There aren’t many surfers alive that haven’t watched the original Point Break, the 1991 cult classic surf film basically lived in our VHS player as kids.
We could quote every scene from the movie and got psyched to surf ‘The Ultimate Ride’ and “The 50-Year Storm”. It inspired a generation of guys to learn to surf and a generation of girls to lust after Keanu Reeves. 25 years later and Hollywood are at it again with the new Point Break remake, but this time with a whole new approach.
Now with a new generation on their hands, the audience has a thirst for action and thrive for authenticity. Hollywood are leaning on the top athletes in action sports to bring this to the big screen. Jeremy Jones doubled for Vin Diesel in xXx with his snowboard stunts, Twitch Steinberg & Larry Linkogle also featured in the movie as Vins’ Motocross stunt doubles (Larry nearly died on the set after airing his motorbike into a Helicopter) Keala Kennelly took the reins as a surf double in Blue Crush and surfers Matt Archibold & Dino Andino played Johnny & Bodhi in the original Point Break.
The best athletes in the world were carefully handpicked based on their skill level in intense situations – no fake green screens and CGI were used, it’s real. When director Ericson Core gave them the green light to go big, they went huge! History was made with Surfers Ian Walsh and Makua Rothman winning the prestigious XXL Billabong Big Wave Awards, the first ever 5 man proximity flight was performed on film by pro wingsuit cameraman James Boole and his crew and climbers Dani Andrada and Chris Sharma discovered and climbed an untouched boulderfield near Angel Falls. There were heavy crashes and ridiculous wipeouts, luckily there was only one casualty. Laurie Towner broke his jaw and shredded his face up on the reef at Teahupoo. ‘That was the gnarliest Teahupoo I have ever seen for sure!‘ he claimed.
What sets Point Break apart from other Hollywood films like this was that the directors put complete trust in the athletes opinions for camera angles and locations for the best results. Jaws and Teahupoo were the obvious picks for the surfers, a canyon in Switzerland called ‘the Crack’ was chosen by the wingsuiters, the badlands of southern Utah was the choice for the Motocross riders and the climbers picked the 3,200-foot Angel Falls in Venezuela—the tallest waterfall in the world.
‘We wound up in 11 countries on four continents because that’s where the guys told me to go’ Director Ericson Core said.
Like the 1991 original, the film follows an FBI agent as he investigates a group of bank robbers. Highly skilled in wingsuiting, surfing, snowboarding, climbing and motocrossing played by the talented athletes which made the movie complete: surfers include Laird Hamilton, Sebastian Zietz, Makua Rothman, Billy Kemper, Brian Keaulana, Ahanu Tson-dru, Ian Walsh, Laurie Towner, Dylan Longbottom, Albee Layer, Bruce Irons, Tikanui Smith and Tuhiti Humani; snowboarders include Xavier De Le Rue, Louis Vito, Christian Haller, Lucas DeBari and Ralph Backstrom; skateboarders include Bob Burnquist and Eric Koston; motorcyclists include Riley Harper and Oakley Lehman; wingsuit stunt pilots include Jon Devore, Julian Boulle, Noah Bahnson, Jhonathan Florez, Mike Swanson and consultant Jeb Corliss; free climbers include Chris Sharma and many more.
Point Break remake will be in Australian cinemas 1st January 2016.
