L.A. cop Jack Traven is trapped on a runaway city bus rigged to explode if it falls below 50 mph.
The movie’s famous bus-jump scene is as fun as it is absurd. After the bomber kills a passenger trying to escape to a SWAT vehicle, the mood on the bus reaches its lowest point. It's their first loss. They're in despair. At each other's throats.
Then, at the top of this scene, SWAT learns that the road ahead is…unfinished. The bus is barreling toward an impossible 50-foot gap.
I guess they fell behind!
SWAT can't move people off the bus under the bomber's watchful eye. They can't slow down. Can't stop. There is no exit to take. There could be an incline, Jack surmises, so they decide to floor it. It's all they can do. The bomber is in charge and has been since the get.
They miraculously survive the jump...and this victory strengthens the passengers in hope. Maybe they can get through this.
What I love about SPEED is that its writer, Graham Yost, threw about every possible complication at his characters — everything that could possibly go wrong on or near a bus. This movie is exhausting to watch.
What would I do differently? Maybe I'd address the absurdity of the successful jump ("Are we running on rocket fuel?!"). Sometimes that works to pull the audience back in, but maybe it would be too tonally different to work in this movie. I don't know. Going too far could be something like:
ANNIE: Did we just break the laws of physics?
JACK: Not all of them. (Alternatively: “You’re not supposed to think about that.”)
So, maybe, I’d leave this scene alone and just let the audience talk about this over-the-top scene for decades. It's worked so far!