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?
Question: How would you get on the roof of a moving subway? We don't see it in the movie (Jack looks up and starts to climb - cut - Jack is on the roof.... Howard cries 'I'm coming for you Jack and runs - cut - Howard is behind Jack on the roof. after the fight when Howard 'lost his head' - cut - Jack is inside the subway again...).
Answer: Ventilation shafts or roof panels.
Question: When Jack is fighting on the roof of the train,he makes the quip "yeah..but I'm taller" just before the other guys head is knocked off. What does he mean by this? He was laying down at the time, height doesn't come into it.
Answer: He's taller now because he has his head while the villain does not!
Question: Why did Jack think the only option available with the gap in the freeway was to jump it? Wouldn't it have made more sense for him to at least try to ring Payne and explain what was happening? A simple "We've ran out of road, could you disable the bomb whilst we turn round" - Payne could still detonate it remotely so it's not like they could use that opportunity to unload the passengers.
Answer: I'm curious why you think Payne would do anything to make it easier for Jack? He's set a bomb with the express intention of killing people if his demands aren't met...why would he give Jack even the slightest chance of escaping that? And even if he was willing to, just because Payne can detonate the bomb remotely doesn't mean he can disarm it temporarily, then turn it back on.
Because the odds of the bus making that jump intact were incredibly small - if the bus blows up because of an infrastructure issue, Payne gets nothing.
Answer: Payne is a raging psychopath. As long as he's alive, he can make more bombs.
Question: I know this would end the movie, but when Jack is running alongside the bus, trying to get on before it reaches 50, why doesn't he shoot one of the tires? This would've taken the bus to a stop.
Answer: Shooting out car tires is a bit of a movie myth, and bus tires are much more heavily reinforced, so it would be very difficult to hit and puncture a tire successfully. It would also be very dangerous to fire a gun at a small, rapidly-moving target on a busy highway, and a person shooting at the bus would almost certainly make the driver speed up to get away. Finally, one of the tires does blow out at the airport, which makes virtually no difference to the bus's speed or motion.
Question: What did Harry mean when he said to Jack "And I got shot... Another few inches and they would have given the medal to my wife." I still can't make complete sense of that line.
Chosen answer: Jack shot Harry in the upper leg, and Harry is presumably referring to the proximity of the femoral artery, a large and vital blood vessel in the thigh. If Jack's shot had hit him there, he would almost certainly have died within minutes, and they would have to give the bravery medal to his widow.
Question: On the phone conversation, Howard Payne claims that it took him two full years of his life setting up that elevator job and investing himself in it. So how is he able to move out of his old retirement home and relocate in an apartment building in downtown LA near Pershing Square, rig 2 city buses with a handheld remote with C4 bombs, rig his old home, cut the hole on the street underneath the garbage can and think of that revenge plot and plan and set up everything else in just a month. That's just not enough time for him to do all that.
Question: I don't quite understand the part of the movie regarding the camera recording inside of the bus. It seems obvious they can pick up the signal to the bus via UHF, then tape it, then make the loop so the same tape runs over and over, fooling Dennis Hopper long enough to facilitate the rescue. But how do they transmit the images from the loop back to Hopper's safehouse?
Answer: Payne obviously has some sort of transmitter attached to the camera, feeding the picture back to him. By broadcasting from the much more powerful TV van transmitter on the same frequency, they would effectively swamp the camera signal with their own, so Payne would see their looped tape, rather than the real images from the camera. Although not shown, Jack could also simply have disconnected Payne's camera as soon as the looped tape ran, to prevent the possibility of the real signal getting through and revealing their ruse.
Question: Where did Jack put his handcuff key after unlocking the cuffs from the guy who shot the bus driver? He could have used them to unlock Annie later.
Answer: It is never shown or mentioned what happened to the key so any answer would be speculation. A lot of time has passed between when Jack uses the key and the subway scene. Jack could have lost the key or intentionally put it down and not picked it back up at any point.
Answer: Howard might have been using special handcuffs that required a different kind of key. Seeing as how he always plans ahead, it's not unlikely.
Question: What is that device that Payne uses in the elevator? He punches 46 into it and the elevator starts going up, but later he pushes the number 3 on the elevator buttons themselves and it start going down.
Answer: It's a device he is using to bypass the elevator controls. The panel on the elevator shows was floor button was pressed on the actual elevator controls (and on the security system the police are monitoring), but Payne's device is the only thing that will actually move the elevator. Using this device he is able to make it seem like the elevator is on one floor (the third floor) when in actuality he took the elevator down to the basement. He presses 46 on his device to take the elevator to the top floor to try to crush Jack.
Question: How did Howard Payne get Jack Traven's cell number that he contacted him on when they were trying to unload the bus driver? Doubly so given that Jack got it from the guy in the convertible, so it's not even his phone.
Answer: First, Jack uses the guy's cell phone to call Harry and tell him the bomber is still alive. So now Harry has the cell number. Later, right after Jack tells McMahon that Payne is "crazy not stupid" then McMahon tells Jack that Harry thinks Payne is a cop, Payne is on the police line wanting to talk to Jack, so Jack tells McMahon to give Payne his number.
Question: What did Payne mean when he told Jack "Do you know what a bomb is that doesn't explode? It's a cheap gold watch, buddy".
Answer: He meant that when he retired after years of hard, loyal work, he had little to show for it other than a small pension and being given a cheap gold watch. He felt cheated, used, and angry, causing him to resort to the extortionist kidnapping plot. He was basically a "ticking time bomb" that had been waiting to go off.
Question: When the bus enters the airport and drives over the spike strip, the tyres should have been shredded. Why did the bus not lose speed and therefore blow up?
Answer: Also, when the bus runs over the spikes, the camera is more close-up on it, and possibly some of the tires may have just missed hitting the spikes out of view of the camera. So, that would keep it speeding OK with just SOME of the tires shredded (but not all).
Answer: You wouldn't necessarily lose speed just because you've got a deflating tyre. It would become harder to control as the tyre deflated, but with an engine that can produce a lot of torque, there is no reason why it should slow down much, if at all. Also, as a heavy vehicle, it featured dual tyres on the rear which would've aided the drivability of the bus.
Answer: Spike strips are designed to deflate a tyre over a short time, not instantly, so as to avoid a blowout and possible accident. The tyres are going down over time as they should. That's why Jack has to tie the steering wheel in place, as it's harder to control the bus with the tyre shredding.
Question: Why did Jack speed the train up? All he did was try pressing the emergency brake button. That particular train had a combined power handle (pushing it forward is the throttle, pulling it backwards is the service brake).
Answer: Jack mentioned he wanted to speed it up to make it "jump the track." How that would help the situation is unclear but I'm guessing by jumping the track, the train could split or break somehow where the bar Annie was handcuffed to could break and Annie could be free from the pole (but still cuffed of course). It was a chance Jack probably thought was better than nothing.
Answer: I think you're asking why he didn't manually apply the brakes after the button didn't work. A very simple reason for this, Jack is a cop, not a train driver. There is no way he would've known how to do that and didn't have the luxury of time to try to figure it out.
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.