History Trivia / Speed

** Harry was going to be played by Creator/EdHarris--and be revealed to be the bomber.

* StarMakingRole: Creator/SandraBullock. To a lesser extent, Creator/KeanuReeves. He had a fairly extensive filmography beforehand, but ''Speed'', and eventually ''Franchise/TheMatrix'' trilogy cemented him as an A-lister more than ''Film/BillAndTed'' or ''Film/PointBreak1991.''

* TomHanksSyndrome: While Creator/KeanuReeves was already quite well-known as [[Film/BillAndTed Ted]], this showed he could manage dramatic roles.

* CreatorChosenCasting: Jan de Bont cast Creator/KeanuReeves after seeing ''Film/PointBreak1991'' and feeling that he was "vulnerable on the screen. He's not threatening to men because he's not that bulky, and he looks great to women".

** Creator/HalleBerry turned down the role of Annie and calls it one of the dumbest decisions she'd ever made in her career (this was before ''Film/Catwoman2004'', of course). Others candidates included Creator/RosannaArquette, Creator/KimBasinger, Creator/GlennClose, Creator/JoanCusack, Creator/GeenaDavis, Creator/CameronDiaz, Creator/CarrieFisher, Creator/BridgetFonda, Creator/JodieFoster, Creator/MelanieGriffith, Creator/DarylHannah, Creator/MariskaHartigay, Creator/AnjelicaHuston, Creator/DianeLane, Creator/JessicaLange, Creator/JenniferJasonLeigh, Music/{{Madonna}}, Creator/AlyssaMilano, Creator/DemiMoore, Creator/TatumONeal, Creator/GwynethPaltrow, Creator/SarahJessicaParker, Creator/MichellePfeiffer, Creator/JuliaRoberts, Creator/MegRyan, Creator/WinonaRyder, Creator/{{Jane Seymour|Actress}}, Creator/AllySheedy, Creator/BrookeShields, Creator/SharonStone, Creator/MerylStreep, Creator/EmmaThompson, Creator/LeaThompson, Creator/MegTilly, Creator/MarisaTomei, Creator/KathleenTurner, Creator/SigourneyWeaver and Creator/DebraWinger.

** In the modern age, the problem is people don't remember phone numbers anymore.

** Creator/HalleBerry turned down the role of Annie and calls it one of the dumbest decisions she'd ever made in her career (this was before ''Film/Catwoman2004'', of course). Others candidates included Creator/RosannaArquette, Creator/KimBasinger, Creator/GlennClose, Creator/JoanCusack, Creator/GeenaDavis, Creator/CameronDiaz, Creator/CarrieFisher, Creator/BridgetFonda, Creator/JodieFoster, Creator/MelanieGriffith, Creator/DarylHannah, Mariska Hargitay, Creator/AnjelicaHuston, Creator/DianeLane, Creator/JessicaLange, Creator/JenniferJasonLeigh, Music/{{Madonna}}, Creator/AlyssaMilano, Creator/DemiMoore, Creator/TatumONeal, Creator/GwynethPaltrow, Creator/SarahJessicaParker, Creator/MichellePfeiffer, Creator/JuliaRoberts, Creator/MegRyan, Creator/WinonaRyder, Creator/JaneSeymourActress, Creator/AllySheedy, Creator/BrookeShields, Creator/SharonStone, Creator/MerylStreep, Creator/EmmaThompson, Creator/LeaThompson, Creator/MegTilly, Creator/MarisaTomei, Creator/KathleenTurner, Creator/SigourneyWeaver and Creator/DebraWinger.

** According to composer Music/MarkMancina, Music/MichaelKamen was the studio's choice of composer, but Jan [=de Bont=] wanted Mancina to score the film.

** Modern skyscrapers of today would have more advanced security to protect vital systems, such as elevators, from sabotage. It would take more than just posing as an electrician/mechanic to even get through security checkpoints so Howard Panye would have to be more elaborate, such as using identity theft to pose as one of the workers. His infiltration may resemble something out of a realistic SpyFiction story.

** Modern skyscrapers of today would have more advanced security to protect vital systems, such as elevators, from sabotage. It would take more than just posing as an electrician/mechanic to even get through security checkpoints so Howard Panye would have to be more elaborate, such as using identity theft to pose as one of the workers.

* TechnologyMarchesOn: Jack having to take the cell phone of the driver of the car he hijacks before getting on the bus was believable in 1994. A little odd today, since Jack would most likely have his own, as would probably every passenger on the bus.

* ReleaseDateChange: The film was originally supposed to be released in August 1994 as 20th Century Fox had concerns that the film would underperform at the box office, and they felt it would be a worthy action successor to ''Film/TrueLies'', which opened that July. However, the film performed very well during test screenings, and test audiences loved it so much, which prompted Fox to move the release date up to June, as their first movie of the summer season, and to provide adult action competition in comparison with the family friendly ''Film/TheFlintstones'', which opened two weeks earlier. In the end, Fox made the right decision, as the film grossed 121 million dollars in the U.S. and Canada, and 350 million dollars worldwide, against a budget of thirty million dollars.

* LifeImitatesArt: There was an instance where a schoolboy saved the lives of a schoolbus full of kids, when the driver had a heart attack, by climbing on to the driver's lap, jumping on the brake pedal and pulling the bus to the side of the road. When asked later why he did it, he told them that he had seen "that bus movie". At half time during an NFL game, there was a ceremony hailing the boy as a hero.

* SparedByTheCut: The Creator/AlanRuck character (Stephens) was originally written as an [[AmoralAttorney abrasive lawyer]], who gets his comeuppance in an unexpected death scene. Creator/JossWhedon re-wrote him as the sympathetic, dull-witted tourist of the final version, but kept the death scene, intending to give it more emotional impact. His character changes were kept, but the death was written out. For the record, the scene in question is when [[spoiler:the hostages are leaving the bus via a platform, and when the bus hits a bump, Stephens slips and is nearly run over]].