While developing the film, Universal completely departed from any street racing elements prevalent in previous films, to transform the franchise into a heist action series involving cars. By doing so, they hoped to attract wider audiences that might otherwise be put off by a heavy emphasis on cars and car culture. Fast Five is considered the transitional film in the series, featuring only one car race and giving more attention to action set pieces such as gun fights, brawls and the heist.
Fast Five was initially conceived to conclude the franchise, but following strong box office performance and high critical praise, Universal proceeded to develop a sixth installment. Furthermore, the film is noted for the addition of Dwayne Johnson to the cast, whose performance was critically praised. Fast & Furious is a media franchise centered on a series of action films that are largely concerned with illegal street racing, heists, spies and family. The franchise also includes short films, a television series, live shows, video games, and theme park attractions.
In 2000, actor Paul Walker had worked with director Rob Cohen on The Skulls. Cohen secured a deal with producer Neal H. Moritz for an untitled action film for Universal Pictures, and approached Walker and asked him to suggest his "dream" action film; Walker suggested a mash-up of the films Days of Thunder and Donnie Brasco . Upon hearing this, Walker signed on immediately; finding his co-star proved difficult. The studio warmed toward the idea of Timothy Olyphant in the role of Dominic Toretto, due to the success of the blockbuster Gone in 60 Seconds , but he declined. Moritz persisted on Vin Diesel following his performance in Pitch Black , with Diesel accepting after proposing several script changes. Moritz had difficulty choosing between the titles Racer X, Redline, Race Wars and Street Wars, but was ultimately inspired by a documentary on American International Pictures, which included the 1954 film The Fast and the Furious.
Moritz was traded use of some stock footage to its director, Roger Corman, in exchange for a license to use the title. Upon release in June 2001, the film shattered box office expectations and a 2002 sequel was green-lit by September. Fast & Furious is a media franchise centered on a series of action films that are largely concerned with illegal street racing, heists, spies and betrayal. The franchise also includes short films, a television series, live shows, video games and theme park attractions.
2009's Fast & Furious introduced cross-border tunnels and international drug rings into the equation, and although Walker was back in the fold, it would be Diesel and a cast of decidedly mixed ethnicities and cultures that steered the film. While driving acumen played a key role, it was in service of the action set pieces that truly served as its central hook, with only a single, over-the-top street scene to be found. The self-serious tone of the first film is broken up by Tyrese, who provides needed comic relief, and somehow didn't go on to a career of comedy roles outside of the "Fast" series.
Director John Singleton shoots some cool low angle frames but he can't work around Walker's unconvincing line readings where he calls Tyrese's character "cuz," and his big action scene involves dozens (hundreds?) of cars just kind of showing up and driving around. Hauser's drug lord would barely cut it on an episode of "Miami Vice," but at least Ludacris is brought into the fold here as Tej, a man about town who knows how to get things done and winds up becoming an integral part of the "Fast" family going forward. The toll of multiple re-shoots dissuaded Wan from returning to the franchise and Universal hired F. This film was to begin a new trilogy, which will conclude the franchise. Diesel announced that introducing Kurt Russell and Charlize Theron as characters in Furious 7 would help to reach this.
The film was released in 2017 and received mixed reviews from critics, many of whom praised the performances and action sequences, but criticized the storyline and the long running time. It was an unabashed commercial success, grossing over $1.2 billion worldwide. Universal later announced that final two films will be released in May 2020 and April 2021, with Lin returning to direct. It was announced that Brewster would reprise her role as Mia Toretto, while screenwriter Daniel Casey was hired for the ninth film; F9 is the first film since Tokyo Drift not to be written by Morgan. Pre-production began in February 2019 in London, and filming began in June and concluded in November. John Cena was cast as the film's villain, portraying Jakob Toretto, Dom's brother.
Moreover, Sung Kang returned as Han, while the film is the first to star Helen Mirren and saw Lucas Black reprise his role as Sean Boswell from Tokyo Drift. F9 was originally scheduled to be theatrically released on May 22, 2020, but was pushed back a year to April 2, 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was then pushed back to May 28, 2021, and finally released in the United States on June 25. Away from the franchise, Diesel made a string of box office or critical flops, including The Chronicles of Riddick , The Pacifier and Find Me Guilty . After discussions with Universal, the pair shared an interest in reviving the series.
After signing Diesel and confirming the return of Lin, Universal worked to track the first film's original co-stars and re-signed Walker, Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster in mid-2008. Walker was initially reluctant to rejoin the franchise after six years, but Diesel assured him that film would be considered the first "true" sequel. Morgan returned to write after the critical praise for the character Han Lue. Given the apparent death of the character in the third film, the timeline of the franchise was altered to account for his appearance. With the emphasis on car culture toned down, the fourth film, Fast & Furious, was a commercial success.
Although critical reception was mixed, it reinvigorated the franchise, as well as the star power of Diesel and Walker. Further along the timeline, with new characters and set in another country, 'Tokyo Challenge' was an attempt to revitalize the franchise and became a key part of the films' timeline. The first point of chronological confusion comes in 'The Fast and the Furious 4', which has Han in the cast, and the character dies in the film released immediately before, in an automobile accident. Once you've got all the Fast and Furious movies ready to watch, you'll be able to drink in the epic timeline of these films.
While they start as fun, brisk tales of illegal street racing, they've morphed into globe-trotting narratives that push our heroes to save the world . Universal lacked a major event film for 2014 and rushed Furious 7 into pre-production in mid-2013 due to its status as a bankable asset. Lin decided not to return to direct the seventh film, as he was still performing post-production on Fast & Furious 6. James Wan, primarily known for horror films, took over directorial duties. On November 30, 2013, Walker died in a single-vehicle crash, with filming only half-completed. Following Walker's death, filming was delayed for script rewrites and his brothers, Caleb and Cody, were used as stand-ins to complete his remaining scenes.
The script rewrites completed the story arcs of both Walker and Brewster's characters. Visual effects company Weta Digital was hired to re-create Walker's likeness. Ultimately, the film's delays saw it being released in April 2015, where it became the highest-grossing film in the franchise, grossing $1.5 billion. It was also the most critically successful, with praise being aimed at the film's action sequences and its emotional tribute to Walker. Universal attempted to bring back Diesel for the third installment, but he again declined due to other projects and a dislike for the script.
After failing to secure the returns of Walker or any other member of the original cast, Universal ordered a reboot of the franchise. Screenwriter Chris Morgan subsequently attempted to revive the series primarily for car enthusiasts, introducing new characters, focusing on a car-related subculture and moving the series to Tokyo; Japan contains one of the world's largest automotive industries. It is the first film in the series to start its tradition of filming in locations outside the United States. Moritz returned and hired director Justin Lin, having been impressed with Lin's work for the film Better Luck Tomorrow , which shared similar elements with Tokyo Drift. Moreover, the series were able to bring Diesel in for a cameo appearance, in exchange for letting the actor's production company acquire the rights to the Riddick character.
The third film was the least financially successful of the franchise, received lukewarm reception and left the future of the franchise in limbo. The first film was released in 2001, which began the original tetralogy of films focused on illegal street racing and culminated in the film Fast & Furious . The series transitioned towards heists and spying with Fast Five and was followed by four sequels, with the most recent, F9, released in 2021. A tenth and eleventh film are planned, and the main films are collectively known as The Fast Saga. Unfolding just a week after the events of "Fast Five," "Fast & Furious 6" begins with a montage of previous "Fast" movies over the opening credits and is put in motion when Michelle Rodriguez's character returns from the dead and shoots Dom in the chest.
(That ain't family!) It turns out her character is suffering from amnesia, the first sign of the "Fast" movies using an overt soap opera storytelling device, but the action pops, the cast is in tip-top shape and director Justin Lin keeps everything running on all cylinders. While he's usually used for laughs, Tyrese gets his chance to shine during the film's action centerpiece, when he leaps from one speeding car to another while being chased down a long stretch of road by a hulking, speeding tank. After that, the film's climax, which takes place on a never-ending airplane runway, feels like overkill. A transparent knockoff of "Point Break" set in the world of illegal street racing, Rob Cohen's slick, comparatively realistic original couldn't possibly have foreseen the wild and improbable places this franchise eventually went.
Gary Gray mounted a handsome, appropriately operatic eighth installment featuring a couple of prestigious foes but arguably the dumbest heel turn in modern movie history. No character has ever championed loyalty more emphatically than Dominic Toretto, so when he gets blackmailed into betraying his former friends and colleagues, every second feels more preposterous than the previous one. It features the silliest car action of the series -- though, to be fair, Dwayne Johnson does punch a torpedo. "Fate" also betrays the series' central "family" theme by making an ally of Jason Statham's Shaw, who murdered a crew member in a previous film, without ever bothering to address the issue. Tokyo Drift also added screenwriter Chris Morgan to the franchise, and he wrote every film between Tokyo Drift and Hobbs & Shaw, though he didn't return for F9.
F9 changes theFast & Furious timeline again, and here's a complete breakdown of the franchise's events, includingF9's flashbacks and retcons. Universal launched theFast & Furious franchise in 2001 with Vin Diesel and Paul Walker starring a not-so-subtlePoint Break homage but with street racing. No one expected that the small movie would pave the way for one of the world's biggest movie franchises, but that is exactly what happened. This method helps with the pacing of the series, as watching in release order means you get two movies without Dominic Torretto as a leading character in a row – and nobody watching the Fast Saga wants that. The films, which range from 10 to 20 minutes, are designed to be self-contained stories that provide backstory for characters or events introduced in the films.
They were also designed to bridge the chronological gap that was created as the initial leads departed the series. Directed by Rob Cohen, the first film in the series set the stage by building a bonafide action movie around the culture of drag racing. Set around the film's release year of 2001, The Fast and the Furious introduced Paul Walker's Brian O'Connor, an LAPD officer who goes undercover to take down a crew of carjackers. Things get muddled when Brian develops a genuine friendship with the crew's charismatic leader, Dominic Toretto , and a romantic relationship with Dom's sister, Mia . This is also the first time we meet vital series mainstay Letty Ortiz .
Director Rob Cohen renders the whole thing rather humorless, but he does stage an audacious climax on the highway in the California desert that sets a high bar for what will follow in the series. Still, if Timothy Olyphant would have gotten the lead role over Vin Diesel, as was originally envisioned, we might not be sitting here and having this discussion today. As of 2019, the movie in 'The Fast and the Furious' franchise with the highest production budget was by far 'The Fate of the Furious', which cost 250 million U.S. dollars to make. 'The Fate of the Furious' was the eighth instalment in the series and proved itself a worthwhile investment after grossing almost 1.24 billion U.S. dollars at box offices worldwide. Even more successful was 'Furious 7', which cost 190 million dollars to produce and generated box office revenue of more than 1.5 billion. 'Furious 7' is the highest grossing movie in the franchise so far and also had the strongest opening weekend.
New characters slowly join the story as well, notably Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as FBI agent Luke Hobbs and Jason Statham as master criminal Deckard Shaw. (If you noticed those are the names in Hobbs & Shaw, now you know what the spinoff is about.) Nathalie Emmanuel joins the franchise in Furious 7 as master computer hacker Ramsay, and Gal Gadot had her first major American screen role as Gisele in movies four through six. By Furious 7, the movies have become so popular that they can attract actors like Kurt Russell (playing someone named Mr. Nobody!). Similarly big names Charlize Theron and Helen Mirren both join the franchise in the eighth film. There are few other franchises like it in terms of ensemble star power.
Diesel agreed, and his short cameo at the end of Tokyo Drift accidentally established that even if the first three movies shared few characters, they took place in a larger universe of daring street racers pulling off impossible feats. It didn't feature Dom's love interest Letty or Dom's sister (and later Brian's wife) Mia , or any of the new characters Brian met in 2 Fast. The movie's all-new ensemble made it easy to imagine a long series of diminishing returns for Fast & Furious, if the franchise continued at all.
Tokyo Drift remains its box office nadir, so everything petering out after that film was a distinct possibility. An endless series of cheap sequels set around the globe, with casts of inexpensive actors and some cool car stunts, was completely plausible. Tokyo Drift completes the first trilogy of Fast & Furious movies, but those first three films are largely disconnected from one another — they're mostly about cars going really fast and the daring people who drive those fast cars.
There's a loose overlay of drivers doing crimes — and breaking up crimes — but they attempt to maintain a vague tether to reality. The first two films center on undercover cop Brian , who uses his sweet driving skills to ingratiate himself to various folks law enforcement wants to keep an eye on, notably Dominic Toretto . Diesel's star power basically hijacks and runs away with 2001's The Fast and the Furious, the first movie, and when he refused to return for 2003's 2 Fast 2 Furious, the sequel was reconfigured to follow Walker's Brian as he solves crimes by driving really fast in Miami.
At the point where both Vin Diesel and Paul Walker had briefly stepped away from the series, the story alighted on a new character, Sean . He only got to hog the limelight in this one, Japan-centric iteration of the series, and there's again an emphasis on street-racing and drifting cars . However, a closing stinger features the return of a certain Dominic Toretto, reminding everyone who's the boss behind the wheel. This was the first movie in the series directed by Justin Lin who's now become a franchise fixture.
It was also the first film to be scripted by series regular Chris Morgan, and the first to be scored by composer Brian Tyler. Tyrese is the movie's second lead, with Roman being Brian's old friend. The pair make for delightful company as they go undercover to infiltrate another crew, this one in Miami – a natural fit for these movies. We're not quite at the stage where these characters are superheroes, with director John Singleton doing a great job with some fast racing.
Sure, the events of 2 Fast rarely ever get mentioned again, and Roman and Tej morph into comic relief characters, but that's what makes this one the hidden gem of the series. Diesel declined to return for the sequel, saying that the screenplay was inferior to its predecessor. Cohen also declined the sequel, opting to develop the film xXx , which starred Diesel in the lead role. To account for these changes, Universal commissioned the writers to create a standalone sequel with Walker in the lead and brought in John Singleton as the new director.
Filming was delayed by a year and the production location shifted to Miami. Tyrese Gibson, who worked with Singleton on the film Baby Boy , was hired as Walker's new co-star and was the first entry in the series to feature long-running cast member Ludacris. A reboot to the series that started with the fourth movie altered the order in which fans should watch the franchise if they're hoping to view them in chronological order. An additional credits scene after the sixth movie flipped the series on its head.
A simple concept, but one that 2001's The Fast and the Furious transformed into a massive, billion-dollar franchise. As is the case with most big stories that came from small beginnings, the exact chronological timeline of the Fast & Furious films has gotten a bit complicated. Considering all the 9 movies, one Spin-off, two short films, and one animated series, it will take you around 1 day and 10 hours to binge watch the entire Fast & Furious Saga. The death of Paul Walker left a void in the franchise that not even a giant submarine could fill, although "The Fate of the Furious" tries. A joyless Charlize Theron plays a superhacker named Cipher who wears her hair in spring break cornrows and turns Dom Toretto to the dark side by blackmailing him with the son he didn't know he had. (Family!) The chemistry is off from the starting line – even Tyrese's punchlines don't land like they usually do – and director F.
Gary Gray relies heavily on green screens and visual effects that don't look as smooth as what we're accustomed in the "Fast" universe. A climactic chase along a frozen Russian lake while the characters try to outrun a nuclear submarine is the first time a "Fast" movie feels like it's running out of ideas. At least Helen Mirren, who joins the cast as Statham's character's mother, seems to be having fun.
A hard reboot after the sharp left turns of "2 Fast" and "Tokyo Drift," "Fast & Furious" brings back Diesel's Dom and Walker's Brian and picks up five years after the 2001 film left off. Dom and Brian are both after the same man but for different reasons, but that's enough for them to team up and head south of the border to take down a drug lord (and to try to get to the bottom of the mysterious murder of Letty, Dom's ride or die). It's a bit stiff and features more than one sequence where cars speed through mines inside a mountain, which even by "Fast" logic is a stretch. At the end, Dom is sentenced to prison, setting up the breakout that opens "Fast Five." At least it's clear director Justin Lin had a plan and knew where he wanted to take the series, but at best, "Fast & Furious" is a place holder. It also opens up a weird time loop in the continuity of the "Fast" series, since Sung Kang's supercool Han – who was killed in "Tokyo Drift" – is back among the living. The "Fast and Furious" franchise has made its mark with crazy car races, epic fisticuffs, super-macho male egos and scantily clad women dancing seductively in slo-mo before the next crazy car race begins.
