Point Break (1991)

Director:

Kathryn Bigelow

Writers (WGA):

Rick King (story) &
W. Peter Iliff (story) ...

Release Date:

12 July 1991 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Crime | Drama | Sport | Thriller

Tagline:

100% Pure Adrenaline.

Plot:

An FBI agent goes undercover to catch a gang of bank robbers who may be surfers.

Plot Keywords:

Surfer | Undercover | FBI | Mask | Beach

Awards:

1 win & 2 nominations

Cast

Patrick Swayze	...	Bodhi
Keanu Reeves	...	Johnny Utah
Gary Busey	...	Pappas
Lori Petty	...	Tyler
John C. McGinley	...	Ben Harp (also as John McGinley)
James LeGros	...	Roach (as James Le Gros)
John Philbin	...	Nathanial
Bojesse Christopher	...	Grommet
Julian Reyes	...	Alvarez
Daniel Beer	...	Babbit
Chris Pedersen	...	Bunker
Vincent Klyn	...	Warchild
Anthony Kiedis	...	Tone
Dave Olson	...	Archbold
Lee Tergesen	...	Rosie

Also Known As:

Johnny Utah (USA) (original script title)
Riders on the Storm (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for violence, language and brief nudity.

Runtime:

120 min

Country:

Japan | USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) | Dolby SR (35 mm prints)

Certification:

USA:R (Violence) (Adult language) | Iceland:16 | Denmark:15 | Canada:18 | Italy:VM14 | Ireland:18 | South Korea:18 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Chile:14 | Finland:K-16 | France:-12 | Germany:16 | Netherlands:12 | Norway:15 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 (original rating) (cut) | UK:18 (video rating) (uncut) (1992) | USA:R | Singapore:NC-16

Filming Locations:

Beryl Street & N. Catalina Avenue, Redondo Beach, California, USA

Company:

JVC Entertainment Networks

Trivia:

This is the first movie that Keanu Reeves would play a former Quarterback from Ohio State. He would later appear as another former Quarterback from Ohio State in The Replacements (2000).

Goofs:

Continuity: Amount of blood on Angelo's back after being shot in the airport scene.

Quotes:

[Johnny Utah and Bodhi just beat the hell out of 4 surfers]
Bodhi: This is stimulating, but we're out of here.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in A New Wave (2007)

Soundtrack:

Over the Edge

The film for an adrenaline generation

Thirteen years on it sounds a little trite - an FBI agent examines his inner self whilst trying to bring down a gang of surfer bank robbers by infiltrating their scene. But dude, how Point Break pulled this off!

In what can now safely be regarded as one of the more generation-defining cinematic moments of the nineties, Point Break serves as not just a credible well-paced action thriller spectacle, but also as a voice for advocates of the adrenalin rush. The movie's sleeper popularity at the time would no doubt have helped issue in a new generation of 'X' sports for a new generation, as hungry sponsors leapt at a new market.

Kathryn Bigelow takes some key pointers from then hubby James Cameron and paces the movie brilliantly. There are many key moments of unique action - that chute-less jump from 4,000 feet being the highlight - that filled the trailer, but it is the cumulative effect of bringing these moments together that adds to the picture. For so many films the denouement is a gross failure but Bigelow controls the films peaks and troughs expertly and the ending is genuinely well handled, something that appears to be a real struggle for Hollywood today.

In what will go down as Patrick Swayze's finest moment on film, he plays the adrenalin guru Bodhi with glaze-eyed and silver tongued expertise, and manages to pull off the very difficult assignment of being both sane and insane simultaneously with accomplishment.

You can almost feel pulled by Bodhi's enthusiasm for a sensation 'as close as you get to God', and as a result can excuse the decade for being labeled that of the 'slacker' generation. The nineties weren't about slacking, just looking for a different kind of high.