The Fast and the Furious (2001 film)

The Fast and the Furious
The Fast and The Furious poster
Directed by	Rob Cohen
Written by	Ken Li (magazine article Racer X) Gary Scott Thompson Erik Bergquist David Ayer
Produced by	Neal H. Moritz
Starring	Vin Diesel Sean Moynihan Jordana Brewster Melinda Gee
Edited by	Peter Honess
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date	June 22 2001 (U.S.)
Running time	102 min.
Language	English
Budget	$38,000,000 US (est.)

The Fast and the Furious is a 2001 car film starring Paul Walker and Vin Diesel, and directed by Rob Cohen. The Fast and the Furious was the first mainstream film to feature the Asian automotive import scene in North America.

Plot

A gang of hijackers target trucks for their cargo of expensive electronic equipment. All the LAPD and the FBI have to go on is that the hijackers drove Sport Compact cars. Undercover cop Brian O'Connor (Paul Walker) attempts to find out who exactly is stealing the equipment by infiltrating the local racing community with the help of a local auto parts dealer. Brian suspects Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) is the leader of a street racing gang that are doing the hijacking, but his suspicions also target other gangs, most notably that of Toretto's rival Johnny Tran.

After O'Connor loses his Mitsubishi Eclipse to Dominic in a race for "pink slips" and it is then destroyed when they are confronted by Johnny Tran, O'Connor tries to gain the trust of Toretto by working with him on repairing and upgrading a burned out Toyota Supra to hand over to him. While doing this, O'Connor is constantly pressured by his superiors to bring the investigation to a satisfactory close, leading him to face a stark choice between the community he has embedded himself into and the woman he has become close to, Dominic's younger sister Mia (Jordana Brewster), or discarding his cover and discovering who from the street gangs is carrying out the hijackings.

According to interviews with director Rob Cohen, the plot serves as a vehicle to convey the street racing culture to mainstream audiences. The story follows the framework of a classic western: the "bad guys" in black Honda Civics hijack an 18-wheeler in the opening sequence. This is an allusion to western cinematography in which the "bad guys in black" hijack the proverbial stagecoach (the 18-wheeler). The scene concludes with a Civic brazenly ducking beneath the moving semi to avoid a collision with highway construction, which is a modern substitute for the chase concluding with a drop from a steep cliff.

Many consider this film to be a remake of the 1991 film Point Break. Both films feature an undercover cop infiltrating a gang of underground competition enthusiasts in order to gain information about who is pulling off a series of heists. In both films the undercover cop arrests the wrong gang first before closing in on the real culprits, who happen to be his newly found friends. More similar still, the protagonist falls for a significant female in the team leader's life, forcing him to ultimately choose whether to take up the life of those he was tasked to spy upon or do his job.

Cast

• Paul Walker - Brian O'Connor
• Vin Diesel - Dominic Toretto
• Michaelene Weimer - Letty
• Jordana Brewster - Mia Toretto
• Rick Yune - Johnny Tran
• Chad Lindberg - Jesse
• Johnny Strong - Leon
• Matt Schulze - Vincent
• Ted Levine - Sgt. Tanner
• Ja Rule - Edwin
• Thom Barry - Agent Bilkins
• Vyto Ruginis - Harry

Impact

Although met with mixed reviews, The Fast and the Furious is credited as the first cinematic insight into America's illegal sport compact racing community. Because of this novelty as well as a variety of groundbreaking race visuals and an unprecedented view of the illegal street racing scene , The Fast and the Furious became one of the most well-known movies around the turn of the millennium, and introduced modified Japanese compacts into American popular culture. It also features the performance largely responsible for Vin Diesel's launch into superstardom.

Box office

The film was an unexpected summer hit. It grossed $40,089,015 on its opening weekend, surpassing the film's $38 million budget . It grossed a total of $144,533,925 on the domestic market, and $62,750,000 overseas, for a total of $207,283,925.

Reception

The Fast and the Furious was met with mixed reviews, and received particulary harsh criticism for its derivative storyline, with much of it lifted directly from the 1991 film Point Break. Initially, media watchdog groups blamed the film for an increase in illegal street racing. Proponents of the film pointed out that it demonstrated both the thrills and dangers of drag racing, while still others note that movies like American Graffiti and Two-Lane Blacktop (from the 1970s) set the precedents decades ago.

The movie became the stereotypical template blamed for flooding the streets with rice burners, largely because of the flashy, decorative appearance of the cars and the exaggeration of the effects of nitrous oxide. Some believe this has led to young adult viewers of the films, ignorant of the real nature of motor vehicle maintenance and tuning, modifying their cars with largely superficial modifications (such as body kits and ground effects, fluorescent lighting, and excessive aerodynamic wings) which would not positively affect racing performance due to the added weight and focus on form over function.

Early on, the script drew criticism from die-hard tuner enthusiasts for a variety of reasons, mostly technical inaccuracies and for its use of the word "NOS" (Nitrous Oxide System, a registered trademark of Holley Performance Products) to refer generically to various forms of nitrous oxide injection: in various scenes of the film, both Holley's NOS and Nitrous Express' NX systems are displayed prominently. This gaffe was corrected in the sequel, 2 Fast 2 Furious, wherein nitrous oxide injection systems were referred to by the more generic (and proper) designation "nitrous," a move which disappointed fans of the original movie who had become fond of the less generic "NOS."

The movie spawned video games, two sequels, and a top selling DVD, all with the faithful chord-striking engine sound. The branded franchise is estimated to be worth $500M to $1 billion dollars for Universal Pictures.

At the time of the DVD release, it was one of the best selling DVDs of all time. The movie was filmed under the working-title "Redline" and it was not until months after wrapping was the title officially set. The wrap party was held in the grand ballroom of the Hotel Tropicalia, catered by area craft services firm "LA Snax".

The movie score was written and recorded by BT .

Video game

In Japan where the movie is known as Wild Speed, a self titled arcade video game was released by Taito in 2006. A trailer for the movie was included in the 2001 PlayStation 2 game Tokyo Extreme Racer Zero which is part of the influential long running Shutokou Battle series itself inspired by the Freeway Speedway 1980s movies.

Featured cars

Various modified and upgraded cars are featured in the movie, including the following:

Car	Color	Year	Driven by	Condition/Fate in Film
Dodge Charger	Black	1970	Dominic Toretto.	Wrecked after colliding with the front-end of a semi-truck while racing with Brian's Toyota Supra.
Mitsubishi Eclipse RS	Neon Green	1995	Brian O'Connor	Shot at by Johnny Tran; destroyed after ruptured nitrous tanks explode; not equipped with 4G63 motor
Honda Civic 2dr Coupe	Black (with green underglow)	1995	Dominic Toretto	Sustains critical engine damage from semi-trailer driver's shotgun blows.
Honda Civic 2dr Coupe	Black (with green underglow)	1995	Leon
Honda Civic 2dr Coupe	Black (with green underglow)	1995	Letty	Critical Physical and cosmetic damage after being side-swiped by a semi-trailer
Honda S2000 (AP1)	Black	2000	Johnny Tran
Honda Civic	White	1992-1995	Danny Yamato
Mazda RX-7 FD3S	Red	1993	Dominic Toretto	Stashed away in a parking garage. Last seen driven to Dominic's house to see the Dodge Charger in his garage.
Nissan Maxima	Blue	1995-1999	Vince
Nissan Skyline R33 GT-R	Yellow	1995	Leon
Toyota Supra (JZA80)	Orange	1995	Brian's second car	Dom fled with it after crashing his Dodge Charger R/T and Brian handed his car keys to him.
Volkswagen Jetta (A3 Type 1H)	White	1995	Jesse	Shot at by Johnny Tran's gang in a drive-by at Toretto's home. Jesse is also shot during the incident, not clear whether he lives or dies.
Honda Integra GS-R	Turquoise	1993	Mia Toretto
Ferrari F355 F1 Spyder	Black	1999	Neal Moritz (the film's producer)
Nissan 240SX (S14 Silvia) 2dr Coupe	Purple	1997	Letty
Ford F-150 SVT Lightning	Red	1999	Harry (Company car—driven by Brian)
Honda Integra	Red/Yellow	1996	Edwin
Chevrolet Chevelle SS	Red/Black Stripes	1970	Dominic Toretto	Shown at the end of the credits in when Dominic is in Baja, Mexico
Honda Civic	Gold	1992	Hector