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Film / Exit Speed

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Exit Speed is a 2008 Action film following a group of bus passengers being pursued by a group of bikers after one of them is accidentally hit by the bus.

The cast includes Lea Thompson as one of the passengers (a single mother and breast cancer awareness runner), David Rees Snell as the bus driver and Fred Ward as a military policeman who is chasing one of the passengers (a sympathetic deserter) and ends up coming to their aide.


Tropes:

  • All Bikers are Hells Angels: The bikers are portrayed as trigger-happy, drug-using people who kill for fun.
  • Anyone Can Die: Of the eleven people on the bus, six die.
  • Badass in a Nice Suit: Walter is the best dressed of the passengers and also one of the first to do anything to try to save them once the driver is killed.
  • Bring Help Back: Maudie, a marathon runner, goes cross country to summon the authorities to the trapped bus.
  • Decoy Protagonist: Danny the bus driver develops a rapport with some of the passengers and is mentioned as having driven through mined roads in the Middle East but he is the first person the bikers kill, before having an opportunity to do anything.
  • Dirty Business: None of the group are happy about having to kill, even in self-defense, with Annabel taking a lot of coaxing for it.
  • Disposable Pilot: The bus driver Danny is the first killed when he stops to check on the dead biker. Passenger Walter Lindley, who takes over the wheel of the bus and drives them to the junkyard they hole up in is also killed when the bus crashes.
  • Disappeared Dad: Sam has had no part in his son's upbringing and is going to meet him for the first time.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: The biker died due to his own stupidity in driving in front of the bus, and the driver and passengers stopped to try and help him but the bikers still try to kill them all.
  • Gym Class Hell: Coach Yarbo is implied to have run one, despite his reliability in the group as a whole, give how he’s introduced re-reading a letter from his school firing him for assaulting a football player.
  • The Lad-ette: Desiree is a tough woman, not dressed particularly femininely and who recognizes the biker tattoos pretty well.
  • Language Barrier: Mr.Vargas only speaks Spanish, so it takes a long time for the others to figure out the weapon he’s building is a potato gun.
  • Let Off by the Detective: Sergeant Sparks, the military policeman chasing Meredith gives her another head start at the end for her role in helping the others.
  • Lovable Coward: Duke panics a bit at the beginning, and the others call him Rabbit sometimes but he is friendly, and dependable when the chips are down.
  • Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The bus contains a Marine deserter, a couple heading to Vegas to work at casinos, a fired football coach, a LARPer and competitive archer, a marathon runner, a Disappeared Dad, a middle-aged Hispanic tinkerer, a businessman, a college student, and a driver who drove convoys under hostile fire in the Middle East.
  • Stand Your Ground: As the final battle approaches, the Coach declares “We can hold.”
  • Survival Mantra: Maudie saying “I have children” to motivate herself while having to fight and kill a biker.

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