One of Denzel Washington's best B-movies is exactly what a Speed sequel should have been. Speed arrived in 1994 and became an unexpected summer blockbuster. The movie's simple but ingenious premise, relentless pacing and the incredible chemistry between Keanu Reeves and a little-known actress named Sandra Bullock combined to make it a must see. The film has aged incredibly well too; sadly, this same compliment does not extend to Speed 2: Cruise Control. Now, Speed 2 would have sucked with or without Keanu Reeves, but once he passed, the film should have been canceled.

Instead, Bullock returned with Jason Patric as her new co-star, but the follow-up received poor reviews and was a box-office dud. There are many reasons the sequel didn't work, but calling a film Speed and then setting it on a cruise ship may not have been the sharpest move. Cruise Control killed the fledging franchise, though some fans of the original still hope to see Keanu and Sandra back together for a belated Speed 3 one day.

Denzel Washington's Unstoppable Feels Like A Stealth Speed Sequel

Tony Scott's final movie is what Speed 2 should have gone

The late, great Tony Scott made five movies with Denzel Washington, including his final project, Unstoppable. This 2010 thriller cast Washington and Chris Pine as an engineer and conductor forced to work together to stop a runaway train loaded with dangerous materials. A very B-movie premise on paper, but Scott's incredible craftsmanship and a great cast elevate it to a different level. It also feels like more of a Speed sequel than Cruise Control ever did.

Like Speed, Unstoppable has a clean, uncomplicated premise behind it. The entire plot can be summed up in a sentence, and Scott's storytelling is ruthlessly efficient. The runtime is a shade over 90 minutes, and like the runaway locomotive itself, it never slows down once it gets up to speed. Scott also depicts the train like the shark from Jaws, making it a hulking beast seemingly intent on causing chaos and smashing everything in its way.

Had the screenplay for Unstoppable existed back in the late 1990s, it surely would have retrofitted into Speed 2. Now, it would have been tricky to place Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock on that train, but at the very least, the concept was solid. Cruise Control felt more like "Die Hard on a Boat" than a true Speed sequel, whereas Unstoppable just feels more spiritually aligned with the 1994 hit.

Unstoppable Has Been Reappraised Since Its 2010 Release

Quentin Tarantino is a big fan of Tony Scott's last film

The penultimate Tony Scott movie was The Taking of Pelham 123, a remake of a classic 1974 thriller. Unfortunately, this is Washington and Scott's weakest collaboration, since the latter feels constrained by the claustrophobic nature of the story. The film received mixed reviews and hasn't been reclaimed since, so enthusiasm for Unstoppable was muted heading into 2010. It was yet another train movie involving Scott and Washington, which didn't feel like much call for excitement.

Regardless, Unstoppable did surprisingly well with critics, with the film having a rock-solid 87% on Rotten Tomatoes. Still, it was considered a B-picture that happened to be made with skill, but one that would fade from memory shortly after being viewed. In the aftermath of Tony Scott's passing in 2012, much of his work has been reappraised by filmmakers and critics. Where Scott was once dismissed as a visual stylist with a poor grasp of story, much of his work has been reassessed, including Unstoppable being considered a great final movie.

Quentin Tarantino spent an entire episode of The Rewatchables podcast singing Unstoppable's praises, praising Scott's direction and the cast. Likewise, Christopher Nolan is a noted fan, citing Unstoppable as a big inspiration on Dunkirk, telling IndieWire that Unstoppable used "... the mechanics and uses of suspense to modulate an audience’s response to narrative." Nolan called out several other films as influences on his 2017 war epic, including The Wages of Fear, Alien and - yes - Speed.

Tony Scott directed Quentin Tarantino's script True Romance in 1993 and the writer later did uncredited work on Scott's Crimson Tide .

Why Speed 2 Was Such A Disappointing Sequel

Everything Speed did right, Cruise Control did wrong

Bullock's Annie feels like a different character in Speed 2 , she shares little chemistry with Patric's bland hero and there's very little tension to be found once the main plot kicks in.

The issue with sequelising Speed is that the concept is so specific, coming up with an organic hook for another film is very tricky. Writer Graham Yost told the Script Apart podcast he had two sequel concepts in mind. One was called High Speed, which was set on a plane forced to fly at low altitudes in the Andes Mountains. The other was Full Speed, where a boat carrying unstable explosives that will explode if they get wet. Neither scenario sounds like a slam dunk, but again, those premises actually involve speeding vehicles.

Speed 2: Cruise Control lacks so much of what made the original click. Bullock's Annie feels like a different character, she shares little chemistry with Patric's bland hero, and there's very little tension to be found once the main plot kicks in. Willem Dafoe is great value as the villain and the boat crashing into an island is, if nothing else, a technically impressive sequence. But Speed 2 is a listless bore, lacking the propulsive energy and likable heroes that drove the 1994 film.

Will Another Speed Sequel Happen?

Keanu and Sandra have said Speed 3 isn't totally out of the question

Following Speed 2 and Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous, Sandra Bullock has sworn off sequels. Attempts to mount follow-ups to The Heat and other hits with her went nowhere, but there is one sequel that could tempt her. In 2024, Bullock and Reeves reunited for a 30th anniversary retrospective interview on the podcast 50 MPH, and both expressed interest in making another Speed sequel. In truth, it sounds like the duo just want to work together again, and it doesn't necessarily need to be Speed 3.

Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves worked together once after Speed , co-starring in the 2006 romance The Lake House .

Even so, 30 years on there's a lot of love for Speed. Keanu and Sandra are still bankable A-listers, so the pair finding themselves in another speed-based misadventure would still get audiences curious. The problem with making a Speed 3 goes back to the issues with Cruise Control; what's the concept, and how would Keanu's Jack and Bullock's Annie find themselves caught up in it?

Of course, nothing is impossible in Hollywood. If a good idea comes along and Keanu and Sandra are agreeable, another Speed could easily happen. Legacy sequels like Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F or Bad Boys: Ride or Die are still appealing to audiences, and Speed 3 would be no different. If producers could find a pitch as beautifully simple as Tony Scott's Unstoppable, then all the better.