Trivia / Speed 2: Cruise Control

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• Backed by the Pentagon: Navy SEALs were involved in the making of the movie. They were inside the underwater tank used for the "underwater kissing" scene.
• Based on a Dream: Jan De Bolt based the climax on his recurrent nightmares about a cruise ship crashing into an island.
• Box Office Bomb: Budget: $160 million. Box office: $48,608,066 (domestically), $164,508,066 (worldwide).
• Contractual Obligation Project:
  • Jason Patric only agreed to make the film contingent on some major script changes being made. However, when he eventually arrived on set three months later, he found that the script hadn't changed at all, and he was contractually obligated to make the film. He found the whole experience to be thoroughly miserable and depressing.
  • Jan de Bont initially felt that the first film had no sequel potential, but he was contractually obliged to direct a sequel when it was green-lit after the success of the first movie.
• Creator Backlash:
  • In a 2000 interview, Sandra Bullock jokingly referred to this movie as "the biggest piece of crap ever made." In 2022, it turns out her opinion on the film hadn't changed over years as she told Stephen Colbert, after learning that he tried and failed to get an audition for the film, that it was good he didn't get close to the movie and that the script was terrible.
  • Maxi Priest admitted in an interview that he felt that working on the soundtrack to Disney's Jungle 2 Jungle was more satisfying than working on Speed 2's soundtrack, as he actually got to sing an original song ("It Starts In The Heart") rather than a cover (of Paragons' "The Tide Is High").
• Creator Killer: Jan De Bont's directorial career suffered heavily after this film flopped.
• Disabled Character, Disabled Actor: The 14-year-old deaf girl is played by Christine Firkins, who's deaf in real life.
• Dolled-Up Installment: The original script was intended to be the third Die Hard film. After the success of the first Speed though, the script was reworked into a Speed sequel instead.
• Fatal Method Acting:
  • Very narrowly averted when Jason Patric performs a motorcycle stunt, flying 30 feet into the air.
  • Also narrowly averted with Sandra Bullock, who was nearly decapitated by the cruise ship's rudder during the water sequences.
• No Stunt Double: Instead of using stunt doubles, Jan De Bont persuaded Sandra Bullock, Jason Patric, and Willem Dafoe to perform their own stunts, so the scenes would appear more realistic; the lead actors were required to engage in physical exercise sessions before and during filming. According to Bullock, she performed all of her own stuntwork "except for a quarter of one stunt"; her stunt double worked for only three days during production.
• One for the Money; One for the Art: Sandra Bullock did the movie to get the financing for Hope Floats, while Patric used his entire salary to finance his film Your Friends & Neighbors.
• Referenced by...: Sunset Overdrive: Bomb Delivery's bomb placement voice lines references the first two movies of the series:
  Player: Defuse the bomb if I go too slow? It's kinda like that movie about the bus...or was it a boat?
• Shoot the Money: Jan De Bont really didn't want to make this movie but the studio was willing to put up a huge amount of money to try and replicate the original Speed's success. Since Fox was going to pay for whatever he came up with, De Bont shot the climactic sequence of the cruise ship ramming its way into Saint Martin at full scale. The five-minute sequence cost $25 million in 1997, took weeks to complete, and required an entire fake town to be built, a full-scale ship's bow, and dozens of stunt performers who were genuinely fleeing for their lives. The final product features every bit of carnage and destruction De Bont could capture on film.
• Star-Derailing Role: Jason Patric's career as a leading man was effectively ended by this film, with all his subsequent roles either being supporting ones, on TV or in low-budget films, a turn he likely isn't too upset about given how much he disliked this and other big films he was being offered at the time. Sandra Bullock was also sent into a brief career slump, but was able to pull herself out of it a few years later with Miss Congeniality.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Many ideas were pitched, including a plane which cannot ascend above a certain altitude without exploding.
  • Keanu Reeves turned down the movie to tour with his band Dogstar. He was exhausted from filming Chain Reaction and was still financially secure from the first Speed film, so he declined to return when he didn't like the script and chose to do The Devil's Advocate instead as he wanted to work with Al Pacino.
  • Sandra Bullock wanted Matthew McConaughey to play Alex Shaw, but he turned it down in favour of Contact. Billy Zane was offered the role, but he did Titanic (1997) instead. Jon Bon Jovi and Christian Slater were also considered.
  • Gary Oldman turned down the role of Geiger, in favor of Air Force One.
• You Look Familiar: Susan Barnes plays Constance in this film. In the first film, she plays the frozen-in-fear female executive who is the last one out of the perilous elevator. In this film, her character is seen calmly sitting down smoking while being trapped among others in a life-threatening situation. This may allude to her character's survival from the first film. She is one of four people to appear in both films. There is no confirmation though that they're supposed to be the same character.

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