With today being 19 years since the very first Fast & Furious movie, my blog post today covers the whole franchise. The franchise for those who haven't watched any of the movies, is largely based on illegal street racing, with the added ingredients of a bit of theft, heists, and a bit of spying. So originally this was set to be a trilogy of movies that showed the world the illegal street races and the need for fast cars. Fast cars require lots of money, hence the need for theft and heists. In 2009 on release of the forth movie, the franchise then began to evolve into what we have today.
The Fast And The Furious, the starting movie first shows a heist in progress on a deserted highway, a trucker is simply doing his job and delivering electrical products. This heist is conducted using three high charged Honda Civic cars expertly driven would take the contents and drive off into the night. As this is becoming a bit of a trend, a joint task force between Los Angeles Police Department and FBI is set up. The idea is to send Bryan O'Conner (played by Paul Walker), an L.A.P.D. officer, undercover as they believe that the way the drivers of the cars drove, and the look of the cars, that they must be connected to the illegal street racing, or at least will turn up there soon. Bryan will start his investigation with the infamous street racer Dominic Toretto (played by Vin Diesel). Brian is a young guy that can actually drive, so with that skill set and a car worthy of street racing (1995 Mitsubishi Eclipse) bought by the task force Brian, tries to impress Toretto, to allow him to be in the racing scene hoping that leads to more. Brian goes to Toretto's Market which is fronted by Toretto's Sister, Mia (played by Jordana Brewster), and begins to flirt. Also we are introduced to Letty Ortiz (played by Michelle Rodriguez), who is Toretto's girlfriend.
2 Fast 2 Furious was the second installment and put straight into development as soon as the first movie become a box office hit. The movie was initially meant to continue the story with Bryan and Dominic both back, but Vin Diesel declined, due to other filming commitments as he was starring in The Chronicles Of Riddick. This delayed the project as the writers then had to find a new angle. In 2001, they did, they introduced Roman Pearce (played by Tyrese Gibson), a long time friend of Brian and Tej Parker (played by Ludacris), who has become Brian's mechanic as he continues illegal street racing, since relocating to Miami. This time Brian and his team, are to assist undercover U.S. Customs Service agent Monica Fuentes (played by Eva Mendes), to bring down the Miami drug lord Carter Verone (played by Cole Hauser).
In 2003, there is a 6 minute click that is released that is the connecting piece of the previous 2 movies. It is called Turbo Charged.
2006 bought us The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift. Unable to secure the services of any of the original cast, this movie was to introduce new characters and take it away from America. The focus was on Sean Boswell (played by Lucas Black), a teenage loner, who has a record for street racing, we see him completely obliterate his car while doing this in Arizona. To avoid jail time, Sean is sent to his father, in Tokyo,Japan. Major Boswell (played by Brian Goodman), is in the military and its hoped that his iron fist rule will manage to settle Sean and keep him out of trouble. As with most things, this is not how things go, as Sean meets Twinkie (played by Shad Moss) at school and he introduces Sean to the fact that Tokyo has an underground drift racing scene, which is around the tight streets and hairpins. After learning to master the art of drifting by Han (played by Sung Kang), his presence and, his growing talent alerts the Japanese Mafia, who make thousands through the sport. Watch out for the uncredited cameo right at the end.
So 2009, and now the switch. Fast & Furious sees the return of the original cast members, the chronological order of the movies change. This movie is the direct sequel to the first movie, but sits between 2 and 3. With the return of Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster, After being in hiding for 5 years Dom returns to L.A. as he's been informed that his girlfriend Letty has been assassinated, meanwhile Brian has been assigned to help to capture a drug lord, Arturo Braga (played by John Ortiz). Both men end up getting to the same person in their investigations, David Park (played by Ron Yuan). Park becomes an FBI informant and lets them know that a street race is happening and the winner gets to be the last driver on the team the traffic heroin to Mexico. The liaison for Braga is Gisele Yashar (played by Gal Gadot).
Later that same year a 20 minute prequel to Fast & Furious is released, called Los Bandoleros.
In 2011, the franchise makes the move from the street car racing to heists, hoping to capture a wider audience, so Fast 5 or Fast & Furious 5 hit the cinemas. With the team back together , they start to plan a $100 million from a corrupt businessman, and Brazilian drug lord, Hernan Reyes (played by Joaquim de Almeida), while also trying to evade U.S. Diplomatic Security Services (DSS) agent Luke Hobbs (played by Dwayne Johnson). Hobbs has a reputation to never miss a target.
After the exploits of Fast 5, the team separate to all corners of the globe, but unable to ever go home. This fact leaves their lives incomplete. 2013 we have another slight change to the genre of the movies, adding an element of espionage and adventure, and we have Furious 6 or Fast & Furious 6. In this movie, Hobbs offers Dom and his team amnesty for their crimes if, they agree to help him to bring down a skilled mercenary organisation led by Owen Shaw (played by Luke Evans), one of the members happens to be Letty, who was reportedly dead. If they managed to pull this off, they would be able to go home.
So in 2015, Furious 7 or Fast & Furious 7 was released. This now is the follow up to Tokyo Drift, so the movie chronological order is 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 3, and now back in order with 7. This is about an old adversary's brother turning up to avenge what happened to his brother. A rogue special forces assassin, Deckard Shaw (played by Jason Statham) turns up at Hobbs HQ office and gets the profiles of all of Dom's team. This movie, will be the last to have Paul Walker in the cast, as he tragically had a car accident and died, while filming was halfway through. This led to script rewrites to give him a fitting end, with his brothers Caleb and Cody were used as stand ins to complete. It was also at this time that it was revealed that Paul Walker had the idea for the franchise to be 10 movies long. As respect for that desire Vin Diesel took on that mantle.
2017 bought us installment 8, as The Fate Of The Furious, F8, or Fast & Furious 8 was born. This movie brings in yet more star names to add to the ever growing cast. Dom has settled down until cyberterrorist Cipher (played by Charlize Theron) coerces him into working for her and shows him an unseen photo. Hobbs then recruits the team to help him to retrieve an EMP from Berlin. Dom then goes rogue and takes the device to Cipher. Hobbs gets arrested, and ends up in the same prison as Deckard Shaw. So Cipher has turned Dom against his team and now they have both disappeared. This forces all the team to all come back into the fray and find Dom and try to take down Cipher.
In 2019 the spin off Fast & Furious: Hobbs and Shaw is released, no its not in the sequence but now established members, Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham team up to form an unlikely alliance to help to bring down a genetically enhanced villain that threatens the world and all of humanity. As we see in the trend of these movie, the cast is full of stars, bringing in Helen Mirrem, as Queenie (Deckard's Mom).
With 2 movies to go in the series F9 was put back until April 2021, which in turn then put back the release of Fast & Furious 10 which is now expected 2022. There are also rumours of 2 more spin offs, 1 being a Hobbs And Shaw Sequel and also 1 of a female-led movie, I dare say that more stars will be added or return to the brand over these last 2 movies and 2 spin offs. I really like the franchise as its fast paced and is moving as it grows. With box office receipts grossing near $6 Billion it is one of the top franchises that has ever been made.
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