3. Speed (1994)
Pop quiz, hotshot; when you have a first-time director shooting a script by a writer that had previously only worked in television with a budget of just $30m, what do you do? Simple, you create not just one of the best action movies of the 90s, but one of the best action movies ever. Setting the bulk of the movie in such an enclosed space allows the movie time to fully develop the characters on the bus, which makes the audience care about the outcome. Keanu Reeves' Jack Traven is a relatable hero as opposed to the archetypical 'maverick hot-shot', Sandra Bullock's Annie holds her own and is more than just a 'damsel in distress', while Dennis Hopper is suitably zealous as the deranged bomber. Joss Whedon was brought in by director Jan de Bont to work on the dialogue and character moments, which only enhances Graham Yost's tight script. Where Speed really succeeds of course, is in the action stakes. Beginning with a tense elevator rescue, almost the entire second act of the movie is a 50mph chase throughout Los Angeles that culminates in the famous physics-defying freeway jump. Even with the passengers safely off the bus the movie manages to destroy a cargo plane in spectacular fashion, before a final showdown between Reeves and Hopper produces a classic pay-off line and finishes by derailing an entire train and crashing it onto Hollywood Boulevard. As you do. It's hard to forget just how influential Speed is on the entire action genre; the concept of a bomb on a bus that detonates when it travels over 50mph is brilliant in its simplicity, and led to a number of poor imitations that would be pitched as 'Speed on a (insert mode of transport here)'. Even Speed 2, but let's not talk about that...