- A young police officer must prevent a bomb exploding aboard a city bus by keeping its speed above 50 mph.
- When a young Los Angeles police department, Special Weapons and Tactics (S.W.A.T.) officer called Jack Traven angers retired Atlanta police department bomb squad member Howard Payne, by foiling his attempt at taking hostages stuck in an elevator with a bomb, Payne in retaliation arms a bus with a bomb that will explode if it drops below 50 miles per hour. With the help of spunky passenger Annie, Jack and his partner Detective Harry Temple try to save the people on the bus before the bomb goes off, while also trying to figure out how Payne is monitoring them.—Jwelch5742
- A retired Atlanta Police Department bomb squad explosives expert, called Howard Payne, tries to extort money by threatening to kill some people, trapped in a Los Angeles Skyscraper's elevator, with explosives. The city is about to give in when rookie Los Angeles Police Department (L.A.P.D.) Special Weapons and Tactics (S.W.A.T.) officer Jack Traven stops him. Jack and his partner, Detective Harry Temple find Payne and corner him but instead of giving in he blows himself up. He is believed to be dead but has actually escaped and tries again to extort money from the city. This time he has placed a bomb on a bus that will arm itself once it reaches 50 mph and will explode if it drops below that speed. Payne dares Jack to stop him and tells whereabouts of where the bus will soon be and the rules of his twisted game. If Jack or the LAPD try and unload any passengers off the bus, Payne will detonate it. Jack tries to stop the bus before the bomb is armed but it's too late; all he can do now is to keep it going. With Harry trying to find Payne and Jack running out of Freeway and gas - This is one bus ride no one wants to miss.—rcs0411@yahoo.com
- Jack Traven is a young Special Weapons and Tactics (S.W.A.T.) officer in the Los Angeles police department. One morning Jack witnesses a bus explode and Jack receives a phone call from Howard Payne, a retired Atlanta bomb squad explosives expert gone bad, Payne has wired a passenger bus to explode, where if the bus speeds at 50 miles per hour the bomb is armed, if the bus slows down and drops below 50 miles per hour the bus will explode. Payne demands $3-millions dollars and Jack or any of the passengers tries to get off the bus, he will detonate the bomb. Managing to get on the bus, Jack with help of one of the passengers, Annie who is driving the bus when the driver is injured, tries to keep the passengers alive and guide the bus through the traffic and keep the bus speeding at 50 miles per hour, as the S.W.A.T team and Jack's partner, explosives expert Detective Harry Temple set to discover Payne's location and find a way to disarm the bomb before the bomb explodes when the bus runs out of gas.—Daniel Williamson
- In a downtown high-rise building in Los Angeles, a psychopathic bomber and extortionist rigs an elevator full of people to plummet into the basement if his $3-million demand is not met. When Los Angeles Police Department (L.A.P.D.) Special Weapons and Tactics (S.W.A.T.) Officers Jack Traven and Harry Temple foil the bomber's plan and rescue the hostages, the bomber retaliates. First he blows up a city bus, then contacts Traven to warn him that a second bus has a bomb attached to it. Once that bus hits 50mph, the bomb is armed. If it drops below 50, it will explode. The bomber also warns Jack that if any attempt at rescue is made, the bomb will also explode. Jack races down the freeway and manages to board the bus. When an accident injures the driver, young bus passenger Annie Porter is forced to take over behind the wheel and keep the bus running at 50 in order to stay alive. Will Jack and his fellow S.W.A.T. members be able to stop the psychopathic bomber - or will the passengers be killed when the bus runs out of gas?—Derek O'Cain
- LAPD SWAT officers Jack Traven (Keanu Reeves) and Harry Temple (Jeff Daniels) thwart an attempt to hold an elevator full of people for a $3 million ransom by an extortionist bomber, as they corner the bomber in a elevator (Jack shows quick thinking, when he examines the bomb and then rigs a cable from the crane on top of the building to hold the elevator) (The bomber figures out and triggers the bomb, but the crane holds the elevator long enough for the hostages to be rescued via an access panel) (Jack and Harry then figure out that the bomber is hiding in one of the freight elevators (which are usually not checked during the evacuation)), he takes Harry hostage. Jack intentionally shoots Harry in the leg, forcing the bomber to release him. The bomber flees and activates the bomb, seemingly dying in the process. Jack and Harry are praised by Lieutenant "Mac" McMahon (Joe Morton), with Harry being promoted to detective. Having survived the incident, however, the bomber watches on TV.
The next morning, Jack witnesses a mass transit bus explode, which kills the driver. The bomber contacts Jack on a nearby payphone, explaining that a similar bomb is rigged on another bus, which will activate once it reaches 50 miles per hour (80 km/h) and detonate if it drops below 50. He also demands a ransom of $3.7 million and threatens to detonate the bus if Jack tries to offload any passengers. Jack races through freeway traffic and boards the moving bus (he commandeers a car, gets ahead of the bus, talks to the driver to keep it above 50 mph and gets on board by jumping in it), but the bomb is already armed because the bus is over 50. He explains the situation to Sam Silver (Hawthorne James), the bus driver. However, a criminal on board, fearing Jack is about to arrest him, wildly discharges his gun, accidentally wounding Sam. Another passenger, Annie Porter (Sandra Bullock), takes over for Sam, but when she tries to slow down to get help, Jack is forced to reveal the bomb, shocking and horrifying the passengers. Jack examines the bomb underneath the bus and calls Harry, who works to identify the bomber.
After a harrowing adventure through city traffic, the police clear a route to the unopened 105 freeway. Mac demands that they offload the passengers onto a flatbed trailer, but Jack warns him about the bomber's plot. Witnessing the events on television, the bomber calls Jack to reiterate his instructions. The bomber is convinced to allow the injured Sam to be offloaded for medical attention as a show of good will. After witnessing a female passenger named Helen (Beth Grant), shaken by everything that's happened, attempt to get off, the bomber detonates a smaller bomb underneath the front bus stairs, killing her.
When Jack learns part of the freeway is incomplete, he persuades Annie to accelerate the bus to maximum speed so they can jump the gap, which narrowly succeeds, before directing her to the Los Angeles International Airport to use their unobstructed runways. Meanwhile, Harry identifies the bomber (He knows that the bomber has a missing thumb, plus the bomb on the bus had a gold watch next to it, of the kind that is given as a retirement gift at the end of the service period) as Howard Payne (Dennis Hopper), a former Atlanta Police Department bomb squad officer. Harry leads a SWAT team to Payne's home, but having anticipated the arrival, Payne had rigged the house to explode, killing the team.
In a last-ditch attempt to defuse the bomb, Jack goes under the bus on a towed sled (he had got off the bus after taking permission from Payne, saying that he needed to talk to the authorities face to face to organize the ransom money), but he inadvertently punctures the fuel tank when the sled breaks from its tow line. After the passengers bring him back aboard, Jack learns that Harry has been killed and that Payne has been watching the passengers on a hidden surveillance camera the whole time, allowing him to be one step ahead of Jack at every moment. Mac has a local news crew record the UHF transmission and rebroadcasts it on a loop to fool Payne while all of the passengers are offloaded onto an airport bus. Jack and Annie escape the bus through a floor access panel before the empty bus collides with a Boeing 707 cargo plane and explodes.
Jack and Mac head to Pershing Square (based on instructions from Payne) to drop the ransom. Realizing that he has been fooled (when he sees the sudden jerks in the video when the tape loops), no one died in the explosion, and the LAPD are waiting for him, a furious Payne poses as a police officer to kidnap Annie and recover the ransom. Jack follows Payne into the Metro Red Line subway and discovers that Annie has been fitted with an explosive vest rigged to a pressure-release detonator. Payne hijacks a subway train, handcuffs Annie to a pole, and starts the train while Jack pursues them. After killing the train engineer, Payne attempts a bribe with the ransom money, but a dye pack in the bag bursts, tainting the money. Pushed into a psychotic frenzy, a crazed Payne battles Jack on the train's roof, during which Jack causes Payne to be decapitated by a railway signal.
Jack deactivates the vest from Annie but cannot free her from the pole as Payne had the key to her handcuffs. Unable to stop the train, Jack accelerates it to maximum speed, causing it to derail, plow through a construction site, and burst onto Hollywood Boulevard. Unharmed, Jack and Annie kiss while a crowd looks on, amazed.
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