Speed 2: Cruise Control
Encyclopedia
Speed 2: Cruise Control is a 1997 action
–thriller film, and a sequel to Speed (1994). The film was produced and directed by Jan de Bont
, and written by Randall McCormick and Jeff Nathanson
, based on a story by de Bont and McCormick. Sandra Bullock
stars in the film, reprising her role from Speed, along with Jason Patric
and Willem Dafoe
. The film was released by 20th Century Fox
in June 1997.
The plot involves couple Annie (Bullock) and Alex (Patric) taking a vacation in the Caribbean
aboard a luxury cruise ship
, which is hijacked by a villain named Geiger (Dafoe) by hacking into the ship's computer system. As they are trapped aboard the ship, Annie and Alex work with the ship's first officer (Temuera Morrison
) to try and stop the ship, which they discover is programmed to sail into an oil tanker
.
De Bont came up with the idea for the film after he had a recurring nightmare about a cruise ship crashing into an island. Speed star Keanu Reeves
was initially supposed to reprise his role for the sequel, but decided not to commit and was replaced by Patric prior to filming. Production took place aboard Seabourn Legend, the ship on which the film is set. The film's final scene, where the ship crashes into the island of Saint Martin
, cost almost one quarter of the film's $110 million budget, and set records as the largest and most expensive stunt ever filmed. Many interior scenes aboard the ship were shot on soundstages in the Greater Los Angeles Area
. The film's soundtrack featured mostly reggae
music, and Mark Mancina
composed the film score
, which was released as an album 13 years after the film's release.
Critics had mostly negative reception towards the film, criticizing its poor acting, unrealistic story, and boring characters. One major criticism was that the film's setting on a slow-moving cruise ship was much less thrilling than Speed setting on a fast-moving bus. The film was a box office bomb
, earning less than half of its budget in the United States, and earned less than $165 million worldwide. It was nominated for eight Golden Raspberry Awards
, and won the award for "Worst Re-Make or Sequel".
), is on a motorcycle chase after a vehicle with stolen goods. He eventually catches the driver of the vehicle, and his girlfriend Annie (Sandra Bullock
) runs into him during her driving test (which she fails). She finds out that Alex is on the SWAT
team after he lied and told her he was a beach cop. As an apology, Alex surprises her with a trip to the Caribbean
, on the cruise ship Seabourn Legend.
Aboard the ship, passenger John Geiger (Willem Dafoe
) places explosives throughout the ship, and sets them off to destroy the ship's communication systems
. The following evening, he throws the captain overboard, then hacks into the ship's computer system to stop the ship. He sets off additional explosives, then calls the bridge to tell the first officer, Juliano (Temuera Morrison
), that the captain is dead and Juliano is now in charge. He is ordered by Geiger to evacuate the ship, during which Geiger steals jewelry from the ship's vault. As passengers evacuate, Drew (Christine Firkins
), a young deaf girl, becomes trapped in an elevator, and group of people become trapped behind locked fire door
s in a hallway filling up with smoke. Annie and Alex try to board the last lifeboat; however, the ship starts moving and the winch
lowering the lifeboat gets jammed. Alex jumps onto the boat to rescue the passengers, and Annie and Juliano use the ship's gangplank to get the passengers back onto the deck.
Alex realizes Geiger is controlling the ship and goes with Juliano to Geiger's cabin armed with skeet
guns, but Geiger remotely sets off explosives inside the room. Annie and Dante (Royale Watkins), the ship's photographer, notice the people trapped behind the fire doors, and Annie uses a chainsaw
to cut the door open and let them out. Meanwhile, Alex orders the navigator
, Merced (Brian McCardie
), to flood the ship and slow it down by opening the ballast
doors. As the ship floods, Alex sees Drew on a monitor after she climbed out of the elevator, and runs to save her. Alex notices Geiger exiting the vault and holds him at gunpoint, but Geiger escapes by closing the fire door in front of Alex. Using the ship's intercom, Geiger explains that he designed the ship's autopilot
system and is taking revenge against the cruise line after getting fired once he got sick from copper poisoning
. Geiger again escapes from Alex by attaching a grenade
to a door.
The crew realize that Geiger has set the ship to crash into an oil tanker
near Saint Martin
. Alex decides stop the ship by diving underneath it and jamming the propeller
with a steel cable. Geiger realizes Alex is trying to stop the ship, so he jams the cable winch while Alex is underwater, causing it to break off the ship and free the cable. Geiger takes Annie hostage and escapes with her on a boat from the back of the ship.
To avoid collision with the oil tanker, Alex and Dante go into the bilge pump
room and use the bow thruster
s to turn the ship. After the ship turns, it heads straight into a marina and crashes into an island, which slows the ship down and eventually brings it to a halt. Alex jumps off to rescue Annie and hijacks a speed boat from Maurice (Glenn Plummer
), forcing him to chase after Annie. Geiger takes Annie onto a seaplane
and Alex shoots it from the boat with a speargun
and reels himself in through the water. Alex climbs onto the plane and rescues Annie, and both escape from the plane on one of its pontoons, which falls off into the water. Geiger loses control of the plane and crashes into the oil tanker causing it to explode. Annie and Alex travel back to shore in Maurice's boat, and Alex gives Annie a wedding ring, asking her if she will "wear it for a while", and she accepts and they kiss.
Back in LA, Annie is once again taking her driver's test, with the same instructor. She starts to pull out into traffic, but she holds up as a bus goes screaming by. "That bus was going WAY too fast," she comments (which is a nod to the original Speed
).
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Speed was released in June 1994, and starred Keanu Reeves
and Sandra Bullock
, who were paid $1.2 million and $500,000 for their roles, respectively. Director Jan de Bont
felt the film was a "one-time story" with no sequel potential, and distributor 20th Century Fox
made no obligations for the actors to appear in a follow-up film. However, after Speed initial box office success, the Chicago Sun-Times
announced Fox's plans for a sequel, one week after the film's release. Fox senior executive vice president Tom Sherak mentioned the possibility of the sequel beginning with Reeves and Bullock's characters being married. De Bont was contractually obligated to direct Speed 2, and was paid $5 million. Fox expected Reeves and Bullock to reprise their roles without obligation, and negotiations with the actors began later that year.
Speed screenwriter Graham Yost
had an idea for a film involving a boat, with a Vietnam War
-era vessel loaded with weapons that would explode if its ammunition came in contact with water. He also had an idea for a story about a plane that has to fly through the Andes
mountains, but cannot ascend above 10000 feet (3,048 m). Neither Yost nor Speed producer Mark Gordon
were asked to participate in the sequel, although Yost received a "characters created by" credit and Gordon was credited as executive producer
for Speed 2. Randall McCormick was hired to write the sequel in 1994 following the release of Speed. De Bont had an idea for the sequel based on a recurring nightmare he experienced about a cruise ship crashing into an island. DeBont wrote the story with McCormick, and McCormick adapted it into a screenplay with Jeff Nathanson
, working backwards from the idea based on de Bont's nightmare. Writers Kevin Peterka and Greg Chabot provided additional uncredited work to the screenplay.
De Bont produced Speed 2 with his company Blue Tulip Productions and producer Steve Perry. Producer Michael Peyser later joined the project during production in late 1996 after joining Blue Tulip as de Bont's partner. De Bont began working on the film's pre-production
prior to the release of his previous film, Twister (1996). He started location scouting
in the Caribbean
in May 1996 and chose Saint Martin
as the primary filming location because he felt it was unlikely to be subjected to a hurricane, as it was struck by a hurricane the previous year for the first time in 100 years. De Bont wanted a cruise liner that was luxurious enough to possibly have millions of dollars of jewelry aboard and that was sleek enough for the film's poster. He learned about Seabourn Legend
in a hotel brochure, and chose the ship for the film after visiting ships from other cruise lines.
Prior to production, details about the film were kept secret, and de Bont refused to confirm rumors about the film taking place on a ship, although he did state that the sequel would be "funnier". Patric said that details were kept secret because "people do tend to steal other people's ideas", but said the sequel is a "very complex movie" and would have "bigger sequences".
Bullock agreed to star in the sequel to get financial backing for the 1998 drama Hope Floats
, and was paid $12.5 million to reprise her role as Annie. Reeves was offered $12 million to reprise his role as Jack Traven, but turned it down as he did not like the script and was financially secure from the success of the first film. Reeves later went on tour with his band, Dogstar
, and stated that Fox was "furious" with his decision and falsely reported that he turned down the role because he was more interested in touring with his band. De Bont said that the character in the sequel was not specific to Reeves and could be played by any young actor, as long as he could have chemistry with Bullock.
Bullock initially suggested Matthew McConaughey
to replace Reeves, who passed up the role to star in Contact
(1997). Jon Bon Jovi
, Patrick Muldoon
, and Christian Slater
, were also considered for the role. Bullock also suggested Jason Patric
, whom she had wanted to work with since seeing his performance in After Dark, My Sweet
(1990). De Bont was skeptical of featuring a relatively unknown actor, but was reminded by the studio that Bullock and Reeves were also relatively unknown prior to Speed. De Bont eventually chose Patric based on his role in Sleepers
(1996). Patric was paid $4.5 million for appearing in Speed 2, and after accepting the role, he stated that he never saw Speed or had any intentions of seeing it. Reeves said he was looking forward to seeing Patric in the sequel and that it was "going to be entertaining with another actor". After Reeves declined to appear in Speed 2, the screenplay was rewritten to remove his character from the story, which De Bont wanted to deal with "right away" in the film. His absence is explained in the first scene, where Annie talks about how her relationship with Jack did not work out, and mentions her current relationship with Alex (Patric), before his character is introduced in the film.
Gary Oldman
turned down the role of the villain, Geiger, and instead chose to star as another villain in Air Force One
(1997). Willem Dafoe
was cast as Geiger after Dafoe wanted to star in a "big movie" and once again play a villain. De Bont cast Temuera Morrison
as Juliano based on his role in Once Were Warriors
(1994). Glenn Plummer
was cast as a character named Maurice whose boat gets hijacked by Alex, reprising his role from Speed as a Jaguar owner whose car gets hijacked by Jack. To add comic relief
, de Bont cast comedian Tim Conway
as Bullock's character's driving instructor, and hoped it would be a comeback
role for Conway. R&B singer Tamia
was cast as Sheri Silver because de Bont wanted a singer who could also act. Tamia did not plan on doing any film acting that early in her career, as she had yet to release her debut album, but said the part was "too perfect for [her] to resist". Joe Morton
reprised his role from Speed as SWAT lieutenant "Mac" in a brief, uncredited cameo appearance
in the beginning of the film.
The evacuation sequence was among the first scenes filmed on the ship, and was shot in Key West, Florida
. Several days after shooting began, the National Hurricane Center
issued an alert for Hurricane Lili
, which was predicted to be headed towards the Florida Keys
. Shooting the evacuation scene was put on hold, and the ship was forced to sail to safe waters. The producers rearranged the shooting schedule and shot additional scenes on the ship's bridge while sailing towards Cuba
. As Hurricane Lili approached Cuba, the ship's violent movements caused seasickness among those on board. The ship was again forced to relocate, and sailed from Cuba towards the Gulf of Mexico
, and returned to the Keys three days later. The filming of the evacuation sequence continued and took place over the next two weeks. Approximately 30 hoses and the ship's fire sprinkler system were used to simulate heavy rainfall in the scene.
The scene where Alex swims underneath the ship to try and jam the propeller was filmed underneath a propeller-less barge
. The barge's hull was designed to resemble that of the Seabourn Legend, and a propeller was added into the scene using computer generated imagery (CGI) during post-production
. To provide a sense of velocity to the scene, the barge was towed by tugboat
s at one and a half knots. The production crew did not have a winch system available for the underwater shoot as depicted in the scene, so a pulley system was created by feeding Patric a rope that was attached to the axle
of a car that drove along the barge.
De Bont said that during shooting, he learned to "never film a boat from a stationary point of view". To make the ship appear faster, all exterior shots of the ship were filmed from a moving vehicle. Following the production at sea, de Bont said that filming on water "was 100 percent more difficult than [he] imagined".
s, so the scenes would appear more realistic. Bullock had to overcome her fear of water
she developed almost drowning at age 14 while learning to surf. While filming in the middle of the ocean, Bullock was smacked into the ship several times and was saved by Patric from decapitation by the ship's rudder
. According to Bullock, she performed all of her own stunts "except for a quarter of one stunt"; her stunt double worked for only three days during production.
Stunt coordinator Dick Ziker was so impressed with Patric's physical stunts in the film and said that Patric "is so physical he probably could be one of the top stunt men in the world, if he wanted to." During a motorcycle stunt, Patric flew off the bike 30 feet (9.1 m) into the air, and Bullock said the incident was so dangerous that "[Patric] should be dead". De Bont said the most frightening incident was when a stunt woman was hit in the face by a boat cable and required reconstructive surgery.
. During filming in Marigot, an obsessed fan of Bullock employed as an extra in the film attempted to kidnap her. Bullock was later assigned bodyguards for the duration of filming. Production designer Joseph Nemec III designed a set that extended the town's architecture, which included 35 buildings and was built in six months for $5 million. Despite de Bont's reason for chosing Saint Martin for filming, a hurricane struck the town and destroyed the set during construction, which had to be rebuilt with hurricane-proof building
s.
Two mock-ups of the Seabourn Legend were constructed in Florida
and towed to Saint Martin
for production. The first mock-up, dubbed the "bridge ship", was a reconstruction of the bow
and bridge built atop the hull
of the Sturgeon Atlantic cargo ship
. 60 short tons (54.4 MT) of steel were used to construct the bridge ship mock-up, which was 18 percent smaller than the original. The bridge ship was used in first part of the finale when the cruise ship is crashing into boats in the harbor prior to hitting the island. A cargo ship was used for the scene because the actual Seabourn Legend could not navigate in the harbor's shallow waters.
The second mock-up was a full-scale replica of the Seabourn Legend bow, known as the "rail ship", and was used in filming the finale scene. The rail ship was 150 feet (45.7 m), about one-third the length of the Seabourn Legend, and weighted 300 short tons (272.2 MT). A 1000 feet (304.8 m) rail was built 60 feet (18.3 m) underwater, and the rail ship was placed on top and sat on 50 wheels. It was powered by four diesel engine
s and pulled by a large chain at a speed of 18 miles per hour (29 km/h).
Filming the scene with the rail ship was initially delayed because it could not be hoisted onto the track due to large waves caused by the hurricane. The scene was filmed using 14 cameras, with the rail ship traveling 50 feet (15.2 m) at a time into the set, with debris from the destruction cleared between each take. The three planned collisions in the scene were aided by explosives
and hydraulics
to ensure the set's structures collapsed precisely. Concrete was also removed from the buildings and replaced with sand-coated balsa wood so the buildings would "crumble" more effectively after being hit by the rail ship. In the scene's final shot, the ship had to stop within a 6 inches (15.2 cm) area, and was completely successfully on the first take. The five-minute scene cost $25 million to produce, roughly one quarter of the film's entire budget, and set record as both the largest and the most expensive stunt ever filmed. The remaining two-thirds of the ship was added into the film during post-production by Industrial Light & Magic using computer-generated imagery
(CGI). Nemec said that creating the entire scene in CGI would have cost $500 million.
. The additional scenes were initially supposed to be filmed at Palm Beach Ocean Studios in West Palm Beach, Florida
, but plans for shooting there were cancelled due to "scheduling problems". Full-scale replicas of the ship's atrium, cabins, and engine rooms were constructed at the soundstages where production took place for over a month. The scene where Alex rescues Drew while the ship is being flooded was filmed by camera operator
s wearing wet suits inside a tank at Sony Studios. The set inside the tank was constructed with plywood and included a hydraulic lift that gave the effect that the water level was rising. Part of the seaplane scene was filmed outdoors in Valencia. The seaplane was suspended from a crane, with its engines and fuel tanks removed to ease its lift, and large fans were used to simulate wind. The outdoor shoot was filmed in one day for a brief, "one- or two-second" shot in the film, according to Nemec.
consists of mostly reggae
music. De Bont also wanted musicians to appear in the film as entertainers on the cruise ship. A cameo appearance for reggae band UB40
was written into the script after the filmmakers heard a demo
of their song "Tell Me Is It True", and wanted them to perform it in the film. De Bont chose singer Carlinhos Brown
to also be featured as a performer on the ship because he wanted music that was "lively" and felt that Brown's music was "full of energy". Tamia worked with de Bont and musician Quincy Jones
to choose a song for her character to perform in the film, and selected "Make Tonight Beautiful", which was written by Diane Warren
.
The Speed 2: Cruise Control Original Motion Picture Soundtrack was released by Virgin Records
on June 20, 1997, about one month before the film's release. The soundtrack album
featured 12 songs, all of which were featured in the film, and five of the songs were distributed to radio stations for promotion. In addition to UB40 and Brown, the album features reggae music from Jimmy Cliff
, Common Sense
, Maxi Priest
, Shaggy
, Rayvon
, and Betty Wright
. Shaggy wanted to feature his cover of the Erma Franklin
song "Piece of My Heart
"; however, because the song was being using in an upcoming Janis Joplin
biopic, he instead featured his song "My Dream". Priest was assigned to cover a song in his style for the soundtrack after contributing to the soundtrack for Jungle 2 Jungle
(1997), and Common Sense's appearance on the soundtrack led to a recording contract
with Virgin the following year. Speed 2 score composer Mark Mancina
wrote a dance-rage
track for the soundtrack based on the score, which was produced by Japanese musician Tetsuya "TK" Komuro
, who made his debut in the United States performing the track, called "Speed TK Remix".
/Latin
feel" by incorporating reggae music in between action sequences. Some of the themes from Speed were included in the score between sections of the newly written material. He wrote a new heroic and love theme for Annie and Alex because he felt the original themes written for Reeves' character would not work well with Patric. After viewing the scene where Geiger attaches leech
es to his body to cleanse his blood
, Mancina felt the scene was "so gross" that he wrote a "slimy theme" for the character, which is distinctively different from the rest of the music. He mixed the score at the same time the film was being edited, which caused the music to be constantly re-edited into the film. Following the release of the Speed 2, Mancina said in an interview that keeping up with the editing of the film was the "hardest thing [he had] ever done".
Over 100 minutes of score are present in Speed 2, more than Mancina wrote for Speed and Twister combined. After it was written, Mancina created a demo
of the entire score on a synthesizer
to play for de Bont. While the score for Speed only used strings
, French horns
, and percussion
, Speed 2 used a wider variety of instruments including trombone
s, large woodwinds
, bass clarinet
s, and contrabassoon
s. Mancina, himself, played a nylon string guitar
on several cues. The reggae music featured a band with 15 steel drums
, in addition to Cuban drums and Latin percussion
. The orchestra had over 100 players, which was significantly larger than the orchestra of 63 players that performed the score for Speed. Music was recorded on an Electro-Voice
microphone that allowed the music to be recorded directly to a computer without the need for equalization
or compression, due to the microphone's high clarity.
Mancina's score was initially not released on CD to avoid competition with sales of the soundtrack album. De Bont made a deal with Virgin Records that the score could not be released until at least six months after the release of the soundtrack. An official release of the score was not made until 13 years after the film's release. La-La Land Records
released the Speed 2: Cruise Control Original Motion Picture Score on June 15, 2010 as a limited edition of 3000 units. The album features 70 minutes of music across 14 tracks, and according to La-La Land, the it also features a "notable amount of music" that was not used in the film, due to the film's constant re-edits prior to its release date. Daniel Schweiger of Film Music Magazine said that Mancina's score was "arguably a better one than Speed", praising the album's "thrilling themes", "epic orchestrations", and "Jamaican-style grooves". Filmtracks gave the release four out of five stars, saying the album was "perhaps [La-La Land's] finest offering of a previously unreleased score", although stated that "[s]ome of the action and suspense material in the latter half of the score becomes a bit generic."
gives the film a score of 2% based on reviews from 28 critics. According to the video release cover, Gene Siskel
and Roger Ebert
gave it "Two Thumbs Up," while Sky Magazine
said that it was "Brilliant in all the ways that a disaster movie should be". Despite the poor reviews most critics did award some praise for the film's ending. In the years since, Roger Ebert has boasted in reviews that he liked Speed 2 more than Sandra Bullock actually did. Speed 2 was listed on About.com
's "Top 9 Cruise Ship or Ocean Liner Movies", which said it had "[g]ood shots of the ship and a spectacular ending", but also described the plot as "lame".
Time
said that Patric's character was "fundamentally uninteresting", but blamed de Bont and the screenwriters for "not providing their actors with stuff to act". Many critics stated that a major issue was the film was the lack of thrill due to the setting of the slow-moving ship. Entertainment Weekly
heavily criticized the lack of story and said the film is "as slow-moving as a garbage scow". According to the Los Angeles Times
, many even children who saw the film felt it was strange that it took place on a ship "not capable of going more than a few knots per hour", and claimed that Speed was "much more logical".
In 2010, New York
featured an article on Speed 2 that described it as the "Worst Sequel of All", mainly due to the film's explanation for the absence of Reeves' character. The film has also been listed among the worst sequels by MSN
, Comcast
(ranked 38th), Entertainment Weekly (ranked 9th), Moviefone
(ranked 9th), Total Film
(ranked 5th), and Complex (ranked 1st).
The film grossed only $48 million in the United States, and made a total gross of $164.5 million worldwide. Moviefone and Time have both ranked the film among the biggest box office bomb
s of all time.
(1997).
Father Ted
titled "Speed 3" involves a bomb planted on a milk float
that will explode if the float travels under 4 mile per hour. While the plot is a parody of Speed, writers Graham Linehan
and Arthur Mathews
got the idea for the episode after asking themselves how they would make a "worse sequel than Speed 2". The Simpsons
episode "Bye Bye Nerdie
" features a scene on a racing school bus where character Milhouse Van Houten
says "It's like Speed 2 only with a bus instead of a boat!"
Action film
Action film is a film genre where one or more heroes is thrust into a series of challenges that require physical feats, extended fights and frenetic chases...
–thriller film, and a sequel to Speed (1994). The film was produced and directed by Jan de Bont
Jan de Bont
Jan de Bont is a Dutch cinematographer, producer, and film director.-Early life and career:De Bont was born, one of 17 children, to a Roman Catholic family in Eindhoven, Netherlands. His earliest work after studying at the Amsterdam Film Academy was with the Dutch avant garde director Adriaan...
, and written by Randall McCormick and Jeff Nathanson
Jeff Nathanson
Jeff Nathanson is an American film writer, film producer, and director.He is best known for his work on the Rush Hour series, Catch Me If You Can, The Terminal, and The Last Shot, and has also co-written a story draft for the film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull with George Lucas...
, based on a story by de Bont and McCormick. Sandra Bullock
Sandra Bullock
Sandra Annette Bullock is an Academy Award winning American actress and producer who rose to fame in the 1990s after roles in successful films such as Demolition Man, Speed, The Net, A Time to Kill, and While You Were Sleeping. She continued with films such as Miss Congeniality, The Lake House,...
stars in the film, reprising her role from Speed, along with Jason Patric
Jason Patric
Jason Patric is an American film, television and stage actor. He may be best-known for his roles in the films The Lost Boys, Sleepers, Your Friends & Neighbors, Narc, The Losers and Speed 2: Cruise Control. His father was actor/playwright Jason Miller...
and Willem Dafoe
Willem Dafoe
Willem Dafoe is an American film, stage, and voice actor, and a founding member of the experimental theatre company The Wooster Group...
. The film was released by 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
in June 1997.
The plot involves couple Annie (Bullock) and Alex (Patric) taking a vacation in the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
aboard a luxury cruise ship
Cruise ship
A cruise ship or cruise liner is a passenger ship used for pleasure voyages, where the voyage itself and the ship's amenities are part of the experience, as well as the different destinations along the way...
, which is hijacked by a villain named Geiger (Dafoe) by hacking into the ship's computer system. As they are trapped aboard the ship, Annie and Alex work with the ship's first officer (Temuera Morrison
Temuera Morrison
Temuera Derek Morrison is a New Zealand-born actor. He has become one of the country's most famous stars for his roles as the abusive Jake "the Muss" Heke in 1994's Once Were Warriors and as bounty hunter Jango Fett and the Clone Troopers in the Star Wars series...
) to try and stop the ship, which they discover is programmed to sail into an oil tanker
Oil tanker
An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a merchant ship designed for the bulk transport of oil. There are two basic types of oil tankers: the crude tanker and the product tanker. Crude tankers move large quantities of unrefined crude oil from its point of extraction to refineries...
.
De Bont came up with the idea for the film after he had a recurring nightmare about a cruise ship crashing into an island. Speed star Keanu Reeves
Keanu Reeves
Keanu Charles Reeves is a Canadian actor. Reeves is perhaps best known for his roles in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Speed, Point Break and the science fiction-action trilogy The Matrix...
was initially supposed to reprise his role for the sequel, but decided not to commit and was replaced by Patric prior to filming. Production took place aboard Seabourn Legend, the ship on which the film is set. The film's final scene, where the ship crashes into the island of Saint Martin
Saint Martin
Saint Martin is an island in the northeast Caribbean, approximately east of Puerto Rico. The 87 km2 island is divided roughly 60/40 between France and the Kingdom of the Netherlands ; however, the Dutch side has the larger population. It is one of the smallest sea islands divided between...
, cost almost one quarter of the film's $110 million budget, and set records as the largest and most expensive stunt ever filmed. Many interior scenes aboard the ship were shot on soundstages in the Greater Los Angeles Area
Greater Los Angeles Area
The Greater Los Angeles Area, or the Southland, is a term used for the Combined Statistical Area sprawled over five counties in the southern part of California, namely Los Angeles County, Orange County, San Bernardino County, Riverside County and Ventura County...
. The film's soundtrack featured mostly reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
music, and Mark Mancina
Mark Mancina
Mark Alan Mancina is a U.S. composer, primarily for Hollywood soundtracks, such as his collaboration with Trevor Rabin on the soundtrack for Con Air. He arranged many of the songs behind Disney's The Lion King including the Broadway musical...
composed the film score
Film score
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...
, which was released as an album 13 years after the film's release.
Critics had mostly negative reception towards the film, criticizing its poor acting, unrealistic story, and boring characters. One major criticism was that the film's setting on a slow-moving cruise ship was much less thrilling than Speed setting on a fast-moving bus. The film was a box office bomb
Box office bomb
The phrase box office bomb refers to a film for which the production and marketing costs greatly exceeded the revenue regained by the movie studio. This should not be confused with Hollywood accounting when official figures show large losses, yet the movie is a financial success.A film's financial...
, earning less than half of its budget in the United States, and earned less than $165 million worldwide. It was nominated for eight Golden Raspberry Awards
Golden Raspberry Awards
A Golden Raspberry Award, or Razzie for short, is an award presented in recognition of the worst in movies. Founded by American copywriter and publicist John J.B. Wilson in 1981, the annual Razzie Awards ceremony in Los Angeles precedes the corresponding Academy Awards ceremony by one day...
, and won the award for "Worst Re-Make or Sequel".
Plot
Alex Shaw (Jason PatricJason Patric
Jason Patric is an American film, television and stage actor. He may be best-known for his roles in the films The Lost Boys, Sleepers, Your Friends & Neighbors, Narc, The Losers and Speed 2: Cruise Control. His father was actor/playwright Jason Miller...
), is on a motorcycle chase after a vehicle with stolen goods. He eventually catches the driver of the vehicle, and his girlfriend Annie (Sandra Bullock
Sandra Bullock
Sandra Annette Bullock is an Academy Award winning American actress and producer who rose to fame in the 1990s after roles in successful films such as Demolition Man, Speed, The Net, A Time to Kill, and While You Were Sleeping. She continued with films such as Miss Congeniality, The Lake House,...
) runs into him during her driving test (which she fails). She finds out that Alex is on the SWAT
SWAT
A SWAT team is an elite tactical unit in various national law enforcement departments. They are trained to perform high-risk operations that fall outside of the abilities of regular officers...
team after he lied and told her he was a beach cop. As an apology, Alex surprises her with a trip to the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
, on the cruise ship Seabourn Legend.
Aboard the ship, passenger John Geiger (Willem Dafoe
Willem Dafoe
Willem Dafoe is an American film, stage, and voice actor, and a founding member of the experimental theatre company The Wooster Group...
) places explosives throughout the ship, and sets them off to destroy the ship's communication systems
Marine and mobile radio telephony
The Marine Radiotelephone Service or HF ship-to-shore operates on shortwave radio frequencies, using single-sideband modulation. The usual method is that a ship calls a shore station, and the shore station's marine operator connects the caller to the public switched telephone network...
. The following evening, he throws the captain overboard, then hacks into the ship's computer system to stop the ship. He sets off additional explosives, then calls the bridge to tell the first officer, Juliano (Temuera Morrison
Temuera Morrison
Temuera Derek Morrison is a New Zealand-born actor. He has become one of the country's most famous stars for his roles as the abusive Jake "the Muss" Heke in 1994's Once Were Warriors and as bounty hunter Jango Fett and the Clone Troopers in the Star Wars series...
), that the captain is dead and Juliano is now in charge. He is ordered by Geiger to evacuate the ship, during which Geiger steals jewelry from the ship's vault. As passengers evacuate, Drew (Christine Firkins
Christine Firkins
Christine Lynn Firkins is a deaf actress who starred in the 1997 film Speed 2: Cruise Control as Drew.. , Daily News Christine Lynn Firkins (born July 6, 1983 in Canada) is a deaf actress who starred in the 1997 film Speed 2: Cruise Control as Drew.(25 October 1993). , Daily News (Los Angeles)...
), a young deaf girl, becomes trapped in an elevator, and group of people become trapped behind locked fire door
Fire door
A fire door is a door with a fire-resistance rating used as part of a passive fire protection system to reduce the spread of fire or smoke between compartments and to enable safe egress from a building or structure or ship...
s in a hallway filling up with smoke. Annie and Alex try to board the last lifeboat; however, the ship starts moving and the winch
Winch
A winch is a mechanical device that is used to pull in or let out or otherwise adjust the "tension" of a rope or wire rope . In its simplest form it consists of a spool and attached hand crank. In larger forms, winches stand at the heart of machines as diverse as tow trucks, steam shovels and...
lowering the lifeboat gets jammed. Alex jumps onto the boat to rescue the passengers, and Annie and Juliano use the ship's gangplank to get the passengers back onto the deck.
Alex realizes Geiger is controlling the ship and goes with Juliano to Geiger's cabin armed with skeet
Skeet shooting
Skeet shooting is one of the three major types of competitive shotgun target shooting sports . There are several types of skeet, including one with Olympic status , and many with only national recognition.- General principles :Skeet is a recreational and competitive activity where...
guns, but Geiger remotely sets off explosives inside the room. Annie and Dante (Royale Watkins), the ship's photographer, notice the people trapped behind the fire doors, and Annie uses a chainsaw
Chainsaw
A chainsaw is a portable mechanical saw, powered by electricity, compressed air, hydraulic power, or most commonly a two-stroke engine...
to cut the door open and let them out. Meanwhile, Alex orders the navigator
Navigator
A navigator is the person on board a ship or aircraft responsible for its navigation. The navigator's primary responsibility is to be aware of ship or aircraft position at all times. Responsibilities include planning the journey, advising the Captain or aircraft Commander of estimated timing to...
, Merced (Brian McCardie
Brian McCardie
Brian McCardie is a Scottish actor. He has appeared in several movies, including Speed 2: Cruise Control , playing the role as Merced. He also appeared in the mini series of Titanic.-Early life:...
), to flood the ship and slow it down by opening the ballast
Ballast tank
A ballast tank is a compartment within a boat, ship or other floating structure that holds water.-History:The basic concept behind the ballast tank can be seen in many forms of aquatic life, such as the blowfish or argonaut octopus, and the concept has been invented and reinvented many times by...
doors. As the ship floods, Alex sees Drew on a monitor after she climbed out of the elevator, and runs to save her. Alex notices Geiger exiting the vault and holds him at gunpoint, but Geiger escapes by closing the fire door in front of Alex. Using the ship's intercom, Geiger explains that he designed the ship's autopilot
Autopilot
An autopilot is a mechanical, electrical, or hydraulic system used to guide a vehicle without assistance from a human being. An autopilot can refer specifically to aircraft, self-steering gear for boats, or auto guidance of space craft and missiles...
system and is taking revenge against the cruise line after getting fired once he got sick from copper poisoning
Copper toxicity
Copper toxicity refers to the consequences of an excess of copper in the body. Copper toxicity can occur from eating acid food that has been cooked in un-coated copper cookware, or from exposure to excess copper in drinking water or other environmental sources....
. Geiger again escapes from Alex by attaching a grenade
Grenade
A grenade is a small explosive device that is projected a safe distance away by its user. Soldiers called grenadiers specialize in the use of grenades. The term hand grenade refers any grenade designed to be hand thrown. Grenade Launchers are firearms designed to fire explosive projectile grenades...
to a door.
The crew realize that Geiger has set the ship to crash into an oil tanker
Oil tanker
An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a merchant ship designed for the bulk transport of oil. There are two basic types of oil tankers: the crude tanker and the product tanker. Crude tankers move large quantities of unrefined crude oil from its point of extraction to refineries...
near Saint Martin
Saint Martin
Saint Martin is an island in the northeast Caribbean, approximately east of Puerto Rico. The 87 km2 island is divided roughly 60/40 between France and the Kingdom of the Netherlands ; however, the Dutch side has the larger population. It is one of the smallest sea islands divided between...
. Alex decides stop the ship by diving underneath it and jamming the propeller
Propeller
A propeller is a type of fan that transmits power by converting rotational motion into thrust. A pressure difference is produced between the forward and rear surfaces of the airfoil-shaped blade, and a fluid is accelerated behind the blade. Propeller dynamics can be modeled by both Bernoulli's...
with a steel cable. Geiger realizes Alex is trying to stop the ship, so he jams the cable winch while Alex is underwater, causing it to break off the ship and free the cable. Geiger takes Annie hostage and escapes with her on a boat from the back of the ship.
To avoid collision with the oil tanker, Alex and Dante go into the bilge pump
Bilge pump
A bilge pump is a water pump used to remove bilge water. Since fuel can be present in the bilge, electric bilge pumps are designed to not cause sparks. Electric bilge pumps are often fitted with float switches which turn on the pump when the bilge fills to a set level. Since bilge pumps can fail,...
room and use the bow thruster
Bow thruster
A bow thruster is a transversal propulsion device built into, or mounted to, the bow of a ship or boat to make it more maneuverable. Bow thrusters make docking easier, since they allow the captain to turn the vessel to port or starboard without using the main propulsion mechanism which requires...
s to turn the ship. After the ship turns, it heads straight into a marina and crashes into an island, which slows the ship down and eventually brings it to a halt. Alex jumps off to rescue Annie and hijacks a speed boat from Maurice (Glenn Plummer
Glenn Plummer
Glenn E. Plummer is an American film and television actor.Plummer was born in Richmond, California. He has appeared in numerous films and television series, primarily in supporting roles or small bit parts, such as High Top in Colors. His prominent roles came in the films Menace II Society, Speed,...
), forcing him to chase after Annie. Geiger takes Annie onto a seaplane
Seaplane
A seaplane is a fixed-wing aircraft capable of taking off and landing on water. Seaplanes that can also take off and land on airfields are a subclass called amphibian aircraft...
and Alex shoots it from the boat with a speargun
Speargun
A speargun is an underwater fishing implement designed to fire a spear at fish.The basic components of a speargun are:A spear, a stock/barrel, and a handle/grip containing a trigger mechanism...
and reels himself in through the water. Alex climbs onto the plane and rescues Annie, and both escape from the plane on one of its pontoons, which falls off into the water. Geiger loses control of the plane and crashes into the oil tanker causing it to explode. Annie and Alex travel back to shore in Maurice's boat, and Alex gives Annie a wedding ring, asking her if she will "wear it for a while", and she accepts and they kiss.
Back in LA, Annie is once again taking her driver's test, with the same instructor. She starts to pull out into traffic, but she holds up as a bus goes screaming by. "That bus was going WAY too fast," she comments (which is a nod to the original Speed
Speed (film)
Speed is a 1994 American action-thriller film directed by Jan de Bont, and set in Los Angeles. LAPD officer Jack Traven becomes the focus of a bomber and extortionist, retired Atlanta bomb squad sergeant, Howard Payne...
).
Background and writing
Keanu Reeves
Keanu Charles Reeves is a Canadian actor. Reeves is perhaps best known for his roles in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Speed, Point Break and the science fiction-action trilogy The Matrix...
and Sandra Bullock
Sandra Bullock
Sandra Annette Bullock is an Academy Award winning American actress and producer who rose to fame in the 1990s after roles in successful films such as Demolition Man, Speed, The Net, A Time to Kill, and While You Were Sleeping. She continued with films such as Miss Congeniality, The Lake House,...
, who were paid $1.2 million and $500,000 for their roles, respectively. Director Jan de Bont
Jan de Bont
Jan de Bont is a Dutch cinematographer, producer, and film director.-Early life and career:De Bont was born, one of 17 children, to a Roman Catholic family in Eindhoven, Netherlands. His earliest work after studying at the Amsterdam Film Academy was with the Dutch avant garde director Adriaan...
felt the film was a "one-time story" with no sequel potential, and distributor 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
made no obligations for the actors to appear in a follow-up film. However, after Speed initial box office success, the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
announced Fox's plans for a sequel, one week after the film's release. Fox senior executive vice president Tom Sherak mentioned the possibility of the sequel beginning with Reeves and Bullock's characters being married. De Bont was contractually obligated to direct Speed 2, and was paid $5 million. Fox expected Reeves and Bullock to reprise their roles without obligation, and negotiations with the actors began later that year.
Speed screenwriter Graham Yost
Graham Yost
Graham John Yost is a Canadian film and television screenwriter. His most famous works are the hit 1994 film Speed, Broken Arrow, and Hard Rain....
had an idea for a film involving a boat, with a Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
-era vessel loaded with weapons that would explode if its ammunition came in contact with water. He also had an idea for a story about a plane that has to fly through the Andes
Andes
The Andes is the world's longest continental mountain range. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about long, about to wide , and of an average height of about .Along its length, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated...
mountains, but cannot ascend above 10000 feet (3,048 m). Neither Yost nor Speed producer Mark Gordon
Mark Gordon
Mark Gordon is an American television and film producer.- Background :Gordon was born in Newport News, Virginia on October 10, 1956...
were asked to participate in the sequel, although Yost received a "characters created by" credit and Gordon was credited as executive producer
Executive producer
An executive producer is a producer who is not involved in any technical aspects of the film making or music process, but who is still responsible for the overall production...
for Speed 2. Randall McCormick was hired to write the sequel in 1994 following the release of Speed. De Bont had an idea for the sequel based on a recurring nightmare he experienced about a cruise ship crashing into an island. DeBont wrote the story with McCormick, and McCormick adapted it into a screenplay with Jeff Nathanson
Jeff Nathanson
Jeff Nathanson is an American film writer, film producer, and director.He is best known for his work on the Rush Hour series, Catch Me If You Can, The Terminal, and The Last Shot, and has also co-written a story draft for the film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull with George Lucas...
, working backwards from the idea based on de Bont's nightmare. Writers Kevin Peterka and Greg Chabot provided additional uncredited work to the screenplay.
De Bont produced Speed 2 with his company Blue Tulip Productions and producer Steve Perry. Producer Michael Peyser later joined the project during production in late 1996 after joining Blue Tulip as de Bont's partner. De Bont began working on the film's pre-production
Pre-production
Pre-production or In Production is the process of preparing all the elements involved in a film, play, or other performance.- In film :...
prior to the release of his previous film, Twister (1996). He started location scouting
Location scouting
Location scouting is a vital process in the pre-production stage of filmmaking and commercial photography. Once scriptwriters, producers or directors have decided what general kind of scenery they require for the various parts of their work that is shot outside of the studio, the search for a...
in the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
in May 1996 and chose Saint Martin
Saint Martin
Saint Martin is an island in the northeast Caribbean, approximately east of Puerto Rico. The 87 km2 island is divided roughly 60/40 between France and the Kingdom of the Netherlands ; however, the Dutch side has the larger population. It is one of the smallest sea islands divided between...
as the primary filming location because he felt it was unlikely to be subjected to a hurricane, as it was struck by a hurricane the previous year for the first time in 100 years. De Bont wanted a cruise liner that was luxurious enough to possibly have millions of dollars of jewelry aboard and that was sleek enough for the film's poster. He learned about Seabourn Legend
Seabourn Legend
Seabourn Legend is a Seabourn Cruise Line cruise ship, constructed by Schichau-Seebeckwerft in Bremerhaven, Germany and put into service for Kloster Cruise in February 1992...
in a hotel brochure, and chose the ship for the film after visiting ships from other cruise lines.
Prior to production, details about the film were kept secret, and de Bont refused to confirm rumors about the film taking place on a ship, although he did state that the sequel would be "funnier". Patric said that details were kept secret because "people do tend to steal other people's ideas", but said the sequel is a "very complex movie" and would have "bigger sequences".
Casting
| Actor | Role | |
|---|---|---|
| Sandra Bullock Sandra Bullock Sandra Annette Bullock is an Academy Award winning American actress and producer who rose to fame in the 1990s after roles in successful films such as Demolition Man, Speed, The Net, A Time to Kill, and While You Were Sleeping. She continued with films such as Miss Congeniality, The Lake House,... |
... | Annie Porter |
| Jason Patric Jason Patric Jason Patric is an American film, television and stage actor. He may be best-known for his roles in the films The Lost Boys, Sleepers, Your Friends & Neighbors, Narc, The Losers and Speed 2: Cruise Control. His father was actor/playwright Jason Miller... |
... | Alex Shaw |
| Willem Dafoe Willem Dafoe Willem Dafoe is an American film, stage, and voice actor, and a founding member of the experimental theatre company The Wooster Group... |
... | John Geiger |
| Temuera Morrison Temuera Morrison Temuera Derek Morrison is a New Zealand-born actor. He has become one of the country's most famous stars for his roles as the abusive Jake "the Muss" Heke in 1994's Once Were Warriors and as bounty hunter Jango Fett and the Clone Troopers in the Star Wars series... |
... | Juliano |
| Glenn Plummer Glenn Plummer Glenn E. Plummer is an American film and television actor.Plummer was born in Richmond, California. He has appeared in numerous films and television series, primarily in supporting roles or small bit parts, such as High Top in Colors. His prominent roles came in the films Menace II Society, Speed,... |
... | Maurice |
Bullock agreed to star in the sequel to get financial backing for the 1998 drama Hope Floats
Hope Floats
Hope Floats is a 1998 American romantic drama film directed by Forest Whitaker, and starring Sandra Bullock, Harry Connick, Jr. and Gena Rowlands....
, and was paid $12.5 million to reprise her role as Annie. Reeves was offered $12 million to reprise his role as Jack Traven, but turned it down as he did not like the script and was financially secure from the success of the first film. Reeves later went on tour with his band, Dogstar
Dogstar (band)
Dogstar was an alternative rock group active from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s. The band performed at the 1996 Zwemdokrock Festival and at the 1999 Glastonbury Festival , and it released an EP and two albums...
, and stated that Fox was "furious" with his decision and falsely reported that he turned down the role because he was more interested in touring with his band. De Bont said that the character in the sequel was not specific to Reeves and could be played by any young actor, as long as he could have chemistry with Bullock.
Bullock initially suggested Matthew McConaughey
Matthew McConaughey
Matthew David McConaughey is an American actor.After a series of minor roles in the early 1990s, McConaughey gained notice for his breakout role in Dazed and Confused . He then appeared in films such as A Time to Kill, Contact, U-571, Tiptoes, Sahara, and We Are Marshall...
to replace Reeves, who passed up the role to star in Contact
Contact (film)
Contact is a 1997 American science fiction drama film adapted from the Carl Sagan novel of the same name and directed by Robert Zemeckis. Both Sagan and wife Ann Druyan wrote the story outline for the film adaptation of Contact....
(1997). Jon Bon Jovi
Jon Bon Jovi
Jon Bon Jovi is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and actor, best known as the founder, occasional rhythm guitarist, and lead singer of rock band Bon Jovi, which was named after him...
, Patrick Muldoon
Patrick Muldoon
Patrick Muldoon is an American actor.-Early life:Muldoon was born in San Pedro, California, the son of Deanna, a homemaker, and William Patrick Muldoon II, a personal injury lawyer. He is of Irish descent on his father's side and of Croatian descent on his mother's side...
, and Christian Slater
Christian Slater
Christian Michael Leonard Slater is an American actor. He made his film debut with a small role in The Postman Always Rings Twice before playing a leading role in the 1985 film The Legend of Billie Jean...
, were also considered for the role. Bullock also suggested Jason Patric
Jason Patric
Jason Patric is an American film, television and stage actor. He may be best-known for his roles in the films The Lost Boys, Sleepers, Your Friends & Neighbors, Narc, The Losers and Speed 2: Cruise Control. His father was actor/playwright Jason Miller...
, whom she had wanted to work with since seeing his performance in After Dark, My Sweet
After Dark, My Sweet
After Dark, My Sweet is a neo-noir film directed by James Foley starring Jason Patric, Bruce Dern, and Rachel Ward. It is based on the 1955 Jim Thompson novel of the same name.-Plot:...
(1990). De Bont was skeptical of featuring a relatively unknown actor, but was reminded by the studio that Bullock and Reeves were also relatively unknown prior to Speed. De Bont eventually chose Patric based on his role in Sleepers
Sleepers (film)
Sleepers is a 1996 legal drama film written, produced, and directed by Barry Levinson, and based on Lorenzo Carcaterra's 1995 novel of the same name.-Plot:...
(1996). Patric was paid $4.5 million for appearing in Speed 2, and after accepting the role, he stated that he never saw Speed or had any intentions of seeing it. Reeves said he was looking forward to seeing Patric in the sequel and that it was "going to be entertaining with another actor". After Reeves declined to appear in Speed 2, the screenplay was rewritten to remove his character from the story, which De Bont wanted to deal with "right away" in the film. His absence is explained in the first scene, where Annie talks about how her relationship with Jack did not work out, and mentions her current relationship with Alex (Patric), before his character is introduced in the film.
Gary Oldman
Gary Oldman
Gary Leonard Oldman is an English actor, voice actor, filmmaker and musician.A member of the 1980s Brit Pack, Oldman came to prominence via starring roles in British films Meantime , Sid and Nancy and Prick Up Your Ears , with his performance in the latter bringing him his first BAFTA Award...
turned down the role of the villain, Geiger, and instead chose to star as another villain in Air Force One
Air Force One (film)
Air Force One is a 1997 American action-thriller film written by Andrew W. Marlowe and directed by Wolfgang Petersen. It stars Harrison Ford, Gary Oldman, and Glenn Close, and also features Xander Berkeley, William H. Macy, Dean Stockwell and Paul Guilfoyle...
(1997). Willem Dafoe
Willem Dafoe
Willem Dafoe is an American film, stage, and voice actor, and a founding member of the experimental theatre company The Wooster Group...
was cast as Geiger after Dafoe wanted to star in a "big movie" and once again play a villain. De Bont cast Temuera Morrison
Temuera Morrison
Temuera Derek Morrison is a New Zealand-born actor. He has become one of the country's most famous stars for his roles as the abusive Jake "the Muss" Heke in 1994's Once Were Warriors and as bounty hunter Jango Fett and the Clone Troopers in the Star Wars series...
as Juliano based on his role in Once Were Warriors
Once Were Warriors (film)
Once Were Warriors is a 1994 film based on New Zealand author Alan Duff's bestselling 1990 first novel. The film tells the story of an urban Māori family, the Hekes, and their problems with poverty, alcoholism and domestic violence, mostly brought on by family patriarch Jake...
(1994). Glenn Plummer
Glenn Plummer
Glenn E. Plummer is an American film and television actor.Plummer was born in Richmond, California. He has appeared in numerous films and television series, primarily in supporting roles or small bit parts, such as High Top in Colors. His prominent roles came in the films Menace II Society, Speed,...
was cast as a character named Maurice whose boat gets hijacked by Alex, reprising his role from Speed as a Jaguar owner whose car gets hijacked by Jack. To add comic relief
Comic relief
Comic relief is the inclusion of a humorous character, scene or witty dialogue in an otherwise serious work, often to relieve tension.-Definition:...
, de Bont cast comedian Tim Conway
Tim Conway
Thomas Daniel "Tim" Conway is an American comedian and actor, primarily known for his roles in sitcoms, films and television. Conway is best known for his role as the inept second-in-command officer, Ensign Charles Parker, to Lt...
as Bullock's character's driving instructor, and hoped it would be a comeback
Comeback
A comeback is the return of a person of public interest, a style or fashion in the mid-point of media interest. The term is predominantly used in politics, sports and pop music. In the case of a band, the term reunion is used...
role for Conway. R&B singer Tamia
Tamia
Tamia Hill , and known professionally as Tamia, is a four-time Grammy-nominated Canadian R&B and soul singer, songwriter, record producer, composer, model, entrepreneur and philanthropist, as well as an occasional actress.She is best known for her 2000 hit "Stranger In My House" and Fabolous' 2003...
was cast as Sheri Silver because de Bont wanted a singer who could also act. Tamia did not plan on doing any film acting that early in her career, as she had yet to release her debut album, but said the part was "too perfect for [her] to resist". Joe Morton
Joe Morton
Joseph Thomas "Joe" Morton, Jr. is an American stage, television, and film actor.-Early life:Morton was born in The Bronx, a borough of New York City, New York. He is the son of Evelyn, a secretary, and Joseph Thomas Morton, Sr., a U.S. army intelligence officer. Because of his father's...
reprised his role from Speed as SWAT lieutenant "Mac" in a brief, uncredited cameo appearance
Cameo appearance
A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...
in the beginning of the film.
Filming at sea
Filming took place aboard the Seabourn Legend for six weeks, which provided accommodations for the film's cast and crew, and housed the makeup and wardrobe departments. The Seabourn Legend captain and other crew members appear as extras the film.The evacuation sequence was among the first scenes filmed on the ship, and was shot in Key West, Florida
Key West, Florida
Key West is a city in Monroe County, Florida, United States. The city encompasses the island of Key West, the part of Stock Island north of U.S. 1 , Sigsbee Park , Fleming Key , and Sunset Key...
. Several days after shooting began, the National Hurricane Center
National Hurricane Center
The National Hurricane Center , located at Florida International University in Miami, Florida, is the division of the National Weather Service responsible for tracking and predicting weather systems within the tropics between the Prime Meridian and the 140th meridian west poleward to the 30th...
issued an alert for Hurricane Lili
Hurricane Lili (1996)
Hurricane Lili was a relatively long-lived hurricane during the very active 1996 Atlantic hurricane season. Lili formed on October 14 from a tropical wave, which emerged from the coast of west Africa on October 4. The tropical wave which developed into Lili was slow to form due to unfavorable wind...
, which was predicted to be headed towards the Florida Keys
Florida Keys
The Florida Keys are a coral archipelago in southeast United States. They begin at the southeastern tip of the Florida peninsula, about south of Miami, and extend in a gentle arc south-southwest and then westward to Key West, the westernmost of the inhabited islands, and on to the uninhabited Dry...
. Shooting the evacuation scene was put on hold, and the ship was forced to sail to safe waters. The producers rearranged the shooting schedule and shot additional scenes on the ship's bridge while sailing towards Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
. As Hurricane Lili approached Cuba, the ship's violent movements caused seasickness among those on board. The ship was again forced to relocate, and sailed from Cuba towards the Gulf of Mexico
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico is a partially landlocked ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. In...
, and returned to the Keys three days later. The filming of the evacuation sequence continued and took place over the next two weeks. Approximately 30 hoses and the ship's fire sprinkler system were used to simulate heavy rainfall in the scene.
The scene where Alex swims underneath the ship to try and jam the propeller was filmed underneath a propeller-less barge
Barge
A barge is a flat-bottomed boat, built mainly for river and canal transport of heavy goods. Some barges are not self-propelled and need to be towed by tugboats or pushed by towboats...
. The barge's hull was designed to resemble that of the Seabourn Legend, and a propeller was added into the scene using computer generated imagery (CGI) during post-production
Post-production
Post-production is part of filmmaking and the video production process. It occurs in the making of motion pictures, television programs, radio programs, advertising, audio recordings, photography, and digital art...
. To provide a sense of velocity to the scene, the barge was towed by tugboat
Tugboat
A tugboat is a boat that maneuvers vessels by pushing or towing them. Tugs move vessels that either should not move themselves, such as ships in a crowded harbor or a narrow canal,or those that cannot move by themselves, such as barges, disabled ships, or oil platforms. Tugboats are powerful for...
s at one and a half knots. The production crew did not have a winch system available for the underwater shoot as depicted in the scene, so a pulley system was created by feeding Patric a rope that was attached to the axle
Axle
An axle is a central shaft for a rotating wheel or gear. On wheeled vehicles, the axle may be fixed to the wheels, rotating with them, or fixed to its surroundings, with the wheels rotating around the axle. In the former case, bearings or bushings are provided at the mounting points where the axle...
of a car that drove along the barge.
De Bont said that during shooting, he learned to "never film a boat from a stationary point of view". To make the ship appear faster, all exterior shots of the ship were filmed from a moving vehicle. Following the production at sea, de Bont said that filming on water "was 100 percent more difficult than [he] imagined".
Stunts
De Bont persuaded Bullock and Patric to perform most of their own stunts, as opposed to using stunt doubleStunt double
A stunt double is a type of body double, specifically a skilled replacement used for dangerous film or video sequences, in movies and television , and for other sophisticated stunts...
s, so the scenes would appear more realistic. Bullock had to overcome her fear of water
Aquaphobia
Aquaphobia is an abnormal and persistent fear of water. Aquaphobia is a specific phobia that involves a level of fear that is beyond the patient's control or that may interfere with daily life. People suffer aquaphobia in many ways and may experience it even though they realize the water in an...
she developed almost drowning at age 14 while learning to surf. While filming in the middle of the ocean, Bullock was smacked into the ship several times and was saved by Patric from decapitation by the ship's rudder
Rudder
A rudder is a device used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft or other conveyance that moves through a medium . On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to counter adverse yaw and p-factor and is not the primary control used to turn the airplane...
. According to Bullock, she performed all of her own stunts "except for a quarter of one stunt"; her stunt double worked for only three days during production.
Stunt coordinator Dick Ziker was so impressed with Patric's physical stunts in the film and said that Patric "is so physical he probably could be one of the top stunt men in the world, if he wanted to." During a motorcycle stunt, Patric flew off the bike 30 feet (9.1 m) into the air, and Bullock said the incident was so dangerous that "[Patric] should be dead". De Bont said the most frightening incident was when a stunt woman was hit in the face by a boat cable and required reconstructive surgery.
Finale scene
The finale scene where the ship crashes into the island was filmed in Marigot, Saint MartinMarigot, Saint Martin
Marigot is the main town and capital on the French side of the Caribbean island of Saint Martin.-History and features:Originally a fishing village on a swamp for which it was named, Marigot was made capital during the reign of King Louis XVI, who built Fort St. Louis on a hill near Marigot Bay...
. During filming in Marigot, an obsessed fan of Bullock employed as an extra in the film attempted to kidnap her. Bullock was later assigned bodyguards for the duration of filming. Production designer Joseph Nemec III designed a set that extended the town's architecture, which included 35 buildings and was built in six months for $5 million. Despite de Bont's reason for chosing Saint Martin for filming, a hurricane struck the town and destroyed the set during construction, which had to be rebuilt with hurricane-proof building
Hurricane-proof building
Tornadoes, cyclones, and other strong winds damage or destroy many buildings. However, with proper design and construction, the damage to buildings by these forces can be greatly reduced. A variety of methods can help a building survive strong winds and storm surge....
s.
Two mock-ups of the Seabourn Legend were constructed in Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
and towed to Saint Martin
Saint Martin
Saint Martin is an island in the northeast Caribbean, approximately east of Puerto Rico. The 87 km2 island is divided roughly 60/40 between France and the Kingdom of the Netherlands ; however, the Dutch side has the larger population. It is one of the smallest sea islands divided between...
for production. The first mock-up, dubbed the "bridge ship", was a reconstruction of the bow
Bow (ship)
The bow is a nautical term that refers to the forward part of the hull of a ship or boat, the point that is most forward when the vessel is underway. Both of the adjectives fore and forward mean towards the bow...
and bridge built atop the hull
Hull (watercraft)
A hull is the watertight body of a ship or boat. Above the hull is the superstructure and/or deckhouse, where present. The line where the hull meets the water surface is called the waterline.The structure of the hull varies depending on the vessel type...
of the Sturgeon Atlantic cargo ship
Cargo ship
A cargo ship or freighter is any sort of ship or vessel that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year; they handle the bulk of international trade...
. 60 short tons (54.4 MT) of steel were used to construct the bridge ship mock-up, which was 18 percent smaller than the original. The bridge ship was used in first part of the finale when the cruise ship is crashing into boats in the harbor prior to hitting the island. A cargo ship was used for the scene because the actual Seabourn Legend could not navigate in the harbor's shallow waters.
The second mock-up was a full-scale replica of the Seabourn Legend bow, known as the "rail ship", and was used in filming the finale scene. The rail ship was 150 feet (45.7 m), about one-third the length of the Seabourn Legend, and weighted 300 short tons (272.2 MT). A 1000 feet (304.8 m) rail was built 60 feet (18.3 m) underwater, and the rail ship was placed on top and sat on 50 wheels. It was powered by four diesel engine
Diesel engine
A diesel engine is an internal combustion engine that uses the heat of compression to initiate ignition to burn the fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber...
s and pulled by a large chain at a speed of 18 miles per hour (29 km/h).
Filming the scene with the rail ship was initially delayed because it could not be hoisted onto the track due to large waves caused by the hurricane. The scene was filmed using 14 cameras, with the rail ship traveling 50 feet (15.2 m) at a time into the set, with debris from the destruction cleared between each take. The three planned collisions in the scene were aided by explosives
Explosive material
An explosive material, also called an explosive, is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure...
and hydraulics
Hydraulic machinery
Hydraulic machines are machinery and tools that use liquid fluid power to do simple work. Heavy equipment is a common example.In this type of machine, hydraulic fluid is transmitted throughout the machine to various hydraulic motors and hydraulic cylinders and which becomes pressurised according to...
to ensure the set's structures collapsed precisely. Concrete was also removed from the buildings and replaced with sand-coated balsa wood so the buildings would "crumble" more effectively after being hit by the rail ship. In the scene's final shot, the ship had to stop within a 6 inches (15.2 cm) area, and was completely successfully on the first take. The five-minute scene cost $25 million to produce, roughly one quarter of the film's entire budget, and set record as both the largest and the most expensive stunt ever filmed. The remaining two-thirds of the ship was added into the film during post-production by Industrial Light & Magic using computer-generated imagery
Computer-generated imagery
Computer-generated imagery is the application of the field of computer graphics or, more specifically, 3D computer graphics to special effects in art, video games, films, television programs, commercials, simulators and simulation generally, and printed media...
(CGI). Nemec said that creating the entire scene in CGI would have cost $500 million.
Soundstage filming
Interiors of the ship were filmed at Warren Entertainment Studios in Valencia, California and Sony Studios in Culver CityCulver City, California
Culver City is a city in western Los Angeles County, California. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 38,883, up from 38,816 at the 2000 census. It is mostly surrounded by the city of Los Angeles, but also shares a border with unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County. Culver...
. The additional scenes were initially supposed to be filmed at Palm Beach Ocean Studios in West Palm Beach, Florida
West Palm Beach, Florida
West Palm Beach, is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and is the most populous city in and county seat of Palm Beach County, the third most populous county in Florida with a 2010 population of 1,320,134. The city is also the oldest incorporated municipality in South Florida...
, but plans for shooting there were cancelled due to "scheduling problems". Full-scale replicas of the ship's atrium, cabins, and engine rooms were constructed at the soundstages where production took place for over a month. The scene where Alex rescues Drew while the ship is being flooded was filmed by camera operator
Camera operator
A camera operator or cameraman is a professional operator of a film or video camera. In filmmaking, the leading cameraman is usually called a cinematographer, while a cameraman in a video production may be known as a television camera operator, video camera operator, or videographer, depending on...
s wearing wet suits inside a tank at Sony Studios. The set inside the tank was constructed with plywood and included a hydraulic lift that gave the effect that the water level was rising. Part of the seaplane scene was filmed outdoors in Valencia. The seaplane was suspended from a crane, with its engines and fuel tanks removed to ease its lift, and large fans were used to simulate wind. The outdoor shoot was filmed in one day for a brief, "one- or two-second" shot in the film, according to Nemec.
Soundtrack
To go along with the film's Caribbean setting, the soundtrackSoundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
consists of mostly reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
music. De Bont also wanted musicians to appear in the film as entertainers on the cruise ship. A cameo appearance for reggae band UB40
UB40
UB40 are a British reggae/pop band formed in 1978 in Birmingham. The band has placed more than 50 singles in the UK Singles Chart, and has also achieved considerable international success. One of the world's best-selling music artists, UB40 have sold over 70 million records.Their hit singles...
was written into the script after the filmmakers heard a demo
Demo (music)
A demo version or demo of a song is one recorded for reference rather than for release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas on tape or disc, and provide an example of those ideas to record labels, producers or other artists...
of their song "Tell Me Is It True", and wanted them to perform it in the film. De Bont chose singer Carlinhos Brown
Carlinhos Brown
Carlinhos Brown is a Brazilian musician from Salvador, Bahia. He was born in Candeal Pequeno, a small neighbourhood in the Brotas area of Salvador de Bahia...
to also be featured as a performer on the ship because he wanted music that was "lively" and felt that Brown's music was "full of energy". Tamia worked with de Bont and musician Quincy Jones
Quincy Jones
Quincy Delightt Jones, Jr. is an American record producer and musician. A conductor, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend...
to choose a song for her character to perform in the film, and selected "Make Tonight Beautiful", which was written by Diane Warren
Diane Warren
Diane Eve Warren , is a US songwriter. Her songs have received six Academy Award nominations, five Golden Globe nominations, including one win and seven Grammy Award nominations, including one win. She was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2001...
.
The Speed 2: Cruise Control Original Motion Picture Soundtrack was released by Virgin Records
Virgin Records
Virgin Records is a British record label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, Simon Draper, and Nik Powell in 1972. The company grew to be a worldwide music phenomenon, with platinum performers such as Roy Orbison, Devo, Genesis, Keith Richards, Janet Jackson, Culture Club, Lenny...
on June 20, 1997, about one month before the film's release. The soundtrack album
Soundtrack album
A soundtrack album is any album that incorporates music directly recorded from the soundtrack of a particular feature film or television program. In some cases, not all the tracks from the movie are included in the album; however there are rare cases of songs in the trailers that do not appear in...
featured 12 songs, all of which were featured in the film, and five of the songs were distributed to radio stations for promotion. In addition to UB40 and Brown, the album features reggae music from Jimmy Cliff
Jimmy Cliff
Jimmy Cliff, OM is a Jamaican musician, singer and actor. He is the only currently living musician to hold the Order of Merit, the highest honour that can be granted by the Jamaican government for achievement in the arts and sciences...
, Common Sense
Common Sense (band)
Common Sense is an American reggae and alternative rock band from Orange County, California. They are known for playing in the Mercury Mariner commercial. Since their formation in 1987, they have released five albums under their own label, Common Sense Records...
, Maxi Priest
Maxi Priest
Max Alfred "Maxi" Priest is a British reggae vocalist of Jamaican descent. He is best known for singing reggae music with a R&B influence, otherwise known as reggae fusion, and became one of the first international successes who regularly dabbled in the genre as well as being one of the most...
, Shaggy
Shaggy (musician)
Orville Richard Burrell , better known by his stage name Shaggy, is a Jamaican-American reggae singer and rapper. He is perhaps best known for his 1995 single "Boombastic" and 2000 single "It Wasn't Me"...
, Rayvon
Rayvon
Rayvon is a Barbadian reggae singer, known for his work with Shaggy.-Singles:*1992 "Big Up" *1994 "No Guns, No Murder" Hi.*1995 "In The Summertime" #5 UK...
, and Betty Wright
Betty Wright
Bessie Regina Norris, better known by her stage name, Betty Wright , is a Grammy winning Miami-based soul and R&B singer-songwriter, who won fame in the 1970s with hits such as "Clean Up Woman" and "Tonight Is the Night"...
. Shaggy wanted to feature his cover of the Erma Franklin
Erma Franklin
Erma Franklin was an American gospel and R&B singer. She was the oldest daughter of Barbara and the Reverend C. L. Franklin and the elder sister of Aretha Franklin...
song "Piece of My Heart
Piece of My Heart
"Piece of My Heart" is a song written by Jerry Ragovoy and Bert Berns and originally recorded by Erma Franklin in 1967. The song came to greater mainstream attention when Big Brother and the Holding Company covered the song in 1968 and had a hit with it...
"; however, because the song was being using in an upcoming Janis Joplin
Janis Joplin
Janis Lyn Joplin was an American singer, songwriter, painter, dancer and music arranger. She rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company and later as a solo artist with her backing groups, The Kozmic Blues Band and The Full Tilt Boogie Band...
biopic, he instead featured his song "My Dream". Priest was assigned to cover a song in his style for the soundtrack after contributing to the soundtrack for Jungle 2 Jungle
Jungle 2 Jungle
Jungle 2 Jungle is a 1997 comedy feature film starring Tim Allen, Martin Short and Sam Huntington. It is an American remake of the 1994 French film Un indien dans la ville . Jungle 2 Jungles plot follows the original film fairly closely...
(1997), and Common Sense's appearance on the soundtrack led to a recording contract
Recording contract
A recording contract is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording artist , where the artist makes a record for the label to sell and promote...
with Virgin the following year. Speed 2 score composer Mark Mancina
Mark Mancina
Mark Alan Mancina is a U.S. composer, primarily for Hollywood soundtracks, such as his collaboration with Trevor Rabin on the soundtrack for Con Air. He arranged many of the songs behind Disney's The Lion King including the Broadway musical...
wrote a dance-rage
Electronic dance music
Electronic dance music is electronic music produced primarily for the purposes of use within a nightclub setting, or in an environment that is centered upon dance-based entertainment...
track for the soundtrack based on the score, which was produced by Japanese musician Tetsuya "TK" Komuro
Tetsuya Komuro
, also known as TK, is a Japanese keyboardist, guitarist, singer, songwriter and music producer born on November 27, 1958 in Fuchu, Tokyo, Japan. He is recognized as being the most successful producer in Japanese music history and introduced dance music to the Japanese mainstream...
, who made his debut in the United States performing the track, called "Speed TK Remix".
Score
Mancina wrote the film score for Speed 2 after previously composing the scores for Speed and Twister. He started composing the music on March 1, 1997, which was later scored at the end of April. He began by creating themes and melodies, then working them into the film where he felt they would fit. Specific action cues were scored on the piano down to each second of film. Noting how the film was set in the Caribbean and had a different, slower pace than Speed, Mancina gave the score a "JamaicanMusic of Jamaica
The music of Jamaica includes Jamaican folk music and many popular genres, such as mento, ska, rocksteady, reggae, dub music, dancehall, reggae fusion and related styles. Jamaica's music culture is a fusion of elements from the United States , Africa, and neighboring Caribbean islands such as...
/Latin
Latin American music
Latin American music, found within Central and South America, is a series of musical styles and genres that mixes influences from Spanish, African and indigenous sources, that has recently become very famous in the US.-Argentina:...
feel" by incorporating reggae music in between action sequences. Some of the themes from Speed were included in the score between sections of the newly written material. He wrote a new heroic and love theme for Annie and Alex because he felt the original themes written for Reeves' character would not work well with Patric. After viewing the scene where Geiger attaches leech
Leech
Leeches are segmented worms that belong to the phylum Annelida and comprise the subclass Hirudinea. Like other oligochaetes such as earthworms, leeches share a clitellum and are hermaphrodites. Nevertheless, they differ from other oligochaetes in significant ways...
es to his body to cleanse his blood
Bloodletting
Bloodletting is the withdrawal of often little quantities of blood from a patient to cure or prevent illness and disease. Bloodletting was based on an ancient system of medicine in which blood and other bodily fluid were considered to be "humors" the proper balance of which maintained health...
, Mancina felt the scene was "so gross" that he wrote a "slimy theme" for the character, which is distinctively different from the rest of the music. He mixed the score at the same time the film was being edited, which caused the music to be constantly re-edited into the film. Following the release of the Speed 2, Mancina said in an interview that keeping up with the editing of the film was the "hardest thing [he had] ever done".
Over 100 minutes of score are present in Speed 2, more than Mancina wrote for Speed and Twister combined. After it was written, Mancina created a demo
Demo (music)
A demo version or demo of a song is one recorded for reference rather than for release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas on tape or disc, and provide an example of those ideas to record labels, producers or other artists...
of the entire score on a synthesizer
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
to play for de Bont. While the score for Speed only used strings
String instrument
A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones...
, French horns
Horn (instrument)
The horn is a brass instrument consisting of about of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. A musician who plays the horn is called a horn player ....
, and percussion
Percussion instrument
A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
, Speed 2 used a wider variety of instruments including trombone
Trombone
The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
s, large woodwinds
Woodwind instrument
A woodwind instrument is a musical instrument which produces sound when the player blows air against a sharp edge or through a reed, causing the air within its resonator to vibrate...
, bass clarinet
Bass clarinet
The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B , but it plays notes an octave below the soprano B clarinet...
s, and contrabassoon
Contrabassoon
The contrabassoon, also known as the double bassoon or double-bassoon, is a larger version of the bassoon, sounding an octave lower...
s. Mancina, himself, played a nylon string guitar
Classical guitar
The classical guitar is a 6-stringed plucked string instrument from the family of instruments called chordophones...
on several cues. The reggae music featured a band with 15 steel drums
Steelpan
Steelpans is a musical instrument originating from The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago...
, in addition to Cuban drums and Latin percussion
Latin percussion
The term Latin percussion refers to any number of a large family of musical percussion instruments used in Latin music, which in turn is a very loosely related group of musical styles, mainly from the Latin American region, and ultimately having roots or influences in African tribal...
. The orchestra had over 100 players, which was significantly larger than the orchestra of 63 players that performed the score for Speed. Music was recorded on an Electro-Voice
Electro-Voice
Electro-Voice is a manufacturer of audio equipment, including microphones, amplifiers, and loudspeakers. A subdivision of Telex Communications Inc., Electro-Voice markets its products for use in small or large concert venues, broadcasting, houses of worship, and in retail situations.-History:On...
microphone that allowed the music to be recorded directly to a computer without the need for equalization
Equalization
Equalization, is the process of adjusting the balance between frequency components within an electronic signal. The most well known use of equalization is in sound recording and reproduction but there are many other applications in electronics and telecommunications. The circuit or equipment used...
or compression, due to the microphone's high clarity.
Mancina's score was initially not released on CD to avoid competition with sales of the soundtrack album. De Bont made a deal with Virgin Records that the score could not be released until at least six months after the release of the soundtrack. An official release of the score was not made until 13 years after the film's release. La-La Land Records
La-La Land Records
La-La Land Records is an American record company based in Burbank, California . The company specializes in film and television soundtracks. The label is run by Michael V...
released the Speed 2: Cruise Control Original Motion Picture Score on June 15, 2010 as a limited edition of 3000 units. The album features 70 minutes of music across 14 tracks, and according to La-La Land, the it also features a "notable amount of music" that was not used in the film, due to the film's constant re-edits prior to its release date. Daniel Schweiger of Film Music Magazine said that Mancina's score was "arguably a better one than Speed", praising the album's "thrilling themes", "epic orchestrations", and "Jamaican-style grooves". Filmtracks gave the release four out of five stars, saying the album was "perhaps [La-La Land's] finest offering of a previously unreleased score", although stated that "[s]ome of the action and suspense material in the latter half of the score becomes a bit generic."
Reception
The film was generally regarded as a critical disaster and received mostly negative reviews. It is also considered to be one of the worst movie sequels of all time. Sandra Bullock herself mocked this movie's performance and has admitted to regretting being a part of it. Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
gives the film a score of 2% based on reviews from 28 critics. According to the video release cover, Gene Siskel
Gene Siskel
Eugene Kal "Gene" Siskel was an American film critic and journalist for the Chicago Tribune. Along with colleague Roger Ebert, he hosted the popular review show Siskel & Ebert At the Movies from 1975 until his death....
and Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
gave it "Two Thumbs Up," while Sky Magazine
Sky Magazine
Sky Magazine is the magazine distributed to subscribers of the BSkyB satellite service Sky Digital.- Availability :The magazine is available to subscribers of the Variety Pack or all packs of entertainment.- Content :...
said that it was "Brilliant in all the ways that a disaster movie should be". Despite the poor reviews most critics did award some praise for the film's ending. In the years since, Roger Ebert has boasted in reviews that he liked Speed 2 more than Sandra Bullock actually did. Speed 2 was listed on About.com
About.com
About.com is an online source for original information and advice. It is written in English, and is aimed primarily at North Americans. It is owned by The New York Times Company....
's "Top 9 Cruise Ship or Ocean Liner Movies", which said it had "[g]ood shots of the ship and a spectacular ending", but also described the plot as "lame".
Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
said that Patric's character was "fundamentally uninteresting", but blamed de Bont and the screenwriters for "not providing their actors with stuff to act". Many critics stated that a major issue was the film was the lack of thrill due to the setting of the slow-moving ship. Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
heavily criticized the lack of story and said the film is "as slow-moving as a garbage scow". According to the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
, many even children who saw the film felt it was strange that it took place on a ship "not capable of going more than a few knots per hour", and claimed that Speed was "much more logical".
In 2010, New York
New York (magazine)
New York is a weekly magazine principally concerned with the life, culture, politics, and style of New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite than that magazine, and established itself as a cradle of New...
featured an article on Speed 2 that described it as the "Worst Sequel of All", mainly due to the film's explanation for the absence of Reeves' character. The film has also been listed among the worst sequels by MSN
MSN
MSN is a collection of Internet sites and services provided by Microsoft. The Microsoft Network debuted as an online service and Internet service provider on August 24, 1995, to coincide with the release of the Windows 95 operating system.The range of services offered by MSN has changed since its...
, Comcast
Comcast
Comcast Corporation is the largest cable operator, home Internet service provider, and fourth largest home telephone service provider in the United States, providing cable television, broadband Internet, and telephone service to both residential and commercial customers in 39 states and the...
(ranked 38th), Entertainment Weekly (ranked 9th), Moviefone
Moviefone
Moviefone is an American-based movie listing and information service. Moviegoers can obtain local showtimes, theatre information, film reviews, or advance tickets...
(ranked 9th), Total Film
Total Film
Total Film is a British film magazine published 13 times a year by Future Publishing. The magazine was launched in 1997 and offers film, DVD and Blu-ray news, reviews and features...
(ranked 5th), and Complex (ranked 1st).
The film grossed only $48 million in the United States, and made a total gross of $164.5 million worldwide. Moviefone and Time have both ranked the film among the biggest box office bomb
Box office bomb
The phrase box office bomb refers to a film for which the production and marketing costs greatly exceeded the revenue regained by the movie studio. This should not be confused with Hollywood accounting when official figures show large losses, yet the movie is a financial success.A film's financial...
s of all time.
Razzie Awards
The film received eight nominations out of 12 possible categories at the 18th Golden Raspberry Awards, and had the second-highest number following Batman and Robin (1997), which had 11 nominations. Speed 2 won the award for "Worst Remake or Sequel", but lost the award for "Worst Picture" to The PostmanThe Postman (film)
The Postman is an American post-apocalyptic epic film based on the 1985 novel of the same name by David Brin. It was filmed in northeastern Washington , Fidalgo Island, Washington, central Oregon and Tucson, Arizona, and was directed by Kevin Costner, who also stars in the film...
(1997).
| Award | Nominee | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Worst Picture | ||
| Worst Actress | Sandra Bullock Sandra Bullock Sandra Annette Bullock is an Academy Award winning American actress and producer who rose to fame in the 1990s after roles in successful films such as Demolition Man, Speed, The Net, A Time to Kill, and While You Were Sleeping. She continued with films such as Miss Congeniality, The Lake House,... |
|
| Worst Supporting Actor | Willem Dafoe Willem Dafoe Willem Dafoe is an American film, stage, and voice actor, and a founding member of the experimental theatre company The Wooster Group... |
|
| Worst Screen Couple | Sandra Bullock, Jason Patric Jason Patric Jason Patric is an American film, television and stage actor. He may be best-known for his roles in the films The Lost Boys, Sleepers, Your Friends & Neighbors, Narc, The Losers and Speed 2: Cruise Control. His father was actor/playwright Jason Miller... |
|
| Worst Remake or Sequel | ||
| Worst Director | Jan de Bont | |
| Worst Screenplay | Randall McCormick, Jeff Nathanson Jeff Nathanson Jeff Nathanson is an American film writer, film producer, and director.He is best known for his work on the Rush Hour series, Catch Me If You Can, The Terminal, and The Last Shot, and has also co-written a story draft for the film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull with George Lucas... , Jan de Bont |
|
| Worst Song | "My Dream" (written by Orville Burrell Shaggy (musician) Orville Richard Burrell , better known by his stage name Shaggy, is a Jamaican-American reggae singer and rapper. He is perhaps best known for his 1995 single "Boombastic" and 2000 single "It Wasn't Me"... , Robert Livingston, Dennis Haliburton) |
Cultural references
The 1998 episode of the of the British/Irish sitcomSituation comedy
A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...
Father Ted
Father Ted
Father Ted is a comedy series set in Ireland that was produced by Hat Trick Productions for British broadcaster Channel 4. Written jointly by Irish writers Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan and starring a predominantly Irish cast, it originally aired over three series from 21 April 1995 until 1 May...
titled "Speed 3" involves a bomb planted on a milk float
Milk float
A milk float is a battery electric vehicle , specifically designed for the delivery of fresh milk. They were once common in many European countries, particularly the United Kingdom, and were operated by local dairies...
that will explode if the float travels under 4 mile per hour. While the plot is a parody of Speed, writers Graham Linehan
Graham Linehan
Graham Linehan is an Irish television writer, actor, comedian and director who, often in partnership with Arthur Mathews, has written or co-written a number of popular television comedies...
and Arthur Mathews
Arthur Mathews (writer)
Arthur Mathews is an Irish comedy writer and actor who, often with writing partner Graham Linehan, has either written or contributed to a number of popular television comedies, most notably Father Ted. He is a graduate of the Dublin Institute of Technology...
got the idea for the episode after asking themselves how they would make a "worse sequel than Speed 2". The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
episode "Bye Bye Nerdie
Bye Bye Nerdie
"Bye Bye Nerdie" is the sixteenth episode of the twelfth season of the American animated sitcom The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on March 11, 2001. In the episode, when she becomes the target of a female bully, Lisa discovers a scientific reason as to why...
" features a scene on a racing school bus where character Milhouse Van Houten
Milhouse Van Houten
Milhouse Mussolini Van Houten is a fictional character featured in the animated television series The Simpsons, voiced by Pamela Hayden. He is Bart Simpson's best friend in Mrs. Krabappel's fourth grade class at Springfield Elementary School....
says "It's like Speed 2 only with a bus instead of a boat!"