Keanu Reeves has never been confused for a great actor, or for that matter, a decent actor. He’s the bottom of the proverbial barrel, a performer who makes Sly Stallone’s characters look subtle and understated. Reeves may have found his creative nadir in Point Break, he stumbled ever since, making such clunkers as A Walk in the Clouds, Speed and Johnny Mnemonic.

While his movies have been offensively bad, at least he’s been harmless as an individual, both in his movies and his forgettable music project: Dogstar.

Or has he?

In making this argument, a dangerous new theory about the Reeves effect is being proposed – one in which he has not only ruined the majority of the cinema that he’s been a part of, but also the careers of other actors, most notably, that of Morgan Freeman’s. Yes, Morgan Freeman was destroyed professionally by Keanu Reeves.

There are those that would call such a theory ridiculous. “Lies!” they’d scream.

Freeman starred in the following classic films: Seven, Unforgiven, Robin Hood, Driving Miss Daisy, Glory and The Shawshank Redemption. Six out the tweleve movies Freeman was a part of from 1989’s Daisy to 1995’s Seven are out and out classics, award winning films that will go down as some of the very best from the early 90s.

Then, disaster. Freeman’s apparently had bills to pay and starred in one of the single worst films of all time: the instantly forgettable Chain Reaction starring none another than the career killer Keanu Reeves. Reaction is the worst film about cold fusion ever made, not only asking the viewer to believe that Reeves is some sort of, ahem, scientist (which in it of itself is tough to stomach), but that he had figured out the solutions to all of the world’s energy problems. Good lord, quoth most who witnessed the abomination. However, while the impact of the film was good for recovering drunks who needs to boot/reload, nobody could foresee what would happen to Freeman as a result of starring in Reaction.

His career has gone nowhere, spiraling into the depths of which are usually only mined by the Fred Ward’s and Randall Tex Cobb’s of this life.

Don’t believe the theory?

Name a good film Freeman’s been in since Reaction.

Tall order indeed, for nobody would consider the Christian Slater comeback attempt Hard Rain “good” nor do most suggest that Kiss the Girls was anything more than a desperate attempt by Freeman to recapture the disturbed psycho-killer magic of Seven. Deep Impact was the bastard child of Armageddon, both bad movies. Amistad was considered the worst of Spielberg’s serious films, a critical bomb as compared to some of the Dreamwork owner’s other films. Nurse Betty wasn’t necessarily bad, but it certainly wasn’t great. Add a sour mix of narration and television appearances and it becomes painfully apparent that Freeman has done nothing with himself after coming down with a Reevesian flu of career suffocating proportions.

It’s sad really, as Freeman was a wonderfully talented actor who needn’t have suffered such a painful professional death.

While he finally might recover in Along Came a Spider, due later this year, have others been affected by Reeves almost haunting lack of talent? While the arguments are easy to make, only Dennis Hopper, star of brilliant cinema like Easy Rider, Hang ’em High, True Romance, Blue Velvet and Apocalypse Now, is the most affected by the Reevesian Flu. After Speed, Hopper has gone nowhere, save the not-necessarily-critically-lauded Basquiat.

Are the cases of Freeman and Hopper enough to declare an emergency of Freeman’s Outbreak’s proportions? Maybe, but with films like The Matrix and his upcoming Sweet November, the possibility of the flu’s spread grows. Should Charlize Theron’s promising career be viciously struck down after November, should Laurence Fishburne’s career falter after Morpheus, Reeves must be contained.

His deadly spread serves only to rob the film community of considerable talent – it will be easier on everyone for viewers to never have to watch the shockingly awful Reeves again than go for years at a time without decent work by Freeman and, to some extent, Hopper. Such a loss is surely too much for the common man, while living in a world without Reeves is like entering some sort of Mormon seventh heaven.

Sam Wilkinson is a Collegian columnist.