Point Break (1991)

directed by Kathryn Bigelow

Jenny Montooth

I was 19 years old when I first heard of Point Break, and the plot just sounded too good to be true. My friend Chris was trying to carefully explain to me and our other friend Ronnie why it was the greatest movie of all time. “Keanu Reeves is a former college football star named Johnny Utah who then becomes an FBI agent. He has to go undercover as a surfer to find out who is committing bank robberies around town. But he soon finds himself having to answer the question…does he choose being an agent….or his love of surfing.”

At this point Ronnie is crying with laughter and begging Chris to stop. “No, no no! This cannot be real!”

We bought a DVD of Point Break that happened to also be the Pure Adrenaline Edition. Not only was that plot real, it was way better than expected. And there were some even more amazing plot points in this movie:

• Gary Busey plays Keanu's partner, an agent named Angelo Pappas

• When Johnny Utah (Keanu) enters the surfing community, they are very skeptical of this new surfer until they recognize him from college football. One of them in his thick surfer accent goes “Utah #9! Ohio State!” This part really got me. Why would these surfers know anything about college football in Ohio?

• While on the lookout in his car, Angelo Pappas almost misses a bank robbery happening because he is eating a meatball sub.

• The head surfer and bank robber is played by Patrick Swaze. And the chemistry between Keanu and Patrick is u n r e a l.

This movie was directed by Kathryn Bigelow, who co-wrote it with James Cameron, her husband at the time. They divorced the year this movie came out, and she ended up beating him at the box office when Terminator 2: Judgment Day came out. I think that is pretty amazing.

The ‘90s were a unique time for action movies, especially one made by a female director. Even 30 years later, that feels rare. ‘90s action was more focused on the tension between actors, the psychological toll it paid to be in a game of cat and mouse; how all-encompassing it was. These movies felt like a beautiful dance. I grew up loving action movies like Goodfellas and Heat, even Fight Club (I would have killed it in college if I had a dorm with these movie posters in it). In these action classics, dialogue was even more important than the action itself, which played more of a side character. You spent a LOT of time watching the tension build between characters, and it was so thrilling.

In Point Break’s case, there are amazing action scenes (it IS the Pure Adrenaline Edition, of course), but the tension is so much higher because you are fully invested in the relationship between these characters. Johnny Utah really falls in love with the surfing community and has never felt more at home, but he also has a job to do, and these people he has befriended are bank robbers.

Now, I can’t really watch modern action movies. The stimulation is too intense for my PTSD, and I usually have to walk away or turn it off. Violence is made to look super realistic, action sequences take up 95% of the movie, and the big budgets lead to explosions and destruction for no reason. My wife LOVES action movies, old and new. She is excited by the idea of a big budget action movie, because she knows she’s guaranteed to see some epic sequences. Early into our relationship, she took me to see one of the new Mission: Impossible movies and between the lightning strikes, extreme car chases, and jumping off buildings, I walked out of the theater hyperventilating and calling my therapist so I could ground myself.

It has felt like a real identity crisis in my adult years to not be able to watch action movies! When I was a kid I only had to walk out of the theater when my friends would ask me to go see horror movies with them, and I always would be too embarrassed to say no. But the jump scares were too much for me. I became very familiar with the movie theater lobby. I would sit by the Dippin’ Dots: Ice Cream of the Future machine and ask the theater staff if they were having a good night. I’m sure I became known in the theater as the girl who could never watch a full horror movie.

I feel like my younger self a lot these days. When someone asks me to see a movie with them that is not at the local indie theater, I usually have to do extensive research to see if I can watch it. I read the description. I watch the trailers. I read interviews with the cast to see the adjectives they use to describe the movie. And then I give myself a verdict: unwatchable due to extreme violence.

I do miss the days when someone could describe an amazing plot to me like Point Break, and I could eagerly watch it right away instead of learning to just be satisfied with the Wikipedia plot description. I wouldn't even be scared off by something called Pure Adrenaline Edition. But I’m glad I got to have this amazing era at all. While I can’t see modern action movies in theaters, I will never tire of going to parties and convincing someone to watch Point Break and see one of the greatest love stories ever told between Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze. And I still get the same thrill showing my friends the movie for the first time and watching their faces light up when Keanu and Patrick skydive together, the camera zoomed in on their faces in pure bliss instead of the view below them. There are still too many people in the world that have not seen Point Break, and I feel it is one of my life’s missions to make them aware of it. Just as my friend Chris had done for me.

Jenny Montooth is a writer, photographer and science communicator in Washington, DC. She received her MA in Historical Studies at UMBC, where she focused on the Black Power Movement. Follow her on Twitter and send her a joke @jenn_montooth.