Get ready for rush hour - it's the anniversary of Speed's release, which first sped into cinemas on the 10th June 1994!
Speed is, unanimously, the Citizen Kane of buses that are going too fast movies. Everything about the film and the majesty that it irradiates onto us is rad as fuck. When Fox did test screenings for the film, they were the first to witness the sheer power of Speed, when they noticed test audiences would walk out of the auditorium backwards to go to the toilet, so they didn't miss any of Speed.
The actors involved were forced to give their very soul to the film - Sandra Bullock passed a bus driving course in order to make audiences truly feel she could drive a bus, and Keanu Reeves did 90% of his own stunts in the movie, literally offering his mortality before Speed. Keanu wasn't in too much danger however, because he and Jeff Daniels decided to train with SWAT personnel to ready their minds and bodies for Speed.
When the film was released it sent shock waves of raw radical energy throughout the world; some harnessed this power for good, others for evil. In 2015 a 12-year-old kid took control of an out of control school bus when the driver had a heart attack, knowing what to do after seeing "that bus movie". On the flip-side, OJ Simpson was seen on TVs across America a week after the release of Speed, which many people noticed drew striking similarities to the interstate scenes in Speed - perhaps because the power of Speed being too much when put before a weak mind.
Quarter of a century later, we are still in awe at the wonder of Speed. Ryan Beitz is one such man, who has made it his life goal to collect every copy of Speed on VHS ever made, a collection which has so far surpassed 500 copies. There were attempts to continue the success of Speed-a-mania, by releasing Speed 2, but unfortunately, there could ever only be one Speed. One Speed to rule them all, one Speed to find them all, one Speed to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them.
God speed, Speed.
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