Point Break
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Ericson Core
Screenplay by	Kurt Wimmer
Produced by	John Baldecchi Broderick Johnson Andrew A. Kosove Christopher Taylor David Valdes Kurt Wimmer
Starring	Édgar Ramírez Luke Bracey Teresa Palmer Delroy Lindo Ray Winstone
Cinematography	Ericson Core
Edited by	John Duffy Gerald B. Greenberg Thom Noble
Music by	Junkie XL[2]
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release dates	December 4, 2015 (2015-12-04) (China) December 25, 2015 (2015-12-25) (United States)
Running time	113 minutes[3]
Countries	United States China[1]
Language	English
Budget	$105 million[4][5]
Box office	$53.4 million[6]

Point Break is a 2015 action thriller film directed by Ericson Core and written by Kurt Wimmer. An American-Chinese co-production, the film is a remake of the 1991 film of the same name, which starred Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves. The film stars Édgar Ramírez, Luke Bracey, Teresa Palmer, and Ray Winstone, and was released in China on December 4, 2015 and in the United States on December 25, 2015 in 3D and RealD 3D.

FBI Agent Johnny Utah (Bracey) is going undercover inside a group of skilled extreme athletes, led by a man named Bodhi (Ramirez), whom the FBI suspects to be professional criminals. Unlike the previous release, where the criminals used their money to fund their adventure sports lifestyle, the criminals are following a fictional path to enlightenment known as 'The Osaki 8'.

According to the movie character Johnny Utah 'the Osaki 8' is named after Ono Osaki, an eco-warrior who challenged the extreme sports world to a series of eight ordeals that honors the forces of nature. The challenge is to create a perfect line when completing the trials. Although Johnny Utah claims it is a path to enlightenment, Bodhi says that Ono Osaki was more interested in balance than enlightenment and he and the others in his group appear to want to use the teaching for liberating rather than material gain, even though it involves criminal activity.

The Osaki 8 include:

• 1. Emerging Force
• 2. Birth of Sky
• 3. Awakening Earth
• 4. Life of Water
• 5. Life of Wind
• 6. Life of Ice
• 7. Master of Six Lives
• 8. Act of Ultimate Trust

• Édgar Ramírez as Bodhi
• Luke Bracey as Johnny Utah:

A former extreme motocross star and a surfer turned into an "extreme athlete" and eco-warrior who plays a sort of Robin Hood role.^[7] Unlike the original film, Utah is not an ex-football player.^[7]

• • Judah Lewis as young Johnny Utah
• Teresa Palmer as Samsara Dietz^[8]
• Ray Winstone as Angelo Pappas
• Nikolai Kinski as Pascal Al Fariq
• Tobias Santelmann as Chowder^[9]
• Bojesse Christophe as FBI Director Chapman
• Delroy Lindo as FBI Instructor

A script for the remake had been lying around for years,^[7] but it wasn't until Ericson Core pitched his idea to Warner Bros. that the movie actually got off the ground.^[7] However, Core's idea of the film was significantly different than what was on the script. His idea of the film was much more of a big tent-pole movie that ought to defy the laws of physics like most prevailing films.^[7]

In 2011, it was announced that a remake of Point Break was being developed by Alcon Entertainment and Warner Bros..The screenplay was being written by Kurt Wimmer, screenwriter of the 2012 Total Recall remake. Wimmer is expected to coproduce with Broderick Johnson, Andrew Kosove, John Baldecchi, and Chris Taylor.^[10] Ericson Core, cinematographer of The Fast and the Furious (2001), was announced as the director.^[11]

Luke Bracey is set to portray the role previously played by Keanu Reeves.^[12][13] Ray Winstone is set to take on the role played by Gary Busey in the original.^[14] Gerard Butler was initially in negotiations to play Bodhi, the role Patrick Swayze played, but negotiations fell through.^[15] By mid-May 2014, Édgar Ramírez was in talks to play Bodhi.^[16]

Principal photography commenced on June 26, 2014 in Berlin. Shortly before production began in Berlin, Core got the cast and crew together to watch the original Point Break. The new team did not reach out to the original cast and crew; Bracey didn't talk to Reeves, and Core did not reach out to director Kathryn Bigelow, though Ramirez, did seek and received the director's blessing.^[4] Shooting took place in a total of 11 countries across four continents, using actual extreme sports stars and stuntmen.^[17] Locations inlcludes Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Berlin, France, Mexico, Venezuela, French, Polynesia, India and the United States,^[18][19] While the original film focused on just a few sports — primarily surfing — and used cranes and other Hollywood trickery to portray them. The new movie eschewed all of that including green screens and relied on real life practical stunts.^[4]

Since surfing was central to the first movie, the filmmakers wanted to include it again, but at a higher level.^[17] Core and his team looked all over the world to try to find out where those waves were going to hit and when before finally settling at Teahupo'o in Tahiti in search of waves.^[17][4] But shooting the scenes proved to be a challenge because enormous, surfable waves are rare and unpredictable. A set of crew first went to Jaws, a surf break in Maui months before principal photography began on the film.^[17] The team had to wait several days in Teahupo'o for the waves the swell.^[4] Luckily, enormous swells arrived. The crew ran nine cameras in the water, on cliffs and on helicopters to capture the action.^[17] Laird Hamilton, a pioneering big-wave surfer, who also plays a character in the film contributed his skills to the shoot.^[17]

The wingsuit flying sequence filmed in Walenstadt, Switzerland required five stuntmen flying in formation, shot from below, while all weaved through narrow mountain passes, one of which is called "The Crack" all at a speed of over 145 miles per hour.^[4][20] They also needed another pilot to fly with them to shoot footage of the flight. The athletes made some 60 jumps to get all the shots.^[17][21] The production canceled planned flights on a number of days because of poor weather conditions, eventually completing it only after two weeks.^[4] Core brought in Jeb Corliss, a professional sky diver, to help coordinate the scene and handpick wingsuit athletes to perform it.^[17] Some of members includes two-time World Wingsuit League champion Jonathan Florez and Red Bull Air Force manager Jon DeVore, who previously worked on the wingsuit sequence for Transformers: Dark of the Moon and served as the aerial coordinator.^[7]

Corliss called it the most dangerous stunt that has ever been filmed for a movie.^[21] Corliss himself wasn't able to jump because he was recovering from a knee surgery.^[7]

For the snowboarding scene which was shot in Aiguille de la Grande Sassière in France, professional snowboarders Xavier de Le Rue and Jeremy Jones,^[17] along with Ralph Backstrom and Mike Basich were hired to play stunt doubles.^[21] There were daily avalanche checks during the shoot, and significant amount of time was spent sitting and waiting for the right conditions to film. For this scene, Core and members of his crew roped down cliffs to record the snowboarders from the best possible angles. At some point, Core had to give Xavier the camera and he had to shoot other people.^[17] He admitted that because Rue and Jones were so fast, few could keep up with them.^[17] During filming a particular sequence, a Class 4 avalanche was triggered.^[21]

On several European jumping scenes, Core, who also previously trained as a mountain ranger, would hike up with a small crew and wait hours for safe conditions and in Venezuela, the production had to negotiate with a local general for a helicopter to get them and serveral tons of equipment out.^[4] Chris Sharma served as a stunt double and performed the free climbing in Angel Falls.^[21] Kosove said the movie "was more of an expedition than a production.”^[4]

Australian surfer Laurie Towner, who was hired as the stunt double for lead character Johnny Utah, broke his jaw and suffered other wounds during stunt surfing in Teahupo'o for the film in mid-September 2014.^[22]

The film was initially slated for an August 7, 2015 release,^[16] but on August 12, 2014, Warner Bros. brought the date forward to July 31, 2015.^[23] On February 3, 2015, the release date was moved back to December 25, 2015.^[24] Warner Bros. will distribute the film in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Russia, Japan and Latin America,^[25] and Summit Entertainment (through Lionsgate) will distribute it in other territories, except for China and Germany. DMG Entertainment, which collaborated with Alcon Entertainment to finance and develop a remake of Point Break, will distribute the film in China, where it was released on December 4, 2015.^[1][26]

As of December 27, 2015^[update], Point Break has grossed $10.2 million in North America and $43.2 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $53.4 million.^[6]

In the United States and Canada, the film opened alongside Daddy's Home, Joy, Concussion, and The Big Short,^[27] and earned $4.1 million on its opening day.^[28]

Point Break was released in China, its first market, on December 4, three weeks prior to its U.S. release across 3,700 screens.^[29] It earned $12.1 million in its opening weekend and $22.7 million in its first full week fending off local newcomer Fall in Love Like a Star, but debuted behind The Martian, which was on its second weekend of play.^[30][31] Alcon Entertainment's Andrew Kosove said they were happy with the results given the lack of brand equity associated with the film there.^[30] Including revenues from five other Asian markets, the total opening was $14.1 million.^[30] Buoyed by good word of mouth, the film fell only 14% in its second weekend to $10.2 million ($18.8 million in its full second week) which is the lowest second weekend drop of any film in China of 2015.^[32][33] It was finally overtaken by Chinese films Mojin: The Lost Legend and Surprise in its third weekend. As of December 20, it has grossed a total of $37.9 million in China and an additional $5.3 million from seven other Asian markets.^[34] It opened in Russia with $1.9 million.^[35]

Point Break has received generally negative reviews from critics. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 4%, based on 27 reviews, an average score of 3.5/10.^[36] On Metacritic, the film holds a score of 41 out of 100, based on 12 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".^[37] In CinemaScore polls, cinema audiences gave Point Break an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.^[38]

Maggie Lee of Variety called the film "a visual dazzler and a dramatic non-starter."^[39] Elizabeth Kerr of The Hollywood Reporter called the film "a thrill ride in need of a few more thrills."^[40] Norl Murray of Los Angeles Times remarked that "while Bigelow's version featured charismatic lead performances and ample pop, Core's cast mumbles slowly and sparingly at one another until it's time to jump off something."^[41]

• Official website
• Point Break at IMDb
• Point Break at Box Office Mojo
• Point Break at Rotten Tomatoes
• Please use a more specific Metacritic template.