Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze in ‘Point Break’ (Everett)

By Adam K. Raymond

Twenty-four years after Kathryn Bigelow’s action opus Point Break was released comes an official remake, appropriately titled Point Break. (It’s hitting theaters on Friday) The surfboards are back and so are the stick-ups in an action movie about undercover FBI agent Johnny Utah (Luke Bracey, taking over the Keanu Reeves role) who infiltrates a ring of adrenaline-loving robbers led by the charismatic Bodhi (Édgar Ramírez, in the Patrick Swayze part). Even the infamous president masks make a return, albeit in a more extreme form than in the original. But before the rush of Point Break (2015) arrives, let’s revisit Point Break (1991) with these extreme facts collected from Blu-ray featurettes and interviews throughout the years.

1. Point Break co-producer Rick King arrived at the original idea for the movie during a surf lesson in Malibu. He’d just read an article about Los Angeles’s status as the bank-robbery capital of the world and the broad strokes of the idea came to him.

2. King took the idea to aspiring screenwriter Peter Iliff, who was working as a waiter at the time. Iliff received $6,000 to write three drafts.

3. Before long, Ridley Scott was attached to turn the script into a movie. “He spent as much in pre-production as I spend on a film, and then decided not to do it,” King said in a 2013 interview. In a Blu-ray featurette, Iliff recalls the crew, which had spent five months building sets, tearing it all down in one day after Scott pulled out.

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4. The movie languished in obscurity until director Kathryn Bigelow came along and decided to make it her fourth film. Her then-husband James Cameron helped perform rewrites on the script, but received no credit.

5. Early titles included Johnny Utah and Riders on the Storm.

Watch the original ‘Point Break’ trailer:

6. Prior to Keanu Reeves’ casting as FBI agent Johnny Utah — whose name was inspired by Joe Montana’s — actors such as Charlie Sheen, Johnny Depp and Matthew Broderick were mentioned as possibilities for the role. Bigelow wanted Reeves though. She insisted that she would be able to turn him into an action star.

7. Patrick Swayze read the script and immediately wanted to play the Bodhi, a character whose spirituality reflected his own. Swayze was at the height of his stardom when he was cast. Ghost had just come out, and he brought star power to a cast of otherwise little-known actors.

8. The rest of the ex-presidents gang was made up of actor James LeGros and surfers-turned-actors Bojesse Christopher and John Philbin. Philbin would go on to serve as surf instructor on Blue Crush. Christopher appears in the Point Break remake as an FBI agent.

9. Johnny Utah’s love interest Tyler was more of a traditional surfer chick in the script, King recalls on a Blu-ray featurette. After auditioning dozens of young, blonde actresses for the part, producers saw Lori Petty. She quickly became Bigelow’s choice. The director wanted to cast a woman who was more athletic than Hollywood’s typical beach babe.

Watch Tyler trying to teach Utah to surf:

10. Reeves and Swayze had previously appeared in the hockey movie Youngblood together. It was only Reeves’ second film, but he left an impression on Swayze, who finished Youngblood thinking “this guy is going to go somewhere,” he says in a Blu-ray featurette.

11. The nighttime beach scenes, including the football game, were shot at Leo Carrillo State Park, a popular location in Hollywood. Inception and The Karate Kid, among many other films, have shot there.

12. Swayze injured himself a couple times while preparing for and shooting the movie. First, he cracked a few ribs while learning to surf. Then he busted up his knee, an injury that made it swell so much, a doctor had to drain the fluid from it each night.

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13. Since Utah was a former college football star, UCLA head coach Rick Neuheisel served as Reeves’ football mentor on set. His job was to teach the actor how to throw, but Reeves was hopeless. Bigelow had to use someone else to launch the balls because the actor couldn’t complete any of the passes.