Speed

Stupidity: Howard has the opportunity to shoot Jack at the end, but doesn't for no discernable reason; he's already committed multiple felonies, and shooting Jack would help cover his tracks all the better. In fact, he could even have just taken the cash onto the subway and left Annie behind while staying in full disguise as a cop.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: Howard Payne's taunting dialogue in the subway station suggests that he wants Jack to live a long life, tormented by the fact Payne was able to beat him. He doesn't become intent on murdering Jack until the dye pack goes off, ruining the money. After that, he tries to shoot Jack but runs out of bullets, then decides to beat him to death with the detonator but fails.

BaconIsMyBFF

Stupidity: The cops in this film really aren't much help. When Jack Traven realizes that the garbage bin drop off is just a decoy (because Howard created a hole under it) and runs out to it, not one police officer bothers to follow him to the bin or down into the subway. They just decide, "Well, our job is done, Jack can handle it himself." Talk about useless.

Gavin Jackson

Character mistake: There is no way on earth that a police officer would shoot a hostage in the thigh to 'take them out of the equation'. Anyone who suggested such a thing would likely be taken out and shot themselves. Bullet wounds to the thigh are often fatal, as an injury to the femoral artery causes massive and frequently unstoppable blood loss. Breaking the femur often leads to fat embolisms as bone marrow gets into the bloodstream and then to the lungs. In fact a broken femur is a life threatening injury in itself, and a shattered femur - a typical bullet injury - would almost always result in a total amputation. You cannot aim carefully enough to avoid the bone or artery as their position in the body varies, (as will the bullet trajectory upon impact). Jack is an experienced cop and would know the potentially disastrous consequences of shooting someone in the thigh. He'd shoot him in the foot. (00:21:05)

More mistakes in Speed

Howard Payne: See, I'm in charge here! I drop this stick, and they pick your friend here up with a sponge! Are you ready to die, friend?
Harry: Fuck you!
Howard Payne: Oh! In two hundred years we've gone from "I regret but I have one life to give for my country" to "Fuck you!"?

More quotes from Speed

Trivia: When the bus crashes into the plane at the end, the company logo on the plane is "Pacific Courier." This fictional company name also appears in "Die Hard"--it's on the truck the terrorists show up in (except Karl and Theo, who arrive by car). Jan de Bont, who directed "Speed," was DP on "Die Hard."

rbryant73

More trivia for Speed

Question: When they notice there's a gap in the freeway they keep to that route. However, there were other routes available. Why not take them?

Answer: If they had, there might have been the possibility that to get to these routes they would have to go down a different road and depending on which route they take they might have to slow down to make the turn which would likely cause the bus to drop below 50 mph. Better to just keep going straight and keep the bus going. There's also the possibility that had they taken a different route, they would have to deal with a lot of traffic especially if there was traffic stopped at a red light. By using the highway, there'd be no traffic lights and less traffic to deal with.

More questions & answers from Speed

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.