There’s no doubt that Keanu Reeves is one of the most significant action heroes cinema has ever known, even if his physical stature varies slightly from the behemoth frames we know in the likes of the genre’s big players, such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dwayne Johnson and Sylvester Stallone.
But there’s something special about Reeves, and he’s displayed his action movie talents on so many glorious occasions, most notably as Neo in The Matrix franchise, as the titular assassin in John Wick and also in Constantine, Johnny Mnemonic, 47 Ronin and Speed. Quite simply, Reeves has done his fair share for the action genre.
But like any actor, Reeves’ efforts in action movies had to begin somewhere and after establishing himself in the likes of The Prince of Pennsylvania and Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, the time came for Reeves to flex his muscles and get into the firing range for his first action movie, the glorious Point Break.
Point Break is Kathryn Bigelow’s 1991 action crime thriller, also starring Patrick Swayze, Lori Petty and Gary Bussey. It remains one of the greatest action movies of all time and sees Reeves star as an undercover FBI agent, Johnny Utah, who infiltrates a group of surfers who moonlight as a gang of bank robbers called ‘the ex-presidents’.
The film is dripping in iconic moments, from the scene where Utah skydives with Swayze’s gang leader, Bohdi, without a parachute to him surfing the waves to just having Reeves deliver his unique take on the action hero. We simply can’t forget his lines, “I’m an FBI agent!” or “My name’s Johnny Utah!” all issued just about bordering on bad acting.
But to focus on the fact that Reeves never quite tugs at the heartstrings is missing the point of the action film itself. The genre never takes itself too seriously; when have we ever been blown away by Arnie or Sly in one of their respective efforts? Simply, Reeves does all that’s expected of him in Point Break.
He’s able to capture those iconic moments in full force, runs after bad guys in tense chases, and, most importantly, portrays the surfer cop better than anyone else would have been able to. Reeves possesses that laid-back slacker charm whilst still managing to deliver a level of dramatic seriousness, and Point Break is all the better for it.
Reeves himself once admitted that Point Break changed his life, and it’s easy to see how. It showed the film world that he was more than capable of handling himself in an action movie and elevating it with his affable charm. In some ways, Reeves subverted the action genre by showing that films didn’t necessarily need to be led by ultra-buff macho men but could also feature likeable guys too.
“All the time I run into people, and they say, ‘I started jumping out of planes because of Point Break,'” the actor admitted. “I started surfing because of Point Break.’ It really changed people’s lives, just like it did mine.” Without Bigelow’s film, Reeves might never have had the chance to take on John Wick and The Matrix, and if that were the case, then action cinema would be missing some of its biggest hitters.
