Keanu Reeves as Johnny Utah in Point Break (1991)
Vitals
Keanu Reeves as Johnny Utah, ambitious FBI agent
Los Angeles, Summer 1991
Film: Point Break
Release Date: July 12, 1991
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Costume Supervisors: Colby P. Bart & Louis Infante
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Happy 60th birthday to Keanu Reeves, the Canadian actor born in Beirut on September 2, 1964. After his breakthrough performance in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989), Reeves continued his path to stardom as the OSU quarterback-turned-FBI agent Johnny Utah pursuing a gang of bank-robbing surfers in Point Break (1991).
Known as the “Ex-Presidents” for their distinctive masks, the gang arrives to rob a bank that Utah and his partner Angelo Pappas (Gary Busey) are staking out. Clad in a Ronald Reagan mask, the enigmatic leader Bodhi (Patrick Swayze) leads Utah on a foot chase that ends after jumping into a flood control channel renews the knee injury that had ended Utah’s football career at OSU. I’ll let the gents from Hot Fuzz explain how the rest of the scene goes:
What’d He Wear?
Johnny Utah dresses in a simple and subdued casual manner for his stakeout of the bank, with a then-fashionably oversized button-up shirt—untucked to cover his holstered pistol—with jeans and sneakers.
The slate-blue shirt is patterned with white vertical bar stripes (bordered on each side with a navy bar stripe), bisected by horizontal triple sets of narrow navy stripes. The smoke plastic buttons fasten up a front placket, with the top few buttons left undone. The shirt also has two large patch pockets over the chest and button-fastened cuffs that Utah wears undone.
Utah wears his usual mid-blue denim Levi’s jeans, which are likely the iconic 501® Original Fit based on the cut and the button-up fly. These jeans are styled with the usual belt loops and five-pocket configuration, including an inset coin pocket in the front and two back pockets detailed with the brand’s signature arcuate stitch and red tab on the back-right pocket.
He holds them up with a brown leather belt that closes through a slightly curved single-prong buckle of brushed silver. He carries his full-sized SIG-Sauer P226 in a light-brown leather OWB (outside-the-waistband) holster in the 4:00 position, rearward on the right side of his waist. On the opposite side, he keeps extra magazines in a two-magazine carrier pouch made from matching light-brown leather.
Utah’s dirty off-white sneakers were made by Reebok, indicated on the side flashes that represent the streaked “vector” logo that the British brand had recently started using to signify its emphasis on performance. I’m not familiar enough with the brand’s early 1990s lineup to specifically identify a model, though some elements align with the Exhilarator and Rapide running shoes I’ve seen listed in contemporary catalogs.
The sneakers feature white laces threaded through seven sets of eyelets on napped off-white panels with sharply tapered sections overlapping reflective white vector streaks. These streaks extend from the upper heel along each side, crossing over the black vamp saddles to the notched apron toe-caps. The white rubber outsoles showcase four short diagonal bars parallel to the metatarsals, complemented by soles in white, red, and black—tying together the accent colors found elsewhere on the shoes. Utah pairs these with white ribbed cotton—or a cotton blend—crew socks.
Johnny Utah’s blacked-out sports watch has been suggested to be either a Luminox (which had only just been founded in 1989) or a Heuer/TAG Heuer. I think the latter is most likely as aspects of the watch closely resemble the quartz-powered TAG Heuer 1000 Professional, specifically the ref. 980.026 with its black PVD-coated steel 38mm case (measuring 40mm including the crown and crown guards), bezel, and bracelet.
The uni-directional rotating bezel is marked with white bars for each minute (with numeric intervals every 10 minutes) and a luminous dot at the top. It surrounds a black matte dial with luminous dots as non-numeric hour indices, except for a white-wheeled date window at the 3:00 position. Designed for divers, Heuer’s “Jubilee”-style five-piece link bracelet includes a strap that can be extended to fit over a wetsuit, a feature that might also appeal to surfers like the Ex-Presidents crew pursued by Utah.
The Gun
The pistol which Johnny Utah so dramatically fires into the air when he can’t bring himself to shoot the retreating Bodhi is his FBI-issued SIG-Sauer P226. Indeed, the Bureau had started issuing the full-size P226 and the slightly more compact P228 to agents by the late 1980s as a more practical and reliable replacement for the 10mm Smith & Wessons that were issued after agents were outgunned during a notorious 1986 gunfight in Miami.
The SIG P226 may have been considered preferable to older revolvers or the 10mm Smith & Wesson, but Johnny Utah doesn’t illustrate this usefulness by mag-dumping straight into the air rather than taking a clean shot at his target.
The development of the P226 was influenced by the U.S. Army’s 1984 XM9 Service Pistol Trials which sought to replace the venerable M1911A1. SIG-Sauer adapted its P220 design to create the P226, which, along with the Beretta 92SB-F, reached the final round of the trials before the Army selected the more cost-effective Beretta. However, the Navy favored the P226, authorizing it as the MK25 for use by SEAL teams.
Still in production 40 years later, the recoil-operated P226 is fed from double-stacked box magazines that vary in capacity, depending on whether it is chambered in 9x19mm Parabellum, .357 SIG, or .40 S&W. The original P226 featured in Point Break includes a traditional double-action/single-action (DA/SA) trigger system, although SIG-Sauer later introduced the “Double Action Kellerman” (DAK) system with two trigger reset points, offering a smoother and lighter pull than most double-action-only (DAO) triggers.
How to Get the Look
Keanu Reeves as Johnny Utah in Point Break (1991)
Johnny Utah maintains his characteristically casual sense of dress of roomy, untucked button-up shirts, jeans, and sneakers that aligns with the laidback surf culture he’s infiltrating while also providing tactical advantages like concealing his sidearm and ensuring he’s ready to run after a fleeing suspect.
- Slate (with white-and-navy check pattern) long-sleeved shirt with two chest pockets, front placket, and button cuffs
- Mid-blue denim Levi’s 501® Original Fit five-pocket jeans with button fly
- Brown leather belt with brushed silver curved single-prong buckle
- White (with black and red accents) Reebok running shoes
- White ribbed cotton crew socks
- TAG Heuer 1000 Professional ref. 980.026 dive watch with black PVD-coated steel 38mm case, uni-directional rotating bezel, and matte dial (with luminous hour indices and 3:00 date window) on black PVD-coated steel five-piece “Jubilee”-style bracelet
- Light-brown leather OWB belt holster for SIG-Sauer P226 pistol
- Light-brown leather double-magazine carrier pouch
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Check out the movie.
The Quote
Ahhhhh!
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