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Waiting for the Bus! is a comedy movie submitted by Explosm, as part of their Cyanide and Happiness web series. Released on Newgrounds on September 9, 2009, it is their best received movie on the site.

Plot[]

50 MPH

The hero runs at 50 miles an hour for the first time.

The movie starts with the protagonist waiting at a bus stop in a city. He runs after the bus, and manages to keep up with the front door. The bus driver shouts out that if the bus goes below 50 miles an hour, it will explode. The hero looks down, and realizes that he is running at 50 miles an hour, making him the fastest man in the world. The bus driver tells him to strive for great things. The hero runs off for running tryouts, where he passes with flying colors. In a race shortly afterwords, he wins and breaks the world record. After winning a wide variety of races, he goes on to represent the United States at the Olympics. There, he literally runs into the woman that would become his wife. They get married, have two children, and live a happy life. A few years later, some executives ask him to run at the Indianapolis 500, a race for cars. However, he is easily defeated, and falls into despair. He becomes an alcoholic, and resorts to stealing. The police catch the hero trying to run away down the street and he is jailed. While in jail, his wife announces that she is leaving him, much to his dismay. Twenty years later, the protagonist is sitting at the stadium where he raced for the first time. He begins to run again, and remembers the good times of the past. He eventually runs off the track and into a wall, remembering the joys in his life. The force of hitting a wall at this speed kills him. Some time later, the stadium has been renamed the "50 MPH Man Memorial Field." The bus driver from the beginning of the movie stops the bus, and shakes his head with sadness. The bus then explodes, revealing the bomb was never removed.

Presentation[]

Waiting for the Bus! uses the standard Cyanide and Happiness art style of simply drawn characters. However, because of the complex animation, it runs in video format instead of Flash, making it rather large, 14.1 MB, for a movie of its length, about four and a half minutes. Dialogue is only spoken at the beginning of the movie, during the conversation with the bus driver. Afterwords, a song by Steve Lehman is used.

The movie is largely based on and parodies the 1994 movie Speed.

Reception[]

Waiting for the Bus! made Cyanide and Happiness into a Newgrounds staple. It went on to win the Daily Feature, Weekly Users' Choice, and Review Crew Pick Awards. Since then, only one of Explosm's seven movies hasn't won a Daily Feature, three have won Review Crew Picks, and three won Weekly Users' Choice awards. Previously, Daily Feature was the highest award Explosm had ever received. As of May 2010, the movie accumulated over 930,000 views. It has an average score of 4.50/5 and an average review of 9.8/10. It is also featured in Flash Portal History.

Watch it here!

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