Point Break

A minute-by-minute analysis of Kathryn Bigelow's 1991 film, Point Break. Director Kathryn Bigelow's film, Point Break (1991), follows rookie FBI agent Johnny Utah(Keanu Reeves) as he goes undercover to infiltrate the Los Angeles surfing community in order to dig up leads on a gang of bank robbers, who go by the name 'The Ex Presidents', due to their donning of rubber masks of former U.S. Presidents (Carter, Johnson, Nixon, Reagan). Although Utah at first sees this assignment as a way to test his metal within his new department, the surfer lifestyle, and the relationships he develops with his surf instructor, Tyler (Lori Petty), and his surf guru/potential suspect, Bodhi (Patrick Swayze), begins to change his perception and his passions in life. On the surface, this film feels like a straight-up heist/buddy/cop procedural movie, infused with extreme sports, and 1980s action movie tropes; however, thanks to Bigelow's kinetic directorial style, its use of surf culture, hard rock soundtrack, dynamic relationships that entwine romance, friendship, homoeroticism, paternal, and infatuation, quotable dialogue, and extraordinary surf scenes, place it firmly with the trend of 1990s action cinema. Point Break acts like a time capsule of a bygone era and, simultaneously, a beacon for what lay ahead in the coming decades. This close analysis in the style of the Timecodes series reveals this film as a brilliant turning point in contemporary cinema, a defining moment of popular culture, and a continuous source of entertainment and intrigue.