bus goes 50 miles an hour, bomb is armed. If it drops below 50, it blows up. What do you do? What do you do?

Now, the number of the bus is 2525.

It's running downtown from Venice.

It's at the corner of Ocean Park, and he's off, he's off, he hops in his truck at 30 minutes, 55 seconds. You guys. He left his coffee on top of the Jeep. Oh wow.

Sam, played by Hawthorne James. By the way. Is she running with a cigarette?

And a coffee, yeah. Before she gets on the bus because Sam slows down for her, he says, Put out the butt and she goes, OK.

We would never let the heroine of our movie today throw smoke and litter and litter times have changed.

In the very first opening shot.

Yes, she gets on the bus, she takes a seat and is immediately chatted up by a tourist played by Alan Ruck from Ferris Bueller's Day Off. But you know what, his character didn't used to be a tourist. He was a totally different character. And I found an audio clip of him talking about it and I thought, maybe we could hear it.

Oh yeah, the whole gum bit was improvised by Sandra Bullock.

Really.

Yeah, just in the moment they're trying to figure out how to get her away and so she did this gum bit. I thought it worked great.

I thought that was really smart because it was a very likable, kind way for her to brush this guy off. So she's going to get up and then she's going to sit down next to Beth Grant.

Helen.

When we talked to Beth about this, you have to listen to her interview. We won't rehash it right now. But there was this whole other script, like the one where Alan Ruck was the angry businessman, There was this whole other thing in the original script. It's so interesting, you have to listen to her interview.

All of her behind-the-scenes details are so wonderful.

So we kind of pan around the bus now and we get a sense of who all of our passengers are. Jack is racing through traffic, trying to catch up to the bus.

He's going to bang on the bus door and the window cracks. Yeah, that was not planned.

What?

Yeah, that just happened, and then it kind of became a continuity thing. Because sometimes you see a bus with a door that's cracked, sometimes it doesn't have a crack. Crack, no crack, crack, crack, no crack.

Well, as the bus is driving away, leaving Jack on the side of the road, the bus is not yet going 50 miles an hour, so the bomb has not been engaged. And this sort of creates a big plot hole in an otherwise pretty tight script, it was pointed out in Janet Maslin's review.

Yes, Janet.

You know, Janet?

I mean, I don't know her, but her review is amazing.

Yes, her New York Times review. She said At this point, the bus is only going about 15 or 20 miles an hour. He has a gun, why doesn't he shoot out the tires so that the bomb is never engaged? Well, this review has haunted screenwriter Graham Yost, who 20 years later was still discussing this and said yes.

Right, of course, then Jack wouldn't have had a gun to pull on the passenger who pulls a gun on him.

Oh my gosh.

Then he wouldn't have had a stalemate.

I don't know how to tell Graham that because he was really excited to have fixed this plot hole.

Well, Graham, I think he needed his gun, otherwise the passenger with the gun would have had the bus pulled over.

This is a really good point.

Just saying, Well, Jack is now going to flag down a guy driving a Jaguar license plate tune, man.

Yes, he was played by Glenn Plummer.

He also comes back for speed, too. Really. Yes, he plays Maurice.

Wow.

Jack is gonna say, Listen, I need, you know. Basically, he needs to use his car.

Yeah.

Get over, I'm driving, he's gonna catch up with the bus, right as it hits 50 miles an hour.

The worst luck?

The worst luck, and the bomb is activated, and now Jack has to somehow tell Sam he's gotta keep it at 50..

Yes, they managed to communicate all this with, I guess, writing it on a piece of paper and then screaming it in through the door. But Keanu, now he needs to get on the bus. Okay, he has to get on. yeah, this stunt of him getting on the bus. Keanu did this himself.

They were going 50 miles an hour, the two vehicles had to stay the same speed.

The director didn't want him to do it, but Keanu trained with the stunt team and he did.

He did the dang thing.

Here is the stunt coordinator, Gary Himes discussing doing this stunt with Keanu.

One of the situations that comes to mind early on.

You mean, besides Beth Grant?

Yes, Gary Himes worked on The Hangover part 3 with Ed Helms.

There you go, I want you to know. At 39 minutes and 55 seconds, as Keanu is getting ready to jump onto the bus. There's a shot from behind and the wind, you can tell how fast they're going. Because the wind whips up the back of his shirt and you can see his mic pack.

Well, I think we should take a break, because when we come back, Jack is on the bus, y'all.

He's on the bus and a lot happens.

We're on the bus, you guys, Jack is on the bus, and right away, there's even more mayhem.

Yes, a man pulls a gun on Jack because he thinks that Jack has boarded the bus to get him. The man was played by Daniel Villarreal. And yeah, Jack is like, I'm not here for you.

He has some great dialogue. He's like, we're good, we're good. And he's gonna put his gun away, his gun that he needed to have for the standoff. Just saying.

No, this is true. He's gonna use his gun later, too, but one of the other passengers on the bus is gonna see an opportunity. He's gonna tackle the guy with the gun, the gun's gonna go off.

And all of a sudden, Andy's gotta step in to drive.

Yes, this is when Jack is gonna tell everyone the news that there's a bomb on the bus. Because Andy's starting to slow down, and Andy, she needs to slow down. Sam has been shot and he's like, No, no, there's a bomb on this bus. Everyone's like, Whoa?

Well, in deleted scenes, there was more that she shares with Helen. Really. Yeah, she tells Helen. She's a graphic designer, but currently working at, like, a fast food restaurant.

Oh, well, I'll have, you know. Sandra Bullock trained to actually be able to drive a bus, and she passed a bus driving test before the movie started shooting. However, she is never driving the bus, and at one time, she's not really driving the bus.

In the commentary, they did say When they were at the airport and they had all that big open space, they let her drive. Just, you know, one or two.

For a second.

Yeah, and she did hit a few cones.

Oh, dear.

Yeah.

Well, the person who was actually driving the bus was stunt driver Gil Combs, and he was hidden all over this bus a lot of the time. He was on top of the bus, yeah.

They built like this rig, or like a cage that he sat in, cage-ish.

Generous. There were a couple of bars and you can see him up there with an operating pedal and a big steering wheel and a helmet.

A helmet, but short, I know.

I just I was looking at him and I was like, I mean, what you're? If you fall off the top of that bus, the skin on your legs is gonna be shredded.

Well, it was September. He made a choice.

I guess so.

They also put him at the back of the bus, they put him low in one of the seats. Sometimes he was like sitting basically on the floor. So they had to give him a little tiny mini wheel. They put him all over the place to hide him, depending on the camera angle.

Well, Jack is gonna get on the phone with Harry and they decide he should check out this bomb. Can he get somehow like, eyes on this bomb, right? Yeah, so they're gonna remember that there's like this access panel and he's gonna stick his head down and he's gonna look at this bomb.

This is when I said, it really would have been nice if someone had an iPhone.

I thought so, too, I was gonna make this game. A telephone with the tourist and Harry and him. But instead, he could have, just like, put it on a Facetime and been like, Harry, this is what it looks like.

What are your thoughts? Well, while all of this is going on, the bus is slowing down, there's some traffic. Annie is trying to get Jack's attention, She's like, Hello, hello.

Hey officer, on or off, on or off.

That was Sandra Bullock's idea, grabbing that little microphone.

I really liked that, Jack says. Get off the freeway off, she's gonna run into a series of pretty much anything.

Beth talked about this with us, so you guys, be sure and listen to her interview.

And then she's gonna run into a baby carriage, Oh God, a woman crossing the street.

Okay, I guess one of the things they felt like when they tested the movie that really sold this moment is that it's not one woman with a carriage.

Yeah, this was a note from Fox during the development period, the writer said. The note was like, what if they, like, almost hit a baby carriage or something? That would really up the tension here? And the writer was kind of like, you know what?

Well, I felt like Sandra Bullock's reaction was like, what I would have done? I'd be like, Oh my god, oh my God, a baby.

Yeah.

I will say I felt like Jack got over it very quickly, I feel like Jack was like.

Well, this isn't the only drama. There's gonna be a really ugly right turn coming up in order to get back onto the freeway. Mac has managed to get, like all these police helicopters and a police escort. So we can keep the bus at 50 miles an hour. And guess what, he's gonna take them to this section of the 105 freeway that is under construction.

A 90 degree turn.

Oh my god.

While all this is happening, Harry is starting to piece together who Howard Payne might be.

Yeah, doing some just incredible think acting.

Yeah, he's gotta look, he's gotta get an idea, he's gotta look at a computer, he's gotta look at a bulletin board, lots of little glances.

I mean, I was riveted, and I'm not even kidding, I know, so here's something. The 105 freeway was actually under construction while they were filming this movie.

Okay, I have to share with you what Jan said. I mean, I'm calling him Jan, like, we're best friends, but I listened to him talk for two hours. You guys. So he said that there were some real pros and cons to having this whole big open freeway. They were so lucky, right, yeah.