Ranking Every Keanu Reeves Movie Worst To Best

2. Speed (1994)

One of the most purely thrilling action films of the '90s, Speed is a gut-wrenching adrenaline rush of a movie, making the absolute most of its ingeniously high-concept premise.

Reeves is well-cast as the single-minded LAPD officer Jack Traven, though the film really belongs to Sandra Bullock as embattled commuter Annie Porter, and a deliciously over-the-top Dennis Hopper as antagonist Howard Payne.

Unlike Sandy, though, Keanu was smart enough not to return for the doomed sequel, Speed 2: Cruise Control.

1. The Matrix (1999)

Was anything else ever going to be number one? The Matrix not only helped redefine Reeves' own career after a period of underwhelming genre films, but reinvented what the action genre itself could be.

The Wachowskis' ingeniously inventive filmmaking and philosophical script made The Matrix the perfect mix of heart-stopping blockbuster entertainment and thought-provoking brain food.

Reeves was perfectly cast as the stoic hero Neo, while Carrie-Anne Moss, Laurence Fishburne, and Agent Smith were sublime in their immediately iconic roles.

Practically every major action film today owes at least a couple of cues to The Matrix and how substantially it changed the game. And over two decades on, it's continuing to age like a fine wine.