The Fast and the Furious (2001 film)
Undercover cop infiltrates street racing crew.
The Fast and the Furious, released in 2001, is an American action film directed by Rob Cohen. Its screenplay, written by Gary Scott Thompson, Erik Bergquist, and David Ayer, was inspired by a 1998 Vibe magazine article. This movie launched the Fast & Furious franchise and features Paul Walker, Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Rick Yune, Chad Lindberg, Johnny Strong, and Ted Levine. The plot centers on undercover cop Brian O'Conner, who joins a street racing crew to probe a series of hijackings and develops a complicated bond with the crew's leader, Dominic Toretto.
Quick Facts
- Director
- Rob Cohen
- Screenplay
- Gary Scott Thompson
- Erik Bergquist
- David Ayer
- Story
- Gary Scott Thompson
- Based on
- "Racer X", Ken Li
- Producer
- Neal H. Moritz
- Starring
- Paul Walker
- Vin Diesel
- Michelle Rodriguez
- Jordana Brewster
- Rick Yune
- Chad Lindberg
- Johnny Strong
- Ted Levine
- Cinematography
- Ericson Core
- Editing
- Peter Honess
Facts from the source article.
Plot
A heist crew uses three modified Honda Civics to steal a truck full of electronics from the Los Angeles port, then vanishes along the Terminal Island Freeway. LAPD officer Brian O'Conner goes undercover as part of a joint LAPD-FBI task force to identify them. He starts at Toretto's Market & Cafe, run by Mia, whose brother is the famous street racer Dominic "Dom" Toretto. When Dom's crew—Vince, Leon, Jesse, and his girlfriend Letty—shows up, Vince gets suspicious and starts a fight.
Dom threatens to fire Brian from his job at Harry's garage, but Harry talks him into keeping Brian on. At a car meet, Brian brings a modified 1995 Mitsubishi Eclipse RS hoping to find a lead. Dom arrives in his Mazda RX-7 and challenges him to a race. Brian bets his car; he, Dom, and two others compete.
Brian's car breaks down, Dom wins, but police show up and Dom has to run. Brian helps him escape, and they accidentally end up in territory controlled by rival gang leader Johnny Tran and his cousin Lance. Tran and Lance destroy the Eclipse, so the two take a cab back to Dom's house. Dom reminds Brian he still owes him a ten-second car.
Brian brings a beat-up MK4 Toyota Supra to Dom's garage, and the crew starts fixing it up. He also starts dating Mia and looks into Tran's finances. Hector visits Harry's garage to buy performance parts for Honda Civics. While Brian searches one of Hector's garages for the Civics used in the heists, Dom and Vince catch him. He tells them he was checking out Tran's gang's cars for Race Wars.
Production
Paul Walker first worked with director Rob Cohen on the 2000 film The Skulls. After Cohen made a deal with producer Neal H. Moritz for an unnamed action movie at Universal Pictures, he asked Walker to describe his ideal action film. Walker proposed combining the movies Days of Thunder and Donnie Brasco. Cohen and Moritz then showed Walker the May 1998 Vibe magazine article "Racer X" by Ken Li, which covered underground street racing in New York City, and pitched a plot about an undercover cop entering that scene.
Gary Scott Thompson and Erik Bergquist originally wrote the screenplay, but David Ayer was brought in to revise it. Ayer shifted the setting from New York and a "mostly white and suburban story" to a diverse Los Angeles. Walker accepted the role immediately. Eminem was offered the part but declined to work on 8 Mile, and Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale were also in the running.
The studio agreed to green-light the project only if Timothy Olyphant played Dominic Toretto. Olyphant, who had recently appeared in the car-themed Gone in 60 Seconds, turned it down because he thought the film would be "stupid." Moritz then suggested Vin Diesel, who needed convincing to take the lead despite having only played supporting roles. The character Mia Toretto was originally written for Eliza Dushku, who passed on it.
Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jessica Biel, Kirsten Dunst, and Natalie Portman all auditioned before Jordana Brewster was chosen. Moritz struggled to pick a title among Racer X, Redline, Race Wars, and Street Wars. He found inspiration in a documentary about American International Pictures that featured the 1954 film The Fast and the Furious. He traded the use of some stock footage to director Roger Corman in exchange for the rights to that title.
Release
The Fast and the Furious had its premiere at the Mann Village Theatre in Los Angeles on June 18, 2001, before hitting U.S. theaters on June 22, 2001. It arrived on DVD and VHS on January 2, 2002. On its first day, the DVD moved 2.1 million copies, placing it second only to Pearl Harbor for single-day DVD sales at that time. The film also pulled in $18.65 million from video store rentals during its first week, a record that beat Cast Away; this was later topped by Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in May.
By April 2002, over 5.5 million home video units had been sold. A second DVD, called the "Tricked Out Edition," came out on June 3, 2003, and included The Turbo Charged Prelude for 2 Fast 2 Furious, a short film that set the stage for the sequel. An alternate ending, "More Than Furious," was shot and appeared on a collection bundle DVD. In this version, Tanner drops Brian at the Toretto house, where Mia is packing to move.
Brian says he quit the LAPD and wants another chance with her; Mia replies it won't be that simple, and Brian says he has time. Racing Champions put out diecast metal car replicas in scales from 1/18 to 1/64. RadioShack sold ZipZaps micro RC versions in 2002. AMT Ertl produced 1/24 scale plastic model kits of the hero cars.
A video game was planned for 2003 on PlayStation 2 and Xbox by Vivendi Universal. Two more games came in 2004: a mobile game and an arcade game, both titled The Fast and the Furious; the arcade game was later ported to the Wii as Cruis'n in 2007.
Reception
The Fast and the Furious opened at number one with $40,089,015, beating Dr. Dolittle 2, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, and Atlantis: The Lost Empire. It was one of four Universal films in 2001 to hit $40 million in their opening weekends, alongside Jurassic Park III, American Pie 2, and The Mummy Returns. The movie played in up to 2,889 theaters. Domestically, it earned $144,745,925, with an additional $62,771,584 from international markets, bringing the worldwide total to $207,517,995 against a $38 million budget.
In the United Kingdom, it opened in second place behind Moulin Rouge!, taking in $2.6 million. On Rotten Tomatoes, 56% of 159 reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.40 out of 10. The site’s consensus describes it as “sleek and shiny on the surface” but reminiscent of “cheesy teenage exploitation flicks of the 1950s.” Metacritic gives a weighted score of 58 out of 100 from 29 critics, meaning “mixed or average reviews.”
Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave it a B+. Todd McCarthy of Variety praised it as “a gritty and gratifying cheap thrill” and “a really good exploitationer.” Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times noted it’s “an action picture that's surprising in the complexity of its key characters and portents of tragedy.” Vin Diesel’s performance as Dominic Toretto drew particular acclaim; Reece Pendleton of the Chicago Reader wrote that “Diesel carries the movie with his unsettling mix of Zen-like tranquillity and barely controlled rage.”
Future franchise director Louis Leterrier and star Jason Statham caught the film in Paris in 2001 during a break from filming The Transporter, and both spoke highly of it.
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