Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997): The Legendary Flop - Bomb Report

https://bombreport.com/yearly-breakdowns/1997-2/speed-2-cruise-control/

Put that condescending smirk back on your face and let’s dive right into the legendary bomb Speed 2: Cruise Control — a sequel to a movie about a bus that had to SPEED around the city, keeping its SPEED over fifty, and if its SPEED dropped, it would explode! I think it was called … ‘The Bus That Couldn’t Slow Down.’

The $31M budgeted Speed (1994) not only turned into a surprise smash that pulled in $350.4M worldwide, but it launched Sandra Bullock into a bankable actor and made cinematographer turned director Jan de Bont (his directorial debut) an in-demand helmer. Even though the narrative to Speed was contained and closed, FOX execs Peter Chernin and Bill Mechanic saw the potential to franchise the Speed property. What potential they saw will remain a mystery.

Jan de Bont went from the mid-budget Speed, to the mega-budget Twister (1996) and after that box office smash, FOX was pressuring him to direct Speed 2 — with a bump in salary from $150,000 he received on the first pic to just over $6M for the sequel. Speed 2 was being developed as massive in scope and would be aimed at a broader audience with a family friendly MPAA rating instead of the first installment’s restrictive rating. de Bont signed onto this bloated trainwreck, brought it in massively over budget and somehow survived its humiliating failure. It would be his follow up picture, The Haunting (1999) — which despite being a decent sized hit, was so awful that it harmed his standing as a reliable director. He was hired for the hack job sequel Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003), which remains his final picture to this day.

Speed 2 first encountered a massive amount of free publicity before a frame of the movie was even shot, when it was announced in June 1996 that Keanu Reeves turned down reprising his role which came with an $11M payday. It’s easy in hindsight to understand his decision, as Speed 2: Cruise Control has gone down as one of the worst movies ever made — but in 1996 he was widely ridiculed for turning down the ‘surefire blockbuster hit of 1997.’ Reeves had followed up Speed with the so bad it’s almost perfect Johnny Mnemonic (1995) and then landed a minor hit with A Walk in the Clouds (1995), but as he turned down Speed 2, he had two stinkers about to be released in ’96 Chain Reaction and Feeling Minnesota. Both were failures and Keanu was routinely mocked by the press up until Speed 2 was released, for stepping away from a blueprint for success.

Reeves had broken his ankle in a motorcycle accident, which was mostly the reason his reps gave for abandoning the Speed sequel, but apparently once the decision was made, he went to perform in a stage production of Hamlet in Winnipeg(!). FOX execs reportedly would no longer do business with Reeves after he stepped away from their potential cash cow, but he found a new home at Warner Bros. He ultimately chose the minor success The Devil’s Advocate as the movie in place of Speed 2: Cruise Control and funny enough, he was finalizing his deal for The Matrix as Speed 2 was about to open in theaters.

With the departure of Keanu, Speed 2: Cruise Control became a Sandra Bullock vehicle. She had received $500,000 for the first picture, but landed $11M for part 2 and she had the contractual right to approve Reeve’s replacement. If she left this doomed fiasco, the production would have never been greenlit, so she used her leverage to get FOX to fund Hope Floats (1998). FOX did agree to finance her pet project as long as she would topline Speed 2 and the movie the studio had no interest in, became a modest money maker and their mega-budget tentpole became awash in red ink.

Keanu was quickly replaced by Jason Patric, who had nabbed the coveted role. Christian Slater and Matthew McConaughey were reportedly also considered, but missed out on the big payday and the eventual humiliation that came with starring in Speed 2. Patric was paid $4M and the actor had previously gravitated toward more serious fare instead of big budget fluff and the major failure of this project nearly wrecked his career. Patric was the one who felt the fallout of the movie’s failure more than any other player. Bullock, de Bont and Bill Mechanic were largely unscathed. He has since said of the film, “That was just a miserable experience. Doing Speed 2 was really about getting me to the foreign markets where my other movies just don’t play. I succumbed to the pressures of what everyone wanted me to do.” He concluded with, “I’m glad that [Speed 2] didn’t do well. I don’t think bad movies should make money.” Damn right.

FOX greenlit the project at just under $100M, but the studio continued to throw money at the production, as if it would solve the moronic script’s problems and the atrocious acting.