This summer, MovieJawn is counting down our 25 favorite action movies of all time! We will be posting a new entry each day! See the whole list so far here.

by Gary M. Kramer, Staff Writer

The 1991 film Point Break is ostensibly about a handful of surfer dudes looking for the next adrenaline rush. And director Kathryn Bigelow provides many thrilling sequences over the course of this ridiculous—and ridiculously entertaining—flick. 

The story has former athlete turned F.B.I. agent Johnny Utah (Keanu Reeves) arriving in L.A. to work his first professional case. Teamed up with Pappas (Gary Busey), they are tasked with solving an ongoing series of bank robberies. Pappas believes the thieves, who wear masks of the ex-presidents—Reagan, Johnson, Nixon, and Carter—are surfers. As such, Johnny must learn to surf to ferret out the criminals.

Bigelow opens her film crosscutting between Bodhi (Patrick Swayze), the ringleader of the ex-presidents surfing and Johnny shooting targets in the rain. The sequence emphasizes each man’s milieu, but also suggests the bond that will develop between them. There is a palpable homoeroticism between the guys. 

 Point Break takes its time building the relationship between Bodhi and Johnny. The film includes an early bank robbery, shot in an urgent style, but most of the first third features Johnny learning surfing with the help of Tyler (Lori Petty)—who happens to be Bodhi’s ex-girlfriend. Johnny also infiltrates Bodhi’s gang—Nathanial (John Philbin), Roach (James Le Gross) and Grommet (Bojesse Christopher)—with ease as they play some football and party.

The beach scenes are enjoyable, and Bigelow shoots the guys in ways that showcase their buff bodies in tight wetsuits, surfing. One fabulous sequence has the characters night surfing, which is dangerous, but still thrill-seeking for Bodhi and his crew.

Point Break is practically a hangout movie until it shifts into second gear. While doing undercover work, Johnny gets into a fight with Bunker (Chris Pedersen), that has him being beaten up by Bunker, Tone (Anthony Kiedis), and Warchild (Vincent Klyn), until Bodhi steps in and saves Johnny’s ass. Bigelow films the fight scenes like poetry in motion, with Swayze performing pain-inducing kicks and body blows with precision. 

When Johnny prepares a raid on Bunker’s house, it becomes a tense and terrific action sequence with shooting, a few deaths, and a knock-down, drag-out fight that features Johnny’s face nearly meeting the working end of a running lawnmower. 

Bigelow shoots all this action with gusto, but it is merely an appetizer for what’s to come. Around the midpoint of Point Break, Bigelow executes a chase scene that is the film’s pièce de résistance. Having just robbed a bank, the masked Bodhi and his gang are driving off, but Johnny and Pappas have been on a stakeout and follow the bandits in hot pursuit. The car chase is thrilling as the feds race after the criminals through the L.A. streets hoping to collar them. But when the cars are wrecked and abandoned—and Bodhi blows up a gas station (using the gas pump as a flamethrower)—the chase continues on foot. Johnny rushes after Bodhi (and the camera rushes after both of them) through alleys, over fences, and in and out of houses—with the people inside providing additional obstacles. Bodhi locks a sliding glass door in one house, but Johnny break through. Bodhi even throws a large dog at Johnny, but it does not stop him. The exhilarating set piece ends with the two men silently acknowledging each other and viewers experiencing a killer rush.  

But wait there is more. Even though Johnny is clocked as an F.B.I. agent, Bodhi takes him skydiving to continue playing cat and mouse. Bigelow films this episode with the right mix of euphoria, reverence, and danger. Can Johnny trust Bodhi now that he has shown his hand? This plot point fuels the last half of the film which includes another bank robbery where Johnny is forced by Bodhi to participate, as well as a shootout as Bodhi and his men are looking to escape on a plane. The film culminates with another action sequence in which Johnny must jump out of a plane without a parachute in the hopes of capturing Bodhi. It is breathtaking.

Bigelow’s talent is to make these cumulative action scenes all engaging with deft editing and dazzling visuals. The mid-air scenes are highlights, especially one where Johnny is holding on to Bodhi with one hand and a gun in the other. In order for them to land safely, however, Johnny is forced to open the parachute—which means dropping his gun. The mental battle between the guys is as strong as the physical one and that is what makes Point Break compelling. The guys look more like lovers than rivals, especially when they are entwined together.

The film ends with what some viewers might think is a whimper, rather than a bang, given the guns that are drawn, but Point Break is not about will Johnny capture Bodhi; it is focused on the adrenaline rush they each experience. And in that regard, Point Break delivers.