Point Break Is Gay

The plot of “Point Break” ostensibly pits these two pretty men against one another, but the script — and their performances — at times makes the story feel more like a yearning near-romance than a rivalry. Reeves plays Johnny Utah, a football player-turned-FBI agent tasked with hunting down a gang of bank robbers called the Ex-Presidents. The Presidents turn out to be led by Swayze’s Bodhi, a surfer with a captivating life philosophy and a love for high-octane thrills. Johnny goes undercover, embedding himself in Bodhi’s crew, and the two men spend much of the movie circling one another with intense curiosity, each mesmerized by the other’s projected persona.

Johnny and Bodhi likely weren’t written as queer characters, but Reeves and Swayze pull toward one another like magnets, and the movie crackles with fantastic potential energy because of it. W. Peter Iliff’s screenplay also includes plenty of moments that play with our expectations for an ostensibly heterosexual story — like a shared love interest with a boy’s name (Tyler, played by Lori Petty) and a boyish haircut that makes her easy to mistake for Reeves in key shots. All of this makes the plotline of “Point Break,” which is outlandish on paper, work flawlessly on screen. Johnny inevitably finds himself questioning his commitment to the Bureau’s mission, thanks in part to the status quo-bucking freedom he’s found on the waves — and in Bodhi’s inner circle.