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A character we've yet to meet flies through the air in slow motion, above a busy New York street, arms and legs splayed. He's wearing a bike helmet, which is a good thing — because

as The Who's "Baba O'Riley" pulses in the background and numbers come up on the screen telling us it's 6:33 p.m., he lands with a thud on the pavement. For a second

or two, he lies there staring — at a car careering toward him, a woman mouthing his name, a bike that lies crumpled at his side. You might want to take those moments to catch your breath.

You won't be offered many other chances. Because a few seconds later, the film rewinds, leaping back in time to tell you how he got here: An envelope at Columbia University needed

delivering to Chinatown, and as played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, this guy's a pedal-pumping courier. His name is Wilee (his nickname is Coyote, though he's more the Roadrunner in

this story), and almost from the moment he picks up the envelope, he's scooting up alleys and darting against traffic to get away from a corrupt cop who covets what's in it.

Officer Monday, both menacing and hapless as played by Michael Shannon, is at a real disadvantage driving a car. On Manhattan's jammed avenues, he can't begin to keep up with

Wiley, who has evidently given up a legal career for what qualifies as something of a contact sport — zipping through Manhattan on a stripped-down "fixie," a bike with no gearshift

and no brakes. In a flashback Wilee's girlfriend, who is also a messenger, wonders if he has a death wish; it's a question that might reasonably be asked of the film's actors

as well. Writer-director David Koepp, who has penned dozens of action scripts from _Spider-Man_ all the way back to _Jurassic Park,_ doesn't seem terribly anxious to freight any of

this with meaning; _Premium Rush_ is just a fun ride. But the director does do a few things in it that are unusual for Tinseltown: His New York actually looks like New York, with a largely

Asian-, Hispanic-, and African-American cast. And that's really New York they're all careering through at breakneck speed, not some studio back lot. Gordon-Levitt even did a lot of

his own stunts — and took his own falls, as an end-credits outtake makes clear. All of which means this young actor's star, already bright — he's currently the most humanizing

aspect of _The Dark Knight Rises_ and has the much-anticipated _Looper_ opening next month — will only burn brighter in the Hollywood firmament. It also means _Premium Rush_ offers a pretty

decent end-of-summer adrenaline rush. Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.