Read more about Howard Payne at: Wikipedia Official Site: 20th Century Fox Speed is a 1994 American action/thriller film directed by Jan de Bont, and set in Los Angeles. An LAPD officer, Police Officer III Jack Traven, becomes the focus of a bomber and extortion, retired Atlanta bomb squad sergeant, Howard Payne. After Payne escapes his first entanglement with Traven, he sets up a bomb on a city bus which Traven boards and must keep moving above or the bomb will explode. The film stars Keanu Reeves, Dennis Hopper, Sandra Bullock and Jeff Daniels. It won two Academy Awards for Best Sound and Best Sound Effects at the 67th Academy Awards in 1995. Jack Traven (Keanu Reeves) and his partner Harry Temple (Jeff Daniels) are explosives experts in LAPD SWAT. A terrorist named Howard Payne (Dennis Hopper) is holding a group of office workers for ransom in an express elevator. Jack and Harry manage to rescue the hostages before Payne sends the elevator plummeting to the basement. They find Payne in a freight elevator. Payne holds Harry hostage, but after a brief standoff, Jack shoots Harry in the leg, causing Payne to release his hostage. Payne escapes and sets off a small explosion in the parking garage that blasts Jack off his feet and appears to kill Payne. Jack and Harry are then commended for their bravery by the LAPD in an official ceremony. Now with a crippled leg, Harry is promoted to Detective II and given a desk job. The next day, after grabbing his morning coffee, Jack observes as a Santa Monica Municipal Bus Lines bus explodes near him. Payne calls Jack on a nearby pay phone, revealing that he is alive and has rigged another bus to explode. Once the bus reaches 50 miles per hour, the bomb will be activated. If it drops below 50, it will explode. In addition, Payne will detonate the bus manually if anyone gets off the bus, or if the ransom is not delivered on time. To complicate matters even worse, the bus Payne rigs is an express bus running on the morning rush hour route into downtown, thus making an effort to stop the bus before the bomb arms futile. Jack locates the bus and jumps aboard, but the bomb has already been armed. |
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Howard Payne