This article will tell you about the top 10 movies in which Keanu Reeves completely killed the role.
It’s difficult to find a movie star with a more diverse career than Keanu Reeves, who has struggled over the years to break free from the stereotype of a ditzy but good-natured flake.
However, with three successful original series under his belt, Canadian heartthrob Reeves has established himself to be a powerhouse in the industry, whether he’s a cyber-superhero, a time-traveling teen, or the world’s most lethal hitman. With his extended role as Johnny in Cyberpunk 2077, you can even find him in video games.
10. The Matrix: Reloaded (2003)
For this highly anticipated sequel to The Matrix, Keanu Reeves and company made a reappearance. Highlights included a flying Neo, an action-packed highway chase scene that remains the best in the series, and a wild Zion dance party.
Although the cyber-mythos took over and sometimes dragged the saga down, The Matrix: Reloaded wasn’t the immediate masterpiece the original movie was. However, it was still one of Reeves’ best films.
9. Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)
In fairness, Keanu Reeves shouldered a little criticism for his performance in Francis Ford Coppola’s opulent, macabre 1992 Dracula movie as Jonathan Harker. Stepping slightly on the water in front of Gary Oldman, who was merrily consuming the surroundings, Reeves felt little in the presence of Sir Anthony Hopkins and Oldman.
All of this doesn’t detract from the movie itself, which is still regarded as one of the greatest examples of early 1990s prestige horror. It also works really well as a vampire film.
8. Toy Story 4 (2019)
In the fourth (and thus far, last) movie in the Toy Story franchise, Reeves debuted as Duke Caboom, a friendly Canadian stuntman dressed in white who was based on the Evel Knievel Rally Stunt Cycle toy from 1975. To help make it one of the best Pixar films, Reeves seamlessly blended into the series and felt at home among the fans of Toy Story.
7. My Own Private Idaho (1991)
Reeves was no doubt seeking for meatier, more oddball roles in the early 1990s to establish he wasn’t just “that guy from Bill & Ted.” My Own Private Idaho may have had a smaller audience, but it established that Reeves had more than just an air guitar and a funny smile.
Gus Van Sant’s My Own Private Idaho is partially based on Shakespeare’s plays Henry IV, Part 1, Henry IV, Part 2, and Henry V. River Phoenix appeared as Mikey Waters, a street hustler, while Reeves played his friend and fellow hustler, Scott Favour.
Though the plot was a little thin, the film dealt with the difficulties these young men experienced as they coped with day-to-day hardships, accepting their homosexuality, and Mikey’s effort to reconcile with his mother.
6. River’s Edge (1986)
River’s Edge is a straightforward yet captivating struggle based on a true California murder case. John (Daniel Roebuck) boasts to his high school pals that he killed and sexually assaulted a female, Keanu Reeves, Crispin Glover, and Ione Skye.
The normally disillusioned and emotionally distant teenagers battle between wanting to protect their friend and having to do the right thing after discovering her body.
River’s Edge is a perfect illustration of the skill that performers such as Reeves and Glover possessed, and it provides as strong a refutation of the notion that Reeves is incapable of playing simple, dramatic parts.
5. Point Break (1991)
Point Break existed before the Fast and Furious franchise and before Kathryn Bigelow began directing intense war dramas such as The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty.
The plot of Point Break is nearly identical to that of the original FF film, with the exception that it was released ten years earlier and centred on surfing rather than drag racing as the preferred pastime of thrill-seekers and criminals.
In the film, Reeves played Johnny Utah, a former college football quarterback who is now an FBI agent. His mission was to infiltrate a group of surfers headed by Bodhi (Patrick Swayze), who is thought to be connected to a series of bank robberies.
And just like Brian O’Conner played by Paul Walker would do later, Johnny Utah played by Reeves was conflicted about his duty and his growing attachment to the free-spirited Bodhi.
4. Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989)
For better or worse, Reeves’ career in the late 1980s and early 1990s was shaped by Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. Alongside Alex Winter’s equally ridiculous Bill S. Preston, Esq., Reeves played the endearing but dimwitted Ted “Theodore” Logan.
Bill and Ted had aspirations of taking The Wyld Stallyns to the pinnacle of rock & roll fame, but first, they had to clear their history final. Fortunately for Bill and Ted, the kind people of futuristic, utopian San Dimas, California sent back a time-traveling phone booth to assist them in gathering the most well-known historical figures for their project.
The end product was an absurdly hilarious comedy in which two protagonists were actually up against the passage of time while they clowned around with everyone from Billy the Kid to Abraham Lincoln to Napoleon, who was infatuated with water slides and ice cream.
Bill and Ted were portrayed by Reeves and Winter as equal parts metalheads and surfer lads, and they matched their parts perfectly. It’s a must-see time travel film for every Reeves enthusiast.
3. Speed (1994)
One of the best, most entertaining action films ever created is Speed. It’s a thrilling stunt extravaganza that maximizes its simple concept thanks to intense set pieces and a superb performance by Sandra Bullock in the role of Sandra.
In his role as Jack Traven, a member of the LAPD SWAT unit, Reeves delivered a powerful action-hero performance. When Dennis Hopper, a renegade bomber, destroys a city bus and holds the city captive for millions of people while forcing the bus to go at a speed of over fifty miles per hour (or else, kaboom!), Traven is front and centre.
Although that might have led to a highly formulaic film, Speed turned out to be one of the action genre’s unexpected hits in the mid-1990s, further solidifying Reeves’ status as a celebrity.
2. John Wick (2014)
Fans are free to choose which of the three John Wick films they have seen so far is their favourite. However, for the sake of simplicity, we’ll use the 2014 release, Chapter One, which is a gripping and direct revenge story about a hitman who “gun-fu”s everyone into an early grave after his dog, a gift from his late wife, is killed.
Keanu became a killing machine and a new hit franchise was born, freed from the weight of having to prove himself as an action hero all over again.
1. The Matrix (1999)
The Matrix, in 1999, was a unique combination of superhuman kung fu and cyberpunk aesthetics that simply blew everyone’s friggin minds. In the film, Reeves played Neo, a hacker who joined forces with a group of liberation fighters under the leadership of Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne).
Neo discovered that the world was a sophisticated digital simulation made by robots that used humans as energy sources to maintain their vast empire.
The Matrix functioned in several ways. It raised intriguing philosophical queries concerning what reality is really like. Thanks to its creative 360-degree camera work and incredibly precise action scenes, it looked great. As the emotionally distant, slightly spacey loner who transformed into a martial arts prodigy, Reeves was a wonderful fit for the role.
