"I saw this in a movie about a bus that had to speed around the city, keeping its speed over fifty, and if its speed dropped, the bus would explode! I think it was called... The Bus That Couldn't Slow Down."
— Homer Simpson, The Simpsons, "The Springfield Files"
Usually in scenarios where someone's speed is tested in a life-threatening situation, it's because they're under a time limit to reach a certain destination. But what if there is no destination? The hero can also be tested by having to travel at a high speed consistently or else death will come. Popularized by the film Speed, the most common way this scenario plays out is that someone places a bomb on someone or something, and that bomb will explode if it drops below a certain speed threshold.
See also Too Fast to Stop where someone is literally incapable of slowing down. Product Delivery Ordeal and Nitro Express can be the inverse of this, where traveling too fast can damage an important load of cargo or make it violently explode.
Examples:
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Advertising
- In a 1993 advertisement
for Australian yogurt brand YoGo Gorilla Mix, YoGorilla jumps into a moving bus and alerts everyone that there's a bomb attached that'll explode if the bus stops. The ad revolves around him and a snake passenger attempting to keep the bus moving for as long as possible while he and the other passengers enjoy the yogurt being advertised. At the end of the ad, the bus is forced to stop to avoid driving off an unfinished highway, at which point it goes up in smoke, sending everyone inside flying into the air.
Film — Animated
- At one point in Detective Conan Film 01: The Time-Bombed Skyscraper, the Mad Bomber announced he put bombs in several places along the Tohto Ring Line, which is the Fictional Counterpart to the Yamanote Line, and it will set off if the trains are running slower than 50kph or at sunset. The trains are forced to run in rounds non-stop with all the passengers on it. Conan realizes the bombs in question are set between the tracks and are light-activated. Specifically, a certain length of darkness that equates to the time a train passes through it at 50kph, will set it off, so the matter is mostly resolved by having the trains leave the Ring Line, and allow the police to locate and dissemble the explosives.
- Justice League: Doom: One of Batman's contingency plans to deal with The Flash, that was repurposed into a lethal trap by Vandal Savage. Mirror Master attaches this to Flash's wrist, where he then informs him that it is a bomb. If he does nothing, tries to remove it, or slow down, it will go off and kill anyone within a three-mile radius. As a result, the only thing Flash can do is run at high speeds until they find a way to get rid of it. Batman instructs Flash to use his powers to phase the bomb through his wrist, ditch it in an iceberg, and then outrun the explosion afterwards.
Film — Live-Action
- Speed: The Trope Codifier. Jack Traven is in opposition to a terrorist named Howard Payne, who has rigged a bomb to a public bus that will explode if it were to drop below 50 miles per hour.
Live-Action TV
- Father Ted: In "Speed 3", Dougal heads off for his new job as a milkman. However, ex-milkman Pat Mustard, seeking revenge for Dougal and Ted getting him fired, rigs the milkfloat so that it will blow up if Dougal goes under 4mph.
- The Flash (2014): James Jesse has a bomb attached to Barry that will detonate if he tries to take it off or if he goes slower than 600 mph. He even blatantly admits he got the idea from Speed.
- The eleventh season of the Flemish version of The Mole had a mission based on the movie Speed, where three contestants had to drive a bus on a close circuit at a speed above 30 mph, while two other contestants were looking for clues to disarm the bomb outside the bus. While they didn't have to fight traffic, the entire mission was made more complicated by the fact that contestants had to perform sub-missions on a moving bus, had to drive a remote control car with a camera under the bus to identify the color of the wire they had to cut and had to finish the mission before the bus ran out of gas. The group ended up choosing the wrong color, which set off the bomb.
- The Rookie (2018): Cruelly subverted in "The Collar", which sees the police dealing with a criminal who forcibly attaches bomb collars around several peoples necks, and tells them that if they don't keep on the move as fast as they can they will go off. However, following the first victim's death, the bomb squad finds that in actual fact the collars are set to go off after 47 minutes. Thus the instructions are just a lie to give their victims false hope and to make it harder for anyone to actually save them.
- Star Trek: Enterprise: Toward the end of "Affliction", the Klingons board Enterprise and implant a computer virus that causes pressure to build up in the warp plasma regulators, inevitably leading to an antimatter containment failure. Increasing warp speed will reduce the pressure, but only briefly, and they can't drop to impulse without the core exploding. The crew have to race to find a solution before they're stuck at maximum warp where they can't reduce the pressure anymore.
- The X-Files: In the episode "Drive", a couple who'd been living near a federal antenna array developed a condition that built up fluid inside their heads. They could only get relief by moving rapidly east to west, across the Earth's magnetic field. When state police pulled the couple over, the wife's right ear exploded, killing her. Agent Mulder manages to learn the truth from the husband, and agrees to drive him westward at speed.
Mulder: [driving at 80] You okay back there?
Husband: Could y' go a li'l faster?
[Mulder accelerates to 90]
Husband: 'Preciate it.
Video Games
- An early mission in Armored Core 3 borrows the premise of Speed wholesale as an Escort Mission, where your task is to clear the way for the bomb-carrying vehicle with your AC until it reaches the bomb squad. The vehicle is able to plow through some obstacles without setting off the bomb but only a limited number of times, and it goes up immediately if it hits you.
- One of BeamNG.drive's scenarios begins with an innocuous-looking mission in which you have to drive a bus from A to B. Partway through, it's revealed that the bus has a bomb on board that will explode if your speed drops below a certain value. From that point on, it's arguably the hardest mission in the entire game, though thankfully, it's also entirely optional.
- Crashday: The Bomb Run gamemode has all players start with a bomb strapped to their car. They must keep driving above a certain speed threshold; if there's an abrupt stop via crashing or a few seconds passed since the threshold line was crossed, the car explodes.
- In Chapter 6 of F-Zero GX, "Black Shadow's Trap", Blood Falcon attempts to kill Captain Falcon by attaching a speed-sensitive bomb to his Blue Falcon. Falcon has to complete the course without letting his speed drop below a certain limit (700 km/h on Normal, 750 km/h on Hard, 800 km/h on Very Hard).
- Done a couple of times in Grand Theft Auto.
- Grand Theft Auto: Vice City: Tommy is employed by the rock band Love Fist to be a limousine driver in the mission "Publicity Tour." A Loony Fan has been stalking the band and rigged a bomb to detonate if the limo doesn't move fast enough. Tommy has to drive around Vice City and not slow down until the band can disarm the bomb.
- Grand Theft Auto Online: The adversary mode "Hunting Pack" features players in vehicles split into two teams. The attackers are trying to stop an armored vehicle from reaching its destination, while the defenders are trying to defend it. The defenders will fail if the armored vehicle falls under the minimum speed for long enough, in which case it'll explode.
- Saints Row: The Third: Played with in the "Tiger Escort" activity, where the Boss has to drive around town with a full-grown live tiger in the passenger seat. If you drive too slowly or hit obstacles, the tiger grows progressively angry and begins mauling the Boss, potentially killing them (it can be temporarily pacified again by drifting around corners at high speeds).
Web Animation
- The Cyanide and Happiness short Waiting for the Bus is framed around this concept. 50 MPH Man discovers his abilities after the bus driver explains that his bus is in the exact same scenario featured in Speed. After his death, the bus driver from before stops at his memorial field to mourn him... only for the bomb to finally go off.
Western Animation
- Donkey Kong Country: In "Speed", after Krusha has an accident that turns him smart, he secretly modifies King K. Rool's plan to lure DK to a mine cart with no brakes by rigging a bomb to the cart, which will explode if it stops. When it finally does stop, though, the bomb doesn't go off until a few seconds later, after K. Rool is able to get out of it.
- South Park: When the newly inducted 4th grade class wants to go back in time and relive the third grade, they try to turn Timmy's wheelchair into a time machine. Unfortunately, the super-nerds they employed to help them accidentally turned it into a rocket-chair that will explode if he either gets off or drops below 5 mph.
