Entertainment thread by @ATRightMovies

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POINT BREAK was released 34 years ago today. A hugely popular action film, and one of the most acclaimed of director Kathryn Bigelow, the behind the scenes story is like a death-defying skydive…

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In the mid-1980s, filmmaker Rick King was lounging on a beach and read an L.A. Weekly article stating that Los Angeles was the bank robbery capital of the USA. Taking in the waves, he imagined a movie about a gang of surfers holding up a bank.

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Thinking the idea had some potential, King hired Prayer Of The Rollerboys screenwriter W. Peter Iliff to write a script. Iliff was paid just $600 for the gig, meaning he had to wait tables at the same time to pay the bills.

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King pitched the idea round Hollywood, calling it Point Break, and describing it as “Tom Cruise joins the FBI.” Production company Largo Entertainment agreed to produce, and 20th Century came in as distributors.

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Having worked with Ridley Scott twice before (on Alien and Legend), Fox wanted him to come in as director. Scott signed on in 1987 but, after spending 5 months working on pre-production, lost interest and decided to make Thelma & Louise instead.

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The film was stuck in development hell for a while, until James Cameron came across the script. His then-wife, Kathryn Bigelow, was looking for a new movie to direct after Blue Steel, and Cameron thought Point Break the perfect fit.

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Reading the script, Bigelow agreed and signed on as director. She said she was drawn to the two lead characters: “it’s more complicated when your good guy is seduced by the darkness inside him and your villain is no villain whatsoever, he’s more of an anti-hero.”

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When Ridley Scott was involved, he had been considering Johnny Depp, Charlie Sheen and Val Kilmer as potentials to play the lead of Johnny Utah. When Bigelow came in though, she brought a fresh approach.

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Bigelow wanted to cast young up-and-coming star Keanu Reeves as Utah but the studio wanted a bigger name. Reportedly, both Matthew Broderick and Willem Dafoe turned down the role of Utah, and Brandon Lee was considered at one point.

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Bigelow fought her corner to cast Reeves though, ultimately telling the studio she wouldn’t make the movie without him. The studio agreed and, once Reeves was cast, even considered changing the name of the film to Johnny Utah.

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To prepare for the role, Reeves studied with real FBI agents in Los Angeles and trained with UCLA quarterback coaches to help his football-throwing technique. He also went through rigorous surfing and skydiving lessons, later taking up surfing for real.

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The yin to Utah’s yang is antagonist Bodhi, a lover of surfing, skydiving, and robbing banks. Michael Biehn (who had worked with James Cameron on The Terminator and Aliens) later said the role was discussed with him, but didn’t go anywhere.

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Instead, Bigelow cast Patrick Swayze in the role. Swayze later said he was originally asked to audition for the part of Utah, but eventually everyone agreed he was more suited to the charismatic villain of the piece.

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Swayze had never done a skydive before but threw himself into the role, performing a reported 55 skydives throughout production. For insurance purposes, he was asked to stop, but would spend his days off-set at a local airport skydiving anyway.

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Swayze also injured himself during production. Performing the surfing scenes, Swayze would often refuse to use a stunt double, and perform the scenes himself. At one point, he broke four ribs riding the waves.

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At that point, Swayze agreed to his stunt double taking over. That was a professional surfer called Darrick Doerner, and Swayze later said he based many of Bodhi’s character traits on Doerner.

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Utah’s love interest in the film is surfer/waitress Tyler Ann Endicott. She was originally written in the script as a blonde surfer girl but Bigelow wanted somebody less stereotypical. After auditioning dozens of actresses, Bigelow cast Lori Petty in the role.

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In supporting roles, rather than hiring actors to surf, Bigelow often went for surfers who could act. Bodhi’s Ex-President’s gang was made up of Bojesse Christopher (as Grommet) and John Philbin (as Nathaniel), both professional surfers.

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In surfing, a ‘point break’ is the location at which a wave hits land and breaks. At one point though, the film was renamed Riders On The Storm but, wanting to avoid confusion with the song by The Doors, it became Point Break.

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The name ‘Johnny Utah’ was based on the legendary NFL quarterback, Joe Montana, who was mainly known for playing for the San Francisco 49ers. ‘Bodhi’ is short for Bodhisattva, a Buddhist term for a spiritual and enlightened person.

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Bigelow and Cameron made big script changes. One included the masks the Ex-Presidents wear. W. Peter Iliff had them wearing masks of older Presidents like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. It was changed to the more contemporary Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan.

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In the skydiving scene, Utah says to Bodhi "After you, Alphonse, I insist." This is a reference to American comic strip Alphonse and Gaston, about two very polite Frenchmen who never do anything without insisting the other do it first.

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Eagle-eyed viewers may have noticed the trailer featured scenes not in the final cut. Scenes were shot (but removed) of Utah being told off by his superior for “picking up girls” and Bodhi shouting in his truck "This is gonna be a great day, Johnny!”

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The musical score was provided by experienced composer Mark Isham. Bigelow told him she wanted an electronic score but, halfway through production, said it need to be orchestral and “epic”. Isham salvaged a few cues but mostly had to start from scratch.

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The film also features an original song written by 1980s heavy metal band Ratt. The song was called Nobody Rides For Free and plays over the end credits. With it being more grunge than metal, it never featured on any Ratt album.

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A problem in production came when filming the skydiving scenes. The camera crew were split between a plane and helicopter, and they collided in midair. The crew had to jump, a lot with no diving experience. Thankfully, there were no injuries.

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The opening sequence where we see Utah firing a perfect score at a shooting range was shot at Hogan’s Alley, a real FBI and police training facility in Quantico, Virigina.

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There was a lot of prep for the surfing scenes. Two months before filming, Reeves, Swayze and Petty trained with professional surfer Dennis Jarvis in Hawaii. When they were shooting those scenes, Bigelow was often in the water herself, on a board just out of shot.

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The nighttime-set surfing scenes were all filmed during the day, due to the difficulties in filming such complex sequences at night. They were altered in post to appear darker, but you can still see the odd shadow cast on the water from the cast.

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The Ex-President’s heist was inspired by – and loosely based on – the real life Stopwatch Gang, who successfully robbed over 140 banks throughout the 1970s in Canada. They would be in and out the bank in two minutes, and looted $15m in total.

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Another famous face in the film is Red Hot Chilli Peppers’ frontman Anthony Kiedis, who plays Tone. Kiedis couldn’t make it to the choreography training session for the big fight scene, so Bigelow changed it so Tone is knocked out by one punch straight away.

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One of the most acclaimed scenes in the film is the frantic foot chase, where Utah pursues Bodhi. Bigelow and her DP, Donald Peterman, filmed with was what they called the ‘pogo-cam’. Basically, it was a gyro-stabilised camera mounted on a body length pole.

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During the chase scene, when Bodhi is wearing his Reagan mask, it’s not Patrick Swayze underneath it. Swayze was in Europe at the time doing press work for Ghost so his stunt double, Scott Wilder, stepped in.

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Filming the moment that Bodhi throws a pitbull at Utah, a combination of real and fake dogs were used. The real pitbull was gently thrown by its trainer into Reeves’ arms, and replaced by a fake one when Utah kicks it away.

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The diner where Utah and Bodhi eat together is called Patrick’s Roadhouse. It’s been assumed by many this is an in-joke nod to Swayze’s starring role in Roadhouse two years earlier. However, Patrick’s Roadhouse is a real place in California.

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One of the most famous lines in the movie comes when Utah is buying meatball subs and his FBI partner, Angelo Pappas (Gary Busey), shouts “Utah! Get me two!” This line wasn’t in the script and was ad-libbed by Busey.

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The skydiving scenes were tricky to shoot. A special crane rig with a telescopic arm was created to suspend each actor 10ft in midair. A wind machine was placed beneath them and the were filmed from below to get a sense of falling.

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Shots of Reeves stunt double doing a real jump were spliced with the closeups of Reeves. And the moment Bodhi shouts “Adios Amigo” and jumps from the plane was performed by Swayze himself.

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The Ex-Presidents gang wear masks of Nixon, Reagan, Jimmy Carter and Lyndon B. Johnson. A nice touch is that each gang member is killed off in the order each of those Presidents served in office.

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The 50 year storm myth is mentioned in the movie, then is the setting for the climax. Darrick Doerner doubled for Swayze and said“Swayze called and said, ‘I need you to die for me.’ I said, ‘I don’t die for anybody, man.’ He’s like, ‘I really need you to die for me.”

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The sequence is set at Bells Beach, a famous surfing spot in Australia, though it was filmed in Cannon Beach, Oregon. At one point, Utah crosses a railway line, which doesn’t exist at Bell’s Beach. Also, the real beach is sandy rather than rocky, like the one we see.

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The scene is set about 1 year after the main events of the film, and it was filmed 6 months after production wrapped. This is why Bodhi and Utah’s hair lengths and styles are noticeably different.

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A major rewrite carried out By Bigelow and Cameron revolved around these final moments of the film. It’s left slightly ambiguous, but Cameron has said that Bodhi killed himself at the end of the movie.

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Before the film was released, the BBFC in the UK demanded 25 seconds of violence and nudity be cut to avoid an 18 certificate. Although nothing was said about the huge number of F-Bombs in the movie – 105 in total.

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On a budget of $24m, Point Break made $83.5m at the global box office, making it Bigelow’s biggest hit. It opened second in the US market, behind Terminator 2: Judgment Day directed by James Cameron. A good weekend in the Bigelow/Cameron household.

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Finally… There were plans for a sequel, but they were ultimately scrapped. A much-maligned remake came in 2015 and also a tongue-in-cheek stage version travelled across the US in 2003, where Utah would be played by an audience member.

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If you liked our making of story of POINT BREAK, please share the opening post.

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POINT BREAK was released 34 years ago today. A hugely popular action film, and one of the most acclaimed of director Kathryn Bigelow, the behind the scenes story is like a death-defying skydive…

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POINT BREAK was released 34 years ago today. A hugely popular...

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