Film Notes: Point Break

Following a string of box-office failures (that would go on to be Hyperreal Film Club favorites) in the 1980s, director Kathryn Bigelow knew she needed to try something different to connect with the movie-going public in the ‘90s. After coming across a script by W. Peter Iliff about surfers (a sport growing in popularity at the time), she and husband James Cameron worked on revising that script into what became Point Break. Although both Cameron and Bigelow are uncredited as writers, their perspective is all over the finished film. Bigelow takes what could be a standard cop drama with a Gen X edge (these bank robbers are SURFERS, DUDE!) and turns it on its head, zeroing in past the cliches and expected beats to create a sultry, desire-driven thriller. 

As with her earlier features Near Dark and The Loveless, Bigelow makes the antagonists and their choices seductive; the moral arc of those movies tilt back toward justice by the end, but the journey is all about how tempting it can be to abandon the sun and party all night. In Point Break, Bigelow found arguably the ideal actor pairing for an idealistic, in-over-his-head sweetheart and the sexy, sweaty, "villain": Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze. An extremely young Reeves post-Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure but pre-Speed stars as Johnny Utah, uptight former college quarterback turned FBI agent tasked with going undercover with a group of surfers who might also be a crew of bank robbers. Swayze stars opposite as Bodhi, the leader of the surfers, rocking a devil-may-care attitude and inner peace that Johnny—and the audience—can't help but want.

The movie is as much a romance as it is a thriller, with Bigelow highlighting the playful physical touches men allow themselves to share, drawing attention to the small moments of eye contact across a fire on the beach. But when Point Break does get to the action, Bigelow provides the same perspective. Reeves shared in a 2017 interview that Bigelow used a "pogo cam" technique to keep the focus on the actors' bodies as they move through the action scenes. While some action movies prioritize making the actor look good in each scene, Bigelow brings the viewer directly into the action with every shake of the camera; each jump, dive, and chase feels deeply intimate and real. And where so many action movies focused on indestructible masculine forces of nature, Point Break pushes a youthful heartthrob Reeves into the real forces of nature: the ocean and Swayze's insatiable lust for life and thrills.

If you enjoyed this article, please consider becoming a patron of Hyperreal Film Journal for as low as $3 a month!