Today Vice brought the story of one Ryan Beitz, who owns over 500 copies of Speed on VHS and would like to own a lot more. Specifically, every remaining copy in the world, which he will then store on a passenger van designed to look like the bus once ridden by Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves in one of the ’90s seminal action films. Ryan Beitz is a smart man.
The interview, conducted on the van “while copies of Speed periodically fall from the ceiling to the floor,” reveals that Ryan began his obsession after buying six cassettes to give his family as Christmas gag gifts, only to quickly become something more. He found he wanted… all of them. And the bus. (Which is being funded via the “World Speed Campaign” on Kickstarter.)
Isn’t [the challenge] impossible?
I mean, probably, because of unknown human forces, the logistics of tracking them all down, and just the sheer expense. I don’t want to spend money on this. If a copy’s more than $4, I’ll just steal it. But that’s not going to make me stop. That’d be the same as somebody saying like, “It’s impossible to make the world a good place, so I’m not going to try.” If the idea is awesome, I’m just going to devote myself to it regardless.So you’d say the World Speed Project is awesome?
I think the World Speed Project is awesome in the truest sense of the word. It’s larger than life. Imagine all of them in one place! It’s uncompromising.
Read the full interview here. You may donate to his Kickstarter here.
And if anyone would like to do something similar with Point Break, I’m THERE.