1- Him faking his own death, pretty much impossible.
Not necessarily. He could have set off a moderately dangerous bomb where it exploded, run for his life and then detonate it with a secret device as opposed to that gadget in his hand. Let's not forget that Howard was a clever villain...this scenario wouldn't be out of the question for him.
Also, this isn't a plot hole...suspension of disbelief and impediments to a story's flow are different cans of warms
2- When Jack got the phone call about the bus being strapped with a bomb, the first thing he would have realistically done, would have been to call his own police department rather than to take on the bus by himself.
I'm so glad you would react so even handed in every situation *eye roll*
Jack knows how intelligent Howard is...it's not unreasonable that, upon receiving this startling news about the bus being rigged, his first thought is arriving there immediately to take control of the situation. I'm sure there are numerous examples in history where we get news that is difficult to comprehend and don't react in the most logical way. Also, let's not forget that Jack didn't have a cell phone on him (this was in the mid 90s when they were more of a luxury item, after all) to contact while he drove to the bus. In that scenario, his best bet would have been to dart towards the coffee shop and call the police, then drive to Bus 2525. If he did that, odds are Sam would have reached 50 MPH, started slowing due to the traffic, it goes below 50 and boom the bus explodes.
Besides, WHAT on Earth could any other police officer do differently? All anyone could accomplish in that limited time frame is informing a driver what's going on and maintain an appropriate speed. I'm curious how 20 other officers or however many would be dispatched could handle it. Clearly when he attempted to defuse the bomb, it was designed in a way to render that near impossible. This is an irregular situation that requires brainstorming, i.e. ways to fool the bad guy.
This is also not an example of a plot hole. The fact you disagree with his response isn't a flub on the writers' part. An example of a plot hole here would be if he got to the bus without knowing which bus it was
Later toward the middle of the film, when they got to the airport, sure the choppers were gone, so Payne wouldn't have been able to see the bus from the outside via the news channels, but he still had the camera on the inside, and he would have been able to see Jack coming back into the bus from the bottom, and know he was trying to disarm it and he probably would have blown it up.
I can kind of see this point. However, here are two things to consider:
1. Payne let him off the bus. Despite how he didn't know Jack would try to defuse the bomb, it's still "his bad"...he perhaps would rationalize it that way and not take it out on the passengers
2. Maybe he was in the restroom or went someplace else when Jack boarded again?
Farther along in the movie, there is no possible way that Payne and Annie know one another's names, yet they clearly address eachother by name.
I don't recall Annie addressing him as Howard (EDITED TO ADD: I now recall she asked Jack "What happened to Payne?" He goes, "He lost his head". Nevermind). If she did, I'd chalk it up to his name being brandied about after the paramedics and police arrived. Sometimes you just have to assume particulars occur off-screen (such as my speculation above that Howard wasn't in the room for a reason when Jack got back on the bus).
I do agree that him knowing her name does sound unrealistic (I'm curious if someone else who replied caught something I didn't)
When God made Tom Cruise, he was only joking.
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