Point Break (1991)

“What’s he searching for”, asks Johnny Utah. He is referring to Bodhi, a man so intriguing that Johnny is instantly under his spell. “The ride”, says Tyler, “The ultimate ride!” 

Kathryn Bigelow is an expert in directing characters that do dangerous things for philosophical reasons. Point Break is no exception. In fact, it sets the standard for characters whose motives and behavior should not be analyzed, for the simple reason that living an ordinary life is never an option for any of them.  Their actions may be criminal, but their reasons for them, are anything but. 

What makes Point Break an outstanding film, is that Bigelow makes it easy for us to accept scenes that are completely out of this world. Usually, jumping out of an airplane without a parachute or even going skydiving in the first place with a man whom you know wants you dead, are categorized as absurd, but Bigelow makes it work.

 Kathryn Bigelow

“Little hand says it’s time to rock and roll.”

“We are the ex-presidents and we need just a few moments of your time. We’ve been screwing you for years so a few more seconds shouldn’t matter, now should it?”

“Forget about it kid, they’re ghosts!”

“Why don’t you tell me this theory of yours and we’ll go get these guys!”

“The ex-presidents…are surfers.”

“You trying to tell me the FBI is going to pay me to learn to surf?”

At first, Johnny sees surfing as a task. He’s a cop, this is just another assignment. “Surfing is the source” a fifteen year-old kid tells Johnny. “It’ll change your life” says the kid. It does exactly that! The sport lures Johnny into the world where he meets Bodhi. Being a part of Bodhi’s world is a privilege for Johnny. So much that he no longer recognizes why he’s there in the first place. Things become even more confusing for our hero when he becomes romantically involved with Tyler.

“I wanna do what you do.”

“This is a line, right?”

“That’s Bodhi. They call him the Bodhisattva. Guy’s even crazier than you, Johnny.”

Bodhi channels his energy through surfing. His entire way of life can be summed up by a few surfing metaphors. He uses this technique so that he can relate the information to the rest of his team. They are nowhere near as bright or articulate as Bodhi, but he is far more enlightened and has found a way to communicate with the rest of them. A very pivotal scene is Johnny and Bodhi’s first real conversation:

Johnny: Who are those guys?
Bodhi: Nazi assholes! They think they’re some kind of death squad around here.
Johnny: What’s their program?
Bodhi: Brains are wired wrong, they’re into some bad shit. They only live to get radical. They don’t have any real understanding of the sea, so they’ll never get the spiritual side of it. You still haven’t figured out what riding waves is all about, have you? It’s a state of mind. It’s that place where you lose yourself and you find yourself.

This is where the film picks up. After all, this is an action film. One of the best sequences is an on-foot chase scene through streets and backyards. There are no mounted cameras for this chase scene. The cameraman is following the action on foot, at neck-breaking speeds. This is where Bigelow truly shines as a director.

“Peace, through superior firepower” says Roach, a minor character. I think this quote applies perfectly to the quality of the screenplay. Since 1991, I have yet to see an action film with such precise direction, intriguing characters and 100% pure adrenaline. “Yo Johnny! I’ll see you in the next life” says Bodhi. Let’s hope that it won’t be that long until we see another film this great.