10 Sequels That Stupidly Changed The Main Character
9. Jack Traven To Annie Porter - Speed 2: Cruise Control
The Original: The Bus That Wouldn't Slow Down is simultaneously revered as a "so-90s-it's-good" guilty pleasure and an action classic, which is testament to its bonkers premise and excellent execution respectively. The plot is deviously simple, with a basic opening making way for the iconic bus sequence, although you don't want to overlook how Keanu's there to help you through it all. Now I'm not going to pretend that Reeves gave his best performance in Speed, but he served as a perfect action hero (and he and Sandra Bullock make a good pair).
The Sequel: I don't know what's funnier: that Speed 2: Cruise Control moved the franchise to the sea and in doing so managed to completely ruin the core concept, or that it could only get Sandy to come back and showdown against Willem Dafoe. Clearly the sex wasn't good enough to break the hard-fast rule about relationships based on intense experiences, because she's broken up with Jack and is now getting close to Jason Patric.
Speed was kinda stuck as a franchise thanks to its unreplicable plot - to continue it probably would have probably meant going the Die Hard route - but having Reeves in a sequel to anchor it and offering a character to be explored (rather than love interest gone tough) surely would have been better, right?