Released July 12th 1991, directed by Kathryn Bigelow and starring Patrick Swayze & Keanu Reeves, Point Break features Reeves as Johnny Utah, an undercover FBI agent tasked with investigating the identities of a group of bank robbers, led by Swayze's character Bodhi. who then develops a complex relationship with the group's leader.
On the anniversary of its cinematic release, here are five fast facts about the original Point Break.
1. The DVD linear notes of Point Break revealed that the film came close to production in 1986, with Matthew Broderick, Johnny Depp, Val Kilmer and Charlie Sheen all being considered to play the Johnny Utah character, with Ridley Scott directing. Production fell through, but Johnny Depp still remained 20th Century Fox's first choice for Johnny Utah.
2. Four years later, the film went back into active production with James Cameron as executive producer. At the time Cameron was married to director Kathryn Bigelow, who had just completed Blue Steel and was looking for her next project when this landed on their desk. Cameron has said that he did a considerable amount of writing with Bigelow for the final film, helping to establish a better plot flow, but due to a disagreement with the Writer's Guild of America only W. Peter Iliff is credited for the screenplay.
3. Point Break was originally called Johnny Utah, however as this title said nothing about surfing when the film went in-front of the camera it was changed to Riders on the Storm, after the famous song by The Doors. However, as Jim Morrison's lyrics also had nothing to do with the plot, halfway through filming Point Break became the title. The phrase refers to the surfing term where a wave breaks as it hits a point of land jutting out from the coastline.
4. When Bodhi (Patrick Swayze) is introduced to Johnny Utah (Keanu Reeves) on the beach, he remarks that Utah's surfboard reminds him of a '57 Chevy he used to have. Swayze, as Johnny Castle, previously drove a '57 Chevy in Dirty Dancing.
5. Shooting the surfing sequences proved to be challenging for Patrick Swayze, cracking four of his ribs during training, but he stuck at it and, for many of the surfing scenes, refused to use a stunt double (he also never had one for the fight scenes or car chases). When it came to the skydiving, though, Point Break's aerial jump instructor Jim Wallace found that Swayze was a natural and took to it right away. Swayze then performed all the skydiving scenes himself, making a total of 55 jumps for the film.
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