Dennis Hopper

In Speed (1994), a bomb on a bus is enough to keep us occupied, but Dennis Hopper gives it an owner worth worrying about. His Howard Payne demonstrates how well his menace could serve a straightforward thriller. Jan de Bont keeps the film engrossing, even when the plot overreaches. Hopper belongs in that calculation alongside Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, whose work gives us reasons to care beyond the next stunt. The part needs his intensity without needing him to dominate everything around it.

The later character actor is worth considering separately from the countercultural figure associated with Easy Rider (1969). He co-wrote, directed and played Billy in that film. Work was sporadic through the 1970s and early 1980s, with the photojournalist in Apocalypse Now (1979) belonging to that leaner stretch. Blue Velvet (1986) and Hoosiers (1986) revived his career, and action and crime films subsequently made regular use of him.

David Lynch's Blue Velvet shows why the casting could be so unsettling. We were unnerved by Frank Booth's gas inhalation, because it makes his menace strange even before we consider what he might do. Hopper's frequent casting as intense or eccentric men is understandable after that performance, though it can narrow the view of him. Clifford Worley in True Romance (1993) also gave him a paternal role, worth remembering alongside the more obvious monsters.

The limitation is that menace can become the whole attraction. In Speed, that does not much matter: the bomb-maker has a clear function, and de Bont has Reeves and Bullock to do the work of keeping us involved. We would still like the plot to know when it has gone far enough. Hopper's casting helps sustain the threat, but it cannot make every escalation sensible. Start here for the actor serving an engrossing thriller, then try Blue Velvet when an agreeable evening is less important.