The Fast and the Furious (2001 film)

Infobox Film | name = The Fast and the Furious

caption = "The Fast and The Furious" poster
director = Rob Cohen
producer = Neal H. Moritz
writer = Ken Li (magazine article Racer X)
Gary Scott Thompson
Erik Bergquist
David Ayer
starring =Paul Walker
Vin Diesel
Michelle Rodriguez
Jordana Brewster

music =
cinematography =
editing =Peter Honess
distributor = Universal Pictures
released = flagicon|USA June 22 2001 flagicon|Japan October 20, 2001
runtime = 102 min.
country = flagicon|USA United States flagicon|Japan Japan
language = English Japanese
budget = $38,000,000 US
gross = US$ 207,283,925 [http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=fastandfurious.htm The Fast and the Furious (2001) ] ]
followed_by = "2 Fast 2 Furious"
imdb_id = 0232500

"The Fast and the Furious" is a 2001 car film starring Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster and Vin Diesel, and directed by Rob Cohen. "The Fast and the Furious" was the first mainstream film to feature the Asian automotive import scene in North America. It is the first film in "The Fast and the Furious" film series. It is not a remake of the 1955 film of the same name. According to the extended features on the DVD, it is actually based on a magazine article by Ken Li called "Racer X".

Plot

A group of Honda Civics are hijacking trucks and taking their contents. One car first goes in front of the truck and uses a hook to pull off the pane of glass. One of the people then uses a grappling hook to enter the cab, subdue the driver, and drive off with the contents. The truckers are about to arm themselves and take things into their own hands, but hold off and let the police try to handle it. Brian O'Connor (Paul Walker) is an undercover cop who is trying to find out who is responsible for these truck hijackings.

He tries to get in with a group of people led by Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel). Toretto runs a grocery shop and does tune ups on cars. Vince (Matt Schulze) gets into a fight with Brian which Dominic breaks up and tells Brian not to come back. Brian shows up again at a car race and bets his car that he will win. Dominic easily beats him in the race. The police then come to break up the race. Everyone flees, but Brian stays around and picks Dominic up. They are accousted by a rival Vietnamese car shop. They blow up Brian's car. Afterwards, Toretto says that Brian still owes him a ten-second car, or a car that can complete the 1/4 mile in ten seconds or less.

Soon, Brian gets inside the Toretto clan. He dates Dominic's sister, Mia, and begins tuning up cars and find out more information. The skid marks of the Honda Civics show a brand of tires. When Brian goes into the shop late at night to check out the cars, the tires don't correspond to the tires on the Civics. Vince, one of Dominic's friends, finds Brian poking around and accuses him of being a cop. Brian denies it and says that he can't lose another race and was checking everyone's cars out. Dominic, Vince, and Brian then break into the Vietnamese car shop, where they find a stack of DVD players and cars without engines in them.

Brian reports his findings to his superiors. After another truck hijacking, the police move in and arrest all the members of the Vietnamese car shop, but find that the players were legally purchased and that they are not the ones doing the hijackings. Brian's superior tells him that it has to be Toretto doing it. Brian casually asks Toretto where he got the money to buy all the equipment and says that whatever Toretto is doing, he wants to be in on it. Toretto agrees as long as Brian wins the upcoming Race Wars, which take place in the desert.

In one race, Toretto clan member Jesse races Johnny Tran and loses. He then drives away very fast. At night, Toretto and the rest of the clan drive out. Brian tells Mia that he's an undercover cop and tells her that the truckers are now armed. He convinces her to come with him to save Toretto.

They trace his cell phone to Highway 86. Toretto pulls out the Civics to make one last carjacking. As dawn breaks, they find the truck and attempt to hijack it. However, the truck driver is armed with a shotgun. Vince's arm is trapped in the hook as Letty and Toretto swing wildly to try to rescue him. Letty's car soon flips over and Dominic soon skids off the road. Brian catches up to the truck and gets Vince off as the truck driver is reloading his gun. He calls a helicopter in, revealing to Toretto that he is a cop. Toretto drives off angrily.

Brian confronts Toretto at his house. At that moment, Jesse comes back. A couple of Vietnamese car shop people on motorcycles do a drive-by shooting and seriously injure Jesse. Brian and Dominic drive out in their cars to go after them. Dominic forces one cycle to flip over. Brian successfully shoots the other motorcycle. They then find themselves at an intersection and engage in a street race. A train approaches. Both cars manage to speed up and pass the tracks as the train barrels down on them. As they look at each other, however, Dominic sideswipes a truck and his car flips over. In the last scene Brian gives his keys to Dominic, saying, "I still owe you a ten-second car."

Cast

*Paul Walker - Brian O'Connor
*Vin Diesel - Dominic Toretto
*Michelle Rodriguez - Letty
*Jordana Brewster - Mia Toretto
*Rick Yune - Johnny Tran
*Ja Rule - Edwin
*Chad Lindberg - Jesse
*Johnny Strong - Leon
*Matt Schulze - Vincent

Box office

The film was an unexpected summer hit. It grossed $40,089,015 on its opening weekend, surpassing the film's $38 million budget. It grossed a total of $144,533,925 on the domestic market, and $62,750,000 overseas, for a total of $207,283,925.

Reception

"The Fast and the Furious" was met with mixed reviews, and received particularly harsh criticism for what some felt was its derivative storyline, which shared many similarities with the 1991 film "Point Break".

The movie became the stereotypical template blamed for flooding the streets with rice burners, largely because of the flashy, decorative appearance of the cars in the film and the exaggeration of the effects of nitrous oxide.

Early on, the script drew criticism from die-hard tuner enthusiasts for its technical inaccuracies and for its use of the word "NOS" (Nitrous Oxide System, a registered trademark of Holley Performance Products) to refer generically to several forms of nitrous oxide injection: in the film, both Holley's NOS and Nitrous Express' NX systems are displayed prominently. This gaffe was corrected in the sequel, "2 Fast 2 Furious", wherein nitrous oxide injection systems were referred to as, simply, "nitrous."

The movie spawned video games, three sequels, and a top selling DVD. At the time of its release, it was one of the best selling DVDs of all time. The movie was filmed under the working-title "Redline" and it was not until months after wrapping was the title officially set.

Video game

In Japan where the movie is known as "Wild Speed", a self titled arcade video game was released by Taito in 2006. [ [http://www.taito.co.jp/gm/raw_thrills/ff/ "The Fast and The Furious" arcade video game official website] ] A trailer for the movie was included in the 2001 PlayStation 2 game "Tokyo Extreme Racer Zero" which is part of the influential long running Shutokou Battle series itself inspired by the "Freeway Speedway" 1980s movies.

Featured cars

Various modified and upgraded cars are featured in the movie, including the following: [Kris Palmer "The Fast and the Furious The Official Car Guide" Motorbooks auto isbn|0|7|6|0|3|2|5|6|8|0-7603-2568]

equels

The film has spawned 3 sequels: "2 Fast 2 Furious", "", and "Fast and Furious". Paul Walker returned for the first sequel, teaming up with Tyrese Gibson, but sat out for the second. Lucas Black starred in the second sequel. The third sequel, which will be released in 2009, will feature Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez, and Jordana Brewster reprising their roles from the first film.

References

External links

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