Keanu Reeves’ Speed Was Inspired By This High-Stakes ’70s Thriller You Didn’t Know Existed

Although people often joke that the 1994 movie “Speed” is just “he dies high” on a bus, it is fair to say that the movie is just the “The Bullet Train” on a bus. No, I am not talking about the movie “Train Train” called Brad Pitt, released in 2022, but about the Japanese excitement movie of 1975.

“The Bullet Train” or “Shinkansen Daibakuha” was a movie about a group of criminals who plant a bomb on a high -speed train, and they tell the authorities that the train cannot be less than 80 km per hour, otherwise the bomb will start. Although the film is not particularly known in the United States, it was well received in Japan and even received a supplement in 2025. This film was called the “Train Bang”, and it was released directly to Netflix.

Does this mean that we should call the plagiards on the “speed” scriptwriter, Graham Estal? Certainly no. Youst was open about the source of his inspiration for the film; He heard from his father about the plots of both the “lead train” and the excitement of 1985 “the fleeing train”. The last movie was an American movie where a giant train brake is broken and the heroes should know how to stop it before it collided with a giant chemical factory.

Estan heard the concept of the train that is not allowed to stop, and asked himself the logical question about: “Isn’t this better in a bus?” Lead trains, after all. Although trying to keep a train over a certain speed is difficult, it is still easier (and less cinematic) than trying to keep a bus at a certain speed. The bus should deal with traffic lights, roundabouts, other cars, etc. … If your goal is to emphasize your viewers, the bus is a better way for this type of hypothesis.

Although “speed” was a greater blow in America than the “train” of 1975 in Japan, the decision to put the story on a bus was not without negatives. The “speed” was forced to get rid of realism from the window, not only with the lack of an hour traffic in Los Angeles, but with the way Annie (Sandra Bullock) and Jack (Keno Reeves) deals. The most famous is the scene that the bus must jump the gap in an incomplete section of the highway. As an adult, he realizes that this is not supposed to be an excessive realistic movie, I can appreciate this ridiculous scene of reckless pleasure, but it is better to think that the 10 -year -old was smoking in nonsense. I still want to know why the front wheels were raised like this. Perhaps “TRIIN” was not like “speed”, but he had no completely sequence such a sequence.

Aside NITPICKS, “speed” is still impressive in the improvement of the bus preparation. The fact that the bus needs a constant alert driver (while the lead train will remain on the paths indefinitely) added a ton of additional tension. Critics were unable to talk enough about chemistry between Jack and Annie, but this chemistry will not succeed at all if Annie is riding in a train. It is possible that you are not able to progress in this position, not to mention this.

As everyone loves a good train movie, and as much as the trains can be considered one of the best settings for the movement of the movement, sometimes all the needs of the directors are busy to accomplish the task.