The Fast and the Furious (2001 film)
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The Fast and the Furious is a 2001 action film starring Paul Walker and Vin Diesel, and directed by Rob Cohen.
Plot
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 somewhat 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, incorrectly 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.
Cast
- Paul Walker as Brian O'Conner
- Vin Diesel as Dominic Toretto
- Michelle Rodriguez as Letty
- Jordana Brewster as Mia Toretto
- Rick Yune as Johnny Tran
- Chad Lindberg as Jesse
- Johnny Strong as Leon
- Matt Schulze as Vince
- Ted Levine as Sgt. Tanner
- Ja Rule as Edwin
- Vyto Ruginis as Harry
- Thom Barry as Agent Bilkins
- Stanton Rutledge as Muse
- Noel Gugliemi as Hector
- R.J. de Vera as Danny Yamato
Impact
Although met with mixed reviews, The Fast and the Furious is credited as the first cinematic insight into the Japanese compact racing and tuning community of America. Because of this novelty as well as a set of interesting character relationships (for an action movie) and a variety of groundbreaking visuals used in the race sequences, The Fast and the Furious became one of the most well-known movies from around the turn of the millennium, and left tricked out Japanese compacts imprinted in our pop culture. It also features the performance that many believe launched Vin Diesel into super stardom.Criticism
The film and the series has been criticized for following the typical formula of white male lead protagonist and Asian male villain, despite the prevalence of Asians in the import scene.
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 and ultimately useless modifications (such as unneeded body kits and ground effects, fluorescent lighting, and excessive aerodynamic wings).
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.
Featured cars
Various modded and upgraded cars feature in the movie, including the following:| Car | Color | Year | Driven by |
| Dodge Charger R/T | Black | 1970 | Toretto |
| Chevrolet Chevelle SS | Red | 1970 | Toretto |
| Ford Lightning SVT | Red | 1999-2001 | O'Conner |
| 3 Honda Civic 2dr Coupes | Black | 1995 | Highjackers |
| Honda S2000 (AP1) | Black | 1999-2001 | Johnny Tran |
| Honda Del Sol | White | 1993-1997 | Extra Character/Background Person |
| Mazda RX-7 | Red | 1998 | Toretto |
| Mitsubishi Eclipse GS | Neon Green | 1995 | O'Conner |
| Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder | Silver | 1995-1999 | Extra Character/Background Person |
| Nissan Maxima | Blue | 1995-1999 | Vince |
| Nissan Skyline R33 GT-R | Yellow | 1995-1998 | Leon |
| Toyota Supra RZ (JZA80) | Orange | 1997 | O'Conner's second car |
| Volkswagen Jetta | White | 1991-1998 | Jesse |
| Acura Integra GS-R or Type-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) |
Trivia
- Partly influenced by an article from Vibe by journalist Ken Li—Racer X—about the import street racing scene, where mainly Japanese road-going sports cars are "modded", upgraded and tuned beyond belief, and then raced at night on the public streets.
- The director Rob Cohen went through the titles— "Nos", Redline and Street Wars— before settling upon The Fast and the Furious. To use this, they bought the rights for the title—but not the plot— to a 1954 movie of the same name.
- Director Rob Cohen appears as the disgruntled "Pizza Boy" during the first streetrace sequence.
- A coin-op game based on the movie named [The Fast And The Furious Wild Speed] was created in 2004 by Raw Thrills Inc. and released in Japan by Taito.
Sequels
2 Fast 2 Furious
2 Fast 2 Furious is the sequel to The Fast and the Furious. It features Paul Walker, Tyrese Gibson, Eva Mendes, Devon Aoki and Ludacris. Jin Au-Yeung also made a minor appearance in this movie.The film was directed by John Singleton, while the soundtrack was composed by David Arnold. The producers were Lee R. Mayes and Neal H. Moritz.
Paul Walker returns as former cop Brian O'Conner who teams up with his ex-con pal Roman Pearce (Tyrese) to transport a shipment of "dirty" money for shady Miami-based import-export dealer Carter Verone (Cole Hauser), while actually working with undercover agent Monica Fuentes (Mendes) to bring Verone down.
The total production budget of the film was approximately $US 76 million, with estimated marketing costs of US$40 million. The total running time is 101 minutes, with an MPAA rating of PG-13.
Tokyo Drift
is a 2006 sequel. It does not feature any of the characters in first two films except for Vin Diesel in a small cameo role.The Fast and The Furious 4
Starring Vin Diesel as the main character of the story. Rumored to be set in Mexico.
See also
External links
- [Official Website]
- [}}}] at Rotten Tomatoes
- [Holley NOS]
- [The Fast and the Furious Storyline (Spoiler Warning!)]
- [Internet Movie Cars Database] - gallery of cars featured in The Fast and the Furious
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