Tom Hanks Was Considered For A Role In This Genre-Defining '90s Action Movie

The hit of 1994, perhaps surprisingly, was Robert Zemeckis’ feel-good nostalgia party “Forrest Gump,” a movie that grossed over $329 million at the domestic box office and won six Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Star Tom Hanks won his second Oscar for playing the title character, a none-too-bright but good-hearted man who lucks his way into wartime heroism and millions of dollars. 

Another huge hit that year was Jan de Bont’s impeccable actioner “Speed,” which starred Keanu Reeves as an L.A. cop named Jack Traven who has to board a bus that is rigged with explosives. If its speed drops below 50 mph, the bus will blow up — a plot device inspired by the 1975 Japanese film “Bullet Train.” Dennis Hopper played the mad bomber, and Sandra Bullock became an overnight sensation. “Speed” is still considered, to this day, to be one of the best action films of its decade. It earned about $121 million at the domestic box office, and won Oscars for its sound and sound effects editing. 

And here’s where those two films collide: according to a 2014 EW interview with “Speed” screenwriter Graham Yost, the film’s casting directors were very much hoping to cast Tom Hanks in the lead role. Picturing Hanks in “Speed” might elicit a titter. Hanks is no action star (unless you count tragic WWII combat), but he was a large enough box office draw that the makers of “Speed” pursued him anyway.

I recall attending a lecture from a Hollywood casting director when I was at film school, and she revealed that casting directors for big studios have a list of the most famous, highest-earning movie stars currently working, and tick down that list for every single project they happen to be casting. It doesn’t matter if they’re “right” for the role or not, the casting director is only concerned with fame. 

As such, Graham Yost’s story of casting “Speed” makes perfect sense. He said that Keanu Reeves was definitely not the first choice to play Jack Traven, and Reeves knew it. The casting directors just wanted the biggest star they could get. When asked if Reeves was the first choice for Jack, Yost said: 

“Oh God, no. Keanu would totally know that and cop to it. We went to the Toms first — you know, you go to Tom Cruise and Tom Hanks — and I think Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson, who were going to do ‘Money Train.’ We went down many different avenues.” 

“Speed” was released before the first “Mission: Impossible” film, so even Tom Cruise would be considered an unusual choice at the time. I can only imagine that Tom Hanks was passed over because he was either too expensive, too busy making “Forrest Gump,” or merely disinterested in starring in a high-octane action thriller about a bomb on a bus. 

Keanu Reeves was also a big star in 1994, having already appeared in films like “My Own Private Idaho” and blockbusters like “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure” and “Bram Stoker’s Dracula.” Reeves was also in dramedies like “Parenthood” and comedies like “Much Ado About Nothing.” He was considered more of a teeny-bopper heartthrob at the time, though, and not an action star (“Point Break” notwithstanding). As Graham Yost recalls, Reeves was first suggested by “someone’s kid,” who thought Reeves was attractive. In Yost’s words: 

“[S]omeone’s kid at the studio said, ‘What about Keanu Reeves? He’s hot.’ And we all looked at each other and said, ‘Well, “Bill & Ted?”‘ And then we said, ‘Well, wait a second, he was great in “Parenthood,” let’s meet him.’ As I probably said in the [DVD] commentary, he drove up on a motorcycle at Disney, where [producer] Mark [Gordon] had his deal. And he’s six-foot-whatever and already had a cool haircut, and was long and lean. He’d done ‘Point Break,’ so we knew he could handle a gun and be cop-like. We were looking for that ease and that sort of cop-ishness.”

And that was that. Reeves was cast in the role because he was convincing as a cop. Reeves continued to work in multiple genres over the next few years, not committing to any one type of movie. He chased “Speed” with the cyber-thriller “Johnny Mnemonic,” which had plenty of action, but the same year, he also starred in the romance movie “A Walk in the Clouds.” “The Matrix” was still several years away. 

Tom Hanks couldn’t have played any of these roles. Although I admit that seeing Hanks as Johnny Mnemonic would have been pretty amusing.