Point Break, one the four movies from at the centre of Patrick Swayze’s golden run at the box-office in the late 80s and early 90s, is getting a re-release in a glorious new 4K restoration in November and we have the new trailer.
Following Dirty Dancing, Roadhouse and 1990’s Ghost, Point Break united Swayze with Hollywood rising star and future action icon Keanu Reeves in a tale of cops and robbers on the streets and waves of sunny California. In November, the BFI will present a new 4K restoration of Kathryn Bigalow’s classic actioner which gas been confirmed to play on the nation’s biggest screen before releasing nationwide.
The film is the centrepiece of ART OF ACTION, presented by the BFI Film Audience Network (BFI FAN) using funds from the National Lottery, which takes place at cinemas across the UK from October-December 2024. The BFI season celebrating the artistry of real action choreography that has kept film audiences on the edge of their seats since the early days will have an Extended Run of Point Break at BFI Southbank, and two performances at BFI IMAX, the UK’s biggest screen, on Friday 8 November, Saturday 9 November and Monday 11 November.
Point Break is the film that gave Keanu Reeves his first action role, a precursor to his future starring roles in SPEED and THE MATRIX and JOHN WICK franchises. Considerable time was spent by the actors preparing for their very physical roles, which involved doing their own surfing and some stunt work. Patrick Swayze was a classically trained dancer whose athletic background included gymnastics, swimming and diving. An accomplished sky diver, he did all his own skydiving stunts. The spectacular skydiving sequences included some falls that had never been seen before on film.
In this quintessential 90s-style big-budget thriller, director Kathryn Bigelow brilliantly utilises the physical prowess of her two leads to tell the story of an FBI agent drawn in to a cat-and-mouse game with a surfing bank robber. Working with his partner’s hunch that a spate of bank robberies are being committed by a tight-knit gang of surfers, undercover agent Johnny Utah (Keanu Reeves) infiltrates the California surfing fraternity to uncover the identity of the ‘Ex-Presidents’, who commit heists while wearing facemasks of Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Jimmy Carter. But Johnny comes under the charismatic spell of Bodhi (Patrick Swayze), a free-style philosopher obsessed with extreme sports, becoming hooked on the adrenaline-rush of a life on the edge. Gary Busey is Johnny’s seasoned partner Pappas and Lori Petty is Tyler, a young bar worker who gets caught up in Johnny and Bodhi’s dangerous game. Racing from one fast-paced and technically dazzling set piece to the next, with action unfolding on the surf, in the sky and through the streets of LA, Kathryn Bigelow simultaneously relishes and deconstructs the tropes of the ‘bromantic’ action spectacular. It’s a visually dazzling and heady ride.
Watch the new trailer below.
