25 things you didn’t know about your favorite action movies

Point Break – Real life mirrors the movie for two of its stars

You have to give Point Break some originality points, because who would ever suspect a group of surfers to be bank robbers?

In Point Break, a group of bank robbers calling themselves The Ex-Presidents rob a string of banks wearing masks of ex-Presidents of the United States. The FBI suspects a group of surfers could be responsible for the crimes, so they send Agent Johnny Utah (Keanu Reeves) undercover as a surfer to find the culprits. When he meets surfer Bohdi (Patrick Swayze) and gets welcomed into his group, he gets a little too comfortable with this new lifestyle.

Keanu Reeves has a surprising connection to his character, Johnny Utah. In the film, he became an FBI agent after a knee injury brought his football career to an unfortunate end. In real life, Reeves was an aspiring hockey player. When he suffered a knee injury and ruined his chances in hockey, he decided to become an actor.

The film also has another, more depressing link to real life. When Johnny Utah buys his first surfboard, 15 (played by Christopher Pettiet) strikes up a conversation with Johnny about how surprising it is for someone to take up surfing at such a “late age,” since Johnny is 25. Shockingly, in real life, Pettiet didn’t make it to the “late age” of 25, because he died from a drug overdose at 24.

It’s always so weird when real life and fiction intersect like that, especially when it comes to the tragic deaths of actors who appear in the film in question.