The Fast and the Furious (2001 film)

The Fast and the Furious
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Rob Cohen
Screenplay by	Gary Scott Thompson Erik Bergquist David Ayer
Story by	Gary Scott Thompson
Based on	"Racer X" by Ken Li
Produced by	Neal H. Moritz
Starring	Vin Diesel Paul Walker Michelle Rodriguez Jordana Brewster Rick Yune Chad Lindberg Johnny Strong Ted Levine
Cinematography	Ericson Core
Edited by	Peter Honess
Music by	BT
Production company	Universal Pictures[1]
Distributed by	Universal Pictures[1]
Release dates	June 18, 2001 (2001-06-18) (Mann Village Theatre) June 22, 2001 (2001-06-22) (United States)
Running time	106 minutes[2]
Countries	United States[3] Germany[3]
Language	English
Budget	$38 million[2]
Box office	$207.3 million[2]

The Fast and the Furious is a 2001 American action film directed by Rob Cohen and written by Gary Scott Thompson, Erik Bergquist and David Ayer. Loosely based on the 1998 Vibe magazine article "Racer X" by Ken Li, the film is the first installment in the Fast & Furious franchise. It stars Paul Walker as undercover LAPD officer Brian O'Conner, who is tasked with infiltrating a street racing crew suspected of involvement in a series of highway hijackings. Vin Diesel co-stars as Dominic Toretto, the crew’s leader, alongside Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Rick Yune, Chad Lindberg, Johnny Strong, and Ted Levine.

Development on the film began in late 1998, following the publication of Li’s article on underground street racing culture in New York City. Thompson and Bergquist developed the initial screenplay, with Ayer later brought in to revise the script.^[4] Walker was cast in 1998, followed by Diesel in early 1999; the two actors attended real-life street racing events during pre-production. Principal photography took place from July to October 2000, primarily in Los Angeles and surrounding areas in Southern California. The film's score was composed by electronic music producer BT.

The Fast and the Furious premiered at the Mann Village Theatre in Los Angeles on June 18, 2001, and was released theatrically in the United States by Universal Pictures on June 22. It received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics, who praised its action sequences and lead performances, but criticized the plot. The film emerged as a commercial success, grossing over $207 million worldwide against a $38 million budget. It marked a breakthrough for Walker, Diesel, and Rodriguez, and launched a multimedia franchise that includes multiple sequels, spin-offs, a television series, and video games.

On the Terminal Island Freeway outside Los Angeles, a crew driving three modified Honda Civics hijacks a semi-truck carrying electronic goods before fleeing the scene. LAPD officer Brian O'Conner is assigned to a joint LAPD-FBI task force to investigate the hijackings. As part of his cover, Brian works at a performance parts shop owned by Harry and begins infiltrating the local street racing scene, focusing on Dominic Toretto, a well-known street racer suspected of involvement. Brian visits Toretto's Market & Cafe, where he meets Dom's sister Mia. During a confrontation with Dom’s crew—including Vince, Leon, Jesse and Letty—Vince becomes suspicious of Brian and initiates a fight. Although Dom is initially prepared to sever ties, Harry convinces him to keep Brian employed.

Brian enters a street race with a modified Mitsubishi Eclipse, wagering his car in an attempt to gain credibility. Dom wins the race after Brian's car malfunctions. As police arrive, Brian helps Dom evade capture, but they are intercepted by rival gang leader Johnny Tran and his cousin Lance, who destroy the Eclipse. Dom reminds Brian that he still owes him a ten-second car.

Brian delivers a dilapidated Toyota Supra to Dom’s garage, which the crew agrees to restore. During this time, Brian begins a relationship with Mia and investigates Tran’s finances. When Hector expresses interest in purchasing parts for Honda Civics, Brian becomes suspicious and breaks into Hector’s garage, where he is discovered by Dom and Vince. He claims to be gathering intel on Tran's vehicles ahead of the upcoming Race Wars event.

Later, Dom, Vince, and Brian search Tran's garage and discover a cache of electronics. Brian reports the discovery to LAPD Sgt. Tanner and FBI Agent Bilkins, who arrest Tran at his family home. However, the goods are found to have been legally acquired. Under pressure to produce results, Bilkins informs Brian that truckers have begun arming themselves and that he has 36 hours to identify the hijackers. Brian suspects Dom is responsible.

At Race Wars, Jesse races against Tran in a pink-slip bet and loses his father’s Volkswagen Jetta, then flees with the car. Tran publicly accuses Dom of being a police informant, prompting a fight. That night, Brian sees Dom and his crew preparing for another hijacking and confesses his true identity to Mia, convincing her to help him stop them.

During the hijacking, the truck driver opens fire, injuring Vince and running Letty off the road. Brian and Mia arrive, and Brian calls for a medevac, exposing himself as an officer. Dom, Letty, Mia and Leon flee the scene before authorities arrive. Brian later confronts Dom at his home to make an arrest but is interrupted by Jesse’s return, who begs Dom for him. Jesse is shot and killed by Tran and Lance in a drive-by.

Dom and Brian pursue the assailants. Dom forces Lance off the road, and Brian fatally shoots Tran. The two then engage in a quarter-mile street race, narrowly beating a train at a crossing before Dom crashes his Dodge Charger. Instead of arresting him, Brian hands over the keys to his Supra, allowing Dom to escape.

In a post-credits scene, Dom is shown driving a 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS through Baja California, Mexico.

Vin Diesel (left) in 2013, Paul Walker in 2009, and Michelle Rodriguez in 2006

• Vin Diesel as Dominic Toretto:
  Leader of the heist crew and a professional street racer. He was banned from professional racing after a violent retaliatory attack on the man he believed had accidentally killed his father.
• Paul Walker as Brian O'Conner:
  An LAPD police officer sent to infiltrate a crew of hijackers and also Mia's primary love interest.
• Michelle Rodriguez as Letty Ortiz:
  A member of Dom's crew and his girlfriend.
• Jordana Brewster as Mia Toretto:
  Dom's sister and owner of the Toretto general store. Brian's love interest.
• Rick Yune as Johnny Tran:
  A Vietnamese gang leader and rival of Dom.
• Chad Lindberg as Jesse:
  A member of Dom's crew. Highly intelligent with math, algebra, and in computing, but he dropped out of school due to his attention deficit disorder.
• Johnny Strong as Leon:
  A member of Dom's crew.

The central cast is rounded out by Ted Levine and Thom Barry as Tanner and Bilkins, respectively, members of the team that organized the investigation to place Brian undercover, and Matt Schulze as Vince, a member of Dom's crew and his childhood friend. Noel Gugliemi appears as Hector, the organizer of the drag race. Musician and rapper Ja Rule and car tuner R.J. de Vera also act as Edwin and Danny, fellow drivers at the drag race who race against Dom and Brian. Vyto Ruginis plays Harry, an informant and owner of The Racer's Edge. Reggie Lee portrays Lance Nguyen, Tran's cousin, and right-hand man. Neal H. Moritz and Rob Cohen both appear in cameos; Moritz plays an unnamed driver of a black Ferrari F355 convertible who is given a challenge by Brian, while Cohen plays a Pizza Hut delivery man. Gugliemi has reprised his role as Hector in future Fast & Furious movies, and has also played similar characters with the same name in other films and TV shows.

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 (1990) and Donnie Brasco (1997).^[5] Soon thereafter, Cohen and Moritz brought him the Vibe magazine article "Racer X" by Ken Li, published in May 1998, which detailed underground street racing operating in New York City,^[6] and suggested a story set to follow Walker as an undercover cop tasked with infiltrating the world of underground street racing.^[5] The screenplay was originally developed by Gary Scott Thompson and Erik Bergquist. David Ayer was brought into the project to help rework the script. Ayer changed it from the "mostly white and suburban story" set in New York to a diverse one set in Los Angeles.^[7]

Upon being offered the role, Walker signed on immediately.^[5] Eminem was offered the role, but turned it down to work on the film 8 Mile (2002), and Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale were also considered.^[8] Originally, the studio told the producers they would green-light the film if they could get Timothy Olyphant to play the role of Dominic Toretto. Olyphant, however, who had starred in the previous year's car-themed film Gone in 60 Seconds, declined the role. Olyphant said that he turned down the role as he thought the film would be "stupid".^[9] Moritz instead suggested Vin Diesel, who had to be convinced to take the role even though he had only played supporting roles up to that point.^[10] The role of Mia Toretto was originally written for Eliza Dushku, who declined it, and Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jessica Biel, Kirsten Dunst, and Natalie Portman auditioned before Jordana Brewster was cast.^[8]

Moritz had difficulty choosing between the titles Racer X (after the article), 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.^[11][12][13]

The film was shot in various locations within Los Angeles and parts of southern California, from July to October 2000. Key locations included Dodger Stadium (the opening scene where Brian tests his Eclipse in the parking lot), Angelino Heights, Silver Lake and Echo Park (the neighborhoods around the Toretto house), as well as Little Saigon (where Tran destroys the Eclipse) and the San Bernardino International Airport (the venue for Race Wars, which attracted over 1,500 import car owners and enthusiasts). The entire last rig heist scene was filmed along Domenigoni Parkway on the southern side of San Jacinto/Hemet in the San Jacinto Valley near Diamond Valley Lake.^[14]

Before filming, both Jordana Brewster and Michelle Rodriguez did not have driver's licenses, so they took driving lessons during production.^[14][12] For the climactic race scene between Brian and Dom, separate shots of both cars crossing the railroad and the train crossing the street were filmed, then composited together to give the illusion of the train narrowly missing the cars. A long steel rod was used as a ramp for Dom's car to crash through the semi-truck and fly in mid-air. During filming, 78 cars were wrecked both on and off-screen, of which 3 cars were shown being destroyed in the film's trailer alone. During production, stunt coordinator and second unit director Mic Rodgers developed a vehicle named the "Mic Rig" in collaboration with special effects coordinator Matt Sweeney and the rest of the film's special effects department.^[14][15]

The film's score was composed by electronic music producer BT, who incorporated elements of electronica, hip-hop, and industrial music to complement the film's high-energy tone. Two official soundtrack albums were released in support of the film.

The first album, The Fast and the Furious: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, features primarily hip-hop and rap tracks performed by various artists. The second release, titled More Fast and Furious, contains alternative metal, post-grunge, and nu metal songs, along with selected cues from BT's original score.

The Fast and the Furious premiered at the Mann Village Theatre in Los Angeles on June 18, 2001, and was released theatrically in the United States on June 22, 2001.^[16]

The film was released on DVD and VHS on January 2, 2002.^[17] The DVD sold approximately 2.1 million copies on its first day, making it the second-highest single-day DVD sale at the time, behind Pearl Harbor.^[18] In its first week, the film earned $18.65 million in video rental revenue, setting a new record previously held by Cast Away.^[18] By April 2002, more than 5.5 million home video units had been sold.^[19] The record was later surpassed in May by Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.^[20]

A second DVD edition, marketed as the "Tricked Out Edition," was released on June 3, 2003. It included The Turbo Charged Prelude for 2 Fast 2 Furious, a short film designed to bridge the narrative gap between the original film and its sequel. An abridged version of the short was also included with the DVD release of 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003).[6]

An alternate ending titled "More Than Furious" was included in a special edition bundle. In the scene, Brian is dropped off at the Toretto house by Sergeant Tanner and finds Mia preparing to leave. Brian reveals he has resigned from the LAPD and expresses a desire to rebuild their relationship.

A range of licensed merchandise accompanied the film’s release. Racing Champions produced die-cast replicas of the film’s vehicles in scales ranging from 1:64 to 1:18.^[21] In 2002, RadioShack released ZipZaps micro RC versions of the featured cars.^[22] AMT Ertl manufactured 1:24 scale plastic model kits based on the "hero cars" seen in the film.^[23]

A video game adaptation was initially planned for release in 2003 on PlayStation 2 and Xbox by Vivendi Universal,^[24] though it was ultimately canceled. Two official tie-in games were released in 2004: a mobile game and an arcade game, both titled The Fast and the Furious.^[25][26] The arcade title was later ported to the Nintendo Wii as Cruis’n in 2007.^[27]

The Fast and the Furious grossed $40.1 million during its opening weekend in the United States and Canada, debuting at number one at the box office ahead of Dr. Dolittle 2, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, and Atlantis: The Lost Empire.^[28] It became one of four consecutive Universal Pictures releases in 2001 to open above $40 million, alongside Jurassic Park III, American Pie 2, and The Mummy Returns.^[29] The film was released in a maximum of 2,889 theaters during its domestic run.

The film went on to earn $144.5 million in the United States and Canada and $62.8 million in international markets, for a worldwide total of $207.3 million, against a production budget of $38 million.^[2]

In the United Kingdom, the film debuted in second place behind Moulin Rouge!, earning $2.6 million in its opening weekend.^[30]

The Fast and the Furious received mixed reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 55% based on 155 reviews, with an average rating of 5.4/10. The website's consensus reads: "Sleek and shiny on the surface, The Fast and the Furious recalls those cheesy teenage exploitation flicks of the 1950s."^[31] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 58 out of 100, based on 29 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews."^[32] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.^[33]

Todd McCarthy of Variety described the film as "a gritty and gratifying cheap thrill," calling it "a really good exploitationer" that would have excelled at drive-in theaters.^[34] Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times praised the film's character dynamics, writing that it was "an action picture that's surprising in the complexity of its key characters and portents of tragedy."^[35] Reece Pendleton of the Chicago Reader singled out Vin Diesel’s performance, noting that he "carries the movie with his unsettling mix of Zen-like tranquillity and barely controlled rage."^[36]

Some industry peers also responded positively; The Transporter (2002) collaborators Louis Leterrier and Jason Statham reportedly attended a screening in Paris and praised the film.^[37]

Other reviews were more reserved. Susan Wloszczyna of USA Today awarded the film 2½ out of 4 stars, writing that director Rob Cohen "at least knows how to keep matters moving and the action sequences exciting."^[38] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a "C", commenting that it "works hard to be exciting, but the movie scarcely lives up to its title."^[39] Elvis Mitchell of The New York Times criticized the film's execution, stating that it "makes you long for the soulless professionalism of a Jerry Bruckheimer movie."^[40]

Rita Kempley of The Washington Post dismissed the film as "Rebel Without a Cause without a cause. The Young and the Restless with gas fumes. The Quick and the Dead with skid marks."^[41] Paul Clinton of CNN acknowledged the film's action sequences but noted "plot holes you could drive the proverbial truck through" and described the ending as "idiotic."^[42]

Following its commercial success, The Fast and the Furious exceeded box office expectations, prompting Universal Pictures to green-light a sequel. Director Rob Cohen and actor Vin Diesel opted not to return, choosing instead to collaborate on the action film XXX (2002), with Diesel in the lead role.^[6] To continue the franchise, Universal restructured the project as a standalone sequel centered on Paul Walker's character. John Singleton was hired to direct, and 2 Fast 2 Furious was released in June 2003.^[5]

Wikiquote has quotations related to The Fast and the Furious.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Fast and the Furious.

• The Fast and the Furious at IMDb
• The Fast and the Furious at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films