20 Things You Didn't Know About Speed
11. Whedon Didn't Just Rewrite Dialogue
After Joss Whedon was brought on board, the project really started to gel. Yost's script had a hook, but there were too many issues - including the constraint of setting the entirely on the bus as opposed to the three-act elevator/bus/subway structure that wound up getting released.
The first major change was Harry's death. Initially, Yost envisioned the mad bomber remain either anonymous or turn out to be Jack's bitter partner. Whedon threw that out the window the moment word got around that Dennis Hopper was available, killing off Harry to give Jack a more personal conflict with the villain.
The other major change was Alan Ruck's fish-out-of-water tourist, who was initially an obnoxious L.A. lawyer-type. Ultimately, Ruck was just a likeable doofus. Had he remained an insufferable loudmouth, his death was already on the page.