Fast & Furious

This article is about the film franchise. For the fourth film in the series, see Fast & Furious (2009 film).

The Fast and the Furious
File:The Fast and the Furious blu-ray box set.jpg Fast & Furious 1–6 film Blu-ray box set
Directed by	Rob Cohen (1) John Singleton (2) Justin Lin (3–6) James Wan (7) F. Gary Gray (8)
Screenplay by	Gary Scott Thompson (1–2) Erik Bergquist (1) David Ayer (1) Michael Brandt (2) Derek Haas (2) Chris Morgan (3–8)
Produced by	Neal H. Moritz (1–8) Vin Diesel (4–8) Michael Fottrell (4–5, 7) Clayton Townsend (6)
Starring	Paul Walker (1–2, 4–7) Vin Diesel (1, 3–8) Dwayne Johnson (5–7) Michelle Rodriguez (1, 4, 6–7) Tyrese Gibson (2, 5–7) Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges (2, 5–7) Jordana Brewster (1, 4–7) Sung Kang (3–6) Gal Gadot (4–6) Lucas Black (3, 7) John Ortiz (4, 6) Eva Mendes (2, 5) Jason Statham (6–8) (See below)
Edited by	Peter Honess (1) Bruce Cannon (2) Dallas Puett (2–3) Kelly Matsumoto (3, 5–6) Fred Raskin (3–5) Christian Wagner (4–7) Dylan Highsmith (6–7) Leigh Folsom-Boyd (6–7) Kirk M. Morri (7)
Music by	BT (1) David Arnold (2) Brian Tyler (3–5, 7) Lucas Vidal (6)
Production companies	Original Film (1–7) Relativity Media (3–4, 6) One Race Films (4–7) Media Rights Capital (7)
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date	2001–present
Country	United States
Languages	English, Spanish, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian
Budget	$759 million
Box office	$3,907,312,431

The Fast and the Furious (also known as Fast & Furious) is an American franchise including a series of action films, which center on illegal street racing and heists, and various other media portraying the characters and situations from the films. Distributed by Universal Pictures, the series was established with the 2001 film titled The Fast and the Furious; followed by six sequels, two short films that tie into the series, and as of May 2015, it has become Universal's biggest franchise of all time.

Films

The Fast and the Furious (2001)

Main article: The Fast and the Furious (2001 film)

The film is loosely based on a mine article, titled "Racer X", about New York street clubs that race Japanese cars late at night. Elite street racer and ex-convict Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his crew: Jesse (Chad Lindberg), Leon (Johnny Strong), Vince (Matt Schulze) and Letty Ortiz (Michelle Rodriguez), are under suspicion of stealing expensive electronic equipment by hijacking moving trucks. Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker) is an undercover police officer who attempts to find out who exactly is stealing the equipment. He works for FBI agent Bilkins (Thom Barry) and LAPD Sgt. Tanner (Ted Levine).

Falling for Dominic's younger sister, Mia Toretto (Jordana Brewster), Brian later confesses to her his status as an undercover police officer and convinces her to come with him to save her brother and his friends from the truck drivers, who have now armed themselves to combat the robberies. He tracks Dominic's location by triangulating his cell phone signal and they arrive at the hijacking in-progress to find Letty, badly injured at the car accident, and Vince critically wounded, having lacerated his arm and been shot by the truck driver. Brian and Mia work together with Dominic, Leon and Letty to rescue Vince. Brian then makes the difficult decision to blow his cover to the crew by phoning in for a medivac. The revelation enrages Dominic, but he contains himself and flees with Leon, Letty and Mia as the medivac arrives for Vince.

Brian follows Dominic to the house and holds him at gunpoint to prevent him from fleeing. Jesse arrives shortly afterwards, apologizing for his actions at Race Wars and pleading for Dominic's help with Johnny Tran (Rick Yune). Moments later, Tran and his cousin Lance Nguyen (Reggie Lee) perform a drive-by shooting, killing Jesse. Brian and Dominic chase them, with Dominic driving his late father's modified 1970 Dodge Charger. Dominic forces Lance's motorcycle off the road, severely injuring him, while Brian shoots and kills Tran. Afterwards, Brian and Dominic engage in an impromptu street race, narrowly avoiding a passing train. Dominic collides with a semitruck and rolls his car twice, injuring himself, and rendering the Charger undrivable. Instead of arresting him, Brian hands over the keys to his Supra and lets Dominic escape, using the line "I owe you a ten second car". After the credits, Dominic is seen driving through Baja California, Mexico in a 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS.

2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)

Main article: 2 Fast 2 Furious

Watched by undercover Customs Agent Monica Fuentes (Eva Mendes), Brian is caught by US Customs agents and is given a deal by agents Bilkins and Markham (James Remar) to go undercover and try to bring down drug lord Carter Verone (Cole Hauser) in exchange for the erasure of his criminal record. Brian agrees but only if he is given permission to choose his partner, refusing to partner with the agent assigned to watch him. Brian heads home to Barstow, California, where he recruits Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson), a childhood friend of Brian who had served jail time and is under house arrest, to help him. Pearce agrees, but only for the same deal Brian was offered, and with the help of Monica, Brian and Roman work together to take down Verone. After acquiring confiscated vehicles and being hired by Verone as his drivers, the duo return to a Customs/FBI hideout, where Roman confronts Markham over the latter's interference with the mission. After the situation is cooled down, Brian tells Bilkins and Markham that Verone plans to smuggle the money into his private jet and fly off, but also suspects something wrong with Monica's role in the mission.

Sometime later, Brian and Roman race two other would-be Verone drivers for their cars and begin to devise a personal back up plan if the operation goes awry. Roman confronts Brian about his attraction to Monica and the constant threat of Verone's men. On the day of the mission, Brian and Roman begin transporting duffel bags of Verone's money, with Enrique (Mo Gallini) and Roberto (Roberto Sanchez) riding along. Before the 15-minute window is set, the detective in charge, Whitworth (Mark Boone, Jr.), decides to call in the police to move in for the arrest, resulting in a high-speed chase across the city. The duo lead the police to a warehouse, where a scramble by dozens of street racers disorient the police. Following the scramble, police manage to pull over the Evo and the Eclipse, only to find out that they were driven by two members of Brian's new crew, Tej Parker (Ludacris) and Suki (Devon Aoki), respectively.

As Brian approaches the destination point, Enrique tells him to make a detour away from the airfield. Meanwhile, Roman gets rid of Roberto by using an improvised ejector seat powered by nitrous oxide. At the airfield, Customs Agents have Verone's plane and convoy surrounded, only to discover they are duped into a decoy maneuver while Verone is at a boatyard several miles away. As he knew Monica was an undercover agent, he gave her the wrong information on the destination point and plans to use her as leverage. When Brian arrives at the intended drop-off point, Enrique prepares to kill him when Roman suddenly appears and the both of them dispatch of Enrique. Verone makes his escape aboard his private yacht, but Brian and Roman use the Camaro and drive off a ramp at high-speed, crashing on top of the yacht. The duo manage to apprehend Verone and save Monica. With their crimes pardoned, Brian and Roman ponder on what to do next other than to settle in Miami when Brian mentions starting a garage. Roman asks how they would afford that and Brian reveals that he took some of the money, as Roman also reveals that his pockets aren't empty, having taken money for himself.

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)

Main article: The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift

After totaling his car in an illegal street race, Sean Boswell (Lucas Black) is sent to live in Tokyo, Japan, with his father, a U.S. Navy officer, in order to avoid juvie or even jail. While in school, he befriends Twinkie (Bow Wow), a "military brat" who introduces him to the world of drift racing in Japan. Though forbidden to drive, he decides to race against Takashi (Brian Tee) aka D.K. (Drift King) who has ties to the Yakuza. He borrows a Nissan Silvia from Han Seoul-Oh (Sung Kang), now a business partner to Takashi, and loses, totaling the car because of his lack of knowledge of drifting – racing that involves dangerous hairpin turns. To repay his debt for the car he destroyed, Sean must work for Han. Later on, Han becomes friends with Sean and teaches the young racer how to drift. Takashi's uncle Kamata (Sonny Chiba) (the head of the Yakuza) admonishes Takashi for allowing Han to steal from him. Takashi confronts Han, Sean and Neela (Nathalie Kelley), whereupon they flee. During the chase, Han is killed in an accident in his Veilside Mazda RX-7. Takashi, Sean, and his father become involved in an armed standoff which is resolved by Neela agreeing to leave with Takashi. Twinkie gives his money to Sean to replace the money Han stole, which Sean then returns to Kamata. Sean proposes a race against Takashi to determine who must leave Tokyo. Sean and Han's friends then build a Ford Mustang '67, with a Nissan Skyline inline 6 engine and other spare parts. Sean wins the race. Later, Sean is challenged by Dominic. This film's story occurs sometime after Fast & Furious 6 with a scene that was later made concurrent with events in Furious 7.

Fast & Furious (2009)

Main article: Fast & Furious (2009 film)

About five years after the events of the first film, Dominic and his new crew (Letty, Han, Leo, Santos and Cara) have been hijacking fuel tankers in the Dominican Republic. When their trail gets too hot, Dominic disbands the crew. However, he is later informed that Letty has been killed in a car crash. Dominic returns to Los Angeles where he finds traces of nitro-methane at these crash site, and tracks the buyer of the gas to David Park. Meanwhile, Brian O'Conner, who has been working as an FBI agent, is tracking down a drug trafficker named Arturo Braga. Brian and Dominic cross paths at David Park's apartment, where Dominic is about to drop David out the window. But Brian saves David, and works a scheme where he enters a street race where the winner would join Braga's team of drivers. Although Dominic wins the four-car race by bumping Brian's car, Brian later joins the team by replacing one of Braga's other drivers.

The team meets Fenix Calderon (Laz Alonso) who directs them to drive the heroin across the border using underground tunnels to avoid detection. Brian realizes that the drivers are to be killed following the mission, and when Fenix reveals to Dominic that he killed Letty, Dominic detonates the nitrous in his car, blowing up a bunch of vehicles. In the ensuing chaos, Brian hijacks the Hummer that is carrying the heroin. Dominic and Brian drive back to Los Angeles, hiding the heroin in an impound lot. When Dominic learns Brian was the last person to contact Letty, he attacks him until Brian reveals that Letty was working undercover for Brian, tracking down Braga in exchange for clearing Dominic's name. Brian negotiates with the agency to free Dominic if they can lure Braga into personally coming to exchange the heroin for cash. However, at the drop site, it is revealed that the Braga they arrested was a decoy, and that the real Braga (John Ortiz) has escaped, fleeing to Mexico.

Suspended from duty, Brian joins Dominic to go to Mexico to catch Braga. Although Braga agreeably surrenders, they are pursued by Braga's men through town and then the tunnels. Fenix hits Brian's car with a T-bone right outside the tunnel exit, but before he can kill Brian, Dominic drives into Fenix. As the police arrive, Dominic refuses to escape, saying he is tired of running. Despite Brian's request for clemency, the judge sentences Dominic to 25 years to life. During the prison bus ride to Lompoc penitentiary, Brian and Mia, along with Leo and Santos, arrive in their cars to intercept.

Fast Five (2011)

Main article: Fast Five

This article is about the 2011 film. For other uses, see Fast & Furious (disambiguation).

Fast Five
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Justin Lin
Written by	Chris Morgan
Based on	Characters by Gary Scott Thompson
Produced by	Neal H. Moritz Vin Diesel Michael Fottrell
Starring	Vin Diesel Paul Walker Jordana Brewster Tyrese Gibson Chris "Ludacris" Bridges Matt Schulze Sung Kang Dwayne Johnson
Cinematography	Stephen F. Windon
Edited by	Christian Wagner Kelly Matsumoto Fred Raskin
Music by	Brian Tyler
Production companies	Original Film One Race Films
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release dates	April 15, 2011 (2011-04-15) (Cinépolis Lagoon) April 29, 2011 (2011-04-29) (United States)
Running time	130 minutes
Countries	Japan United States
Language	English
Budget	$125 million
Box office	$626.1 million

Fast Five (also known as Fast & Furious 5) is a 2011 action film directed by Justin Lin and written by Chris Morgan. It is the sequel to Fast & Furious (2009) and the fifth installment in the Fast & Furious franchise. The film stars Vin Diesel as Dominic Toretto and Paul Walker as Brian O'Conner, alongside Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Gal Gadot, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Matt Schulze, Sung Kang and Dwayne Johnson. In the film, Dom and Brian, along with Dom's sister Mia (Brewster) plan a heist to steal $100 million from corrupt businessman Hernan Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida) while being pursued for arrest by U.S. Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) agent Luke Hobbs (Johnson).

While developing Fast Five, Universal Pictures deliberately departed from the street racing theme prevalent in previous films in the series, to transform the franchise into a heist action series involving cars. By doing so, they hoped to attract wider audiences that might otherwise be put off by a heavy emphasis on cars and car culture. Fast Five is considered the transitional film in the series, featuring only one car race and giving more attention to action set pieces such as brawls, gun fights, and the central heist. The production mounted a comprehensive marketing campaign, with the film being advertised through social media, virtual games, cinema chains, automobile manufacturers, and at NASCAR races.

Lin, Diesel, and Walker's returns were finalized in February 2010. Principal photography began that July and lasted until that October, with filming locations including Atlanta, Puerto Rico, and Rio de Janeiro. Brian Tyler, the composer of the previous two installments, returned to compose the score. The film is notable for primarily featuring practical stunt work as opposed to computer-generated imagery.

Fast Five premiered at the Cinépolis Lagoon in Rio de Janeiro on April 15, 2011, and was released in the United States on April 29, by Universal Pictures. The film received positive reviews, with praise for Lin's direction, the action sequences, and the performances of the cast; it is widely considered the best film in the franchise. Fast Five grossed $626 million worldwide, becoming the seventh-highest-grossing film of 2011, the then-highest-grossing film in the franchise, and set several records related to Universal's highest-grossing opening weekend in several international markets. It was followed by Fast & Furious 6 in 2013.

Plot

As Dominic Toretto is being transported by bus to Lompoc Prison, his sister Mia Toretto and friend Brian O'Conner lead an assault on the bus and free Dom. While the authorities search for them, the trio escape to Rio de Janeiro. Awaiting Dom's arrival, Mia and Brian join their friend Vince and other participants on a job to steal three cars from a train. Brian and Mia learn that agents from the DEA are on the train and that the cars are seized property. When Dom arrives with his accomplices, he realizes that their leader Zizi is only interested in stealing the Ford GT40. Dom has Mia steal the car herself before he and Brian fight Zizi and his henchmen, during which Zizi kills the DEA Agents. Brian and Dom are captured and brought to drug lord Hernan Reyes, the owner of the cars and Zizi's boss. Reyes orders the pair interrogated to discover the car's location, but they escape to their safehouse.

Dom, Brian, and Mia are framed as the murderers of the DEA Agents, and the U.S. government sends a team of Diplomatic Security Service Agents, led by DSS Agent Luke Hobbs and assisted by state police officer Elena Neves, to Rio to arrest them. While Brian, Dom, and Mia examine the car to discover its importance, Vince arrives and is caught removing a computer chip from it. He admits he was planning to sell the chip to Reyes, and Dom angrily forces him to leave. Brian discovers the chip contains financial details of Reyes's criminal empire, including the locations of US$100 million in cash. Hobbs and his team arrive at Dom's safehouse, but find it under assault by Reyes' men searching for the chip. Brian, Dom and Mia escape after a chase across the favelas. Dom suggests they split up and leave Rio, but Mia announces she is pregnant with Brian's child. Dom agrees to stick together, suggesting they steal Reyes' money to start a new life. They organize a team to perform the heist: Han, Roman, Tej, Gisele, Leo, and Santos.

To centralize the cash, Dom's team attacks one of the locations and burns the money in front of Reyes's staff. Afraid of further attacks, Reyes consolidates the remaining money in an evidence vault inside a police station. Dom's team does surveillance, buys equipment, and acquires Reyes's handprint. After their fastest cars prove to be too slow for security cameras, they steal four 2010 Dodge Charger police cars to blend in. Vince rejoins Dom's team after saving Mia from Reyes's men. Hobbs's team eventually finds and arrests Dom, Mia, Brian, and Vince. While transporting them for extradition to the United States in a Gurkha LAPV, the convoy is attacked by Reyes's men. Dom, Brian, Mia, and Vince help Hobbs and Elena escape the ambush, but the rest of Hobbs's men and Vince are killed. Enraged at their team's deaths, Hobbs and Elena agree to help with the heist. The gang breaks into the police station with the LAPV and uses two of the Chargers to tear the vault holding Reyes's money from the building, dragging it through the city.

Advancing on the bridge after an extensive police chase, Dom has Brian continue without him while he smashes the police and Reyes's vehicles with the vault. Brian returns and kills Zizi. Hobbs arrives and executes the injured Reyes in retribution for his team. Hobbs gives Dom and Brian a 24-hour head start to escape on the condition they leave the vault as it is. When Dom and Brian depart, however, Hobbs finds the vault empty, as Dom's crew switched it via a trash truck before they reached the bridge. After splitting the cash and giving Vince's family his cut, Dom's team go their separate ways. On a tropical beach, Brian challenges Dom to a final, no-stakes race to prove who is the better driver. During the end credits, Brian and Dom are seen racing each other in their new cars to the limit.

In a mid-credits scene in Washington, D.C., Hobbs is given a file by Monica Fuentes concerning the hijack of a military convoy in Berlin, where he discovers a recent photo of Dom's wife, Letty, who had been presumed dead.

Cast

Top to bottom: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, and Jordana Brewster reprised their roles from the original The Fast and the Furious (2001).

Main articles: List of Fast & Furious cast members and List of Fast & Furious characters

• Vin Diesel as Dominic Toretto:
  A professional criminal, street racer, and fugitive. Known as the leader of the crew. Diesel was reportedly paid $15 million to star in and produce the film.
• Paul Walker as Brian O'Conner:
  A former LAPD police officer and FBI agent turned criminal. He is in a relationship with Mia Toretto. Walker did many of his own stunts for the film, training with parkour professional Paul Darnell to improve his movement.
• Jordana Brewster as Mia Toretto:
  Dominic's sister and Brian's girlfriend; she is revealed to be pregnant.
• Tyrese Gibson as Roman Pearce:
  Brian's childhood friend. Known for being the slick talker of the team as well as an expert driver. Gibson's involvement was reported on June 30, 2010, reprising his role from 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003). Gibson was committed to Transformers: Dark of the Moon at the time he signed on to Fast Five, so he flew between Puerto Rico and Atlanta to accommodate both films.
• Chris "Ludacris" Bridges as Tej Parker:
  Brian's and Roman's friend from Miami in 2 Fast 2 Furious. Brought on the team as the tech expert. Ludacris announced his involvement in the film on July 12, 2010, when he stated he had arrived in Puerto Rico to begin filming.
• Matt Schulze as Vince:
  Dominic's childhood friend. Schulze had appeared in the original film, The Fast and the Furious (2001), and it was reported on July 16, 2010, that he would be returning. He has a grudge against Brian for the events that happened in the first film, but they become friends after he saves Mia from Reyes' men.
• Sung Kang as Han Lue:
  A street racer who was Dominic's business partner in the Dominican Republic during the events of Los Bandoleros and Fast & Furious (both 2009).
• Gal Gadot as Gisele Yashar:
  A former Mossad agent, returning from Fast & Furious. Although Gadot had prior experience handling motorcycles, she was required to learn how to ride the larger, more powerful Ducati Streetfighter for the film.
• Joaquim de Almeida as Hernan Reyes:
  A ruthless drug lord posing as a legitimate businessman. It was reported on July 16, 2010, that Almeida would play Reyes. Having previously played several antagonists, he hesitated to take this role, but accepted it after speaking with Lin and hearing his take on the character.
• Dwayne Johnson as Luke Hobbs:
  A DSS agent. According to producer Vin Diesel, the role of Hobbs was originally developed with Tommy Lee Jones in mind. However, when reading feedback on his Facebook page, Diesel noted a fan stating a desire to see Diesel and Johnson in a film together. Diesel and Lin then redesigned the role for Johnson. Johnson wanted to work with Universal Studios, citing their support for him during his transition from wrestling to acting. He described the role as a former bounty hunter turned US Marshal and as "the government's version of the best bounty hunter on the planet". He undertook an extensive daily workout regime to enlarge his physique, wanting his character to appear as a "hunter" and to be formidable enough to present a credible threat to the protagonists.
• Elsa Pataky as Elena Neves:
  A Rio police officer who works with Hobbs' team and becomes Dominic's love interest. It was reported on July 16, 2010, that Pataky would take this role. She underwent several days of tactical training with a police/military technical advisor and was required to learn how to handle her gun in a variety of situations to portray Elena believably.

The central cast is rounded out by Puerto Rican singers Tego Calderón and Don Omar as Leo and Santos respectively, members of the heist team, reprising their roles from Los Bandoleros and Fast & Furious. Michael Irby plays Reyes' right-hand man Zizi. Alimi Ballard, Fernando Chien, Yorgo Constantine, and Geoff Meedy portray Hobbs' team members Fusco, Wilkes, Chato, and Macroy. Luis Da Silva portrays Diogo, an elite Brazilian racer who challenges Dom and Brian to a winner-takes-all race. Michelle Rodriguez appears in photographs as Letty Ortiz, Dominic's girlfriend who is presumed dead following the events of Fast & Furious. Eva Mendes appears in an uncredited cameo as Agent Monica Fuentes, reprising her role from 2 Fast 2 Furious.

Production

Development

By February 3, 2010, it was confirmed that a fifth film, referred to as Fast Five, was going into production in the Fast and Furious series, and that a sixth film was being planned. It was also confirmed that Diesel, Walker, writer Chris Morgan and producer Neal H. Moritz would all return to their roles for the new installment. Moritz said that, following the success of Fast & Furious (2009), which had reunited Diesel, Walker, Rodriguez and Brewster from the original film, the production wanted to bring them back again for the next one. Diesel felt that the story between the characters portrayed by himself and Walker should continue, envisioning it as three chapters, of which Fast Five would be the last. Diesel also wanted to bring back a variety of characters that had been in previous films without interacting, put them together and "have a lot of fun".

The production had originally intended to film on location in Rio de Janeiro. However, the Puerto Rican government offered tax incentives totaling nearly $11 million, influencing the decision to film there, using Puerto Rico to represent Rio de Janeiro.

Universal intended to transform the series from street-racing action into a series of heist films with car chases in the vein of The Italian Job (1969) and The French Connection (1971), with Fast Five as the transitional movie. In April 2011, Universal chairman Adam Fogelson said:

The question putting Fast Five and Fast Six together for us was: Can we take it out of being a pure car culture movie and into being a true action franchise in the spirit of those great heist films made 10 or 15 years ago?

Fogelson said that the racing aspect had put a "ceiling" on the number of people willing to see films in the series, and that, by turning it into a series where car driving ability is just one aspect of the film, he hoped to increase the series' audience.

Writing

"For me, each chapter in this franchise is an extension of the first one, and they each get bigger. It is always a privilege to be able to revisit a good character-driven story. This franchise is more than street racing and tuner cars; it really is about this larger family and community of racers."

— Morgan on his approach to writing the film

Lin wanted to explore the elements of "freedom and family" in the film and collaborated with Morgan towards that ideal, both having worked together on previous installments of the franchise. Morgan worked with Diesel to produce a story arc that would further explore and develop Diesel's character. An idea involving heisting a large safe had been conceived by Morgan during the production of Fast & Furious, but that film's premise did not work with how Morgan envisioned it. He later incorporated it into Fast Five.

Filming

On a budget of $125 million, the shooting of Fast Five was scheduled for July and August 2010. Shooting had started by July 14, 2010.

Three film units worked simultaneously. The main cast were required to travel to Rio at the behest of Lin, who felt it important to understand the area and its culture to give the film a good sense of place. Diesel agreed that it was important to shoot key scenes in Brazil, commenting "we were able to shoot where other productions might not be able to shoot because our franchise has such good street cred."

The Rio film unit captured aerial shots of the city including Sugarloaf Mountain, Fort Copacabana, Ipanema Beach, the Dona Marta lookout point and the Christ the Redeemer statue. Establishing shots of the heist team members were taken as each arrived in Rio. Gibson was filmed arriving in character at Galeão International Airport but, when it became publicly known that a scene was being shot at the airport, the cast and crew were mobbed. A similar situation occurred while Ludacris was shooting a scene in which his character buys a car to drive around the city. A scene where the completed heist team walk down a beach was filmed in Copacabana.

The rooftop chase across favelas was filmed in Puerto Rico, where the production could have more control over the area. The main and second filming units began filming in and around the capital, San Juan. The island's mixture of tropical greenery and wide streets allowed the production to re-create the densely populated favelas of Rio while completing the larger action and external scenes without incident. Production designer Peter Wenham had the task of transforming Puerto Rico and Atlanta into the previously scouted Rio locations in four weeks, as the production deemed Rio unsuitable for filming many of the larger scenes. Wenham had to reinforce buildings to support the heavy camera equipment, and to alter the colors of more than 30 buildings in the city to make them suitable for filming. His team needed to alter the buildings and strew debris to make the area look disheveled and appear as a Rio favela. Wenham remarked that, though the development was difficult, in part due to the heat, it was "a walk in the park" compared with filming in the Rio favelas themselves. Wenham aimed to maintain a monochromatic color scheme for the film, with muted blacks and grays, including his choice of colors for the cars used. He only chose to add a multitude of colors in the favela set. The Teodoro Moscosco bridge connecting San Juan to neighboring Isla Verde was used to film the final showdown between Dom and Reyes, while a U.S. Navy base pier 60 miles outside San Juan stood in for the bridge for scenes involving the vault smashing cars. Action scenes were also filmed in the Hato Rey and Río Piedras districts of San Juan.

A foot pursuit in which Diesel, Brewster and Walker are chased across favela rooftops by Johnson and his team was filmed over the course of a week in the small hillside town of Naranjito, Puerto Rico. The scene was considered difficult to shoot, as pathways were slippery from moist tropical heat and the scene involved actors and stunt doubles running while avoiding dogs, chickens and other stray animals loose in the area. To capture the scene, a 420-foot cable-camera rig was used to allow for a fast moving, birds-eye view of the action, and cameras on cranes were set up on rooftops and in alleyways. Walker and Brewster made multiple takes of the conclusion of the scene, requiring them to jump nearly 30 feet from a building onto a waiting safety mat. In total the production employed 236 technicians, 13,145 extras, and generated 16,824 room nights at hotels, contributing $27 million to the Puerto Rican community.

Filming moved to Atlanta, Georgia, for the final phase. Wenham and his team transformed a defunct train yard into an abandoned auto plant used by the protagonists as their headquarters. Redesigning the train yard took place over several months. It was required to allow enough space for stunt drivers to drive into the building, and it had to include an integrated lighting system. The design team removed walls, hauled out old railway cars, suspended rusted car parts and auto-plant car rails, and constructed smaller buildings within the main building to transform the site. With twenty-five pages of script to shoot in a limited time, cinematographer Stephen Windon and his team spent three weeks setting up a series of high-powered, motorized lights in the rafters of the building, that could be controlled remotely to allow lighting to be altered quickly while fully illuminating the set. An exterior scene involving Diesel and Walker attending a car party, involving several high-performance cars, was filmed near the Georgia Dome. The train heist scene was filmed in Rice, California over three weeks.

A brawl scene between Johnson's and Diesel's characters was considered difficult to choreograph. The characters were written to be equally formidable, so the fight was punctuated with moments of character development, as Moritz felt this made the fight more exciting. The scene required several weeks of rehearsal and more than a week of filming by the actors and their stunt doubles, who incurred several minor injuries.

Vehicle stunts

Most of the climactic scenes were filmed in the Milla de Oro district in Hato Rey, Puerto Rico.

The climactic vault heist required four weeks of preparation with every scene and camera angle determined in advance. The filmmakers hired stuntmen Spiro Razatos and Jack Gill to direct the second-unit action filming and serve as stunt coordinator respectively. The pair initially began research for the stunt by testing the capabilities of the prop vaults and the Dodge Chargers driven by Diesel and Walker. Filmed on the streets of Hato Rey, the chaotic scene demanded specific timing that had to be synchronized with the various character interactions also occurring during the scene. Razatos chose to use a series of camera cars including a crane-mounted camera atop a Porsche Cayenne, which allowed him to film from a variety of angles and heights while the vehicles were in motion, and a Subaru Impreza with a steel cage built around it that allowed for tracking shots. The Subaru's driver Allen Padelford would occasionally accidentally collide with the vault, creating a shower of sparks that inadvertently became useful footage. Padelford also developed a top-mount dual-drive system for the Chargers that allowed a stunt driver to control the vehicle from the roof, while the actor focused on their performance inside the car.

Six versions of the 8-foot high vault were built, each with specific uses. One of the vaults was a façade built onto the front of a semi-truck and was used for filming close shots of the vault destroying street cars. Another vault was a reinforced, four-wheel self-drive vehicle that was connected to 30-foot (9.1 m) cables and dragged through the streets of San Juan by the two stunt Dodge Chargers. The four-short-ton (3.6 t) vault was driven by stunt driver Henry Kingi, who had to wear a temperature-controlled suit to compensate for the temperatures within that could exceed 100 °F (38 °C). A scene where the vault tumbled as the cars rounded a corner was a practical effect, and the result was more violent than the filmmakers had anticipated. Over 200 vehicles were destroyed by the vault during filming. Several stunts had to be cut including a final scene that would have seen the vault hanging over the edge of the Teodoro Moscoso Bridge. This stunt was abandoned when it was determined that even the powerful Chargers would not be able to support the vault's weight.

The train heist presented several challenges. The filmmakers were required to effectively purchase a length of working railroad for filming and the trains necessary to ride the tracks. Then trucks had to be built that could race the train and meet the needs of the heist itself. Lin also required that the cars being carried on the train be able to jump out of the train at full speed. The scene took precise execution. The filmmakers chose to use cars they could cheaply replicate for the train heist—a 1972 De Tomaso Pantera, a 2007 Chevrolet Corvette GS Roadster, and a Ford GT40—to avoid the expense of replacing a genuine $2 million Ford GT40.

Music

Main article: Fast Five (soundtrack)

The film soundtrack was released on iTunes on April 25, 2011, and on CD on May 3, 2011, by ABKCO Records. It features many reggaeton and rhythmic Latin tracks, including songs by Don Omar, Busta Rhymes and many others, with three pieces from Tyler's original score for the film: "Assembling the Team", "Mad Skills" and "Fast Five Suite". Music guide AllMusic awarded the album 3 stars out of 5, commenting that "The goal here is to accompany a picture that, as usual, is packed with driving sequences involving flashy cars, beautiful, scantily clad women, and muscled men. That goal is accomplished with this beat-heavy music and the gruff, aggressive Latin rapping." Ludacris collaborated with Slaughterhouse and Claret Jai for the soundtrack's lead single, "Furiously Dangerous".

The film score was released on May 3, 2011, by Varèse Sarabande. The release has 25 tracks and plays for 78 minutes. The score spent four weeks on the Billboard 200, peaking as high as number 60 and reaching number 24 on the digital albums chart and number 5 on the soundtrack-only chart.

Marketing

An example of Fast Five's cross-media marketing. A Regal Entertainment Group-branded, virtual drive-in theater in Car Town, shows the trailer for Fast Five.

The Facebook game Car Town by Cie Games and the theater chain Regal Entertainment Group (REG) collaborated with Universal in a cross-media marketing promotion. Car Town allowed players to view the trailer for the film in an REG-branded, in-game drive-in theater and race around a virtual Rio de Janeiro. The game also featured missions and locations based on the plot of the film, while allowing players to race against Fast Five characters and take part in a bank heist. REG offered players of Car Town the ability to purchase tickets in-game via Fandango for films at REG theaters. By buying these tickets in-game, players were given promotional codes which in turn allowed them to unlock a virtual 1970s Dodge Charger, used by Diesel's character in the original film. REG promoted the partnership between the film and the game in their theaters across 37 states, online and through social media, while Universal promoted it via their own Facebook, Twitter and YouTube sites. In October 2011, it was claimed that over 200 million races had taken place within the virtual Rio de Janeiro environment in the six months since the campaign's April launch.

Automobile manufacturer Dodge collaborated with Universal in marketing the film, supplying several Dodge Chargers to use in it. The partnership with Dodge included the "Fast Five" Dodge Charger driven by Robby Gordon in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series throughout April 2011 – the opening month of Fast Five. Dodge also sponsored the world premiere of the film in Rio de Janeiro.

Release

Theatrical

Fast Five was originally planned to be released on June 10, 2011, before being pushed forward to April 29. The film held its world premiere at the Cinépolis Lagoon theater in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on April 15.

Home media

On August 2, 2011, USA Network purchased the rights to the United States network premiere of Fast Five. The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray in the United Kingdom on September 5, 2011, and in the United States on October 4, 2011, in 2.35:1 aspect ratio with DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 sound. A triple pack was also released containing a Blu-ray, DVD, and digital copy of the film in either Blu-ray or DVD packaging. The Blu-ray versions contains several exclusive additional features, including behind-the-scenes footage, cast and crew interviews, a "virtual car garage" that provides further details on the vehicles used in the production, and music tracks from the film. Both the DVD and the Blu-ray contain a theatrical cut of 130 minutes and extended cut of 132 minutes of the film, director commentary, deleted scenes, a gag reel and features on the three central characters. Commenting on the extended cut, Lin said "this is the version that I prefer." During first week sales in the United States the DVD was the number 1 selling DVD, the number 1 rental DVD, and the number 2 selling Blu-ray disc behind the Blu-ray re-release of The Lion King. 57% of the total first week disc sales of Fast Five were the Blu-ray disc version.

To promote the release of the DVD and Blu-ray, Universal Studios Home Entertainment sponsored the first race of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, at the Chicagoland Speedway. The event, renamed as the "Fast Five 225", took place on September 16, 2011, with Gibson and Brewster as Grand Marshals; Gibson sang the American national anthem for the event and Brewster acted as honorary starter. The event served as the kickoff for the first weekend of the Chase for the Sprint Cup and was won by Austin Dillon. The deal marked the first time that a film promotion had been allowed to take over a NASCAR race as a title sponsor. Continuing the partnership with Car Town, the game was used as the exclusive means of pre-ordering the Blu-ray/DVD combo release at Walmart, via players clicking on a Walmart-themed truck, which in turn provided the player with Fast Five branded in-game rewards.

Fast Five was released on 4K UHD Blu-ray on June 11, 2019.

Reception

Box office

Fast Five grossed $209.8 million (33.5%) in the United States and Canada and $416.3 million (66.5%) in other territories for a total of $626.1 million. Worldwide, it is the seventh-highest-grossing film of 2011. It achieved a worldwide opening weekend of $109.6 million. The film reached a peak of number 55 on the list of all-time highest-grossing films worldwide in October 2011. It became the highest-grossing film in the Fast & Furious franchise in worldwide grosses (as well as separately in the US and Canada, and outside the US and Canada) but was out-grossed in all three cases by Fast & Furious 6.

United States and Canada

According to Box Office Mojo, Fast Five is one of the most successful sequels of 2011, when taking into account that it is one of few to have outperformed the immediately-preceding installment of its franchise in the US and Canada.

Fast Five opened in the United States on April 29, 2011, in 3,644 theaters, It took $3.8 million in midnight showings, setting new records for the Fast & Furious series and Universal (both records overtaken by Fast & Furious 6). By the end of its opening day, it had accrued a total of $34.4 million (including midnight earnings), setting an April opening-day record, replacing Fast & Furious ($30.5 million), and marking the third largest Friday outside of the summer and holiday period, behind The Hunger Games and Alice in Wonderland. In total, Fast Five earned $86.2 million during its opening weekend, an average of $23,655 per theater, with IMAX showings contributing over $8 million. It thus set an opening-weekend record for the Fast & Furious series, for Universal (both records overtaken by Fast & Furious 6), and for films released in April (the record was surpassed in 2014 by Captain America: The Winter Soldier). It also achieved the third-largest spring opening, behind The Hunger Games and Alice in Wonderland. The film also set an opening-weekend record among films starring Diesel, Walker, Brewster, Johnson, Moritz and Lin, records overtaken in all cases by Fast & Furious 6.

The film opened dropped 62% on its second weekend, earning $32.4 million, and ranking second behind Thor. This result was partially attributed to the reduction in IMAX and large-format screens showing the film (reduced from 244 to 20), since IMAX contributed only $510,000 to the film's second-weekend gross. On June 4, 2011, 37 days after release in the US, the film became the first of 2011 to accrue more than $200 million. The film received a one-week re-release in IMAX theaters on September 30, 2011.

The film drew revenues of US$209,837,675 in the US and Canada, $416,300,000 elsewhere, for a worldwide total of $626,137,675. The box office ranking peaked at number 1 for all films of 2011 (as of 2021, ranked at number 6), number 103 for all-time US films (as of 2021, ranked number 197), and for all-time worldwide films number 55 (as of 2021, at number 151).

Other territories

Fast Five was initially released in Australia on Wednesday, April 20, 2011 – nine days before the release date in North America – followed by releases in the UK, South Korea and New Zealand. The earlier start in these countries was timed to coincide with their Easter holidays and avoided competition from forthcoming summer films, although this placed it in direct competition with Thor in some countries. By the end of its opening weekend, the film had accrued a total of $23.4 million from these countries. On its second weekend, Fast Five earned $46.3 million across 3,139 theaters in 14 countries, ranking first at the box office in each of its ten new markets. For the overall weekend, it ranked second behind Thor. In the third weekend of release, Fast Five topped the box office in a further 44 countries, playing in a total of 6,979 theaters across 58 countries. It ranked first during the weekend with $85.8 million. It set an opening-weekend record in the United Arab Emirates ($1.65 million), holding this record for two weeks before being out-grossed by Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides ($2.24 million).

Across all markets, the film scored Universal's highest-grossing opening weekend in Russia, Spain, Turkey, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, France, India, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates and Vietnam.

Critical response

Dwayne Johnson received praise from several critics for his performance.

On Rotten Tomatoes, Fast Five has an approval rating of with an average rating of based on reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "Sleek, loud, and over the top, Fast Five proudly embraces its brainless action thrills and injects new life into the franchise." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 66 out of 100, based on reviews from 41 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.

Roger Ebert gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, praising it as "a skillfully assembled 130 minutes at the movies, with actors capable of doing absurd things with straight faces, and action sequences that toy idly with the laws of physics", while Richard Corliss of Time considered it "maybe the first great film of the post-human era". The New York Times said it deftly combined action and humor, stating "The only time you won't be watching the screen is when your eyes have squeezed shut because you're laughing so hard." The Telegraph appreciated the presence of Johnson and Diesel together, calling it a "cosmic event", and added that director Lin had revitalized the series, saying "the start and finish here, defying every imaginable law of physics, are series highs." Empire also heaped praise on Johnson, saying "How to re-ignite an ageing franchise? Drop [Johnson] on it. The best thing, by far, in Fast Five ... Dwayne Johnson hulks through the movie leaving testosterone trails in his wake." However, Empire took the view that the film itself was "not, by any normal criteria, a good film", arguing that it was too long, although conceding that the action scenes, in particular the final car chase, made the film "the most entertaining in the series." Anna Smith of Time Out London also commented that the film was too long and criticized the simplistic characters and dialog, but she called the film "slick" and stated that these criticisms could be overlooked because "it doesn't take itself too seriously." Variety focused on the roles of Johnson and Diesel, lamenting the current lack of 1980s-style "brawny" leading men and of the "manly men" typical of the 1950s and 1960s, and calling their pairing "a welcome injection of tough-guy vigor". Variety commented that, based on Fast Five, a "sixth entry could be something worth waiting for". The New Yorker called the action scenes "spectacular", praising director Lin by saying his "direction and the sharp editing never confuse or lose momentum", but also found the film too long and criticized the dialog, labeling it "subpar Ocean's Eleven-style banter". On the characters, The New Yorker considered Walker and Diesel "serviceable", but singled out Johnson for praise for bringing a "hip, comic knowingness to his role ... his enjoyment is infectious and keeps the movie speeding along."

Total Film welcomed the return of Ludacris and Tyrese Gibson to "[inject] the film with much-needed laughs" and felt that Johnson fit into the established cast with ease, though it believed the film itself was "no mould-breaker." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone, who disliked the previous movies, gave the film 2.5 stars out of 4, praising the transformation of the series into a heist film ("Damn it, it works"), commenting favorably on scenes between Johnson and Diesel, and judging that "Fast Five will push all your action buttons, and some you haven't thought of." The Los Angeles Times felt that scenes shared by Diesel and Johnson were the "best moments" and appreciated the humor, but considered the pacing a "strange mix", switching between exposition, comedy scenes and then sudden action. The reviewer echoed other critics' sentiments concerning the running time of the film, but concluded that "the sheer audacity of "Fast Five" is kind of breathtaking in a metal-twisting, death-defying, mission-implausible, B-movie-on-steroids kind of way", labeling it the "best" of the series.

Both Empire and Variety noted that the final chase scene of Fast Five contained allusions to Bad Boys II (2003): Variety stated that the scene "seems inspired in part by a similarly spectacular scene in Bad Boys II"; Empire said that it "nearly out-Bad-Boys-2s Bad Boys 2".

Not all reviews were positive. Film4 criticized both the film's long running time and its treatment of female characters, remarking "Some cameo strikingly in buttock form. Others actually have first names". But Film4 praised Johnson's role as DSS agent Luke Hobbs, saying he "provides a more credible anti-antagonist to our anti-heroes than the straight up villains can manage". The Boston Herald gave a more mixed reaction: it derided the lack of realism as removing any sense of threat to the protagonists, but conceded that "these films may be robustly anti-intellectual and deplorably commercialized, but they are the envy of the rest of the world." Despite giving the film a positive review and praising the action, The Hollywood Reporter was critical of its stars, saying "it's clear the budget wasn't used on acting lessons for the cast." Time Out New York stated that "The Fast and the Furious movies haven't exactly gotten better as they've gone along" but gave the director a backhanded compliment, saying "Justin Lin, taking his third turn behind the franchise's wheel, is at least a competent hack." Ebert was more complimentary, saying "Justin Lin is emerging as a first-rate director in this second-rate genre" and Rolling Stone managed "Justin Lin, who misdirected the last two sequels, finds his pace this time, staging dynamite action."

Brazilian critics

Fast Five cast in Rio de Janeiro

Brazilian reviewers criticized the use of Rio de Janeiro in the film, claiming it was stereotyped as "dominated by heavily armed drug traffickers, corrupt police, and sexy women". O Globo accused the producers of using "aerial shots and quick editing" to "deceive the viewer" into believing that the criminal acts take place in Rio. Globo also reacted negatively to the use of "foreigners" to represent Brazilians, "speaking Portuguese with laughable accents". Veja agreed with O Globo, saying, "The city of Rio and the Rio Film Commission supported the production. But the image that will spread across the world is exactly what the city doesn't want."

Accolades

In December, 2011, Richard Corliss ranked the film number 10 on his list of the Top 10 Best Movies of 2011, saying, "A carnival of roguish heroes and pretty girls, car chases and cliffhangers, Fast Five is as much a tribute as The Artist or Hugo to the cinema's primal thrills." Empire placed the film number 20 on its list of the Top 20 Films of 2011, while IGN named it the "Best Action Movie" of 2011. Fast Five was listed as the number 1 most illegally downloaded film of 2011 on BitTorrent with approximately 9.3 million downloads.

Accolades received by Fast Five

Award	Date of ceremony	Category	Recipient(s)	Result	Ref.
BMI Film & TV Awards	May 19, 2011	BMI Film Music Awards	Brian Tyler	Won
Critics' Choice Movie Awards	January 12, 2012	Best Action Movie	Fast Five	Nominated
Golden Reel Awards	February 19, 2012	Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing – Sound Effects and Foley for Feature Film	Fast Five	Nominated
Golden Trailer Awards	June 29, 2011	Best Action TV Spot	"Fast Women" (AV Squad)	Nominated
		Best Summer 2011 Blockbuster Poster	Fast Five (Cold Open)	Nominated
		Best Summer Blockbuster 2011 TV Spot	"Super Bowl" (AV Squad)	Won
Hollywood Post Alliance Awards	November 10, 2011	Outstanding Sound – Feature Film	Peter Brown, Jon Taylor, and Frank A. Montaño	Nominated
NAACP Image Awards	February 17, 2012	Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture	Vin Diesel	Nominated
People's Choice Awards	January 11, 2012	Favorite Action Movie	Fast Five	Nominated
		Favorite Action Movie Star	Vin Diesel	Nominated
Saturn Awards	July 26, 2012	Best Action/Adventure Film	Fast Five	Nominated
		Best Editing	Kelly Matsumoto, Fred Raskin, and Christian Wagner	Nominated
Teen Choice Awards	August 7, 2011	Choice Movie – Action	Fast Five	Won
		Choice Movie Actor – Action	Vin Diesel	Nominated
			Dwayne Johnson	Nominated
			Paul Walker	Nominated
		Choice Movie Actress – Action	Jordana Brewster	Nominated

Sequels

Further information: Fast & Furious

Following Fast Five's release, any additional film in the series focused on "more accessible action elements". Fast & Furious 6 (2013) surpassed the box-office take of Fast Five, and received a similarly positive critical response. It was followed by Furious 7 (2015) and The Fate of the Furious (2017). The pictures each earned more than $1 billion, respectively becoming one of the highest-grossing films of 2015 and 2017. After F9 (2021) being delayed multiple times from an original 2019 date, Fast X was released in 2023. An eleventh and final mainline film, Fast XI, is in production.

References

Documents

• "Fast Five" (PDF). Official Fast Five website. Universal Pictures. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 16, 2011. Retrieved March 5, 2012.

External links

• Official website
• Fast & Furious at IMDb 

Fast & Furious 6 (2013)

Main article: Fast & Furious 6

For other uses, see Fast & Furious (disambiguation).

Fast & Furious 6
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Justin Lin
Written by	Chris Morgan
Based on	Characters by Gary Scott Thompson
Produced by	Neal H. Moritz Vin Diesel Clayton Townsend
Starring	Vin Diesel Paul Walker Dwayne Johnson Michelle Rodriguez Jordana Brewster Tyrese Gibson Chris "Ludacris" Bridges Sung Kang Luke Evans Gina Carano John Ortiz
Cinematography	Stephen F. Windon
Edited by	Christian Wagner Kelly Matsumoto Dylan Highsmith
Music by	Lucas Vidal
Production companies	Relativity Media Original Film One Race Films Dentsu
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release dates	May 7, 2013 (2013-05-07) (Empire, Leicester Square) May 24, 2013 (2013-05-24) (United States)
Running time	130 minutes
Countries	Japan United States Spain
Language	English
Budget	$160–260 million
Box office	$788.7 million

Fast & Furious 6 (titled on-screen as Furious 6) is a 2013 action film directed by Justin Lin and written by Chris Morgan. It is the sequel to Fast Five and the sixth installment in the Fast & Furious franchise. The film stars Vin Diesel as Dominic Toretto and Paul Walker as Brian O'Conner, alongside Dwayne Johnson, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Sung Kang, Luke Evans, Gina Carano, and John Ortiz. In the film, Dom, Brian and their team are offered pardons for their crimes in exchange for helping DSS agent Luke Hobbs apprehend Owen Shaw, an ex-British SAS Major, who runs a mercenary organization in which Dom's former lover Letty is also a member.

A sixth film was planned as early as February 2010, prior to the production of Fast Five; this was confirmed in April 2011, after Morgan began writing the screenplay, while the returns of Diesel, Lin, and producer Neal H. Moritz were confirmed that June. Discussions arose filming alongside a potential seventh installment; these were abandoned once principal photography began in July 2012, which lasted until that December, with filming locations including Los Angeles, London, Glasgow, and the Canary Islands. Similarly to its predecessor, Fast & Furious 6 featured mostly practical stuntwork, which required designed specialty vehicles in order to be completed. Brian Tyler, the composer of the previous three installments, did not return due to scheduling conflicts and was replaced with Lucas Vidal.

Fast & Furious 6 premiered at Empire, Leicester Square on May 7, 2013, and was then first released in the United Kingdom on May 17, and in the United States on May 24, by Universal Pictures. The film received generally positive reviews from critics with praise for its direction, cast performances and action sequences. It grossed $788.7 million, making it the sixth-highest-grossing film of 2013, the then-third highest-grossing film distributed by Universal, and the then-highest-grossing film in the franchise. It was followed by Furious 7 in 2015.

Fast & Furious 6 is the last film in the franchise released in Paul Walker's lifetime as he died in a single-vehicle accident on November 30, 2013.

Plot

Following their successful heist in Brazil, Dominic Toretto and his crew have fled around the world and are living peacefully: Dom lives with Elena Neves; his sister Mia lives with Brian O'Conner and their son, Jack; Gisele Yashar and Han Lue are together; and Roman Pearce and Tej Parker live in luxury. Meanwhile, DSS agents Luke Hobbs and Riley Hicks investigate the destruction of a Russian military convoy by a crew of mercenaries led by former British SAS operative, Owen Shaw. Hobbs locates Dom and convinces him to help capture Owen by showing him a photo of his supposedly murdered girlfriend, Letty Ortiz, who is working with Owen and his crew. Dom wants to do the job by himself but Hobbs convinces him that the whole "family" is needed. When Dom's crew is all together at their headquarters, Hobbs tells them that Owen is stealing components to create a "Nightshade" device that can shut down all power, intending to sell it to the highest bidder. Dom and his crew accept the mission in exchange for pardons.

In London, Owen's hideout is found but is revealed to be a distraction while Owen's crew performs a heist at an Interpol building. Owen flees in a custom car, detonating his hideout and disabling most of the police, leaving Dom, Brian, Tej, Roman, Han, Gisele, Hobbs, and Riley to pursue him. Letty arrives to help Owen, shooting Dom without hesitation before escaping. Meanwhile, Owen's investigation into Dom's crew reveals Letty's relationship with Dom, but she is revealed to be suffering from amnesia. Dom's crew learns that Owen is connected to Arturo Braga, a drug lord whom Dom and Brian imprisoned. While Tej purchases several cars from an auction for the mission, Brian returns to Los Angeles as a prisoner to question Braga, who reveals that Owen helped him build his drug cartel and Letty survived the explosion; Owen took her in after discovering her amnesia.

With FBI help, Brian is released from prison and regroups with the team in London. Dom challenges Letty in a street racing competition; afterward, he returns her cross necklace, but she chooses to remain with Owen. After Letty leaves, Owen arrives and offers Dom a chance to walk away, threatening to hurt his family, but Dom refuses. Tej tracks Owen's next attack on a Spanish NATO base. Owen's crew assaults a highway military convoy carrying a computer chip to complete "Nightshade". Dom's crew interferes while Owen, accompanied by Letty, commandeers a tank. Brian and Roman flip the tank before it causes further damage, resulting in Letty being thrown from the vehicle as Dom saves her. Owen and his crew are captured, but reveal Mia has been kidnapped by Owen's henchmen Vegh and Klaus. Hobbs is forced to release Owen, and Riley, who is revealed to be Owen's covert accomplice, leaves with him; Letty chooses to remain with Dom.

Owen's group boards a moving Antonov An-124 as Dom's crew gives chase. Dom, Letty, and Brian board the craft; Brian rescues Mia and escapes. The plane attempts to take off but is held down by excess weight as the rest of the team tether the plane to their vehicles. Gisele seemingly sacrifices herself to save Han from Owen's henchman, Adolfson. Letty kills Riley and escapes with Hobbs to safety, but Dom pursues Owen and the computer chip. As the plane crashes, Owen is thrown from it and seriously injured, and Dom drives a Charger out of the exploding plane. Dom reunites with his crew and gives the chip to Hobbs to secure their pardons. Dom and the others return to his old family home in Los Angeles. Hobbs and Elena, now working together, arrive to confirm the crew's freedom; Elena accepts that Dom loves Letty as the group prepares to say grace.

In a mid-credits scene, Han is involved in a car chase in Tokyo when he is suddenly broadsided by an oncoming Mercedes-Benz W140. The driver walks away after leaving Letty's cross necklace by the crash, and calls Dom, saying: "You don't know me, but you're about to", as Han's car explodes.

Cast

Main articles: List of Fast & Furious cast members and List of Fast & Furious characters

• Vin Diesel as Dominic Toretto: A former criminal, and professional street racer who has retired after their successful heist of $100 million with his crew in Brazil and is now staying with Elena.
• Paul Walker as Brian O'Conner: A former LAPD police officer and FBI agent turned criminal who has retired and settled down with his girlfriend, Mia, and their son, Jack.
• Dwayne Johnson as Luke Hobbs: A DSS agent who allies with Dom following his last encounter with Dom and his team in Rio de Janeiro.
• Michelle Rodriguez as Letty Ortiz: Dom's girlfriend who has suffered from amnesia and was presumed dead in Fast & Furious (2009) following an undercover assignment as Brian's informant.
• Jordana Brewster as Mia Toretto: Dom's sister, a former member of his team, and Brian's girlfriend and mother of his child.
• Tyrese Gibson as Roman Pearce: A former criminal from Barstow and Brian's childhood friend, as well as a member of Dom's team.
• Chris "Ludacris" Bridges as Tej Parker: An ex-street racer and mechanic, as well as Brian and Roman's friend who was introduced in Miami, also a member of Dom's team.
• Sung Kang as Han Seoul-Oh, pseudonym of Han Lue: A professional street racer and Dom's former business partner in the Dominican Republic, also a member of his team. He is in a relationship with Gisele.
• Gal Gadot as Gisele Yashar: A former Mossad agent who previously worked as a liaison for Braga and aided Dom and Brian in capturing him by revealing his hideout in Mexico. She has since become one of the members on Dom's team. She is in a relationship with Han.
• Luke Evans as Owen Shaw: A former British SAS major who leads a group of skilled mercenaries to steal high-tech devices worth billions on the black market. He hijacks a military convoy, which brings him into conflict with Dom.
• Gina Carano as Riley Hicks: A DSS agent who is Hobbs's partner in his attempts to take down Shaw.
• Elsa Pataky as Elena Neves: A former Rio police officer who is in a relationship with Dom.

In addition, John Ortiz and Shea Whigham reprise their respective roles as Arturo Braga and Agent Michael Stasiak from Fast & Furious. Laz Alonso also makes an uncredited cameo in a flashback as Fenix Calderon, who was killed in Fast & Furious. Shaw's team members are played by Clara Paget as Vegh, Kim Kold as Klaus, Joe Taslim as Jah, David Ajala as Ivory, Samuel Stewart as Denlinger, Thure Lindhardt as Firuz, and Benjamin Davies as Adolfson. Rita Ora has an uncredited cameo role as a race starter in London, and Jason Statham makes an uncredited cameo during the end credits as Deckard Shaw, Owen's older brother and the person seemingly responsible for Han's death, with the character featured in Furious 7 (2015).

Production

Development

In February 2010, Diesel confirmed that production of Fast Five was commencing and also announced that a sixth installment was being planned. In January 2011, producer Neal H. Moritz said more:

In Vin's and my mind we already know what the sixth movie is, we've already been talking about it. Vin and I have had numerous conversations about what that might be. And we're starting to get serious about it right now. We just finished [Fast Five] like 4 or 5 weeks ago and we just needed a break, and now we're gonna start focusing on that.

In April 2011 it was confirmed that Chris Morgan had already begun work on a script for a potential sixth film at the behest of Universal Studios. It was also confirmed that Universal intended to transform the series from street-racing action into a series of heist films with car chases in the vein of The Italian Job (1969) and The French Connection (1971), with Fast Five as the transitional movie. Universal chairman Adam Fogelson said:

The question putting Fast Five and Fast Six together for us was: Can we take it out of being a pure car culture movie and into being a true action franchise in the spirit of those great heist films made 10 or 15 years ago?

Fogelson said that the racing aspect had put a "ceiling" on the number of people willing to see films in the series, and that, by turning it into a series where car driving ability is just one aspect of the film, he hoped to increase the series' audience. On Johnson's character, Fogelson added "[Johnson] also wants to appear in and be integral to the action in Fast Six."

On June 24, 2011, Universal Pictures announced that the anticipated sequel was scheduled for release on May 24, 2013. Moritz and Diesel returned as producers and Lin returned to direct. In an interview with Boxoffice, Lin revealed that he had, after discussions with Diesel, storyboarded, previsualized and edited a twelve-minute finale for Fast Six before filming was completed on Fast Five. Lin said he shot the footage as he was unsure at the time if there would be a sequel or if he would be able to direct it, but he wanted to have input on how any sequel would end. On October 21, 2011, the Los Angeles Times reported that Universal was considering filming two sequels—Fast Six and Fast Seven (2015)—back to back with a single story running through both films; both written by Morgan and directed by Lin. On December 20, 2011, Diesel stated that Fast Six would be split into two parts, with writing for the two films occurring simultaneously. On the decision, Diesel said:

We have to pay off this story, we have to service all of these character relationships, and when we started mapping all that out it just went beyond 110 pages ... The studio said, 'You can't fit all that story in one damn movie!'

On April 23, 2012, it was announced that mixed martial arts fighter Gina Carano was in negotiations to play a member of Hobbs's team. On May 1, 2012, Michelle Rodriguez was confirmed to be reprising her role as Letty Ortiz, and it was announced that Welsh actor Luke Evans had been offered a role as a villain. Evans was confirmed to join the cast on May 9, 2012, portraying the leader of a heist gang. On July 27, 2012, Joe Taslim was confirmed to appear as a villain, Jah. On February 15, 2012, Johnson confirmed that Fast Six would begin filming in May 2012, with some of the production to take place in the United Kingdom and Germany. Johnson stated that the two intended sequels would no longer be filmed simultaneously because of weather issues in filming locations, and that production on Fast Seven would only begin after the completion of Fast Six. However, filming did not officially begin until July 30, 2012. In February 2013, it was confirmed that the film would be titled Fast & Furious 6.

Principal photography

Filming began on July 30, 2012, in London, England, and Shepperton Studios in Surrey. While Fast & Furious 6 became only the third production to be allowed to film in Piccadilly Circus (a scene involving Diesel and Rodriguez drag racing), Lin was unable to obtain permission to shoot an elaborate action sequence there involving an exploding oil tanker, and so a replica of the landmark was built at Shepperton. The production were given only two minutes every hour to shut down the area for filming. Stunt and car chase scenes began filming on location in Glasgow, Scotland on August 29, 2012, and were scheduled to conclude on September 16, 2012. The shoot took place entirely at night and involved approximately 250 crew, but none of the central cast. Sets were built on site for the scenes including a large car showroom. Filming was scheduled to take place at the former Royal Air Force base RAF Bentwaters in late August 2012 until early September 2012.

Shooting also occurred on Spain's Canary Islands including the island of Tenerife and Gran Canaria. Filming had been intended to take place in Marseille, France, but was relocated to the islands to take advantage of a larger tax rebate (38%) that was estimated to lower filming costs by $20 million.

On October 11, 2012, Walker suffered an ACL injury during a stunt, forcing the production to film around his scenes until he recovered. A scene involving a plane crash began filming at the former RAF station RAF Bovingdon, Hertfordshire, on October 30, 2012, and was scheduled to conclude on November 9. Filming for a car chase scene took place on Dale Street in Liverpool City Centre, and also the Queensway Tunnel over four days in November 2012. Two days of filming were spent at HM Treasury's Government Offices Great George Street, which served as a nightclub.

The final phase of filming took place in Echo Park, Los Angeles, beginning on December 1, 2012. The shoot returned the series to the filming location of the original The Fast and the Furious (2001), and required the garage setting of that film to be rebuilt by carpenters. By December 17, 2012, it was reported that filming had concluded. Post-production was heavily condensed; by March 2013, Lin was attempting to complete approximately 18 months' worth of post-production in a 12-week period. Lin was aided by five film editors; specialist teams focused on visual effects and color timing, and sound mixers that required two movie-theater-sized stages alone.

Stunts

For Owen Shaw's Flip Car, Lin tasked the film's vehicle designer with developing a car capable of driving head first into moving vehicles and flipping them into the air. McCarthy and his team designed a fully functional, low to the ground, formula racing car with a ramp on its front that allowed it to catapult other cars into the air while keeping the Flip Car driver safe.

For Rodriguez's and Carano's fight in the London Underground, producers refused to let the pair attempt a stunt where their characters battle over a stair rail and fall down a stairwell, fearing a serious injury would derail filming; stunt women performed the practical stunt. Morgan's scripted rendition of the fight was described as a catfight on steroids, but Rodriguez provided input to turn it into more of a street fight. Rodriguez said: "Originally in the script, it was a lot more 'Terminator'-esque—too far-fetched to be believed... Things just happened so quick and then I'm on top? Justin and I had to bust our booties to get it more realistic. I was like, 'This [woman] needs to kick my ass!'" Rodriguez and Carano rehearsed their fight choreography over two months, with trained fighter Carano undergoing extra practice to ensure her strikes looked credible without hitting hard enough to harm Rodriguez. Under the direction of fight choreographer Olivier Schneider, the fight was designed to be brutal but realistic, representing Carano's "cop with fight training" and Rodriguez's street fighting.

The parkade explosion Shaw lures Dom's team into combined on-set pillars that could be detonated alongside dust mines which could be used as a reference for the digital artists to create the appearance of the structure sinking into itself. A scene involving Evans' character commandeering a tank was originally intended to use CGI to portray the vehicle crushing cars along a Spanish highway, but the final scene used practical effects as the tank really ran over approximately 250 cars during filming. The scene was shot over a three-mile stretch of highway in Tenerife lined with holiday resorts that had to be digitally removed to create a desolate appearance. The segment's finale that sees Roman leap to a nearby car and the tank flip was created digitally.

The scene featuring Diesel smashing his car through the nose of a Soviet-era cargo aircraft during takeoff was conceived by Lin while producing Fast & Furious in 2009. At the time, the stunt was too expensive to film and did not fit into that film's story, but Lin commissioned digital pre-visualization artists to develop a mock-up of the idea. He attempted to revive the concept for Fast Five but the technology available proved insufficient and it still did not organically fit into the story. Filming the climactic scene practically was considered unfeasible as it involved throwing tanks through the air and having cars race alongside the moving aeroplane at 100 miles per hour. Lin opted to build various plane sets instead: a thirty foot high, seventy five foot long, fifty foot wide replica of the fuselage complete with wheels; the tail of the plane with a ramp allowing the cars to drive in and out; and a full scale build of the central fuselage, with wings, engines and the nose, that could be set on fire. For Dom's car to explode through the plane's nose, a Dodge Charger was placed on a pneumatic cannon mounted inside a ramp which was then towed by a 4×4 truck, all concealed behind the plane's nose replica. This was then clad in material soaked in flammable materials. The cannon fired the Charger through the nose as the material is ignited for the practical effect. The stunt driver had a burning 40-ton plane rig chasing them down the runway afterwards. The scene involved more than 200 crew members, and over 350 visual effects (VFX) artists at VFX studio Double Negative to complete. A typical shot of the craft's destruction could take over 100 man-days to complete. The VFX team combined the filmed explosions and smoke with digital augmentations to place the plane into the scene. Calculations suggest that the runway must be at least 18.37 miles (29.56 km) long for the sequence to take place, with estimates up to 28.83 miles (46.40 km). The longest paved runway at the time was Qamdo Bamda Airport at 3.42 miles (5.50 km).

Music

Main article: Fast & Furious 6 (soundtrack)

Lucas Vidal composed the musical score for Fast & Furious 6. In addition to Vidal's score, tracks by composer Brian Tyler from the franchise's previous installments are also featured in the film. A soundtrack album to the film was released by Def Jam Recordings on May 21, 2013. It features many electronic and hip hop tracks, including songs by deadmau5, Ludacris (who played Tej Parker), and many others.

Marketing

The Fast & Furious series marketing attempted to cultivate an online fan base which was also considered to have helped promote the film; the filmmakers responded to fan interaction, conducted an online poll to decide the title of Fast & Furious 6, brought back the character of Letty Ortiz based on fan feedback and encouraged fans to document the film's production with unofficial photos. Universal marketing co-president Michael Moses said: "We're trying to remove the studio filter as much as possible, which is a little scary because you're ceding control... But it makes for more authentic and organic interaction with fans." A 15-piece clothing line was also produced in partnership with Guess, including T-shirts, jackets, caps, and watches.

Continuing their partnership from Fast Five, the Facebook game Car Town by Cie Games and the theater chain Regal Entertainment Group (REG) collaborated with Universal in a cross-media marketing promotion. Car Town allowed players to view the trailer for the film in an REG-branded, in-game drive-in theater. The game also featured missions and locations based on the plot of the film, and allowed players to join forces with Fast & Furious 6 characters. REG offered players of Car Town the ability to purchase tickets in-game via Fandango for films at REG theaters. By buying these tickets in-game, players were given promotional codes which in turn allowed them to unlock a virtual 2013 Dodge Charger SRT8.

Release

The premiere of Fast & Furious 6 took place on May 7, 2013, at the Empire, Leicester Square in London. The film was released in the United Kingdom on May 17, 2013, with the North American release on May 24. While the film is officially titled Fast & Furious 6, its on-screen title card displays the title as simply Furious 6.

Home media

Fast & Furious 6 DVD was released in the United Kingdom on September 16, 2013, and in Australia on October 3, 2013. In other countries Fast & Furious 6 DVD release has been confirmed for December 10, 2013. FX purchased the rights to air the movie on its network in 2015. Following Walker's death on November 30, 2013, Universal announced that a portion of the profits from the film's North American sales would be donated to Walker's charity Reach Out WorldWide. Various extended editions exist.

Reception

Box office

Fast & Furious 6 earned $239 million in North America and $550 million elsewhere for a worldwide total of $789 million. Deadline Hollywood calculated the net profit of the film to be $131.5 million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues, making it the sixth-most-profitable release of 2013. Worldwide, it is the sixth-highest-grossing film of 2013 and the fourth-highest-grossing Universal film. On the weekend of June 14–16, 2013, it became the highest-grossing film in the Fast & Furious franchise worldwide, until it was surpassed by Furious 7 and The Fate of the Furious (2017).

Outside North America, it is the highest-grossing film in the Fast & Furious franchise, the second-highest-grossing Universal film, and the second-highest-grossing film of 2013. In the United Kingdom, the film took $4.4 million during its opening day from 462 screens, the biggest opening day for both Fast and Furious franchise and Universal in that market, the second-highest opening of 2013 behind Iron Man 3 ($4.7 million), and the number 1 film of the day with 54% of the market. It finished as the number-one film of the weekend, taking a total of $13.8 million; this figure made it the biggest opening for the franchise, Universal, a Vin Diesel or Dwayne Johnson film, and the second-biggest opening of 2013 again behind Iron Man 3 ($17.6 million). The film opened in fifty-nine territories the following weekend alongside the North American opening, placing as the number-one film in each and earning $160.3 million; it set opening-weekend records in the United Arab Emirates, the Middle East, and Argentina (the latter was first surpassed by Monsters University (2013)). In China, the Fast & Furious 6 opened to $6.9 million, making it Universal's highest-grossing film in the territory. It earned its 66th number-one opening, earning $23.6 million during its opening weekend, $3 million of which came from IMAX screenings.

In North America, Fast & Furious 6 debuted simultaneously with the comedy The Hangover Part III (2013) and the animated feature Epic (2013). It opened for midnight showings on May 23, 2013, in 2,409 theaters. It took $6.5 million, nearly doubling Fast Five's midnight gross ($3.8 million) which faced less direct competition. On its opening day, Fast & Furious 6 earned $38.7 million (including midnight earnings) from 3,659 theaters. The film finished the 4-day Memorial Day weekend in first place, taking $117.0 million, which was the fourth-highest 4-day Memorial Day opening behind Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007), Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) and X-Men: The Last Stand (2006). The audience was diverse, with Latinos representing 32%, women 49%, and 57% over the age of 25.

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, Fast & Furious 6 holds an approval rating of 71% with an average rating of 6.2/10, based on 214 reviews. The site's critical consensus reads, "With high-octane humor and terrific action scenes, Fast & Furious 6 builds upon the winning blockbuster formula that made Fast 5 a critical and commercial success." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 61 out of 100, based on 39 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.

Fast & Furious 6 was generally considered to effectively mix absurd action scenes and outrageous stunts with a predictable but enjoyable plot and character dialog. IGN's Jim Vejvoda said that the film is a crowd pleaser whose fun moments outweighed failed attempts at humor and unintentionally comical dialog. Other reviewers highlighted the likable cast, ludicrous action, playful approach to the plot, and ability to immerse the audience in the high speed chases and conflict between the two opposing gangs. Digital Spy's Ben Rawson-Jones said the tone successfully mixed self-conscious spectacle with the central characters' teamwork, bonding and familial spirit. Conversely, Slant Magazine's Chris Cabin said the film was smug, cynical and insubstantial that delivered overly sentimental drama and forced comedy that seemed unaware "of how dumb the material is". The Daily Telegraph's Tim Robey labeled the film as slow-witted with a random and generic plot, and Time Out London's Derek Adams said the film featured puerile dialog, daft performances and flat comic repartee. IndieWire said that the film forsakes realistic set-pieces (comparing it to The Avengers (2012)), which undermined any attempts at creating tension.

Empire's Owen Williams noted that Fast & Furious 6 lacked the same surprise as Fast Five without Johnson's antagonist Hobbs, and suggested that the large cast of returning characters had made Evans' Owen Shaw unable to make an impression as the new villain. Scenes of dialog and character progression were criticized as slow, and laughably bad. Evans' Owen Shaw was repeatedly singled out as a refreshing and charismatic addition to the cast, though others described the character as generic and dull.

Lin's direction of the action set-pieces was described as lavish and exquisite. The cinematography received a mixed response. Variety's Scott Foundas appreciated the attention to spatial geography and complicated, single, continuous shots which were compared to the best of James Bond and Mission: Impossible films, and Rawson-Jones said that the nocturnal races in London made excellent use of the environment. The Hollywood Reporter's Todd McCarthy considered that the action scenes were cut too fast, failed to provide a sense of speed for the vehicles and were mired by poor angles and nocturnal settings that obscured the view. View London's Matthew Turner considered that the action lacked imagination, with the London-based segments amounting to little more than a geographically inaccurate race past landmarks.

Accolades

Year	Award	Category	Recipient	Result
2013
	Golden Trailer Awards	Best Action TV Spot	Breathe (Super Bowl Trailer)	Won
		Best Summer Blockbuster 2013 TV Spot	Breathe (Super Bowl Trailer)
		Summer 2013 Blockbuster Trailer		Nominated
		Best Sound Editing
		Best Teaser Poster
	Teen Choice Awards	Choice Summer Movie: Action/Adventure		Won
		Choice Summer Movie Star: Male	Dwayne Johnson	Nominated
		Choice Summer Movie Star: Female	Michelle Rodriguez
		Choice Movie: Chemistry	Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, & Paul Walker
	Hollywood Film Festival	Best Film
	Phoenix Film Critics Society Award	Best Stunts		Won
2014
	People's Choice Awards	Favorite Movie		Nominated
		Favorite Action Movie
		Favorite Action Movie Star	Vin Diesel
	IGN's Best of 2013 Movie Awards	Best Action Movie		Won
	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture		Nominated
	Motion Picture Sound Editors Golden Reel Awards	Best Sound Editing: Sound Effects & Foley in a Feature Film	Peter Brown	Nominated
	MTV Movie Awards	Best On-Screen Duo	Vin Diesel & Paul Walker	Won
	Saturn Award	Best Action or Adventure Film		Won
		Best Editing	Christian Wagner, Kelly Matsumoto and Dylan Highsmith	Nominated
	Premios Juventud	Best Picture		Won

Video games

A cooperative racing video game, titled Fast & Furious: Showdown, was released on May 21, 2013. Developed by Firebrand Games and published by Activision for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Wii U, Xbox 360, and Nintendo 3DS, the game's story ties into the events in Fast & Furious 6, including bridging the events between the story of the film and those of its predecessor Fast Five, as well as the story of other films in the franchise. It is a Grand Theft Auto-style action game and received mainly negative reviews. A mobile game, Fast & Furious 6: The Game, was developed by Exploding Barrel Games and published by studio Kabam. It was released on May 16, 2013, for iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, and Android devices. The story of Fast & Furious 6: The Game runs parallel to that of Fast & Furious 6, allowing players to race and customize vehicles alongside characters from the film.

Sequels

Further information: Fast & Furious

Fast & Furious 6 was followed by Furious 7 (2015). It features the final film performance of Walker, who died in a car crash in November 2013. During the film's production, Walker's character arc was reworked as "retired", and his brothers Caleb and Cody were hired as stand-ins to recreate Walker's likeness using CGI. This effort made Furious 7 the "most critically and commercially successful film in the [Fast & Furious] franchise". It was followed by The Fate of the Furious (2017), serving as the start of a final trilogy of films that includes F9 (2021) and Fast X (2023). An eleventh and final mainline film, Fast XI, is in production.

External links

• Official website
• Fast & Furious 6 at IMDb
• Fast & Furious 6 at AllMovie

Furious 7 (2015)

Main article: Furious 7

Furious 7
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	James Wan
Written by	Chris Morgan
Based on	Characters by Gary Scott Thompson
Produced by	Neal H. Moritz Vin Diesel Michael Fottrell
Starring	Vin Diesel Paul Walker Dwayne Johnson Michelle Rodriguez Tyrese Gibson Chris "Ludacris" Bridges Jordana Brewster Djimon Hounsou Kurt Russell Jason Statham
Cinematography	Stephen F. Windon Marc Spicer
Edited by	Christian Wagner Dylan Highsmith Kirk Morri Leigh Folsom Boyd
Music by	Brian Tyler
Production companies	MRC Original Film One Race Films China Film Co., Ltd.
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release dates	April 1, 2015 (2015-04-01) (TCL Chinese Theatre) April 3, 2015 (2015-04-03) (United States)
Running time	137 minutes
Countries	United States China
Language	English
Budget	$190–250 million
Box office	$1.515 billion

Furious 7 (also known as Fast & Furious 7) is a 2015 action film directed by James Wan and written by Chris Morgan. It is the sequel to Fast & Furious 6 (2013) and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006) and the seventh installment in the Fast & Furious franchise. The film stars an ensemble cast including Vin Diesel, Paul Walker (in his final film role), Dwayne Johnson, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Jordana Brewster, Djimon Hounsou, Kurt Russell, and Jason Statham. In the film, Dominic Toretto, Brian O'Conner and their team are recruited by covert ops leader Mr. Nobody to prevent Mose Jakande, a terrorist, from obtaining a hacking program, but Deckard Shaw, a former special forces soldier seeking to avenge his comatose young brother Owen Shaw, puts the team in danger.

Plans for a seventh installment were first announced in February 2012 when Johnson stated that production on the film would begin after the completion of Fast & Furious 6. In April 2013, Wan, predominantly known for horror films, was announced to direct the film. Casting showed the returns of Diesel and Walker that same month. Principal photography began that September in Atlanta, but was indefinitely suspended in November after Walker died in a car crash; filming resumed in April 2014 and ended in July, with Walker's brothers Caleb and Cody standing-in to complete his remaining scenes, causing delay to its 2015 release date, with other filming locations including Los Angeles, Colorado, Abu Dhabi, and Tokyo. Brian Tyler, who had composed the score for Fast Five (2011), returned to compose the seventh installment. With an estimated production budget of up to $250 million, it is one of the most expensive films ever made.

Furious 7 premiered at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles on April 1, 2015, and was released in the United States on April 3, by Universal Pictures. The film was a box office success and it received positive reviews from critics for its action sequences and emotional tribute to Walker, with many considering it to be one of the best films in the franchise. It grossed over $1.5 billion worldwide, making it the third-highest-grossing film of 2015 and the fourth-highest-grossing film of all time at the time of release. It also set a record for the second-highest opening weekend of its time, grossing $397.6 million worldwide. It was the highest-grossing film of 2015 internationally and became the highest-grossing film of the franchise in the first twelve days of its theatrical release. A sequel titled The Fate of the Furious was released in 2017.

Plot

After defeating Owen Shaw and securing pardons for their past crimes, Dominic Toretto, Brian O'Conner and the team have returned to US to live normal lives. Dom tries to help Letty Ortiz regain her memory, while Brian accustoms himself to life as a father.

Meanwhile, Owen's elder brother Deckard Shaw breaks into the hospital, where the comatose Owen is held in London and vows to exact revenge. Deckard breaks into the DSS field office in LA to extract profiles of Dom's crew and fights Luke Hobbs before he escapes, detonating a bomb that severely injures Hobbs. Dom learns from his sister Mia that she is pregnant again and convinces her to tell Brian. However, a letter bomb sent by Deckard, who has apparently killed Han Lue in Tokyo, explodes and destroys the Toretto house.

Dom meets Hobbs and learns about Deckard before he travels to Tokyo to retrieve Han's body and acquires the objects found at the crash site from Sean Boswell. As Dom, Brian, Tej Parker and Roman Pearce mourn Han and Gisele Yashar at Han's funeral in LA, Dom spots Deckard spying on them and confronts him in an underground tunnel, but Deckard flees when a covert ops team, led by government agent Mr. Nobody, arrives. Mr. Nobody tells Dom that he will help them in stopping Deckard if he helps him retrieve God's Eye, a computer program capable of tracking a specific individual using anything on a digital network, and save its creator Ramsey from Mose Jakande, a Nigerian terrorist.

The team airdrops their off-road modified cars over the Caucasus Mountains in Azerbaijan and ambush Jakande's convoy, where they rescue Ramsey and leave for the Etihad Towers in Abu Dhabi. They steal the flash drive containing the God's Eye chip from a billionaire hidden in a Lykan HyperSport. With God's Eye secure, Dom, Brian, Nobody, and his team use it to hunt Deckard to an abandoned factory, but are ambushed by Jakande and his henchmen, who have allied with Deckard, and are forced to flee while Jakande obtains God's Eye.

Mr. Nobody is medically extracted, while the team returns to LA. Dom plans to fight Deckard alone, while Letty, Brian, Tej and Roman resolve to protect Ramsey from Jakande. Brian promises Mia that he will fully dedicate himself to their family after he defeats Deckard and Jakande. As Jakande pursues Brian and the rest of the team with a stealth helicopter and an aerial drone, Ramsey attempts to hack into God's Eye. Discovering the situation, Hobbs leaves the hospital and destroys the drone with an ambulance. After battling and killing Jakande's henchman Kiet, Brian hijacks a signal repeater tower that allows Ramsey to control God's Eye and shut it down.

As the military closes into the city, Jakande attempts to flee and spots Dom and Deckard engaging in a brawl atop a public parking garage. Intervening, Jakande turns on Deckard and attacks both men. Dom uses the distraction to defeat Deckard by causing part of the parking garage to collapse beneath him. Dom attempts to crash his Dodge Charger onto Jakande's helicopter, where he leaves a bag of grenades on the helicopter and crashes on the rubble of the garage. Hobbs shoots the grenades, destroying the helicopter and killing Jakande.

After Brian and Hobbs help Letty bring out Dom's unconscious body, Letty cradles Dom and tells him that she has fully regained her memories and has remembered their wedding. Dom regains consciousness. Deckard is arrested by Hobbs and CIA, where he is locked up in a black site prison. The rest of the team relaxes on a tropical beach. Brian and Mia play with their son Jack, while Dom, Letty, Roman, Tej, and Ramsey look on, acknowledging that Brian is happily retired with his family. Dom drives away and Brian catches up with him. As Dom recalls his memories with Brian, they bid each other farewell and drive off in separate directions.

Cast

Furious 7 marked the final film performance of Paul Walker, who died in a car crash in 2013. The film is dedicated to his memory.

Main articles: List of Fast & Furious cast members and List of Fast & Furious characters

• Vin Diesel as Dominic Toretto: A former criminal, professional street racer and millionaire who has retired and settled down with his wife, Letty.
• Paul Walker as Brian O'Conner: A former LAPD police officer and FBI agent turned criminal who has retired and settled down with his wife, Mia, and their son, Jack. This was Walker's final Fast and Furious film, as well as his final film appearance.
  • Caleb and Cody Walker, Paul's younger brothers, were used as stand-ins to complete his remaining scenes following their brother's death.
• Dwayne Johnson as Luke Hobbs: A DSS agent who allied with Dom and his team after their outings in Rio de Janeiro and Europe. Johnson initially said that if Universal Pictures pursued the accelerated development of a seventh film beginning in the summer, he would be unable to participate due to scheduling conflicts with filming on Hercules (2014). However, as production for Furious 7 would commence in September, Johnson confirmed his return, for Hercules would complete production in time to enable him to shoot the film.
• Michelle Rodriguez as Letty Ortiz-Toretto: Dom's wife and a professional street racer, who was revealed to have suffered from amnesia after being presumed dead in Fast & Furious (2009).
• Tyrese Gibson as Roman Pearce: A former criminal and childhood friend of Brian from Barstow, and a member of Dom's team.
• Chris "Ludacris" Bridges as Tej Parker: A mechanic from Miami and a member of Dom's team.
• Jordana Brewster as Mia Toretto: Dom's sister and a former member of his team who has settled down with her husband, Brian, and their son, Jack.
• Djimon Hounsou as Mose Jakande: A Nigerian-born mercenary and terrorist who leads a private military company that allies with Shaw, and uses God's Eye to track its creator, and uses her to track down his enemies.
• Tony Jaa as Kiet: A member of Jakande's team who possesses great agility, athleticism, and fighting prowess. Thai martial arts actor Jaa was confirmed to have joined the cast in August 2013, making his Hollywood debut.
• Ronda Rousey as Kara: The Head of Security for an Abu Dhabi billionaire. Rousey's involvement was confirmed in August 2013. Having committed to The Expendables 3 (2014) at the same time, Rousey was forced to shoot both films back-to-back in order to allow herself 45 days to focus on training for her UFC championship rematch against Miesha Tate. Her participation in the film was similar to that of Gina Carano making the transition from mixed martial arts fighting to acting, following Carano's involvement in Fast & Furious 6 (2013).
• Nathalie Emmanuel as Ramsey: A British computer hacktivist and the creator of the God's Eye, who allies with Dom and his team after being saved from Jakande and helps them to regain control of her program.
• Kurt Russell as Mr. Nobody: The leader of a covert ops team who agrees to help Dom stop Shaw if he can help him prevent Jakande from obtaining a computer program called the God's Eye.
• Jason Statham as Deckard Shaw: A former special forces soldier and intelligence agent who seeks to avenge his comatose younger brother after his hospitalization at the hands of Dom and his team in Spain.

John Brotherton portrays Sheppard, Mr. Nobody's right-hand man. Sung Kang and Gal Gadot appear in archive footage as Han Lue and Gisele Yashar. Lucas Black reprises his role as Sean Boswell, an American street racer who lives in Tokyo whom Dom meets when he travels to Tokyo to claim the body of Han, a mutual friend of theirs killed by Shaw. In September, it was confirmed that Black had signed on to reprise his role as Boswell for Furious 7 and two more installments. Elsa Pataky reprises her role as Elena Neves, a DSS agent and former Rio police officer who moved to the United States to become Hobbs' new partner at the DSS. Luke Evans briefly reprises his role as Owen Shaw, Deckard's now comatose younger brother, from Fast & Furious 6 (2013), and Noel Gugliemi reprises his role as Hector for a cameo appearance from The Fast and the Furious (2001).

Ali Fazal portrays Safar, a friend of Ramsey to whom she sent the God's Eye for safekeeping. Fazal described his role as a cameo. Australian rapper Iggy Azalea (who also appears on the soundtrack) makes a cameo appearance as a racer at Race Wars. American singer/rapper T-Pain appears as himself as he DJs a party in Abu Dhabi. Romeo Santos makes a cameo appearance as Mando, who shelters Mia in the Dominican Republic and Klement Tinaj appears as one of the Race Wars racers.

Production

Development

On October 21, 2011, the Los Angeles Times reported that Universal Studios was considering filming two sequels—Fast Six and Fast Seven—back-to-back with a single storyline running through both films. Both would be written by Chris Morgan and directed by Justin Lin, who had been the franchise's writer and director, respectively, since The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006). On December 20, 2011, following the release of Fast Five (2011), Vin Diesel stated that Fast Six would be split into two parts, with writing for the two films occurring simultaneously. On the decision, Diesel said:

We have to pay off this story, we have to service all of these character relationships, and when we started mapping all that out it just went beyond 110 pages  ...  The studio said, 'You can't fit all that story in one damn movie!'

However, in an interview on February 15, 2012, Dwayne Johnson stated that the two intended sequels would no longer be filmed simultaneously because of weather issues in filming locations, and that production on Fast Seven would only begin after the completion of Fast Six.

In April 2013, during the post-production of the retitled Fast & Furious 6, Lin announced that he would not return to direct the seventh film, as the studio wanted to produce the film on an accelerated scheduled for release in summer 2014. This would have required Lin to begin pre-production on the sequel while performing post-production on Fast & Furious 6, which he considered would affect the quality of the final product. Despite the usual two-year gap between the previous installments, Universal chose to pursue a sequel quicker due to having fewer reliable franchises than its competitor studios. However, subsequent interviews with Lin have suggested that the sixth film was always intended to be the final installment under his direction.

In April 2013, Australian director James Wan, predominantly known for horror films, was announced as the sequel's director, with Neal H. Moritz and Michael Fottrell returning to produce and Morgan returning to write the script, his fifth in the franchise. On April 16, 2013, Diesel announced that the sequel would be released on July 11, 2014. In May 2013, Diesel said that the sequel would feature Los Angeles, Tokyo, and the Middle East as locations.

Filming

Principal photography began in early September 2013 in Atlanta, with a casting call issued. Abu Dhabi was also a filming location; the production crew chose it over Dubai, as they would benefit from the Emirate's 30% rebate scheme. Pikes Peak Highway in Colorado was closed in September to film some driving sequences.

On September 16, the production filmed with Paul Walker and the Kimsey twins, playing his son, Jack, in front of an Atlanta elementary school. Han's funeral scene was filmed at Oakland Cemetery, with extras needed for the scene being "hot, hip and trendy cool types of all ethnicities between the ages of 18 and 45". On the evening of September 19, Lucas Black joined the production for his sole scene with Diesel, in an Atlanta parking garage. Separate scenes with Walker also shot in the same location on the same night, including one half of a phone conversation between his character and Jordana Brewster's.

On October 24, over a month into the film's production, Johnson tweeted he had started shooting for the film after wrapping up on Hercules. Five days later, Diesel posted the first photo of Johnson on the set, in the hospital scene.

Death of Paul Walker

On November 30, Walker, who portrayed Brian O'Conner, died in a single-vehicle accident. The next day, Universal announced that production would continue after a delay that would allow the filmmakers to rework the film. On December 4, Universal put production on hold indefinitely. Wan later confirmed that the film had not been cancelled. On December 22, Diesel announced that the film would be released on April 10, 2015. On February 27, 2014, The Hollywood Reporter reported that filming would resume on April 1, and that the cast and crew had headed to Atlanta to prepare for about eight more weeks of shooting. Principal photography ended on July 10.

Stunts

The Lockheed C-130 Hercules was used in the film to carry the vehicles that would drop from 12,000 feet high, above the Sonoran Desert, making cars plummet at a speed of about 130 to 140 miles per hour.

The "airdrop" sequence was conceived by stunt coordinator and second unit director Spiro Razatos, who also did so on the franchise's two previous installments; Fast Five and Fast & Furious 6. Razatos told Business Insider that he wanted to rely more on real stunts rather than CGI because he wanted the whole sequence to "feel real" and fulfill audience's expectations. The stunt took months of prep-solving problems. Cameras needed to be mounted onto cars in a way that they would not be destroyed when the cars landed, and the crew had to figure out a safe way to get the cars out of the plane. They performed a dry run with a single car falling out of a plane and did this six times. Cars were dropped from a Lockheed C-130 Hercules high above the Arizona desert, but close up shots that show the cars landing on a mountain road were filmed in Colorado. There were two airplanes, flying at a height of 12,000 feet, each dropping two cars apiece. BRS parachutes enabled with GPS were secured to each of the cars before dropping off the C-130 plane. At about 5,000 feet, the parachutes deployed. Over 10 cameras were used for the sequence. In addition to cameras on the ground, there were cameras remotely operated inside the plane and another three mounted outside each car. Additional cameras were on a helicopter, where Razatos was stationed watching monitors. Three skydivers used in the shoot wore helmet cameras to help shoot the sequence from multiple angles. Sky divers would either jump out before cars or after them. While all the cars landed on their drop zones, 70% landed perfectly and 30% did not. For the close-up scenes which show the actors inside their cars, a giant gimbal with a 360-degree range of movement were attached to each of the cars and was filmed against a green screen to reproduce their tumble through the sky. The last part of the scene, which shows the cars hitting the road was shot separately. To get that right, the team set up a pulley system that had cars six to ten feet above the ground. When they were dropped from the cranes, the stuntmen who were sitting in the driver's seats raced their engines at about 35 to 40 miles per hour and slid to the ground at full speed. Those cranes were then later removed from the film with computers. Razatos claims, therefore, that the air drop sequence was "all real" and that it would be "hard to top".

The scene featuring Brian jumping off a bus off a cliff was performed by a stuntman and was all done without any computer graphics. The shooting for this particular sequence along with the scene in which Dom and his team are pursuing to rescue Ramsey almost did not happen due to the absence of tax break in Colorado. The studio originally wanted to shoot the sequence in Georgia which provides tax breaks for film productions, and then add woods in the background later in post-production to which Razatos denied saying, "the audience is going to know [it's CGI] and aren't going to feel good about it." Shooting finally took place in Colorado.

A total of 340 cars were used in the film, and more than 230 cars were destroyed in the making of the film, including several black Mercedes-Benzes, a Ford Crown Victoria, and a Mitsubishi Montero. The film featured the on-screen destruction of a Lykan HyperSport by W Motors, valued at $3.4 million, though the actual car destroyed was a less expensive model made for the film rather than one of the seven actual production HyperSports. The mountain-highway chase scene on Colorado's Monarch Pass proved to be the most damaging sequence with over 40 vehicles being destroyed. Only 10 percent of the action sequences in the film were computer-generated, and even then, much of the CGI was employed simply to erase the wires and other contraptions that were used to film real cars and drivers or to add a background. It took more than 3,500 man-days to complete the various stunts of the film.

Redevelopment of Walker's character

When I first heard the news, I was shell-shocked like everyone, and it took me days to come to terms with it. And then after that, heartbreaks started sinking in and we realized that Paul [Walker] wasn't going to be around with us anymore moving forward, and it was a really hard one. And finishing the movie was the last thing on my mind at that point. It was more the idea of ... picking up the pieces, going back on set, rallying the team, the cast, and the crew, and as the director, having to put on the brave face and champion and push everyone along. The idea of that was very daunting for me, but it became very apparent to all of us that we needed to finish this movie to honour Paul's legacy and to basically honour his memories ... it was about making this movie for Paul.

—James Wan, director of Furious 7

In January 2014, Time reported that Walker's character, Brian O'Conner, would be retired instead of killed, and that new scenes would be developed in order to allow the franchise to continue without him. To recreate Walker's likeness, the filmmakers hired Peter Jackson's Weta Digital visual effects house (which had previously produced the imagery of Gollum in The Lord of the Rings franchise and Caesar in the Planet of the Apes franchise). Initially, what Weta could do was severely constrained by the quality of the reference materials available for Walker's physical appearance. In April 2014, it was reported that Walker's brothers Caleb and Cody had been hired as stand-ins. Their strong resemblance to their late brother meant the filmmakers could use scans of their bodies instead of recreating Walker's entire body from scratch. The final film showed Walker's face superimposed over the bodies of his brothers or actor John Brotherton in 350 visual effects shots. 260 used a computer-generated face, while 90 repurposed actual footage of Walker's face borrowed from outtakes or older footage.

Music

Main article: Furious 7 (soundtrack)

The musical score was composed by Brian Tyler, who scored the third, fourth and fifth installments of the series. "There's an emotional component to Fast & Furious 7 that is unique", said Tyler about his experience scoring. "I think people are really going to be amazed by it." A soundtrack album to the film was released by Atlantic Records on March 17, 2015, while Tyler's score was released by Back Lot Music on March 31.

When discussing the creation of the score, Tyler explained: "It was a pleasure to collaborate with James [Wan] on Furious 7, as he wanted the emotion of the themes to be the primary focus. The music uses modern recording techniques, vintage modular synthesizers, mashed-up beats, drums and tweaked remix elements along with classic film scoring traditions including full orchestra, piano, voice and classical guitar. I am so proud of the movie, and I dedicate the score to the memory of Paul Walker and all the joy he brought."

In describing Tyler's score, Wan remarked, "Brian's amazing score gave this movie life. He did an incredible job of crafting an electrifying score for the bombastic action moments, one that is balanced by the beautiful and emotional themes of the characters that underline the heart of this movie."

Songs featured in the film include: "Go Hard or Go Home" (Wiz Khalifa and Iggy Azalea), "Ride Out" (Kid Ink, Tyga, Wale, YG & Rich Homie Quan), "See You Again" (Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth), "My Angel" (Prince Royce), "Hamdulillah" (Narcy featuring Shadia Mansour), "Get Low" (Dillon Francis and DJ Snake), "Ay Vamos" (J Balvin featuring Nicky Jam and French Montana), "Tempest" (Deftones), "Meneo" (Fito Blanko) and "Payback" (Juicy J, Kevin Gates, Future and Sage the Gemini).

Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth's "See You Again", which plays over the film's ending, and itself a tribute to Paul Walker, received both popular and critical acclaim. It was shortlisted for the Song of the Year for the BBC Music Awards and was nominated for Best Original Song at the 73rd Golden Globe Awards. "See You Again" was the best selling-song of 2015 worldwide, with combined sales and track-equivalent streams of 20.9 million units according to IFPI.

Release

Theatrical

The film originally scheduled to be released on July 11, 2014, but the film was put on hold following Paul Walker's death in November 2013. In October 2014, Universal revealed that the film was officially titled Furious 7. Leading up to the event, seven-second behind-the-scenes videos were released, titled "7 Seconds of 7".

The film was next scheduled for release on April 10, 2015, but it was announced that the film's release date had been brought forward a week to April 3. The official announcement in change of date was made in July 2014. Furious 7 premiered at the SXSW Film Festival at 12:07 a.m. at Austin's Paramount Theatre on March 16, 2015. For its global premiere at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles on April 1, IMAX Corporation installed a new laser projection which was the first such installation in the U.S. and the second worldwide, following The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014), which opened at Scotiabank Theatre in Toronto in December 2014.

Home media

Furious 7 was released on July 6, 2015, in the UK and was released via DVD and Blu-ray on September 15 in other countries. The Blu-ray edition features an all-new extended edition of 140 minutes long, deleted scenes, stunts, behind-the-scenes, and the music video for Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth's "See You Again". The Blu-ray and DVD versions include behind-the-scenes footage of the "Race Wars" scene including rapper Iggy Azalea and the making of the cars featured in the film. In the U.S. and Canada, it sold roughly 2.5 million units on Blu-ray and DVD in its first week of release, making it the highest-selling home entertainment live-action film of 2015. This record was later surpassed by Jurassic World (2015) the following month. Furious 7's home video sales made a revenue of $66.4 million with 4.2 million copies sold, making it the seventh best-selling title of 2015.

Reception

Box office

Furious 7 grossed $353 million in the United States and Canada and $1.163 billion in other countries, for a worldwide total of $1.516 billion, against a production budget of $190–250 million. It was the third-highest-grossing film of 2015 and the fourth-highest-grossing film of all time. Furious 7 was also the fastest film to reach the $1 billion mark at the time, doing so in 17 days. It also became the first film to pass $1 million in 4DX admissions worldwide. Deadline Hollywood calculated the film's net profit as $354 million, accounting for production budgets, marketing, talent participations, and other costs; box office grosses and home media revenues placed it fifth on their list of "Most Valuable Blockbusters".

Worldwide, Furious 7 was released across 810 IMAX theaters, which was the largest worldwide rollout in IMAX's history, Its worldwide opening of $397.6 million was the second-highest opening of all time. The film had an IMAX opening weekend total of $20.8 million.

North America

Predictions for the opening weekend of Furious 7 in the United States and Canada were continuously revised upwards, starting from $115 million to $150 million. It opened on Friday, April 3, 2015, across 4,004 theaters, including 365 IMAX theaters, which made it the widest opening for the Fast and Furious film and Universal's widest opening release ever (until first surpassed by Jurassic World and Minions) and earned $67.4 million, marking the tenth-biggest opening day. The film's Friday gross included a $15.8 million late-night run (which began at 7 p.m.), from 3,069 theaters, marking Universal's highest late-night run, of which $2.2 million came from IMAX showings, marking the third largest IMAX preview gross ever. Based on pure Friday gross (with the omission of revenues from Thursday shows), it earned $51.5 million, marking the fifth-biggest of all time. Through Sunday, April 5, it had an opening weekend total of $147.1 million. This opening broke the records for the highest weekend debuts in April and for the Easter Weekend, both of which were later overtaken by Avengers: Infinity War and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, respectively. It earned an IMAX opening weekend total of $13.3 million, marking the second-biggest of all time for a 2D movie. Premium large format comprised 8% ($11.5 million) of the total opening gross from 400 PLF screens, which is the biggest 2D PLF opening.

In its second weekend, the film expanded to 4,022 theaters, thereby breaking its own record of being the widest Universal Pictures release ever, and earned an estimated $59.6 million, declining by 60%, which is the third best second weekend holdover for a pre-summer film release. It became the highest-grossing film in the Fast & Furious franchise, doing so only in ten days (the previous record which was held by Fast & Furious 6 took fifteen weeks to reach its entire lifetime gross of $238.67 million). It also set the record for the biggest second-weekend April gross.

Other territories

Furious 7 opened on April 1, 2015, in 12 countries, earning $16.9 million (including previews from 22 countries). It opened in 33 more countries on April 2, for a total of 45 countries, earning $43 million from 8,407 screens, marking Universal Pictures overseas' highest-grossing Thursday ever, and for a two-day total of $60 million. It added 20 more countries on April 3, earning $59.2 million from 9,935 screens in 63 countries, for a three-day total of $120.6 million. On April 5, it earned a 4-day opening weekend total of $250.4 million from 10,683 screens in 64 countries, which is the fourth-highest international opening ever, in all which it reached first place at the box office. It earned an IMAX opening weekend total of $7.5 million from 175 IMAX screens, breaking the record for the biggest April IMAX gross, previously held by Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) ($6.43 million). It set opening weekend records in 29 countries including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Egypt, Malaysia, Mexico, Middle East, Romania, Taiwan, Thailand, Venezuela and Vietnam. In its second weekend, it held the top spot and fell gradually by 20.4% to $198.7 million (including China's opening day gross) from 18,374 screens in 66 territories as a result of minor competition, and remaining at number one in all 63 territories where it was released the previous week. It added three new countries in its second weekend; China, Russia and Poland. The film earned $167.9 million in its third weekend, which topped the box office outside of North America for three consecutive weekends.

The film was a massive box office hit in China. It opened there on April 12 and set an all-time midnight run record with $8.05 million and an opening day record with $68.8 million. Its opening day included a record-breaking $5 million from IMAX run (also breaking Transformers: Age of Extinction's (2014) former record of $3.4 million). Through its opening week (April 12–19), it earned $245.9 million. For the weekend alone, it took in $88.7 million from 5,454 screens (Friday to Sunday) and $182.4 million (Monday to Sunday) at the Chinese box office. It grossed CN¥1 billion in five days—the fastest time in which that has been achieved—and soon became the highest-grossing foreign film ever in China. In 15 days, its gross in China surpassed those in Canada and the United States and became the first film in China to make more than 2 billion renminbi. Its success has been credited to China Film Group Corporation, the state-owned film distributor, which had invested considerably in the film, reportedly taking a 10% stake. In Latin America, it became the second highest-grossing film ($200 million), the first time Universal has reached the milestone and the second film in history to earn more than $200 million after The Avengers (2012). In total earnings, the largest countries outside the U.S. and Canada are China ($391.2 million), the United Kingdom ($60 million), Mexico ($51.7 million), Brazil ($46.6 million), Germany ($42.8 million) and India ($24 million). It grossed a total of $39 million in IMAX ticket sales in China, the biggest ever in the market.

Critical response

Furious 7 received positive reviews from critics for its poignant tribute to Walker. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 81% with an average score of 7.70/10, based on 281 reviews, the highest-rated film in the franchise to date. The website's critical consensus reads, "Serving up a fresh round of over-the-top thrills while adding unexpected dramatic heft, Furious 7 keeps the franchise moving in more ways than one." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 67 out of 100 based on 50 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.

The film received highly positive reviews upon its secret screening at the South by Southwest film festival on March 16, 2015. Ramin Setoodeh of Variety noted that fans began lining up outside four hours before the film was scheduled to start. The film closed with a tribute to Walker, which left many in the theater "holding back tears". Wesley Morris wrote, "Who would have thought that a series addicted to the high of movement could also summon a solemnity that leaves you moved?" A. O. Scott of The New York Times said, "Furious 7 extends its predecessors' inclusive, stereotype-resistant ethic. Compared to almost any other large-scale, big-studio enterprise, the Furious brand practices a slick, no-big-deal multiculturalism, and nods to both feminism and domestic traditionalism." John DeFore of The Hollywood Reporter criticized the film however, describing it as "stupidly diverting", saying the running time was "overinflated"; he compared watching the film to a morbid game, in addition to criticizing the screenplay.

Accolades

Accolades received by Furious 7

Award	Date of ceremony	Category	Recipient(s)	Result	Ref.
African-American Film Critics Association Awards	February 10, 2016	Best Song	Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth for "See You Again"	Won
Billboard Music Awards	May 22, 2016	Top Soundtrack	Furious 7	Nominated
Black Reel Awards	February 18, 2016	Best Original or Adapted Song	Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth for "See You Again"	Won
Critics' Choice Movie Awards	January 17, 2016	Best Action Movie	Furious 7	Nominated
		Best Song	"See You Again"	Won
ETC Bollywood Business Awards	January 16, 2016	Most Successful Foreign Film	Furious 7	Won
Georgia Film Critics Association Awards	January 8, 2016	Best Original Song	DJ Frank E, Andrew Cedar, Charlie Puth, and Wiz Khalifa for "See You Again"	Won
Golden Globe Awards	January 10, 2016	Best Original Song	Justin Franks, Andrew Cedar, Charlie Puth, and Wiz Khalifa for "See You Again"	Nominated
Golden Trailer Awards	May 6, 2015	Best of Show	"Family" (AV Squad)	Won
		Best Action	"Family" (AV Squad)	Won
		Best Music	"Drop Teaser" (AV Squad)	Nominated
		GTA 16 & Rentrak Best Opening Weekend Award	Furious 7	Won
		Best Sound Editing	"Drop Teaser" (AV Squad)	Nominated
		Best Action TV Spot	"Fast" (AV Squad)	Won
		Best Music TV Spot	"Fast" (AV Squad)	Nominated
Grammy Awards	February 15, 2016	Best Song Written for Visual Media	Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth for "See You Again"	Nominated
Guild of Music Supervisors Awards	January 21, 2016	Best Song Written and/or Recorded Created for a Film	DJ Frank E, Charlie Puth, Wiz Khalifa, and Andrew Cedar for "See You Again"	Won
Hollywood Film Awards	November 1, 2015	Hollywood Blockbuster Award	Furious 7	Won
		Hollywood Song Award	Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth for "See You Again"	Won
Hollywood Music in Media Awards	November 11, 2015	Best Original Song in a Feature Film	Justin Franks, Andrew Cedar, Charlie Puth, and Wiz Khalifa for "See You Again"	Won
Houston Film Critics Society Awards	January 9, 2016	Best Original Song	"See You Again"	Nominated
Make-Up Artists and Hair Stylists Guild Awards	February 20, 2016	Best Contemporary Make-Up in a Feature-Length Motion Picture	James MacKinnon, Autumn Butler, and Roxy D'Alonzo	Won
		Best Contemporary Hair Styling in a Feature-Length Motion Picture	Linda D. Flowers, Jennifer Santiago, and Lisa Ann Wilson	Nominated
MTV Movie Awards	April 10, 2016	Best Action Performance	Vin Diesel	Nominated
		Ensemble Cast	Furious 7	Nominated
People's Choice Awards	January 6, 2016	Favorite Movie	Furious 7	Won
		Favorite Action Movie	Furious 7	Won
		Favorite Action Movie Actor	Vin Diesel	Nominated
		Favorite Action Movie Actress	Michelle Rodriguez	Nominated
Premios Juventud	July 14, 2016	Favorite Movie	Furious 7	Won
Satellite Awards	February 21, 2016	Best Original Song	"See You Again"	Nominated
Saturn Awards	June 22, 2016	Best Action or Adventure Film	Furious 7	Won
		Best Editing	Christian Wagner, Dylan Highsmith, Kirk Morri, and Leigh Folsom Boyd	Nominated
		Best DVD or Blu-ray Special Edition Release	Furious 7 (Extended Edition)	Nominated
Screen Actors Guild Awards	January 30, 2016	Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture	Furious 7	Nominated
Screen Nation Film and Television Awards	March 19, 2016	Female Performance in Film	Nathalie Emmanuel	Won
St. Louis Film Critics Association Awards	December 20, 2015	Best Song	"See You Again"	Runner-up
		Best Scene	"Paul Walker farewell"	Nominated
Teen Choice Awards	August 16, 2015	Choice Movie: Action	Furious 7	Won
		Choice Movie Actor: Action	Vin Diesel	Nominated
			Paul Walker	Won
		Choice Movie Actress: Action	Michelle Rodriguez	Nominated
			Jordana Brewster	Nominated
		Choice Movie: Villain	Jason Statham	Nominated
		Choice Movie: Chemistry	Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Dwayne Johnson, and Ludacris	Nominated
		Choice Music: Song from a Movie or TV Show	Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth for "See You Again"	Won
Visual Effects Society Awards	February 2, 2016	Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature	Mike Wassel, Karen Murphy, Martin Hill, Kevin McIlwain, and Dan Sudick	Nominated

Sequels

Further information: Fast & Furious

Furious 7 was followed by The Fate of the Furious (2017), serving as the start of a final trilogy of films that includes F9 (2021) and Fast X (2023). An eleventh and final mainline film, Fast XI, is in production.

See also

• List of films featuring drones
• List of films featuring surveillance
• Forza Horizon 2

References

Documents

• Universal Pictures. "Universal Pictures 'Furious 7' Starring Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, & Dwayne Johnson In Theaters April 3, 2015". Archived from the original on September 19, 2015. Retrieved June 2, 2015 – via The Videography Blog.

External links

• Official website
• Furious 7 at IMDb
• Furious 7 at AllMovie
• Furious 7 at Rotten Tomatoes

Fast 8 (2017)

Main article: Fast 8

Universal chairwoman Langley stated in 2014 that a total of 10 films were likely to be made. On April 9, 2015, producer Neal H. Moritz told The Hollywood Reporter that the filmmakers would meet to discuss the sequel in a week's time. Neither a director, nor a writer have been finalized for the eighth film. Moritz said, "[The story] is going to have to be something enticing for all of us […] It has to be as good as or better than Furious 7."

In regards to Furious 8 going to New York, Vin Diesel said, "Well, I was trying to keep it close to the vest throughout the release. Paul Walker used to say that eight was guaranteed. And in some ways, when your brother guarantees something, you sometimes feel like you have to make sure it comes to pass." Diesel added, "So if fate has it, F8...if fate has it, then you'll get this when you hear about it. Seven was for Paul, eight is from Paul." At the 2015 Universal CinemaCon in Las Vegas, Diesel announced that the eighth installment of the franchise will be released on April 14, 2017.

Universal Pictures did not reveal any details regarding whether Diesel's co-stars Michelle Rodriguez, Dwayne Johnson, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Chris Bridges, Kurt Russell, Nathalie Emmanuel, Lucas Black and Elsa Pataky would return to make the eighth installment, though Johnson eventually confirmed that he would appear. Jason Statham has confirmed that he will be returning as well. Rodriguez later confirmed her involvement.

In 2015, Diesel stated that the film, officially titled Fast 8, would take place in New York. Chris Morgan will write his sixth script in the franchise and Neal H. Moritz will return to produce the film. Moritz later stated, "[The story] is going to have to be something enticing for all of us... it has to be as good as or better [than Furious 7]." At the 2015 CinemaCon in Las Vegas, Diesel announced the film for an April 14, 2017 release date. In September 2015, Diesel has announced on his Facebook page that there will be a final trilogy of the franchise and a director will be announced on his page. In October 2015, Diesel later posted on Facebook that he may direct the eighth film or the original film director Cohen. In October 2015, Deadline reports that the film series cinematographer Ericson Core and Louis Leterrier are being consider to direct the film. Both The Hollywood Reporter and Variety reported that the studio has Leterrier, F. Gary Gray, Adam Wingard, and Will Eubank on the shortlist to direct the film. On October 8, 2015, Gray announced on his Twitter account that he had signed on to direct the eighth film.

Short films

Turbo-Charged Prelude (2003)

Main article: Turbo-Charged Prelude

The short film was included on a new print of the DVD of the first film in June 2003 to bridge the first two films. Brian O'Conner packs his bags and leaves Los Angeles, before the LAPD gets a chance to arrest him for letting Dominic escape. While the FBI launch a national manhunt for him, Brian travels across Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, winning in every street race he participates in, with his red Mitsubishi 3000GT. However, he is forced to ditch his car at a motel in Dallas when police officers are notified of his presence. When they collect the car, he manages to hitch a ride from an unknown woman, despite her knowing who he really is. She drops him at a used car lot, with him realizing she knows that he is a wanted man. There, he buys a green Nissan Skyline GT-R R34. Later, collecting money from street races, he modifies the car with new rims and repaints it silver, with blue lightning vinyls on the sides, before traveling eastbound and winning more races on the way. Upon reaching Atlanta, Georgia, Brian heads south toward Miami, Florida, where he sees Slap Jack's Toyota Supra and Orange Julius' Mazda RX-7 (both 2 Fast 2 Furious characters) before the screen reads "2 be continued…".

Los Bandoleros (2009)

Main article: Los Bandoleros (film)

Leo Tego (Tego Calderón) is in a Dominican Republic prison, ranting about corporations holding back the electric car and starting wars for oil. Meanwhile, on the streets, Rico Santos (Don Omar) chats to an old man unable to find enough gas. Han Seoul-Oh (Sung Kang) arrives and is collected from the airport by Cara Mirtha (Mirtha Michelle) and Malo (F. Valentino Morales). They drive him back to Santos' house, where his aunt Rubia (Adria Carrasco) is struggling with rising prices linked to the cost of gasoline and Dominic is working on his car. The team then enjoy a welcome meal with the family. After breaking Leo out of prison, they head to a club, where Han and Cara flirt, while Dominic meets up with local politician Elvis (Juan Fernandez), who informs them of a window of opportunity to hijack a gasoline shipment. While relaxing at the club afterwards, Dominic is surprised by the arrival of Letty, who has tracked him from Mexico. The two drive together to the beach, where they "rekindle their relationship".

Chronology

Two short films were released, bridging the gap between two or more of the feature films in the series. The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift also does not take place third in the series but instead sixth of the feature films. Below is a table of all films, both short and feature length, in chronological order. Real world release dates are also noted.

Chronological order	Title	Release date
1	The Fast and the Furious	June 22, 2001
2	Turbo-Charged Prelude	June 3, 2003
3	2 Fast 2 Furious	June 6, 2003
4	Los Bandoleros	July 28, 2009
5	Fast & Furious	April 3, 2009
6	Fast Five	April 29, 2011
7	Fast & Furious 6	May 24, 2013
8	The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift	June 16, 2006
9	Furious 7	April 3, 2015
10	Fast 8	April 14, 2017

Characters

Main article: List of The Fast and the Furious characters

Crew and other

Crew/Detail	Film
	The Fast and the Furious	2 Fast 2 Furious	The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift	Fast & Furious	Fast Five	Fast & Furious 6	Furious 7	Fast 8
Director	Rob Cohen	John Singleton	Justin Lin				James Wan	F. Gary Gray
Producer(s)	Neal H. Moritz			Neal H. Moritz Vin Diesel Michael Fottrell		Neal H. Moritz Vin Diesel Clayton Townsend	Neal H. Moritz Vin Diesel Michael Fottrell	Neal H. Moritz Vin Diesel
Writer(s)	Screenplay by: Gary Scott Thompson Erik Bergquist David Ayer Based on: "Racer X" by Ken Li	Screenplay by: Michael Brandt Derek Haas Story by: Michael Brandt Derek Haas Gary Scott Thompson	Written by: Chris Morgan Based on: Characters by Gary Scott Thompson
Cinematographer(s)	Erison Core	Matthew F. Leonetti	Stephen F. Windon	Amir Mokri	Stephen F. Windon	Stephen F. Windon Marc Spicer	Stephen F. Windon	TBA
Composer	BT	David Arnold	Brian Tyler			Lucas Vidal	Brian Tyler	TBA
Editor(s)	Peter Honess	Bruce Cannon Dallas Puett	Kelly Matsumoto Dallas Puett Fred Raskin	Christian Wagner Fred Raskin	Kelly Matsumoto Fred Raskin Christian Wagner	Christian Wagner Kelly Matsumoto Dylan Highsmith Greg D'auria Leigh Folsom Boyd	Christian Wagner Leigh Folsom Boyd Dylan Highsmith Kirk M. Morri	TBA
Costume Designer(s)	Sanja Milkovic Hays					Sanja Milkovic Hays Craciunica Roberto	Sanja Milkovic Hays
Production Designer	Waldemar Kalinowski	Keith Brian Burns	Ida Random		Peter Wenham	Jan Roelfs	Bill Brzeski	TBA
Running time	106 minutes	107 minutes	104 minutes	107 minutes	130 minutes		137 minutes	TBA
MPAA rating	PG-13				PG-13 (Theatrical version) Unrated (Extended version)			TBA
BBFC rating	15		12					TBA

Reception

Box office performance

Film	Release date	Box office gross			Box office ranking			Budget	Ref(s)
		North America	Other territories	Worldwide	All time North America	All time Other territories	All time worldwide
The Fast and the Furious	June 22, 2001	$144.533.925	$62.750.000	$207.283.925	#299	#?	#573	$38.000.000
2 Fast 2 Furious	June 6, 2003	$127.154.901	$109.195.760	$236.350.661	#388	#?	#476	$76.000.000
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift	June 16, 2006	$62.514.415	$95.953.877	$158.468.292	#1,121	#?		$85.000.000
Fast & Furious	April 3, 2009	$155.064.265	$208.100.000	$363.164.265	#261	#257	#244	$85.000.000
Fast Five	April 29, 2011	$209.837.675	$420.132.129	$629.969.804	#137	#85	#89	$125.000.000
Fast & Furious 6	May 24, 2013	$238.679.850	$550.534.814	$789.214.664	#101	#38	#49	$160.000.000
Furious 7	April 3, 2015	$351.032.910	$1.171.827.910	$1.522.860.820	#30	#3	#4	$190.000.000
Total	Total	$1,288,817,941	$2,618,494,490	$3,907,312,431	12	-	7	$759.000.000
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Critical and public response

Film	Rotten Tomatoes	Metacritic	CinemaScore
The Fast and the Furious	53% (147 reviews)	58 (29 reviews)	B+
2 Fast 2 Furious	36% (159 reviews)	38 (35 reviews)	A-
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift	37% (113 reviews)	46 (31 reviews)	A-
Fast & Furious	28% (173 reviews)	45 (27 reviews)	A-
Fast Five	78% (192 reviews)	67 (29 reviews)	A
Fast & Furious 6	69% (187 reviews)	61 (39 reviews)	A
Furious 7	81% (205 reviews)	67 (44 reviews)	A
Average	54%	55	A-

Theme Park Attractions

Universal Orlando Resort recently announced an attraction coming in 2017 based on the popular film series. Earlier in 2015 Universal Studios Hollywood opened a portion of their studio tour based on the films.

Merchandising

Video games

The film series has spawned several racing video games for various systems. The arcade game The Fast and the Furious (known as Wild Speed in Japan) was released by Raw Thrills in 2004. In 2006, the video game The Fast and the Furious was released for the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable. Several games (The Fast and the Furious: Pink Slip, Fast & Furious, Fast Five, Fast & Furious: Adrenaline, Fast & Furious 6: The Game and Fast & Furious Legacy) have all been released for iOS and are available on the iTunes App Store, for Android devices there is official version of Fast & Furious 6: The Game and "Fast & Furious Legacy". In 2013, Fast & Furious: Showdown was released for the PC (Windows OS), Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii U and Nintendo 3DS. Various cars, locations and characters from the series have also appeared in the Facebook game Car Town. In 2015, in a deal with Microsoft Studios, a standalone expansion of Forza Horizon 2 for Xbox One and Xbox 360 was released titled Forza Horizon 2 Presents Fast & Furious.

Toys and model kits

Racing Champions released diecast metal replicas of the film's cars in different scales from 1/18 to 1/64. RadioShack sold ZipZaps micro RC versions of the cars in 2002. 1/24 scale plastic model kits of the hero cars were manufactured by AMT Ertl. Johnny Lightning under the JL Full Throttle Brand released 1/64th and 1/24th models of the cars from Tokyo Drift. These models were designed by Diecast Hall of Fame designer Eric Tscherne. Greenlight also sold some cars from the new films from the series and some of them from the previous series.

Related films

Although not officially part of The Fast and the Furious film series, Sung Kang plays a character named Han in the film Better Luck Tomorrow, directed by Justin Lin, who also directed The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, Fast & Furious, Fast Five & Fast & Furious 6. In Fast Five, Gisele Yashar attributes Han's constant need to occupy his hands to him being a former smoker, an easter egg reference according to Lin's DVD commentary. The computer animated short film Tokyo Mater spoofs The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.

See also

• List of highest-grossing film franchises

External links

• Official website
• The Fast and the Furious at IMDb