Film· 1991· Action

Point Break

by Kathryn Bigelow

Point Break: 1 recorded work traces back to it.

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What Point Break influenced

Works that record this one as a source, with the evidence a contributor gave.

Hot Fuzz

Film · 2007

InfluenceHIGH

Hot Fuzz names it on screen. Danny owns it on DVD, the two of them watch it, and the film then restages its best-known beat: Nicholas gets a clear shot at a fleeing suspect, cannot take it, and fires into the air in exactly Keanu Reeves's posture. It is structural as well as quoted. The buddy pairing of the disciplined outsider and the enthusiastic local, the partner who turns out to be inside the thing being investigated, and the final reversal are Bigelow's, played straight and then for comedy. Edgar Wright has talked about Point Break and Bad Boys II as the two films Hot Fuzz is built out of, and both are named aloud in the script.

About the work

Point Break

The title refers to the surfing term "point break", where a wave breaks as it hits a point of land jutting out from the coastline. The film features Reeves as an undercover FBI agent who is tasked with investigating the identities of a group of bank robbers while he develops a complex relationship with the group's leader (Swayze).