Five scenes that prove Keanu Reeves is a genius
For someone who is regularly written off for not being a particularly great actor, the fact Keanu Reeves has been a household name for going on 35 years would certainly indicate that he’s been doing something right for a very long time.
Sure, he’s never going to trouble the Academy Awards or lend his talents to a hard-hitting prestige drama that would require him to deliver a multifaceted turn that leads to standing ovations, but that hasn’t prevented him from becoming one of the biggest stars of the modern era.
If anything, his perceived shortcomings have only been a benefit, with Reeves carrying himself in such a way on-screen that deliberately trying to go against the grain and stretch himself has often yielded disastrous results.
Throughout it all, though, the actor has made a regular point of reinforcing why he’s been such a major star for decades, with the following five scenes displaying his singular genius across a myriad of wildly different movies.
Five iconic Keanu Reeves scenes:
5. Speed (Jan De Bont, 1994)
“Mister, I’m already there.”
While Reeves had already displayed his action hero chops in Kathryn Bigelow’s Point Break, the character of Johnny Utah was intrinsically linked and obviously indebted to the actor’s own boyish looks, surfer dude charm, and heartthrob status, to the extent he was dubbed young, dumb, and full of… the rest.
However, it was Speed that showed he was stepping up to the plate as a certifiable superstar, with the opening action sequence highlighting his penchant for a well-timed quip and ability to realistically play an elite-level police officer with a grizzled demeanour and no-nonsense attitude.
Sporting a buzz cut and a thousand-yard stare, it was an entirely different type of performance that required physicality and presence on a scale audiences had never seen from Reeves before, and Speed‘s status as one of the greatest action movies ever made left no doubt that he was up to the task.
4. The Gift (Sam Raimi, 2000)
“If she don’t stop her evil ways, someday somebody’s gonna burn her up.”
As one of the kindest, most popular and wholesome stars in Hollywood – one that’s spent their career being followed by tales of their selfless good deeds and penchant for helping others – Reeves has a harder time than most convincing viewers that he’s got what it takes to play a villain.
It isn’t something he’s even attempted all that often throughout his career, but his menacing supporting role in Sam Raimi’s supernatural thriller The Gift was the perfect way of using the endearing actor in an against-type part, which projected an air of menace a lot of people were convinced he didn’t have.
Stopping his truck to accost the son of Cate Blanchett’s Annie Wilson and inform him that his mother is a witch destined to be burned alive, being interrupted by Giovanni Ribisi’s Buddy Cole does nothing to stem Reeves’ malevolence, with his work as Donnie Barksdale blowing away any misconceptions that he lacked the ability to break bad.
3. The Matrix (The Wachowskis, 1999)
“I know kung fu.”
Several of Hollywood’s biggest names were under consideration to play Neo before Reeves was cast in the Wachowskis’ game-changing sci-fi spectacular, and if anything, his limitations as a performer only enhanced the character.
In isolation, “I know kung fu” is an irredeemably stupid line. And yet, with John Anderson’s blank expression and stoic delivery perfectly suited to both Reeves’ on and off-screen persona – as well as the protagonist’s rapid learning curve as he evolves from office drown to deity – it was perfectly in sync with The Matrix.
Another performer wouldn’t have been able to deliver the often-preposterous dialogue and story developments without either coming across as looking silly or resorting to over-acting in order to sell the far-flung concept, but in Reeves’ hands, it was the perfect marriage of performer, persona, and part.
2. A Scanner Darkly (Richard Linklater, 2006)
“D is dumbness, and despair.”
Partnering Reeves with Richard Linklater always had the potential to be special, and uniting them in an adaptation of Phillip K. Dick’s short story – with the actor a noted lifelong fan of the influential author – turned out to be a match made in heaven.
It wasn’t exactly a soaring success and arguably isn’t even among the top tier of Linklater’s filmography, but the unique rotoscoped visuals and the leading man’s intentionally restrained, subdued, and introspective central performance as Bob Arctor ideally anchored the more outlandish elements.
Reeves has spent decades taking flak for his shortcomings as a dramatic powerhouse, but A Scanner Darkly was further proof that when he’s under the direction of a filmmaker perfectly in sync with not just the source material but what they want their performers to bring to the table, the results are electric.
1. John Wick (Chad Stahelski, 2014)
“Yeah, I’m thinking I’m back.”
Encapsulating 30 years of baggage into a single line of dialogue is a feat not a lot of A-list stars can pull off, but his confirmation that the titular assassin is indeed back in the first chapter of Chad Stahelski’s sprawling action saga carried a powerful double meaning.
Prior to the release of John Wick, almost a decade had elapsed since Reeves made a notable contribution to the genre, and it had been just as long since he’d secured a box-office hit. In one fell swoop, he reminded an entirely new generation why he’s one of the greatest talents in action cinema, snagged himself what would snowball into a billion-dollar franchise, and told all of his critics to write him off at their peril.
It’s easy to forget how the first John Wick required plenty of emotionally-driven character work in amongst the bullets, bodies, and broken bones, with this one scene summing up not just the title hero’s ronin-like arc of redemption and revenge but firing a shot across the bows of Hollywood that even at the age of 50, there’s nobody that can anchor an explosive actioner like Reeves.
