History Film / Speed

** In a blink-and-you'll-miss it, Howard Payne apparently drives a black-and-silver mid-to-late-70s Dodge Magnum coupe. [[note]]If you go frame-by-frame, and based on his position relative to the bus, there's only one car adjacent to a red Ford E-150 van seen during the phone call. On top of which, its interior carries the same vibe that his home does.[[/note]]

** Twenty minutes later, he blows up a bus with a driver on board for no better reason than to ''get Jack's attention''.

** Payne's entire motivation is that the police stiffed him out the pension he deserved and gave him a pathetic retirement gift, despite years of dedicated service and risking his life daily as a member of the bomb squad. To be fair, [[VillainHasAPoint his feelings are understandable]], though it doesn't excuse everything he's done for the money.

* VillainBall: Payne's sole motivation is getting the money he feels he deserves after losing his pension, but he undermines himself with the bus bomb by leaving fairly obvious clues for the cops to work out his identity, meaning that they'd be on his tail forever even if he'd gotten paid. This is somewhat justified in that Payne is insane to begin with, and now he has a personal vendetta against Jack and Harry for foiling his first plot, which he had spent years planning and contained no such hints.

I PlotHole: Payne had [[spoiler:two]] means of remotely monitoring the bus. [[spoiler:One was the on-board hidden camera.]] The other one was some kind of GPS tracking system. When he first speaks to Jack, he reports the bus' exact location when he looks down at (presumably) a laptop in the passenger seat. Later, in his lair, he has a desktop PC running a program that clearly shows a moving map display with a blinking yellow dot. It even displays the bus moving around LAX' runway. If the bomb had gone off, the movement on the computer program should've stopped or shown a lost connection; which would've alerted Payne.

** Jack's 60s Ford Bronco

* CatchPhrase: "Pop quiz, hotshot." Becomes a PhraseCatcher when Jack gets the line from Harry and Payne.

* ImprobableInfantSurvival: Played with. See BabyCarriage above.

* TooDumbToLive: It is hard to comprehend the kind of panic and fear a bystander must feel in that situation, [[spoiler: but if an LAPD officer tells you that A) there's a bomb on the bus but also B) no one can leave, there's probably a good reason why. Predictably, a scared lady tries to get off onto a LAPD safety car, and is killed by one of Payne's booby traps. What makes it worse is that the cops on the safety car are encouraging her and reaching to help her, ''despite knowing that Payne has forbidden it.'']]

* ArtisticLicenseLawEnforcement: Realistically, a single police officer wouldn't be pursuing the likes of [[EvilGenius Payne]] directly without having ''actual'' reinforcements in the event that a terrorist does something beyond one police officer's control. Here, Jack, the protagonist, is one single police officer and is the only one making a direct pursuit of the terrorist in question, while his colleagues operate in the background, and in turn, Payne constantly has the advantage over him as a result. Justified in the sense that Payne makes sure ItsPersonal for Jake by targeting him directly, but not quite enough for it to justify the unrealistic situation itself.

* ArtisticLicenseLawEnforcement: Realistically, a single police officer wouldn't be pursuing the likes of [[EvilGenius Payne]] directly without having ''actual'' reinforcements in the event that a terrorist does something beyond one police officer's control. Here, Jack, the protagonist, is one single police officer and is the only one making a direct pursuit of the terrorist in question, while his colleagues operate in the background, and in turn, Payne constantly has the advantage over him as a result.

* Pun:

* IncrediblyLamePun:
** Jack explaining to the bus passengers that he is going to try to "defuse" the situation.
** Jack tells Annie [[spoiler: that Payne "[[OffWithHisHead lost his head]]"]].

** When Jack explains to Annie that they are being held hostage by a guy who just wants money, she doesn't buy it as this is situation is a lot of trouble to set up just for money. She is correct because ItsPersonal for Howard Payne who wants revenge for being retired from Atlanta PD bomb squad after a bomb injured him and he felt wronged by the retirement funds he received. Howard wants to humiliate the LAPD one way or another.

* FiveSecondForeshadowing: We see the black Jaguar that Jack commandeers when he first drives onto the freeway.
%%* FlawExploitation: Averted.

* ImprobableInfantSurvival: Played with. See BabyCarriage above.

* RedRightHand: Payne lost a thumb in the line of duty.

* ShootOutTheLock: Jack does this when chasing Payne through the subway station.

** When Jack explains to Annie that they are being held hostage by a guy who just wants money, she doesn't buy it as this is situation is a lot of trouble to set up just for money. She is correct because [[spoiler:ItsPersonal for Howard Payne who wants revenge for being retired from Atlanta PD bomb squad after a bomb injured him and he felt wronged by the retirement funds he received]].

** When Jack explains to Annie that they are being held hostage by a guy who just wants money, she doesn't buy it as this is situation is a lot of trouble to set up just for money. [[spoiler:She is correct, ItsPersonal for Howard Payne who wants revenge for being retired from Atlanta PD bomb squad after a bomb injured him and felt wronged by the retirement funds he received]].

'''Jack''': Yeah.\\
'''Annie''': What, did you need another challenge?!

* CrazyEnoughToWork: The ultimate plan to get the hostages off the bus involves looping the camera footage, keeping the accelerator pedal down with a metal pole (and the wheel steady with rope) and hope to hell Payne doesn't notices (he does, but thankfully by then the hostages are out and the bomb went someplace relatively safe).

* CrazyEnoughToWork: The ultimate plan to get the hostages off the bus.

* PlotHole: Near the beginning, Payne holds Harry hostage, with a dynamite vest strapped to his (Payne's) chest. Jack [[ShootTheHostage shoots Harry at his request,]] distracting Payne enough that he lets go by mistake. Payne [[TakingYouWithMe sets off the bomb anyway in order to kill them,]] and is believed dead. It turns out he [[UnexplainedRecovery survived and was unharmed,]] even though a ''bomb went off right next to him.'' Even if he took the vest off first, there's no way he could came out unscathed, considering how big the explosion was. There is not even a mention of NeverFoundTheBody, as we soon learn that Howard Payne escaped. Yet there is no manhunt underway for the him as this was somehow ruled a suicide as if the body got completely vaporized.

* TheWildcats: A major plot point.