Well that was very disappointing...
Anyone know what the heck was going on in this mess?
shareSPOILER ALERT
Pretty straightforward, once you get your head round it.
Dave Evans (the cop who gets killed in the beginning) was following drug dealer Gus Niles into the bus, so that Niles could lead him to Henry Camerero. Either Evans was going to kill Camerero or wanted to provoke him into committing a violent act, so that he can finally nail him for something.
Suspecting this, Camerero went on the bus to kill Evans and Niles (to stop him from squealing), also killing most of the other passengers in the process.
Later on in the film, Jake Martin cottons onto everything mentioned above and he also reveals the fact that Camerero got off for his wife's murder, because of an alibi provided by Niles who served with the killer in the army.
Basically, the climactic sequence is a repeat of the opening pre-credits teaser, in which a cop (in this case Martin) uses entrapment to force the killer to try and commit murder.
Saw this again recently and it's not a bad police / suspense thriller. Its problems were its pacing and TV movie look, but Bruce Dern saved the pic IMHO.
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This movie just played this week on one of the Encore channels.(Feb 13) I'm old enough that I remember seeing this in the theaters but I didn't remember a thing about it. I was a fan of the book it was based on. I recorded it on my DVR and just finished watching it. It's a little confusing and so very dated but I always enjoyed Walter Matthau when he played serious roles. Bruce Dern was his crazy psycho self as usual and I half expected him to either be the bus killer or go nuts before it was over. But overall it was entertaining and I always love seeing San Francisco in the movies.
shareIt was just on the Fox Movie Channel, channel 790 on the digital cable box. I was casually watching it as I was doing work. I liked the scene where Matthau argues with the strip club owner who was acting all tough in front of his dancers but cowered when he was in the back room with him
shareMatthau's character went a bit OTT in that scene, but the reason he was so furious was that he had just seen his son amongst the spectators.
Dern's character wasn't so crazy in this one, despite a few violent tendencies. He played much crazier guys in Black Sunday and The Driver.