Speed, the 1994 action thriller starring Keanu Reeves that predates his John Wick fame, is returning to streaming on HBO Max. The film was notably praised at the time by Quentin Tarantino, who called it "pure cinema" in an interview with Film Comment, and it remains widely regarded as a benchmark of the action genre nearly three decades on.

Tarantino, then riding high on the success of Pulp Fiction, singled out Speed for how effectively it engaged audiences through pure situational filmmaking, though he noted the final 20 minutes became "kind of cheesy". 1994 is often cited as one of cinema's greatest years, also producing Forrest Gump, The Shawshank Redemption and The Lion King, and Speed's return to HBO Max gives new audiences the chance to revisit it alongside those classics.