Film of the Week: Fast and Furious (Franchise)

I want to do something different this week. Instead of talking about one film, I want to talk about eight. The Fast and Furious franchise has diverted quite substantially from the first film. What was a simple undercover cop story trying to intercept and take down a group of street-racing criminals who were suspected to be involved in some heists has evolved into a story about criminal masterminds and spy agencies and utterly bonkers car stunts. It has been widely parodied across the internet stating how different the franchise has become, and how many films there are.

As a fan of films and enjoy figuring out what makes a film tick, I wanted to understand what people meant by the statement, “it used to be about street racing.” With any long-running franchise, the story is of course going to develop. We see that more so in TV shows than in films as they have multiple seasons - my most recent exploration about the evolution of a long-running series involved watching Supernatural from the first episode to the last. Seeing the two characters, Sam and Dean go from fighting the big bad of the week to literally going toe-to-toe with God himself proves how far the show had come. After beating the main antagonist of each passing season, of course the show had to bring in new and bigger enemies to keep the show interesting as the amount of knowledge and experience Sam and Dean had obtained from the previous seasons would make for a boring show if the writers didn’t introduce bigger entities. But I’m getting off the main objective here. My point about how far Supernatural has come is it’s natural progression within the lore of that world. The same goes for every other TV show and film franchise, and whilst Fast and Furious and Supernatural are two very different entities in media, after watching all eight films back-to-back with the speed of once a week, I noticed that natural progression from film to film. Narratively, it makes sense that they would be fighting against a submarine in the eighth film after previously only going up against racers on the street.

The first film in the franchise sees a regular cop going undercover. Brian O’conner (Paul Walker) is tasked with intercepting a group of criminals who spend their days heisting and their nights racing and gathering enough evidence to take them down for good. Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) was Brian’s main target as he ran every heist operation and his own street racing team. Brian does what he was tasked to do and gains Dominc’s respect, but that respect is challenged when he discovers Brian is a cop. That respect then remains mutual when Brian lets Dominic get away. This sets in motion the rest of the franchise. As a whole, talking about every character’s personal development would take up multiple pages and would also be unnecessary as those who are reading this article are probably already caught up with the franchise anyway, so I’m going to jump ahead to the fifth film where the franchise starts taking that pivot. Universal wanted to do something different and focus on a bigger heist instead of street racing, so I could end the article here and say the reason why they were fighting against the submarine in the eighth film is due to studio interference, but it’s a bit more complicated than that. Narratively, it makes sense that they would divert from street racing in the fifth film because they were running from the law and the only way to clear their name was to take down a criminal mastermind, steal his money and run away with it all, starting an innocent life in the shadows with no need to fear who’s sneaking up behind them.

Narratively, the respect, the experience, and the knowledge all the characters gain for each other and about the world they live in has changed their lives, but I do now understand that phrase, “it used to be about street racing,” just as Supernatural was just about hunting things that go bump in the night. One character, Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson) even points out how ludicrous their lives had become by saying the line, “first a tank, then the plane, and now we got a spaceship?” whilst obviously what they were going up against wasn’t a spaceship but instead a highly advanced intelligence drone, it still holds some weight as to how far they’ve come from simply racing on the streets to full blown saving the world, but when he was corrected on that statement he says, “oh, it’s a drone. Now you gonna break it down and be articulate like you already know what the hell is going on?” That sums up the natural progression the series has made in one short swift sentence - an almost fourth-wall breaking moment highlighting how we see the movies. Little does he know that things were only going to get crazier.

Let’s not forget Brian’s comment just before driving backwards out of a plane, “just when you couldn’t get any better, huh?” In context, that was meant for himself, but again it’s a reference to just how far the franchise has come. It’s another semi-fourth-wall breaking moment.

The Fast and Furious franchise has evolved with each film being bigger than the last, and so in hindsight, the submarine scene was inevitable, and it made me wonder what they were going to in the ninth installment.

As I stated earlier, I now understand the phrase, “this used to be about street racing.” I started watching the films with that intention and the moment it clicked into place for me was during the seventh film. The team were once on the streets, using cars they practically built themselves, keeping them financially stable any way they could - they were doing things as normally as their lives would allow. And then came the scene in the seventh film when they were driving some of the most expensive cars in the world before walking down some steps wearing some of the most expensive suits and dresses in the world. The three pictures below helped me understand that phrase and how far the franchise and the characters had come.

And whilst we mock and mockingly predict what’s going to happen if the franchise continues on and on, I think that’s everyone’s way of understanding that phrase. Narratively, after watching the films with that intention in mind, it makes perfect sense. Don’t get me wrong, cars against a submarine is definitely crazy and is a long way off from the first movie, but seeing the that development in quick succession, with statements referencing their own crazy development from the characters themselves helped me realise that street racing was a major contributing factor to where they were going, and not something they had left behind.

Kind regards;

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)