FAQ for
Speed (1994/I) More at IMDbPro »

He worked as a cop for the Atlanta bomb squad and was apparently released after getting his thumb blown off and given a tiny pension and a cheap gold watch. Which, as you can tell, didn't make him very happy.

No, it was a cargo plane being towed out of an aircraft hangar. The only person that could have been there when the plane blew up was the driver who was towing the plane out, and as seen in the movie he is able to escape unharmed.

Chapter headings based on the DVD sleeve: * 01 = 00:00:00 - main title - * 02 = 00:04:08 - hold the elevator - * 03 = 00:05:48 - LAPD bomb squad - * 04 = 00:08:26 - down the shaft - * 05 = 00:14:45 - perilous rescue - * 06 = 00:22:23 - heroes - * 07 = 00:25:37 - the game begins - * 08 = 00:29:44 - the bus - * 09 = 00:33:38 - high speed pursuit with 'tune man' - * 10 = 00:38:43 - Jack on board - * 11 = 00:46:46 - through the streets: a hard right - * 12 = 00:50:57 - an empty freeway - * 13 = 00:53:16 - passenger transfer - * 14 = 00:56:26 - watch your step - * 15 = 00:59:45 - leap of faith - * 16 = 01:04:51 - circling the runway - * 17 = 01:08:54 - dismantling the bomb - * 18 = 01:16:17 - a costly mistake - * 19 = 01:21:07 - video games - * 20 = 01:29:07 - the trap - * 21 = 01:33:06 - going underground - * 22 = 01:38:07 - Howard's headache - * 23 = 01:41:44 - full speed ahead - * 24 = 01:46:30 - end credits - * 25 = 01:51:10 - end -

Even a body that has been blown up should leave some blood and tissue residues; Payne himself comments that if he detonates the bomb, they can "pick up [Harry] with a sponge." We also know Payne is still alive, so one can wonder how the LAPD is so sure that he is dead. It could not be because they identified what was left of him.

The answer may be in what he says to Annie at the end: he straps a hostage with bombs, he detonates the bomb on remote, and the police will find what is left of the victims, but "in a mess like that, they don't even count body parts." As the bomb destroys bodies beyond identification, and without evidence to the contrary, Payne knows from experience that the police will assume the bad guy was killed as well.

Perhaps Payne also did a similar thing in the beginning. He would probably have a back-up plan to escape, should he be discovered inside the building. He had probably placed an anonymous (dead) person strapped with bombs somewhere on his escape route, possibly the security guard he'd killed in the opening scene. If he needed to escape, he'd make sure he passed that room with the body, and detonate the bomb after he got out of the way. The explosion would of course act as a plausible cause of death for him, but would also stall the police long enough to buy him time to get out of the building unnoticed (the old magician's trick: create a diversion to distract from the object). In this case, Payne purposefully chose to exit through the garage, because he may have hidden a body rigged with explosives inside a car he came with (he could have taken off the explosives strapped around his waist and used these, but it seems improbable that he had enough time to take them off, the explosion occurred pretty quick after he went through the door). He then detonated the bomb, and human remains would be found at the site. With no way to ID these, and two officers stating that Payne went into the room where the explosion occurred, the police would naturally assume he was dead.