The Fast & Furious franchise

Chris: How did we get here? How did this franchise that started out about car thieves turn into an overblown love letter to preposterousness and become one of the biggest movie franchises of all time?

Helen: It was nearly dead. I was the only person at Empire who went to a press screening for Tokyo Drift. Everybody else was like, “No, not even bothering.”

Chris: Well, if Vin Diesel and Paul Walker couldn’t be bothered, why should we?

Helen: Absolutely. But there were the glimmerings there, thanks to Justin Lin, who got what mattered and jettisoned the rest. It amped up the action a lot, sometimes to a ridiculous degree. And then he went back after that and got the original cast and made them cooler than they had been.

Ben: It became a perpetual motion machine. There are so many ingredients that make Fast what it is these days, but one of them is Vin Diesel taking it super-seriously, while everyone else is having the best time possible. I think it was this real commitment to big, crazy but really fun action. It’s playing by its own rules, and those are not the rules of gravity.

Amon: There’s a line said by Mr Nobody in Fast 8: “Know your audience.” And that is a perfect line for the franchise. It’s earnest in all the right ways and flat-out ridiculous in others.

Chris: I want to talk about Justin Lin, who directed Fasts 3-6 and then came back recently for Fast 9, and the tone of the franchise. I thought for the longest time that he was in on the joke. Every Fast movie tried to outdo the one that came before, but he always had his tongue in his cheek. With Fast 9, I felt there was an earnestness there that sat uncomfortably with the movie. It wasn’t quite as knowing or ironic.

Ben: Part of the magic is that truly the more seriously Vin Diesel takes it, the funnier it is. Like the moment in Fast 8 when he wins the race in Cuba. Backwards. In a car on fire. And then a crowd of children comes in, gathering all around and cheering him. It’s the funniest thing I’ve ever seen.

Helen: The thing that makes these work is somebody taking these insanely silly things completely seriously. In Fast 7 Paul Walker is screaming, “Cars don’t fly!” And I’m like, “It’s the third time this film that you’ve been in a flying car.”

Chris: He is correct, though. Is it flying, or falling with style? Is it technically flying if you’re attached to something else that’s flying, like a magnet plane? Helen: These are the kinds of great philosophical questions that Fast & Furious poses to us all.

Chris: For me there’s been a law of diminishing returns in effect since Fast Five. That movie took me by surprise. It was so deranged and so over the top, but — and I can’t believe I’m going to use this word — relatively grounded. The most ridiculous thing that happens in that movie is a safe being dragged around Rio. That’s as big as it gets, and then after that they decided they were going to try to take on The Avengers in terms of scale.

Amon: Fast Five works because it’s the first film in the franchise to have an antagonist who’s the team’s equal in Hobbs, played by The Rock. He elevated the franchise.

Helen: I think it’s been up and down. Fast 6 tried to do the same, but bigger, and I don’t think it necessarily worked.

Fast 7 tried to do the same but sillier. But it also had this emotional resonance because Paul Walker tragically died during shooting. We knew going in that they were going to have to say goodbye to Brian, this central character, and they did it, I have to say, pretty well.

Chris: Yeah, the end is really touching. Is there an argument that the franchise should have retired gracefully at that point?

Ben: There’s something nice in them carrying it on. The whole notion of family with Fast & Furious is hilarious and ironic, but it also holds true. The films aren’t deep, but that metaphor of him going down a different road at the end is lovely.

Chris: Where do we stand on

Hobbs & Shaw, the spin-off? It’s much more fantastical than anything in the other movies. We literally have characters with superpowers.

Helen: You can see what they were going for. If Fast 9 is Vin Diesel unrestrained, this is The Rock unrestrained, and they need to balance each other out.

Chris: If we can get them in the same shot, that’s a bonus.

Helen: I’m not over, and probably never will be, the redemption of Shaw. He’s introduced in Fast 7 as the baddest of bads. And Statham is such a good bad guy. He’s so menacing. And then to turn around and make him into the good guy, I mean…

Chris: It’s just a giant soap opera, isn’t it? It doesn’t matter whether you’re good or bad or alive or dead, they’ll find a way around.

Ben: I grew up watching

Neighbours, and characters would always die or disappear and then come back months later with amnesia.

Chris: That’s literally what happens with Letty. She is the Harold Bishop of the Fast & Furious franchise.

Ben: And Deckard Shaw is the Paul Robinson.

Amon: I’m completely with you on his redemption, but the scene in Fast 8 where he fends off bad guys while saving a baby is a top ten scene in the franchise.

Ben: Moment for moment, my favourite is The Rock flexing off his cast and saying, “Daddy’s got to go to work,” in Fast 7. That is for me the peak Fast & Furious moment. It encompasses everything — it’s great, and glorious, and stupid.

Amon: I like the scene in Fast 6 where Letty flies off a tank and Dom catches her with a car.

Helen: Cars are famously soft and cushioned.

Ben: That’s part of the fun of escalation in these movies. In Fast 9, every five minutes somebody is landing very softly on a car bonnet.

Helen: In 2 Fast 2 Furious, a car jumping onto a boat was the craziest thing.

Chris: Next time, the boat will be in space.

Helen: On fire!

Ben: And children will run in from the sidelines, even though they’re in space.

Chris: The first film was The Fast And The Furious. Before F5 pressed refresh, that was also the best film in the franchise. Helen: Fast & Furious is better than The Fast And The Furious, which is a Point Break wannabe that is not Point Break.

Chris: Yes, but as a result it’s built on fairly solid foundations. I’d say it’s hard for even a director as hacky as Rob Cohen to fuck that up.

Amon: Looking back on it now, given where the franchise has gone to, it looks so quaint. They’re ripping off DVD players. Ben: Fast & Furious is worse for Fast Five existing and being better in absolutely every respect, whereas The Fast And The Furious is doing its own thing.

Chris: By that argument, almost every film that existed prior to Fast Five is worse for Fast Five existing. 8½ is worse for Fast Five existing.

Ben: Fellini couldn’t even get it up to nine.

Chris: Right, enough squabbling. Let’s vote!