The Best Adventure Movies: Point Break

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Outside Magazine, June 2005

Outside Goes to the Movies
A Perfect 10
Point Break

By Steven Kotler & The Editors

8. Point Break (1991)
Yeah, it's ridiculous, but we love it anyway. Rookie FBI agent Johnny Utah (Keanu Reeves) and his grizzled partner, Angelo Pappas (Gary Busey), are assigned to infiltrate an elusive crew of surfing criminals led by a Zen bad boy named Bodhi (Patrick Swayze). Reeves's monosyllabic dudespeak makes you wonder if he swallowed a Bill & Ted pill, but who cares? Director Kathryn Bigelow borrows a page from producer James Cameron (her husband at the time), eschewing plot logic to bring us uncomplicated adrenaline in the form of ass-kicking, skydiving shortboarders who, as Pappas puts it, "rip off banks to finance their endless summer."

The action alone makes Point Break exhilarating—the sight of pro surfer Matt Archbold (Swayze's double) dragging his shoulder blades across the curl of a cresting wave is one of the sweetest surf shots in Hollywood history. But underneath the pyrotechnics, it's Utah's evolution from former Corn Belt quarterback to SoCal soul surfer that—we blush to admit—got to us. Thirty minutes in, when Utah and Pappas's boss screams, "Do either of you have anything even remotely interesting to tell me?!" Utah doesn't flinch: "Caught my first tube this morning, sir."

We laughed. But we also understood.

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