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When Keanu Reeves made his breakthrough as an airhead stoner flunking school in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, it didn’t appear likely that he would become one of Hollywood’s hottest action stars. But like the life he has led, which has seen him become one of cinema’s most benevolent, charitable actors, Keanu Reeves has defied expectation.
Getting his first taste of action movies in 1990 under the direction of Kathryn Bigelow in Point Break, Reeves would later train for four months to learn kung fu for 1999’s The Matrix, on-screen fight skills he has utilised to great effect in movies such as 47 Ronin, the John Wick series, and The Matrix sequels.
A Diverse & Compelling Career: The Best Films of Keanu Reeves
Born in Beirut, Lebanon, Keanu Reeves was raised in Toronto, Canada by his English mother and American father. It was in Canada where he started acting in theatre productions and on television before he made his feature film debut in 1986’s Youngblood.
His major acting breakthrough came when he starred alongside Alex Winter in science fiction comedy Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989). He would go on to reprise his character in the sequels including the most recent, Bill & Ted Face the Music.
However, it was his work in the independent drama My Own Private Idaho a couple of years later that showcased the true extent of his dramatic range before he scored commercial hits with early 1990s action films Point Break (1991) and Speed (1994).
10 Great Keanu Reeves Action Movies
10. Johnny Mnemonic
Action movie legend Dolph Lundgren joins Keanu Reeves in Johnny Mnemonic, a cyberpunk thriller set in the near future about a data courier who possesses information in his head that he must deliver before he dies or is killed by a Yakuza gang.
9. Constantine
Reeves is a supernatural exorcist and demonologist who helps a cop (Rachel Weisz) investigate the mystery surrounding his sister’s supposed suicide. The character of John Constantine is based on DC Comics’ Hellblazer comic book with the film directed by Francis Lawrence who would go on to make I Am Legend with Will Smith and a number of the Hunger Games films with Jennifer Lawrence.
8. Chain Reaction
Keanu Reeves is Eddie Kasalivich, a University of Chicago researcher, who is forced to go on the run with a physicist (Rachel Weisz) after he is framed for the murder of the head of a groundbreaking alternative energy project. Action movie veteran Andrew Davis, best known for Under Siege and The Fugitive, directs.
7. Man Of Tai Chi
The untapped potential of a young martial artist with unapparelled Tai Chi skills sees him offered the chance to take part in a lucrative underworld fight club. Man of Tai Chi represents Keanu Reeves‘ directorial debut. John Woo praised Reeves’ choreography of the fight sequences.
6. 47 Ronin
Starring Keanu Reeves, Hiroyuki Sanada, Rinko Kikuchi, Tadanobu Asano and Ko Shibasaki, the film sees a group of samurai – the 47 of the film’s title – set out to avenge the death and dishonour of their master at the hands of a ruthless rival.
5. John Wick: Chapter Two
The classy sequel to John Wick, the second chapter sees the titular character on the run after a bounty is placed on his head. Expect plenty of gun fu action.
4. Speed
A young police officer (Keanu Reeves) finds himself on a booby-trapped bus that will explode if it drops below 50mph. Speed was a huge box office success, making over $350 million.
3. Point Break
An FBI agent (Keanu Reeves), while undercover on the hunt for a bunch of bank robbers, develops an unlikely friendship with the gang’s ringleader (Patrick Swayze).
2. John Wick
A tale of revenge, Keanu Reeves stars as the titular John Wick, a former assassin who is coaxed out of retirement by a bunch of gangsters who kill his dog, the last gift from his recently deceased wife.
Director Chad Stahelski takes inspiration from Hong Kong action cinema and makes effective use of “gun fu”, a stylish combination of kung fu fighting in which the traditional use of bladed weapons and swords are replaced by guns.
1. The Matrix
A game changer. The complicated technique popularised as “bullet time” was one of many memorable elements of 1999’s The Matrix. The visual effect allows the camera to pivot around action sequences where time appears in slow-motion allowing for such visual quirks as bullet-tracking through the air.
The groundbreaking special-effect enabled The Matrix to bring audiences a new kind of action sequence, one that has been oft-imitated since but never bettered. Rightly, the film won four Academy Awards for its technical prowess including Best Visual Effects and Best Film Editing.
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