Great Character: Annie Porter (“Speed”)

The Great Character theme for the month: Action Heroines. Today: Annie Porter from the 1994 movie Speed, written by Graham Yost.

Sandra Bullock has managed to $ucce$$fully portray heroines in a multitude of movie genres: a sports drama The Blind Side in 2009 ($309,208,309), an action comedy The Heat in 2013 ($229,930,771) and a science fiction thriller Gravity also in 2013 ($716,392,705). But back in 1994, Sandra Bullock co-starred opposite Keanu Reeves and Dennis Hooper as the feisty impromptu bus driver Annie Porter with boundless bravery in an action thriller Speed. For $30 million, a budget that would nowadays be considered the cost of a mid-range comedy, Speed zoomed through every red light at the box office with a high octane $350,448,145 worldwide total.

Speed IMDB:

A young cop must prevent a bomb exploding aboard a city bus by keeping its speed above 50 mph.

Even though it takes Bullock’s character Annie Porter 31 minutes to make her grand entrance in Speed, her perky personality wastes no time adding a refreshing balance of humor, empathy and courageousness to the macho testosterone of the predominately male cast. From the moment she rushes to catch the bus, Porter proceeds to claim her seat in the entertaining front row of this barreling “Die Hard on a Bus” public transit roller coaster ride. Her enduring honesty and approachable demeanor are instantly conveyed. Annie Porter is a people person; she knows the bus driver and a few of its quirky passengers on a first name basis. But Annie is not afraid to invent a clever means of fiction to brush off overly gabby passengers like the one played by Alan Ruck.

ANNIE PORTER: Oh jeez. You know what? I got gum on my seat, Gum!

Even before the “bomb-under-the-bus” high concept element of Speed is introduced to the petrified passengers, we realize that solving problems as they are happening comes as a natural gift to Annie. She is relatable in that she is not professionally qualified to save the day as a problem solver. But her ability to react off of instant instinct and not overthink a situation, even deeply dangerous ones, allows her to remain inside the epicenter of the over 50-miles-an-hour action in Speed.

After the bus driver is accidentally shot by a paranoid pistol-wielding patron, Annie doesn’t need to be invited to take over the driving duties — she makes driving her duty. If that bus drops under 50 miles-per-hour no one will live to talk about it. Annie takes the steering wheel before anyone, including Speed’s primary protagonist the Los Angeles police officer Jack Traven (Keanu Reeves).

ANNIE PORTER: Well, I should probably tell you that I’m taking the bus because I had my driver’s license revoked.

It is a breath of fresh air (not dirty exhaust smoke) to see Annie Porter written as a woman who is not reliant on men to do all the thinking, the heavy lifting, and the clever speaking. Canadian film and television writer Graham Yost (Broken Arrow, Falling Skies) crafted an astounding action banger loaded with several startling set pieces for Annie Porter and company to survive. A 50-foot gap in the road with her bus hopping in a “Pray to GOD” jump across it is particularly memorable. But Graham Yost himself admits that the acclaimed quotable wordsmith Joss Whedon (The Avengers, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) is responsible for weaving the vibrant verbiage into the characters mouths.

Graham Yost said: “Joss Whedon wrote 98.9 percent of the dialogue. We were very much in sync, it’s just that I didn’t write the dialogue as well as he did.”

Annie speaks her mind, regardless of any male insecurity complexes. She is very aware that the lives of her makeshift bus family are depending on her, and she takes her unpaid bus driving very seriously.

ANNIE PORTER: He didn’t have to get ON the bus in the first place, Ortiz. Hey, get your ass behind the yellow line!

Annie’s concentration on survival is compounded by having to watch other passengers argue, physically fight, brandish firearms, get wounded and even die. Many lesser heroines and heroes would fold under such multiplied pressure.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PmYnFlVWEc

Ms. Porter finds a way to multi-task between purging personal fear and self-doubt and still drive as if the devil himself was merging into her lane.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8CiirykIhA

Annie Porter is an action heroine who spends the majority of her savior status confined within a bus that no one can leave and must keep moving to keep everyone with their flesh attached. In essence, Speed allows Annie Porter to operate as the central heroine within her own “contained thriller” — victims stuck on an explosive bus. Meanwhile, Keanu Reeves’s Jack Traven is the hero of a separate but obviously intertwined action thriller plot — bringing the bomb-addicted killer Howard Payne (Dennis Hopper) to justice before this bus loses its hustle. Even the annually awesome cinema publication Total Film has placed Annie Porter as #5 on their list of the 50 Bravest Movie Heroines.

For her unflinching acceptance of responsibility when rescue duty calls, her punchy personality and her sex appeal fully clothed in self-esteem — Annie Porter is one really GREAT CHARACTER in the fast-paced world of action heroines.

A paradigmatic action movie with a a great role that Sandra Bullock flat-out nailed.

Thank you, Jason, for this post. Please join us in comments to discuss Speed.

You may follow Jason on Twitter: @A2Jason. 

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