Point Break happened at a perfect time for surfing, as the sport threw off the neon shackles of the 80s. From the 90s, surfing became something more mystical, philosophical even. A quest, rather than a kids activity. Rip Curl would launch their campaign ‘The Search’ as a way of defining the spiritual quest of surfing the following year. Also the following year, Laird Hamilton would release his big wave masterpiece Riding Giants. If the 80s was about short boards, neon and comps, the 90s was about getting towed in to monsters that made us reflect on our place in the universe. Also polar fleece. Lots of polar fleece.

Point Break also happened at a perfect time for action movies. By the 90s, they had been big for while. But now they were getting smart. Die Hard brought wisecracks. Lethal Weapon brought psychology. T2 smashed a truck into sci fi. Coming hot on their heels, Point Break gave the action movie soul. You had the excellent-haired Bodhi (Patrick Swayze) saying things like, “If you want the ultimate, you’ve got to be willing to pay the ultimate price. It’s not tragic to die doing what you love.” Was it deep? Oh jesus no. But was it deeper than Tango and Cash? Well, yeah.

It also happened at the perfect time for actor John Philbin, who played Nathanial, one of Bodhi’s bank-robbing adrenaline junkie crew ‘The Ex-Presidents’. Philbin had a reputation as a surfing actor, and had already been immortalised as Turtle in North Shore. So when Philbin heard about a bank-robbing, adrenaline junkie surf film, he threw himself at the part. “I showed (the director) a picture of me surfing pipeline, a picture of me jumping out of an airplane skydiving,” says Philbin. “I’m like, “I was born to play this.”

Point Break went on to gross $83 million worldwide, it recast Keanu Reeves as an action hero after the Bill and Ted’s years, and was the first hit for Kathryn Bigelow, who would go on to Oscar glory with The Hurt Locker. So why did it resonate? And what was it like on the inside?

Bueller? Bueller?

Point Break went through a few false starts before the version we know and love was made. Initially, it was called Johnny Utah, and then Riders On The Storm, and Ridley Scott (Bladerunner, Alien) was attached to direct, with Matthew Broderick or Charlie Sheen or Johnny Depp in the Keanu role, depending who you ask. At this point, Philbin read for the part of Bodhi but was given Ex-President Nathanial, to his delight. But there were more hurdles before he got to don his Jimmy Carter mask. “Man, that was going to be just the greatest thing ever. Then the movie went into turnaround, which means the studio lost the rights to the screenplay. The director dropped out. The original cast dropped out. I think it might have been Charlie Sheen, or Johnny Depp, or someone.”

Eventually James Cameron (Terminator, Aliens) came on as executive producer, the title was changed to Point Break, the reins were handed to Cameron’s then-wife Kathryn Bigelow (Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty) to direct. That’s when Philbin got the call. “They said, “Hey, we’re making this movie again. We’d like John to play Nathanial, would you come in and meet Kathryn?” I said, “Yeah, I’ll come in. I’ll read. I’ll do anything.” He got the part. And just like on North Shore, he was going to surf Pipe with an entourage.

This is never going to happen again

John Philbin knows a bit about how to make a surf film. He was Turtle in cult surf classic North Shore, and also trained the actors for Blue Crush. But for Point Break, nothing was left to chance to create the memorable surfing sequences. “We had (surf cinematographers) the Condon Brothers getting towed in on the back of jets skis while they’re filming. (DaHui legend) Terry Ahue’s towing us in on the back of jet skis out of Makaha until they can film us on the same wave. It’s just really fun to work in a movie where you get shoot out of pipeline. I’ve been lucky I’ve got to do it three times.”

The other thing they didn’t leave up to chance was that the right actors were going to get on the right waves. “You’ve got blockers. They’re not intimidating people, but they’re saying, “Hey, we’re only going to be here for a while.” They know everyone in the lineup. They’re going to leave there after we’re done. They make us feel welcome like we can paddle and go out the waves even though we would never get these waves if they weren’t there. So, it was really an honour. I’m really grateful for those experiences.”

Philbin didn’t take it for granted. “I told the other great surfer who was in the cast, Bojesse Christopher who plays Grommet, I said, “Dude, we’re going to go surf pipe, and you can get waves all to yourself out here. This is never going to happen again, totally get in to it.”

Men of action

Philbin describes the Point Break set as a ‘testosterone-driven’, particularly with the close-knit group of Ex-Presidents. He puts some of that down to the inexperience of the actors and their inability to chill out between takes. “When you’re young, you might not have the talent or the skill set in your acting to be able to just go between action and cut. On the day my character’s working, I just don’t want to be a step away from that character.” But perhaps as a result of Bigelow’s direction, Point Break muses more deeply on masculinity. As superstar critic Roger Ebert noted in his review, “They aren’t men of action, but men of thought who choose action as a way of expressing their beliefs.” Bigelow would go on to play these themes out in subsequent films like The Hurt Locker.

According to an article on Film School Rejects, “Bigelow simultaneously cranks the testosterone level so far into the red the dial cracks and downplays traditional signifiers of maleness.” At the core of this is the almost romantic attachment between Utah and Bodhi. I mean, it’s spiritual and all, but they also seem kinda hot for each other. When the undercover Utah first attempts surfing, one of the surf crew says, “Lawyers don’t surf!” Bodhi gives him a meaningful look and says, “This one does.” There is more in that look than in the entire romantic relationship with Tyler, the Lori Petty character. As Film School Rejects puts it: “It’s the (relationship) that transcends the physical and reaches beyond.” Hardly something that was happening in Tango and Cash and other contemporary action films.

It’s forever

If you’re a certain age, and your sisters made you watch Dirty Dancing over and over again, and then you watched Point Break until your videotape stretched, then it’s inconceivable that Patrick Swayze is no longer with us. He was, in the late 80s and early 90s, carved out of rock as a screen presence. And in some ways, Bodhi might be his Swayze-est role. The physicality that came from his dancing background, the brutality that he displayed in earlier action films like Red Dawn, the big brother wisdom that he worked into roles like Darrel in The Outsiders, and the zen-master calm of his bouncer-with-a-philosophy-degree character from Roadhouse. Bodhi wrapped all of those qualities into one role. And man, what HAIR.

And to Philbin, Bodhi didn’t disappear when the cameras were off. Swayze, in some ways, became the leader of the Ex-Presidents off-set. “He kind of got close with his gang. He used to take us up to his ranch and take us skydiving because he was training to do his own stunts, and we would all go up with him and he would take us to Perris Valley, and we jump out of planes and go back and stay at his ranch, and go water skiing in Lake Arrowhead.” He would even share Swayze philosophy. “He would talk to us at night. I mean, he just became Bodhi for us. He’s just an amazing guy, and I’d see him a lot after that too. It’s forever. On some films, you just make a friend for life and he’s one of those guys. I think he probably touched a lot of more people’s hearts than anybody.”

Death on a stick

I think we better talk about the ending. And yes, SPOILER ALERT.

The ‘Fifty Year Storm’ scene that ended Point Break was filmed about a year after principal photography wrapped, which according to Philbin, threw up all sorts of challenges. Hair-related challenges. “That was a huge break in production before they had to go back and shoot that scene. Those aren’t wigs.” “ (Swayze’s) got short hair and Keanu’s got long hair because he might have done My Own Private Idaho or something. I’m not sure, but he had long hair.” Then there’s the fact that post-Ghost, Swayze is now huge. “He’s a huge movie star again. A romantic movie star. Patrick commanded such a huge salary to do the one day in Oregon. Keanu probably did too but Patrick’s salary was just astronomical.”

The thing most people remember about the end of Point Break is how unlike Bells Beach the Bells Beach scene is. In fact, the scene was filmed at Indian Beach in Oregon. I remember yelling at the screen, “You can’t walk onto Bells from the shops you idiots!” Then people remember Peter Phelps’ unconvincing Australian accent (which is weird because he’s Australian) as he delivers his famous ‘it’s death on a stick out there’ line.

But what we should remember is that Bodhi dies at the end. And Utah never gets his man. What a resolutely non-Hollywood ending to a Hollywood blockbuster. Utah, now long-haired, has made catching Bodhi his quest, something spiritual rather than for law enforcement purposes. And it eluded him. Again, as Bigelow had subverted the traditional hyper-masculine action hero relationship, she subverted the action film ending. And it couldn’t have ended any other way and been satisfying. And it still made $83 million and spawned a remake. Which I will never watch.

But remakes aside, the question remains: will we ever see such an action/surf/buddy cop/mystical musing on masculinity ever again? Probably not. But maybe, just maybe, if the times require it.