Between Duke Caboom in Toy Story 4, a potential role in the MCU, John Wick 3, the Cyberpunk 2077 trailer, the filming of Bill & Ted Face the Music, and just generally being an awesome human, it feels like every pop culture story this year has been about Keanu Reeves. (It’s really only been 85 to 90 percent, tops.) He’s become so unstoppable in 2019, he’s even appearing in old movies now, thanks to one of the most fascinating and terrifying technologies of the 21st century, deepfake videos. Say hello to this little video of Keanu Reeves replacing Al Pacino as Tony Montana in Brian De Palma’s 1983 cult classic Scarface.
This video comes from the YouTube channel derpfakes, which previously put Christopher Reeve into Justice League and Harrison Ford into Solo. Now, would we really watch yet another remake of Scarface if it starred Keanu Reeves? Yes, of course, don’t ask such silly questions. We’ll watch any movie he’s in. The real question is, how scared should we be by deepfake technology? Very. Not only is it improving, but like all technology, eventually it will be far more accessible to a mass audience. Which means it will be accessible to all of our archenemies. Something tells us if they ever put our faces into a movie, it won’t be the kind Al Pacino or Keanu Reeves starred in.
But in the meantime, we can still try to enjoy these videos for what they are, including yet another one of Reeves replacing a beloved celebrity. This deepfake from YouTuber Ctrl Shift Face puts the actor’s face on Bruce Lee’s during the late martial artist’s iconic “be water” interview.
Somehow this is both cooler and more terrifying than seeing him in Scarface, but we’re sure a better and/or more unsettling one will come along soon enough. With the way 2019 has become the year of Keanu, by the end of the year he’ll appear in every movie ever made.
Maybe this technology isn’t all bad.
Featured Image: Universal Pictures/derpfake