High speed dislocations have long been identified as the dominant feature governing the plastic response of crystalline materials subjected to high strain rates. They allegedly control deformation and failure response of industrial processes in a large range of applications, including machining, laser shock peening, punching, drilling, crashworthiness, foreign object damage,etc. Despite decades of study, achieving a consensus on the role and influence high speed dislocations have on the materials response observed at the macro-scale by the means of rigorous mechanistic grounding remains elusive. This article reviews both experimental and theoretical efforts made to address this issue in a systematic way. The lack of experimental evidence and direct observation of high speed dislocations means that most work on the matter is rooted on theory and simulations. This article offers a critical review of the competing theoretical accounts of high speed mechanisms, their underlying hypothesis, insights, and shortcomings. It explores the role that the speed of sound plays in the modelling of high speed dislocations, the way dislocations are modelled in the elastic continuum and how this approach can be used to study plasticity at high strain rates. The role atomistic models of dislocations have played in clarifying high speed motion mechanisms, and how they have led to the development of dislocation velocity-stress relations describing dislocation mobility is then also discussed. The article also reviews modelling efforts aimed at describing high speed dislocation mobility, and how different proposed physical mechanisms believed influence the motion. The article closes with an overview of the current state of the art and suggestions for key developments needed to improve our fundamental understanding in future research.