Movie Review – The Fast and the Furious (2001)

In anticipation of Furious 7, what *might* be the final Fast & Furious film, we’re going to review the first six films in that series, starting with 2001’s The Fast and the Furious.

It’s no secret that a good action film can earn a lot of money in the theaters, and it can have loyal followers.  That goes double when said action film involves street racers, a soundtrack with heavy metal music, and a great cast of actors.

Welcome to the world of The Fast and the Furious.

Released in 2001, The Fast and the Furious is an action movie centered around street racers and their lifestyle on and off the (improvised) racetracks.  The plot follows along as an undercover cop infiltrates a gang of street racers in order to investigate who is hijacking semi-trucks on the highways.  What the cop discovers is that the street racers are more than what they seem, and he has a lot in common with them.

Directed by Rob Cohen, The Fast and the Furious stars Paul Walker as Brian O’Conner, an undercover LAPD detective who goes undercover and into the world of street racing.  Co-starring in the film is Vin Diesel as Dominic Toretto, the leader of a street gang and a professional street racer.

Supporting them in the movie are Michelle Rodriguez as Letica “Letty” Ortiz, Jordana Brewster as Mia Toretto, and Rick Yune as Johnny Tran, Dominic’s main rival in the film.

The Fast and the Furious begins with a few street racers carrying out a daring raid against a semi-truck.  It’s a lone stretch of highway at night when the matching black Honda Civics conduct an organized attack.  One of the attackers uses wire and a grappling hook to enter the truck, subdue the driver, and then drive the stolen truck to a secret destination.  All of the truck’s electronic merchandise is later sold on the black market.

In Los Angeles, undercover LAPD officer Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) is an aspiring street racer who is tasked with solving the mystery of the truck hijackings.  The LAPD thinks that one of the local street racing gangs is responsible for the crimes.

Brian has a cover job at a respectable mechanic shop, and he that as a way to talk to one of the gangs.  He visits a local restaurant and shop named Toretto’s Market & Cafe, and he flirts with Mia Toretto (Jordana Brewster), the sister of street racer Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel).  Brian is a regular visitor to the restaurant, and it begins to cause a problem when members of Toretto’s gang arrive and find Brian there again and talking to Mia.  This causes Vince (Matt Schulze) to get jealous, and he starts a fight with Brian.  The two are finally separated by Dominic.

The rest of Toretto’s gang include Jesse (Chad Lindberg), Leon (Johnny Strong), and Dominic’s girlfriend, Letty (Michelle Rodriguez).  All of them are also street racers who drive heavily modified cars.

That night there’s a street race taking place somewhere in the city.  Brian enters a race against Dominic and several other drivers, but he doesn’t have the required cash.  Instead, he wagers the pink slips for his modified Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX.  The race begins and Brian has to use nitrous oxide as a boost to get ahead of the drivers.  However, Brian uses his boost too soon.  Dominic times his boost correctly, and he cruises to victory in his Mazda RX-7.

Brian had pushed his car too hard and damaged the engine, and it’s smoking when he joins the other drivers after the race.  He laughs it off and claims that he almost beat Dominic, but Dominic ridicules him for losing the race.  It always pays to be a winner.

Before Brian can hand over the keys to his car, the police department swarms the scene.  Everybody scrambles and tries to escape.  Dominic ditches the cops and parks his car in a garage, but he’s spotted when walking down the street.  Brian comes to Dominic’s rescue and the two of them evade the police cars.

Things are fine until Brian accidentally drives through a rival gang’s territory, and he and Brian are escorted at gunpoint to a garage belonging to rival driver Johnny Tran (Rick Yune) and his cousin, Lance Nguyen (Reggie Lee).  Johnny gives Dominic a stern warning about venturing into the wrong territory.  Johnny’s gang then fire machine guns at Brian’s car, causing it to catch fire and explode.

Now Brian and Dominic have to find another way back to Dominic’s home.  Brian’s actions have earned him Dominic’s respect, but he still owes him a “ten-second car,” one that will go from a stop to a quarter-mile in less than ten seconds.  The two of them ultimately get a taxi to drive them to Dominic’s home.

When they finally get to Dominic’s home, Dominic is upset that his gang chose to stay there and get drunk instead of going out and finding him.  Of all the people who did so, it was Brian who risked his neck, the very person who just lost his car in a street race against Dominic.

The next day Brian is “arrested” by the police and taken to a meeting with his boss, LAPD Sergeant Tanner (Ted Levine).  The FBI is also there, and Special Agent Bilkins (Thom Barry) is running the joint operation with Tanner.  Bilkins informs them that time is running out in solving this case of the truck hijackings.  The truck drivers are threatening to arm themselves and start shooting against any troublemakers.  Brian has some leads, and he convinces Tanner and Bilkins to give him a little more time to find some evidence.

Brian then shows up at Dominic’s garage with a wrecked Toyota Supra.  Dominic makes fun of the car until his gang opens the hood and examines the engine.  He then agrees to accept it and turn it into the racer, with Brian helping out as both a mechanic and a driver.

Brian is accepted into the gang (except for Vince as he still holds a grudge against Brian), and he starts to bond with Mia.  As Brian discovers, Dominic’s gang acts as one large family, complete with cookouts and movie nights.

The following day Hector (Noel Gugliemi) arrives at the shop where Brian works, and he orders three sets of high-end parts for Honda Civics.  Thinking that these are the same cars that are used in the hijackings, that night Brian infiltrates Hector’s garage.  When he leaves the garage he’s caught by Vince.  Vince takes him to Dominic, and Brian convinces him that he’s not a cop.  Brian lies and tells them that he was just there to check out the competitor’s cars.  They’ll be racing against them soon at a major event called Race Wars.

The lie works and Dominic and Vince take Brian, and they infiltrate Johnny Tran’s garage.  While Dominic and Vince check out Johnny’s cars, Brian spots a bunch of electronics and thinks that it’s stolen cargo from a hijacked truck.  Just then Johnny and his gang arrive, but they don’t spot the others.  The gang soon leaves, and when it’s clear Dominic, Vince and Brian also leave.

Brian then has another meeting with his supervisors.  Time is running out and Bilkins’ supervisors in Washington, D.C. will be in Los Angeles soon.  Bilkins really needs solid evidence to show his supervisors.  At the meeting, Brian is informed that Dominic had served hard time in prison for viciously beating another man.  He beat him so badly that the man can no longer drive, and he can only work the most basic of jobs.

Back at Dominic’s garage, Dominic shows Brian his prized car, a custom 1970 Dodge Charger.  This was really his father’s car, and it’s allegedly so powerful that the torque can physically bend the frame of the car.  Dominic then shares a story about his father and how he was killed while driving at a racetrack.  It was then that Dominic assaulted the driver who killed his father, and that’s when he was sent to jail.  Dominic then tells Brian that no matter what, he’ll never go back to jail.

That night there’s another truck hijacking.  When Brian receives a phone call from Tanner, he tells them about the evidence he found in Johnny Tran’s garage.  The FBI then launches a raid against Johnny’s gang.  The cops (including Brian in disguise as a SWAT officer) break open the doors and haul away Johnny in front of his family.  The only problem is that it turns out that the “stolen electronics” were legally purchased by Johnny, so he’s not the one responsible for the hijackings.

Soon the wrecked Toyota Supra is repaired, and Brian and Dominic take it out for a test drive.  They see a random guy driving a black Ferrari, and the two drivers have an impromptu street race down a stretch of road on the coast.  Brian wins the race.

The next day is Race Wars, a major racing event out in the desert.  Letty races against a random person and wins her race.  Jesse races his father’s modified Volkswagen Jetta against Johnny Tran’s 2000 Honda S2000.  Brian tries to convince Jesse not to race against Johnny, but Jesse races anyway.  Jesse loses the race, but instead of handing over his keys, he flees the racetrack.  Johnny is furious and tells Dominic to go find Jesse, but Dominic refuses.  Johnny then accuses Dominic of being the person who called the cops on him and hauled him to jail.  This infuriates Dominic, and he fights Johnny.  The fight is ultimately stopped by the security, but Dominic swears that he never went to the cops.

Brian figures out that it’s really Dominic’s gang who is robbing the trucks.  He confronts Mia and reveals that he’s an undercover police officer.  He warns her that not only are the truckers arming themselves, but a ton of law enforcement agencies are about to come down hard on Dominic’s gang if there’s another hijacking.  Mia ultimately confesses the truth.  To make matters worse, Dominic and his gang are going to rob another truck that night so they can get money to pay off Jesse’s debt to Johnny Tran.

Brian and Mia head off in search of Dominic’s gang.  He uses his police resources to track Dominic’s cell phone and figure out where they’re going.  Meanwhile, Dominic organizes his gang and they head out to hijack another truck.

The hijacking commences, but Vince runs into trouble when he tries to use a grappling hook to enter the truck.  This driver is armed with a shotgun, and he starts shooting at everybody.  The other drivers try to help, but Vince is trapped at the end of the wire.  Letty’s car gets damaged and she runs off the road and crashes.  Brian ultimately comes to the rescue and he saves Vince, but Vince was shot by the trucker and badly cut by the wire.  Brian then blows his cover to Dominic when he places an emergency call to request a medical helicopter for Vince.

Dominic flees and Brian confronts him at his home.  He thinks that Dominic is going to use a shotgun against the cops, but he’s really going to go out and find Jesse.  Just then Jesse arrives at Dominic’s home, and he’s paranoid.  Jesse thinks that Johnny is going to kill him.  Suddenly Johnny and Lance arrive, and they spray Dominic’s house with machine gun fire.  Jesse is caught in the gunfire and he dies.

Dominic climbs into his Dodge Charger and Brian uses the Toyota Supra, and they chase Johnny and Lance through the city.  Dominic ultimately wrecks Lance’s bike and injures him, and Brian shoots and kills Johnny.

After killing Johnny, Brian and Dominic flee from the police and head to a secluded stretch of road.  It’s the same stretch where Dominic learned to drag race.  He and Brian then race each other down the street, and they narrowly avoid being hit by a train.  They miss the train but Dominic accidentally clips the front of a truck, and he totals his car.  Instead of arresting him for the hijackings, Brian gives Dominic the keys to the Toyota Supra, fulfilling his obligation of giving him a “ten-second car.”

The Fast and the Furious ends with Dominic climbing into the Supra and escaping from the police.  A post-credits scene shows him driving through Baja, Mexico.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Is The Fast and the Furious a good movie?

Surprisingly yes.

When I first saw the previews for this movie a long time ago, I thought that this was just going to be another cheesy action flick that would be big on visuals and lacking pretty much everything else.  However, when I finally saw the movie later, I was pleasantly surprised that this film packed quite a punch.

Sure, this isn’t an Oscar-winner, and it’s not a sophisticated film, but it easily has a very high level of satisfaction with it.  This movie delivers plenty of action and street racing, and it also has some great actors and characters.  This is the film that made Vin Diesel and Paul Walker into major stars.  Throw in some awesome music and some sexy ladies, and there you go.

Fans of action films and street racing will find themselves right at home with The Fast and the Furious.  Other people willing to give it a try may also find entertainment.

The Fast and the Furious (2001) – movie trailer

Remember that The Fast and the Furious is not a sophisticated film.  It’s not the best of the bunch, but in the end it’s still a LOT of fun.

Dominic – “Ask any racer. Any real racer. It don’t matter if you win by an inch or a mile. Winning’s winning.”

—————–

Dominic – “I live my life a quarter-mile at a time. Nothing else matters: not the mortgage, not the store, not my team and all their bullshit. For those ten seconds or less, I’m free.”