Keanu Reeves reunited with director Jan de Bont and co-star Sandra Bullock for a special 30th anniversary screening of Speed, and the Q&A session gave fans an inside look into some chaotic behind-the-scenes moments of the beloved action thriller.
Reeves took the stage alongside Bullock and de Bont at Beyond Fest in Hollywood on Tuesday, where they reminisced about filming one of Speed‘s most intense sequences. During the Q&A, Reeves recalled a day on set where things got a bit more real than expected. “Don’t you remember that day on the bus, though?” Reeves asked Bullock, smiling. “When we were crashing through all the cars on the street. I remember we were a little under-informed. We were all on the bus and then we were driving down by San Diego or something. We were set by the ocean, and all of a sudden, we’re actually hitting cars. Boom! Boom!”
He went on to describe the chaos that followed, imitating the panic and screams that broke out among the cast. “Everyone on that bus lost their mind. People were screaming,” Reeves laughed, reenacting the commotion and leaving the audience in stitches.
The reunion marked the first time Reeves, Bullock, and de Bont have ever publicly shared the stage together to discuss the iconic 1994 blockbuster. The film followed LAPD officer Jack Traven, played by Reeves, as he raced against time to prevent a city bus from exploding after it was rigged with a bomb by Dennis Hopper’s villainous character, Howard Payne. Bullock played Annie, the feisty passenger thrust into the role of an impromptu driver.
The cast of Speed included memorable performances from actors like Hawthorne James, who played the injured bus driver Sam, Beth Grant as the nervous Helen, and Alan Ruck as the chatty tourist Doug Stephens—a role that came long before Ruck’s time as Connor Roy on HBO’s Succession. Bullock praised her fellow passengers during the Q&A, highlighting the camaraderie among the cast. “We had different walks of life, but they all needed to be in that place to make the story believable,” she said, also giving a special nod to Beth Grant, who “took getting run over by the bus like a champ.” Bullock couldn’t resist a shoutout to Ruck, adding, “Everyone was so kind.”
Director Jan de Bont also marveled at the chemistry between Reeves and Bullock, describing it as even more impressive than he remembered. “When I saw the movie here [tonight], I’ve never been so proud of those two actors,” de Bont said. “What they did for me—quite often unnatural to them, what they had to do—is just unbelievable. The relationship that these two created together is absolutely amazing. Seeing them back on the screen tonight, it was so realistic. They were absolutely perfect. All the emotions were right, all the laughing was right, all the smiling, the little smooching. It was really, really cool. I had to tell them how great they both were.”
The chemistry between Reeves and Bullock has always been a highlight of Speed, and it’s clear that their connection was as authentic off-screen as it was on. For fans of the high-octane thriller, the Beyond Fest event offered a nostalgic return to the chaos, laughs, and adrenaline that made Speed an unforgettable ride.
