Speed 2: Cruise Control is a 1997 American action thriller film produced and directed by Jan de Bont from a screenplay by Randall McCormick and Jeff Nathanson. It is the sequel to Speed (1994) and stars Sandra Bullock (reprising her role from the first film), Jason Patric and Willem Dafoe. Its plot follows Annie Porter (Bullock) and Alex Shaw (Patric), a couple who go on vacation to the Caribbean aboard a luxury cruise ship, which is hijacked by John Geiger, a terrorist (Dafoe). While trapped aboard the ship, Annie and Alex work with the ship's first officer to try to stop it after they discover it is programmed to crash into an oil tanker.
De Bont had the idea for the film after having a recurring nightmare about a cruise ship crashing into an island. Speed star Keanu Reeves was initially supposed to reprise his role as Jack Traven for the sequel, but decided not to commit and was replaced by Patric before filming. The writers had to rework the script to accommodate the addition of a new character. Production took place aboard Seabourn Legend, the ship on which the film is set. The final scene, in which the ship crashes into the island of Saint Martin, cost almost a quarter of the budget, and set records as the largest and most expensive stunt ever filmed. Many interior scenes aboard the ship were shot on soundstages in the Greater Los Angeles Area. The soundtrack featured mostly reggae music. Mark Mancina returned to compose the film score, released as an album 13 years after the film's release.
Released by 20th Century Fox on June 13, 1997, the film received largely negative reviews from critics, who criticized the story, characters, absence of Reeves, and its setting on a slow-moving cruise ship. Critic Roger Ebert defended the film, calling it a "truly rousing ocean liner adventure story". The film was also a box-office bomb, earning $164.5 million worldwide against a production budget as high as $160 million. It was nominated for eight Golden Raspberry Awards, winning the Worst Remake or Sequel category.
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
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