Pop quiz, hot shots – which pedal-to-the-metal Keanu Reeves blockbuster set a breakneck new pace for action cinema in 1994? The answer is, of course, Speed – directed by Jan de Bont and written by our guest today, the fantastic Graham Yost. Graham had the idea for the film after a conversation with his father about Akira Kurusawa’s unproduced script, Runaway Train. Taking the Japanese auteur’s loose idea and throwing a bomb into the mix, as well as a maniacal bomber played by Dennis Hopper, the film saw Keanu star as Jack Traven, an LAPD officer tasked with saving a bus full of people from a device that will explode if the vehicle slows below 50mph. Full of nerve-shredding tension and death-defying set pieces, it’s regularly voted among the best action movies of all time, and rightly so if you ask us.
We caught up with Graham, who you might also know for his work on Justified and From The Earth To The Moon, to hear about how he wrote Speed. We talk about his shockingly different original villain for the movie, the alternate way his first draft ended, the lines from the film that Joss Whedon punched up and his pitches for two further Speed movies that sadly never got off the ground. You don’t have to listen to this episode on a runaway bus tearing through traffic, but it might heighten the experience.
Support for this episode comes from Screencraft, MUBI and Launchpad.
Script Apart is hosted by Al Horner and produced by Kamil Dymek, with music from Stefan Bindley-Taylor. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, or email us on thescriptapartpodcast@gmail.com.
Get a free digital copy of the Script Apart Magazine by supporting us on Patreon! 51 pages of interviews with great screenwriters, including exclusive conversations you won't find anywhere else. You can also now support the show on Ko-Fi.
Support the Show.
No One Will Save You With Brian Duffield
The Fall Guy with Drew Pearce
Air with Alex Convery
The Blair Witch Project with Eduardo Sánchez
Stage Apart: The Hills of California with Jez Butterworth
Civil War with Alex Garland
Stage Apart: Stranger Things – The First Shadow with Kate Trefry
Script Club: Children of Men with Carmen Maria Machado (Her Body and Other Parties)
Expats with Lulu Wang
How To Have Sex with Molly Manning Walker
American Fiction with Cord Jefferson
The Holdovers with David Hemingson
All Of Us Strangers with Andrew Haigh
Maestro with Josh Singer
Beau Is Afraid with Ari Aster
Poor Things with Tony McNamara
Society Of The Snow with J.A. Bayona
Toy Story 3 with Michael Arndt
A Murder At The End Of The World with Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij
Leave The World Behind with Sam Esmail
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Prestige Junkie
You Can’t Make This Up
The Sackhoff Show
Team Deakins
Toon’d In! with Jim Cummings