It wasn’t quite a Speed situation, but Keanu Reeves did come to the aid of his fellow passengers when his United/SkyWest flight from San Francisco to Burbank made an emergency landing in Bakersfield, California, earlier this week.
Artist Brian Rea documented the misadventure on social media, explaining on Instagram that the 54-year-old actor was “very pleasant” as he posed for photos and talked about his latest project with airline employees before the flight was diverted.
After the flight touched down in Bakersfield, the Matrix actor helped passengers with their luggage concerns. “The people who can unload the bags won’t be here for three hours,” he said in video Rea shared on Instagram. “Management will be here in an hour. So if you want to hit the road and deal with your bags later, or deal with customer service and get it delivered, maybe.”
He then joined some of his fellow passengers in a van to Los Angeles, playing “Bakersfield Sound” country music on his phone and regaling his new friends with facts about the city. “Its population is about 380,000, making it the ninth most popular city in California and the 52nd most popular city in the nation,” he said.
The John Wick star also achieved viral fame in September 2018 when he posed with a bride and groom on their wedding day after a chance encounter in a hotel bar in Santa Cruz, California. “To have him there was just the icing on the cake so to speak! I was just like, ‘I can’t believe it’s Keanu Reeves, right there,’” the mother of the groom told ABC 7 at the time. “He was just so sweet, the nicest person. We walked in, [and] he was in his motorcycle gear having a drink and coffee or whatever, and we interrupted him and he was so gracious.”
