#12 — Point Break
This is part of an illustrated countdown of my 49 1/2 most essential action movies. Last week I talked about the best Expendables movie, which actually comes from Hong Kong and stars a chubby guy named Sammo. It’s called Eastern Condors.
Point Break is a classic action cop fable that gets swept up in big feelings of yearning and excitement like a CW show on meth, continuing to reveal itself as one of the more unique of its class — bucking genre conventions then and now. These action cops are always bonding or coming to blows over a backdrop of explosions and shootouts, but Johnny Utah falls head over heels for his man, his woman, and the waves.
This might be the only action movie to make me fall in love with three actors all at once. Lori Petty. Keanu Reeves. Patrick Swayze. I caught this on cable when I was young, and I think it changed my life. Bank robbers entrenched in surf culture, getting high on adrenaline to fight against the system that chains and corrupts the human soul — but underneath their flawed notions of freedom, they’re just dudes trying to manufacture some purpose in their turbulent lives. The surfer gang of masked presidents carry a legacy that inspired an entirely separate knockoff franchise (with one of its entries making this list), while remaining one of the most uniquely of-its-era films you could create.
The cast, the clothes, the culture, the lingo, the names. It turns extreme sports into action scenes, and allows characters to size each other up over a game of football on the beach. It portrays the villain as some kind of X Games Yoda, and the hero that has to take him down is a former football prospect named Johnny Utah. It made me rethink everything I thought I knew about action movies, even questioning its place on this list — before a calm voice in my head (that sounded a lot like Patrick Swayze, for some reason) said I was “only watching action movies to get radical, I didn’t have any real understanding of the human heart, so I’d never get the spiritual side of it”. Wow. I had some things to contemplate after that.
Swayze is probably the MVP of the movie, but I always thought Keanu was perfect for this role. Watching it again, the way the camera smooches him is much more apparent, and it also adds to the feeling of young, summer romance colliding with the responsibilities of adulthood — like a coming of age story for action cops. He has a youthfulness that really complements Gary Busey’s near-retirement partner. It makes Lori Petty an appealing gateway into a world he doesn’t understand. Lastly, it paints Bodhi as an object of worship that will steer his life choices.
It might feel silly to compare a movie like this to teenage drama and romance, but the amount of change that can occur during one’s formative years is reflected in Johnny’s life. He meets people, falls in love, adopts new lifestyles and hobbies, and ultimately watches things crumble and change with the seasons. Endless summer summer nights transform into a cold finale where surfers leave the beach and two former friends confront each other for the last time.
The definitive scene in the movie, for many, is the foot chase — which I consider to be the greatest of all time. It’s six and a half minutes of carefully orchestrated chaos and panic, layered with personal stakes. First it’s cars grinding against every surface available, until they’re rendered inoperable. There’s ambient noise and lots of yelling and guys shouting at each other.
When the bank robbers stop to switch cars (something really awesome that adds a ticking clock factor and breaks up any monotony) it leads to the iconic image of Ronald Reagan in a tuxedo, turning a gas pump into a *flamethrower. His eerie Burger King smile grins through hazy flames like a propaganda poster. It’s a cool metaphor for Johnny’s idol as a hollow facade hidden under a costume, a smile, and the occasional speech. That’s why he’s gotta go down (and he’s also killed some people and stolen money, which is bad).
*I want to add that I love the detail of the gas station exploding in the background. Keanu is running towards the camera in a narrow alley, and suddenly you hear the boom and see smoke. These guys are leaving a trail of real, tangible destruction. Just wonderful.
After chasing Bodhi into an LA river basin, Johnny re-injures his knee and has to hold Bodhi at gunpoint, creating a moment that would later be spoofed by Hot Fuzz. This is perhaps my favorite conclusion to an action scene I can think of. Johnny can’t shoot those beautiful, blue eyes. He knows he probably should, but he’s trapped between worlds and chooses option C. *fires gun into the air and goes Aaargghgh!!!!!* This was a formative moment in my life as a movie fan.
Point Break is driven by emotion and adrenaline. Characters feel embedded in the moment of every scene, living for today. It’s sort of the stylistic opposite side of Heat’s more introspective coin — where characters are trying to escape a lifetime of choices that Johnny is just now being presented with. The teenage drama of fleeting youth and new experiences is transplanted into action in a way that feels natural no matter how ludicrous it gets. Catching his first tube is an accomplishment Johnny needs to recognize as much as making an arrest. His boyish enthusiasm for the job is what will help him succeed, but also leave him vulnerable.
He ends his journey by letting Bodhi commit suicide by tidal wave. Now dressed like his character from River’s Edge, a disillusioned and battle-scarred Johnny walks off in the rain and tosses his badge in the waves. Action cops love to do this, as a way of saying “the law is an inconvenience that prevents me from doing my job effectively!”, but even Dirty Harry tossed his badge and made four sequels. There’s no Point Break 2: Wave-riders, so I think Johnny was serious about it. He got his man, but he lost his identity — and hurt people along the way. It’s a significant gesture considering his age and experience.
Mark Isham’s dramatic final track titled “Freedom” plays during Bodhi’s last wave, before transitioning into some more upbeat guitar (courtesy of Ratt’s “Nobody Rides For Free”). There’s a sense of optimism in the air. It’s rare for an action movie to end like this, because the hero seems to have lost everything, and yet still has so much to gain — by quitting his young life as an action cop. It’s a new beginning. He doesn’t want to grow up to be Lt. Vincent Hannah, he’ll do something different, something better.
This is one of my favorite movies. It’s filmed like a National Geographic documentary inside a skater video, inside a cop thriller. It makes me feel young and alive, and there’s nothing else like it. I also need to tip my hat to director Kathryn Bigelow for believing in Keanu as an action star when people still saw him as one half of a ditzy comedy duo. He has blossomed into an action unicorn that shows up with an era defining classic once every ten years or so. An action cop, a superhero, a mythical assassin. Maybe in a few years he’ll give us a getaway driver masterpiece the genre has been craving.
