Background Speed was released in June 1994, starring
Keanu Reeves and
Sandra Bullock. The film's plot features the story of a runaway bus armed with a bomb that will explode if its speed drops below . and was the 8th-highest-grossing-film worldwide in 1994. Due to positive
word of mouth, studio
20th Century Fox began discussing plans for a
Speed sequel a month prior to its release, and officially announced a sequel would be produced following the film's box office success after its first week in theaters. Although he felt the film was a "one-time story" with no sequel potential,
Speed director
Jan de Bont was contractually obligated to direct a sequel, and would be paid a reported $5–6 million salary. however, by late 1994, Fox executive
Tom Sherak had begun negotiations with the actors and hoped to produce a follow-up film with their two characters as a married couple. Randall McCormick was hired to write the sequel in 1994 and received a story writing credit along with De Bont. The third film in the series,
Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995), was originally based on a
spec script from 1990 titled
Troubleshooter, whose premise involved fighting terrorists aboard a cruise ship. This concept for a sequel was later abandoned by the filmmakers due to its similarities to the film
Under Siege (1992).
Speed writer
Graham Yost and producer
Mark Gordon claimed that neither of them were asked to participate in the sequel, although both of their names are listed in the film credits; Yost was given a writing credit for the film's characters and Gordon was credited as
executive producer. In an interview in 2010, Yost stated he had two ideas for a sequel: a
Vietnam War-era military ship set to explode if its ammunition comes in contact with water, and an aircraft forced to fly at a low altitude over the
Andes Mountains.
Casting Bullock initially declined to star in the sequel, but later agreed in order to secure financial backing for the drama film
Hope Floats (1998); she was paid a reported $11–$13 million to reprise her role as Annie. and felt he was not "ready to mentally and physically" star in another action film after having completed
Chain Reaction (1996). He passed on
Speed 2 in order to star in the film ''
The Devil's Advocate (1997), which was filmed at the same time, then subsequently toured with his band, Dogstar. Reeves said that Fox was "furious" with his decision and released "propaganda" against him, falsely claiming that he turned down the role to tour with his band. De Bont said that the character in the sequel was not specific to Reeves and could be played by any young actor, as long as he had chemistry with Bullock. Jon Bon Jovi, Julian McMahon, Patrick Muldoon, William Zabka and Billy Zane. Bullock initially suggested Matthew McConaughey, who passed on the role, prompting her to suggest Jason Patric, with whom she had wanted to work since seeing his performance in After Dark, My Sweet (1990). De Bont was skeptical of featuring a relatively unknown actor such as Patric, but was reminded by the studio that Bullock and Reeves were also relatively unknown prior to Speed
, and chose Patric based on his role in Sleepers (1996). Patric was paid a reported $4.5–$8 million for his role in Speed 2
and used his salary to finance a 1998 drama, Your Friends & Neighbors. Reeves said he was looking forward to seeing Patric star in the sequel. After Reeves declined to appear in Speed 2'', the screenplay was rewritten to remove his character from the story, which De Bont wanted to deal with early in the film. His absence is explained in the first scene, where Annie talks about how her relationship with Jack did not work out, and mentions her current relationship with Alex (Patric), before his character is introduced in the film.
Gary Oldman turned down the role of the villain, Geiger, to star as another villain in
Air Force One (1997).
Willem Dafoe was cast as Geiger after he wanted to star in a "big movie" and once again play a villain. De Bont cast New Zealand actor
Temuera Morrison as Juliano based on his role in
Once Were Warriors (1994). Although he did not like the script,
Brian McCardie accepted the role as Merced as his agents assured him it would be good for his career. Comedian Royale Watkins was hired by De Bont for the part of Dante after discovering Watkins performing at a comedy club.
Glenn Plummer was cast as a character named Maurice whose boat is hijacked by Alex, reprising his role from
Speed as a
Jaguar owner whose car is hijacked by Jack. To add
comic relief, De Bont cast comedian
Tim Conway as Annie's driving instructor, and hoped it would be a
comeback role for him. Singer
Tamia was cast as Sheri, an entertainer on the ship, because De Bont wanted a singer who could also act.
Joe Morton reprised his role from
Speed as SWAT lieutenant Herb "Mac" McMahon in an uncredited
cameo appearance in the beginning of the film.
Filming Speed 2 was produced by De Bont's
production company, Blue Tulip, and was one of the film's three co-producers along with Steve Perry and Michael Peyser. The director began working on
pre-production prior to the release of his previous film,
Twister (1996). For the cruise ship on which the film would be set, De Bont visited ships from various cruise lines and chose
Seabourn Legend for its luxurious amenities and sleek design. While
Speed was produced for $30 million, the sequel was
green-lit at "just under $100 million" due to the larger production and higher cast salaries. while
Speed 2 star
Jason Patric said the sequel is a "very complex movie" and would have "bigger sequences." It was later reported that the film had gone over-budget and costs had ballooned to as much as $160 million. De Bont acknowledged that they had gone over budget but that the cost would be close to $100 million.
Principal photography took place from September 23, 1996, to late February 1997. Film crews moved to West Palm Beach and Miami, Florida in July 1996 anticipating shooting in each location for several weeks later that year. However, due to scheduling issues with Patric, production did not take place in West Palm Beach and there were "just a few days" filming in Miami. The Miami production took place in a gymnasium and boat hangar at the
Dinner Key marina complex, rented by Fox. After spending over $55,000 on repairs to the facilities, Fox refused to pay the $35,000 in rental fees to the City of Miami. The city sued for the rent since Fox did not seek approval for the repairs, and a compromise was reached when the city credited some repair costs, resulting in Fox paying around $26,000 rent. '', which was used for six weeks of filming during production.|alt=A white cruise ship in the water, docked along a coast with mountains in the background.
Seabourn Legend was rented for six weeks at a reported cost of $38,000 per day; The evacuation sequence was among the first scenes filmed on the ship, and was shot in Key West, Florida over a two-week period. Approximately 30 hoses and the ship's
fire sprinkler system were used to simulate heavy rainfall in the scene. Severe weather conditions from
Hurricane Lili delayed production activity on the ship for several days, and caused
seasickness among the cast and crew for the remainder of the production at sea. Scenes on the bridge were filmed in a
mockup dubbed the "bridge ship", a large-scale reconstruction of the
bow and bridge built atop the
hull of a
cargo ship. Additional ship interiors were filmed at
Sony Pictures Studios and Warren Entertainment in Los Angeles County, California. Full-scale replicas of the ship's atrium, cabins, and engine rooms were constructed on
sound stages where production took place for over a month. The scene where Alex rescues Drew while the ship is being flooded was filmed by
camera operators wearing
wet suits inside a sound stage tank, which was constructed with plywood and a hydraulic lift to give the effect that the water level was rising. Despite De Bont's reason for choosing Saint Martin for filming, a hurricane struck the town and destroyed the set during construction. It had to be rebuilt with
hurricane-proof buildings. Filming the final scene with the rail ship was initially delayed because it could not be hoisted onto the track because of large waves caused by the hurricane. The mockup was powered by four
diesel engines and pulled by a large chain at a speed of . The underwater scene where Alex swims underneath the ship was filmed in the
Tongue of the Ocean off the coast of
New Providence in
the Bahamas. The location was chosen due to its water clarity, however, after viewing dailies of the scene, De Bont felt the water was too clear, so it was reshot with divers above the camera dusting the area in front of the lens with sediment to alter the clarity of the footage. The scene was filmed underneath a propeller-less
barge that was designed to resemble the
Seabourn Legend. To provide a sense of velocity in the scene, the barge was towed by
tugboats at one and a half
knots. The production crew did not have a winch system available for the underwater shoot as depicted in the scene, so a pulley system was created by feeding Patric a rope that was attached to the
axle of a car that drove along the barge. in the film's opening chase scene, and almost died while performing a stunt on the motorcycle during filming.|alt=A red motorcycle parked on a street. Instead of using
stunt doubles, De Bont persuaded Bullock, Patric, and 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. During a motorcycle stunt on a
Ducati 916 on the second day of filming, Patric flew off the bike into the air and landed on a small bush; Bullock said the incident was so serious that Patric "should be dead." her stunt double worked for only three days during production. Following the production at sea, De Bont said that filming on water "was 100 percent more difficult than [he] imagined."
Music Score Composer
Mark Mancina wrote the film score for
Speed 2 having previously composed the scores for
Speed and
Twister. He started composing the music in March 1997 and it was recorded at the end of April. He began by creating themes and melodies, then worked them into the film where he felt they would fit. Specific action cues were scored on the piano down to each second of film. Noting how the film was set in the Caribbean and had a different, slower pace than
Speed, Mancina gave the score a "
Jamaican/
Latin feel" by incorporating reggae music between action sequences. which meant the music had to be constantly re-edited into the film. During the scoring of
Speed 2, Mancina said in an interview that keeping up with the editing of the film was the "hardest thing [he had] ever done." The score was not officially released until June 2010, when it was sold by La-La Land Records as a 3000-unit limited edition album. The album features 70 minutes of music across 14 tracks and, according to La-La Land, it also features a "notable amount of music" that was not used in the film, due to the constant re-edits prior to its release date.
Filmtracks.com gave the release four out of five stars, saying the album was "perhaps [La-La Land's] finest offering of a previously unreleased score", although it also stated that "some of the action and suspense material in the latter half of the score becomes a bit generic."
Soundtrack was selected to appear in the film and on the soundtrack for his lively, energetic music.|alt=A side view of Carlinhos Brown performing drums. To complement the film's Caribbean setting, the
soundtrack consists of mostly
reggae music. De Bont wanted musicians to appear in the film as entertainers on the cruise ship. A cameo appearance for reggae band
UB40 was written into the script after the filmmakers heard a
demo of their song "Tell Me Is It True", and wanted them to perform it in the film. Brazilian reggae musician
Carlinhos Brown was also chosen to be featured as a performer on the ship because De Bont wanted music that was "lively" and felt that Brown's music was "full of energy." In addition to UB40 and Brown, the soundtrack features reggae music from:
Jimmy Cliff,
Common Sense,
Maxi Priest,
Shaggy,
Rayvon, and
Betty Wright. Mark Mancina wrote a
techno track for the soundtrack based on his film score, Other songs recorded specifically for the soundtrack include Priest's cover of "
The Tide Is High" and Cliff's re-recording of his 1972 song "
You Can Get It If You Really Want". The
Speed 2: Cruise Control soundtrack album was released by
Virgin Records on May 20, 1997, about one month before the film's release. The album features 12 songs, all of which are featured in the film; five of them were released as
singles. ==Reception==