The director of Speed has revealed his secret for helping convince Keanu Reeves to do some of the stunts in the high-octane action thriller. The film was helmed by cinematographer-turned-director Jan de Bont, who went on to make several other big-budget films like the 1996 storm chaser movie Twister, the 1999 horror remake The Haunting, and the blockbuster sequels Speed 2: Cruise Control and Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life. This is largely due to the success of Speed, which was released on June 10, 1994 and made $350.4 million worldwide off its budget of around $35 million, becoming the seventh highest grossing film of the year behind projects like Disney's The Lion King and eventual Best Picture winner Forrest Gump.
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Part of the reason that Speed performed so well was its gripping action thrills and stunts. Nearly the entire movie, which starred Reeves and Sandra Bullock in a pair of early performances, takes place on a speeding bus that a domestic terrorist has planted a bomb on. If the bus dips below 50 miles per hour, the bomb will go off, which leads to a variety of action-packed moments as Reeves attempts to save the people inside. To do so, he has to transfer people from the bus to another moving vehicle, jump the bus off an unfinished freeway, and more.
Recently, Yahoo! Movies sat down with de Bont to celebrate the 4K UHD release of the 1990 horror film Flatliners, which he shot. The conversation naturally turned to his directorial debut, and he revealed that initially Reeves was hesitant to perform some of the stunts that were required of him. Insisting that "You’re totally in control about whether you’re afraid or not," the director demonstrated the stunts for the star, performing them himself so Reeves could see that he was safe.
Considering the fact that de Bont is certainly not an action star, it will likely be interesting for fans to imagine him performing some of the same death-defying acts as Reeves does in the finished film. However, this is a common method that directors use to aid their actors. Many believe that a director shouldn't ask an actor to do something that they themselves would be uncomfortable doing, and in fact do some more perilous stunts so the performers can see that a sequence a director would theoretically put their own life on the line to perform couldn't be as dangerous as it seems.
The director's demonstration proved to be effective, as Speed became a massive hit. The film's success even led to a cavalcade of action films starring Reeves, including the 1999 sci-fi classic The Matrix and the more recent series of John Wick films. It seems likely that none of this would have happened if not for the propulsive impact of Speed that exists because of de Bont being willing to put himself in his lead actor's shoes.