L.A.’s Subway, Freeways, Political Ways : How the new thriller ‘Speed’ got on, under and around the streets of Los Angeles despite obstacles from city government

When Los Angeles mayoral candidate Richard Riordan promised to improve the city’s relations with the Hollywood film community, he didn’t know that “Speed” producer Mark Gordon was preparing to put his feet to the fire as soon as he took office.

Nor did Riordan realize that among Gordon’s requests was to have an Uzi-bearing mad bomber trigger a derailment on the city’s spanking new Metro Rail line.

“Metro Rail didn’t want to see their beautiful new $2-million train cars torn to pieces,” says Jan De Bont, director of the new 20th Century Fox action opus. “They were very much afraid of bad PR.”

In addition, the Metropolitan Transit Authority was concerned that “Speed” film crews would not be speedy enough, disrupting service and continuing construction, causing further headaches on the already controversial subway system.

To help negotiate with the city, Fox tapped one of its legal big guns, David Handelman, then senior vice president for external and legal affairs. Handelman had developed strong relationships with local and state officials during the studio’s protracted battles with the city over expansion plans on its Century City property.

“It’s like my wife says about childbirth,” says Handelman, who has since left Fox for the law firm of Troy & Gould. “When you think back about it, it’s not so bad. But at the time we had a tough couple of months.”

Handelman enlisted the cooperation of MTA board member Stan Sanders, City Councilman Richard Alatorre and Assemblyman Richard Katz to allay what he refers to as “a certain sensitivity” from MTA officials about safety and image.

“They finally recognized that there are, unfortunately, terrorists in this world. But that in no way demeaned the transit system,” Handelman says.

The request was one of Sanders’ first since being appointed to the MTA board by Mayor Riordan. He had no problems with the script. In fact, he didn’t even read it. “It’s not the province of a public agency to critique subject matter,” says Sanders, a former recreation and parks commissioner. “That only complicates the making of movies in L.A.”

The biggest stickler, it turned out, was the issue of “the disruption of a public convenience,” Sanders says.

The MTA had just started regular service last fall when the request to film in its four completed subway stations was made, Handelman says. There was concern that any snafu would have an adverse impact on potential riders.

For the production, the problem was cost, says Gordon. Film crews are paid for an entire day whether they work two hours or eight. As it was, the only hours available were between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. In addition, Fox would have to reimburse the MTA for guards hired to ensure safety during the two weeks of filming and other location expenses.

The turning point came when Fox threatened to take the production to another city, possibly San Francisco, “even though it would have cost us an enormous amount,” Gordon says. But that would have had an even greater negative-PR impact, he says, “since the entire movie clearly takes place in L.A.”

There was no actual destruction of MTA property. Miniatures were used for the derailment scene, and a mock subway car was constructed to crash onto Hollywood Boulevard. (No, construction is not way ahead of schedule; the tunnel under Mann’s Chinese Theatre was faked). After that, dealing with Cal Trans was a breeze. According to spokesman Richard Holland, the then-under-construction Century Freeway was made available for the seven weeks of shooting, where it also doubled for the busy Santa Monica Freeway. The section of the freeway used had been completed except for white striping, which the production provided, Gordon says. “We also erased the graffiti, which we had to do every day.” The freeway gap in the movie is a computer graphic; the bus was filmed making a leap above a road, and the freeway gap was superimposed later.

The bomb-rigged bus was actually required to travel at 50 m.p.h. on the city’s streets (some in Long Beach and around Pico/ Western) because it had to be shot in real time in sync with the dialogue.

Airport scenes were shot on a side runway at LAX, which appropriately is usually used for the inspection of planes that are suspected of having bombs on board, De Bont says.

And that is a real 747 blown up in the film. It was purchased at a used airplane parts facility in the Mojave Desert and blown to smithereens at a plane-testing site in the desert where McDonnell Douglas and Lockheed test new aircraft.

“It takes so much dynamite and gas to blow up a plane,” De Bont says. “It’s really hard.”