The Fast and the Furious (2001 film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).
The Fast and the Furious

The Fast and The Furious theatrical poster
Directed by Rob Cohen
Produced by Neal H. Moritz
Written by Ken Li (magazine article Racer X)
Gary Scott Thompson
Erik Bergquist
David Ayer
Starring Vin Diesel
Paul Walker
Jordana Brewster
Michelle Rodriguez
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release date(s) June 22, 2001 (USA)
Running time 106 min.
Language English
Budget $38,000,000 US (est.)
Followed by 2 Fast 2 Furious
IMDb profile
Vin Diesel and Paul Walker in The Fast and the Furious.
Enlarge
Vin Diesel and Paul Walker in The Fast and the Furious.

The Fast and the Furious is a 2001 action 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 import scene.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Dominic Toretto (Diesel) is the leader of a street racing gang that is under suspicion of hijacking trucks for their cargo of expensive electronic equipment. Undercover cop Brian O'Conner (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, while falling for Dominic's younger sister Mia (Jordana Brewster).

After O'Conner loses his Mitsubishi Eclipse to Toretto in a race for "pink slips" (a 1950s slang term for the registration documents for a car in the United States) and then loses it again when they are confronted by Toretto's rival Johnny Tran (Rick Yune), O'Conner tries to gain the trust of Toretto by working on repairing and upgrading a burned out Toyota Supra to hand over to him. While doing this, O'Conner is constantly pressured by his superiors in the LAPD and the FBI 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 or discarding his cover and discovering who from the street gangs are carrying out the hijackings

The plot is very similar to that 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 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.

The races in the movie are mostly won by one of the racers firing nitrous oxide into the intake manifold at the last moment. The nitrous oxide systems, referred to as NOS, play a big part in the movie, with O'Conner seeing the complexity and power of his car's nitrous system as the key to winning a drag race.

[edit] Impact

Although met with mixed reviews, The Fast and the Furious is credited as the first cinematic insight into the illegal Japanese compact racing community in America. Because of this novelty as well as a set of interesting character relationships (for an action movie) and a variety of groundbreaking race visuals, The Fast and the Furious became one of the most well-known movies around the turn of the millennium, and left tricked out Japanese compacts imprinted in American popular culture. It also features the performance largely responsible for Vin Diesel's launch into super-stardom.

[edit] Reception

Some blame the film for an increase in illegal street racing. Proponents of the film point out that it demonstrate both the thrills and dangers of drag racing.

The movie is also looked down upon by many who say that it is responsible for flooding the streets with Rice burners, largely because of the "all show and no go" nature of the cars and the exaggeration of the effects of nitrous oxide, leading 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.

In addition, the script drew criticism from import tuner enthusiasts in its use of "NOS" (Nitrous Oxide System) - a registered trademark of Holley Motor Company - to refer generically to various forms of nitrous oxide injection: in various scenes of the film, both Holley's NOS and Nitrous Express's 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".

The scriptwriters also drew criticism for having poorly researched the vehicles featured in the film; for example, in one scene, a character - supposedly an experienced mechanic - reacts with surprise to find a junkyard Toyota Supra equipped with a 2JZ-GTE engine. The 2JZ-GTE engine block is an OEM, factory stock engine for the Supra Mark IV, and, while popular with mechanics for its customizability, would not be a particularly rare or unexpected find.

[edit] Featured cars

Various modified and upgraded cars are featured in the movie, including the following:[1]

Car Color Year Driven by Condition/Fate in Film
Dodge Charger R/T Black 1970*[2] Toretto [3] Wrecked after colliding with the front-end of a semi-truck while racing with orange Toyota Supra RZ.
Ford Lightning SVT Red 1999-2001 O'Conner
Honda Civic#1 2dr Coupe Black 1995 Hijacker #1 Sustains critical engine damage from semi-trailer driver's shotgun blows.
Honda Civic #2 2dr Coupe Black 1995 Hijacker #2 Rolled of road after being side-swiped by a semi-trailer
Honda Civic #3 2dr Coupe Black 1995 Hijacker #3
Honda S2000 (AP1) Black 1999-2001 Johnny Tran
Honda Civic White 1992-1995 Danny Yamato
Veilside RX-7 Red 1999 Toretto[4]
Mitsubishi Eclipse GS Neon Green 1995 O'Conner[5] Shot at by Johnny Tran; destroyed after ruptured nitrous tanks explode.
Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder Silver 1995-1999 Extra Character/Background Person
Nissan Maxima Blue 1997-1999 Vince
Nissan Skyline R33 GT-R Yellow 1995-1998 Leon
Toyota Supra RZ (JZA80) Orange 1994 O'Conner's second car[6] Toretto fled with it; last location in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.
Volkswagen Jetta 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.
Acura Integra GS-R Turquoise 1995-1999 Mia (Toretto's sister)
Ferrari F355 F1 Spyder Black 1999 Driven by movie's producer Neal Moritz
Nissan 240SX (S14 Silvia) 2dr Coupe Purple 1995-1998 Letty (Toretto's girlfriend)
Acura Integra Red/Yellow 1996 Edwin (Ja Rule) [7]

[edit] Trivia

  • After the credits are done, the scene shifts to Baja, Mexico where a 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS is tearing through the desert and inside it is Dom Toretto who talks about how he lives his life a quarter of a mile at a time.
  • The Jetta driven by the character Jesse is owned by Frankie Muniz, who said in an interview that it's the first car he's ever owned.
  • During the first night race, Director Rob Cohen makes a cameo appearance as a Pizza Hut delivery driver.
  • The title "The Fast and the Furious" was taken from the 1954 film with the same name, although the plots are not related.
  • Shortly after the release of the film, car show entrepreneur and Supra owner Craig Lieberman put the car up for sale and is now based in Belgium.
  • During the "Race Wars" scene when Johnny Tran is about to race Jesse, Johnny Tran pulls up to the starting line with a Black shirt on and after he glances over to Jesse he is now wearing a black tank top.
  • After the alley meet up before the first race when everyone leaves the meet up you can see Jesse leaving the area to the top right of the screen in his Jetta.
  • During the shoot out scene between the Supra and Johnny Tran and his cousin on the dirt bikes, as they are shooting they are hitting the cars that are parked on the side of the road. When the bullets hit the windows on the car you can see the windows shattering outwards which means that there must have been a device in the car that exploded the windows outwards as a bullet hitting the window would have shattered the windows inside the car.
  • During the final race we see Dom shifting gears in the Dodge however during the scene where he is shifting after both drivers know the train is coming we see the pedal's are setup for an automatic car however Doms hand movement on the shifter suggests he shifts up and over into 5th gear which no aftermarket automatic transmission has a setup for.
  • While the credits are rolling we see the main actors names flassh across the screen with a sketchy drawing of a car behind them. The car behind each name is the car that the actors character drove in the movie. Easiest way to tell is when Paul Walker and Ja-Rules' names flash across the screen and we can clearly make out the Eclipse and Integra.
  • In the beginning when Brian (Paul Walker) is test driving the Eclipse at the parking lot there are a total of 7 gear shifts that are noticeable. At least 6 are shown and the 7th comes from a camera angle outside the car but we can hear the rpm's drop as whoever's driving makes a shift.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Kris Palmer The Fast and the Furious The Official Car Guide Motorbooks ISBN 0-7603-2568-5
  2. ^ According to the book The Fast and the Furious The Official Car Guide, Pgs 26-27, the Charger combines parts from a 1969 and 1970 Dodge Charger, but for the sake of the film, it is officially listed in the book as a 1970's model. Both years share the bar tailight across the back, while the 1970 model wears the chrome ring around its nose.
  3. ^ Kris Palmer The Fast and the Furious The Official Car Guide Pgs 26-27
  4. ^ Kris Palmer The Fast and the Furious The Official Car Guide Pgs 14-17
  5. ^ Kris Palmer The Fast and the Furious The Official Car Guide Pgs 10-13
  6. ^ Kris Palmer The Fast and the Furious The Official Car Guide Pgs 22-25
  7. ^ Kris Palmer The Fast and the Furious The Official Car Guide Pgs 18-21

[edit] See also


[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../t/h/e/The_Fast_and_the_Furious_%282001_film%29_a8d4.html"