Fast and Furious Was Never about Street Racing #Blogpost

Just a note: #OldNews. This actually quite old. Really old in fact. I started writing this over a year ago and never really got to finishing it or publishing it. I think CarThrottle beat me to the punch and posted something along similar lines, and I did not want to feel like I was too much of a copycat. It has just been sitting in my drafts and, I just could not get myself to delete it. So I thought I would finish it up publish it, and revel in the five up-votes it will no doubt end up getting. SO I hope people at least find this perspective interesting.

So whenever a new Fast and Furious (FF) movie was released I noticed an onslaught of complaints from viewers and critics alike that FF having “lost its root” and/or not about Street racing like the original film” (not the orginal orginal the Paul Walker Vin Diesel original) and from the most extreme avid Critic/fans “no Longer a Car film” So I decided to look back into these accusations and see if there was any merits to these claims… and I came to an interesting conclusion: Fast and Furious was NEVER about Street Racing. FF Franchise was about using Cars to commit crime or to try and catch the criminals. To help prove this claim I am going to give mini breakdowns of each FF film and explain with evidence to support my claim.

The first film follows, “ Brian O’Conner aka “Brian Spilner: an undercover Police officer whose assignment was working the street racing underground, and later on you find out specifically to find out who the Semi Bandits are who use matching black Civics to commit their crimes. The lead suspect: Dom Toretto. So as a part of his investigation he attends underground street racing and earns some cred by helping Dom escape Police. So being a part of this world naturally you would see both legal and illegal Car racing. But the movie was never about either.
The Fast and the Furious was about O’Conner cracking down on who was hijacking the Semis (who we all know ends up being Torretto.) One tuner v Muscle race/chase scene later O’Conner ends up letting Dom go in the end. The focus of this first film was about O’Conner (trying to) catching the bad guys. The prior Street races and legal “race wars” were just another element of the Car Culture. As I will explain further you will see various similar elements in future elements.

The first and mostly Dom-less sequel that took place semi shortly after the first. O’Conner is about to get arrested for betraying his duties. He escapes buys himself an R34. and eventually makes his way to his childhood home of Florida where he rocks the Street racing scene…while managing to stay out of cuffs. however as the beginning of the film notes he gets arrested when the 5-0 bust a race with their fancy EMP prong guns. O’Conner, wanted by the FBI now, is given an ultimatum, help them catch this criminal or go to jail FOREVER. naturally he chooses the former. after the Gas Station attendant didn’t know whether O’Conner’s Skyline had a Gallo 12 or Gallo 24 (hint: it was neither because pizza places don’t make motors) His loud-mouth buddie Roman ends up being his partner. if they can pull this off their records get cleared. Their mission? Capture some rat happy psycho drug lord and his drug money with it. ( minus a couple 100K) This film is also littered with some street racing, both in the beginning and when they (totally logically) “acquire” some extra cars to trick the baddies… which in this case can either be the FBI or the Mr. Rats. but Neither of these were what the film was about, and are really just another element of showing more Car Culture. 2F2F was about O’Conner and Pierce catching the Drug Lord. So, like the First FF this film is about catching the Baddie.

So The third Film takes a break from the regular cast and introduces us to Sean Boswell, some punk kid who wrecks half a neighbourhood all to impress some cheerleader and wrecks his Buick while at it. Instead of throwing him into Juvee ( probably because he was like 20+ yrs old or something) like they should have, they send him to Japan so he can find some wise Shamen to show him the error of his ways. The Shaman he finds? Han. The stipulation here is that he cannot touch a car or its off to the slammer for him. and the the Stipulation he breaks is that he touches a car… a lot of Cars, in fact it is one of the first things he does. (which wasn’t making out with some hot Japanese girl like normal Gaijins…I mean foreigners)
Another trouble causing choice he makes is flirting with Donkey Kong’s..I mean Drift King’s (DK) Slave girlfriend, immersing himself in the underground car world, and learning to Drift….very busy guy. This eventually gets him in lots ‘o’ trouble as he gets Han killed because he can’t stop loving on DK’s Slave GF. Probably out of all 20 of these films this has the most street racing as a part of the film’s plot. However this still isn’t what the film is about.
The actually theme to this film is revealed at the end of the movie: righting a wrong (offing Han) settling a score with DK, and freeing DK girl from his bonds. The final Drift themed race was about the aforementioned reasons. The races, more about the Car Culture of Japan. ( although i can accept this as the Only FF film that is about “street racing”.
Ohh and Dom cameo at the end of the Film…because reasons!

Movie #4. This is the Pre-Sequel #1 to the third movie and a return to the OG cast of misfit Drivers, this film can be best summed up as the film that gets the gang pack together. O’Conner, finally a FBI agent was on a case trying to capture the evil drug lord Braga. Toretto, on the other hand is living it up in Panama City until he finds out the love-of-his-life-but-not-too-much-of-a-love-of-his-life-as-he-is-cool-never-seeing-her girlfriend got murdered in the face. SO he goes to her funeral and then tries to hunt down the killer, and conveniently enough it is the same organization that O’Conner was hunting down. This Film starts the downhill part where we see less and less of actual Street racing…as the only street race that I recollect is where they are racing to determine who will deliver a package and be killed afterward.
Both Toretto and O’Conner both managed to be a part of this crew…both getting the job doing treacherous things. Toretto Cheating ( ramming O’Conner and preventing him from winning)..and O’Conner….cheating (by using his 5-0 god powers and planting drugs on another driver). They escape near death, regroup and eventually capture Braga after a couple back and forth trips across the Tex-Mex border and a couple more near deaths and car rammings. Toretto Opts out of escaping and accepts his prison fate. Nothing to fear though as his lil sis, O’Conner, and two buddies break him free of this before he got there.
Okay so there is definitely a lot of Cars and racing in this film but…not a lot of actual Street racing. So not about Street racing. There were some elements in there but really only to pay homage to more Car Culture. The actual plot here has to catching and or killing Braga (depending on who got there first)

Oceans 11 with Cars
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
Okay, fine, more explanation. This movie follows up the fourth film but still comes in chronologically BEFORE the third film as they had not yet gotten Jason Statham to kill Han.
This Film starts off where O’Conner Mia (sister) and others manage to roll/wreck a bus with a Coupe, and not kill anyone in that process. They break Toretto out and make it all the way to Rio De Janeiro without being caught and while being on the US Most Wanted list…they kind of just gloss over that bit. So at First the Toretto gang is just chilling (and maybe some Netflixing) when they are told about a very lucrative car heist. They are reluctant about it at first but told it is a sure thing by ole’ Vince ( who they magically met in the middle of one of the largest cities ever) so they agree and help. And like MAGIC Dom shows up, things get bad,a fight breaks out, cars get wrecked, and Dom and O’Conner get captured. Mia, who took the GT40 ( cause of the fight and poop riddle ceiling) manages to escape and make it to safety. Dom and O’Conner make it out and manage to make it back to their safe house and decide they have time on their hands so they take apart the GT40. They find out there is a shipping manifests of a drug lord (Reyes) of all his shipments and money.
Back track a bit: During the Time of the Heist The US Government hires the Rock to get a crew and find the Toretto’s and O’Conner, because da mmit it is that important . So they have Roidsy McGee looking for them AND Reyes Goons wanting to get them. which conveniently enough they both find the hideout at the same time and the Toretto crew makes an escape and SURPRISE MIA is preggers. (it was probably from all that nexflixing from earlier) Somewhere in there they decided they were angry enough at Reyes and they wanted his money Gosh Darnit. so they Assemble their Oceans Eleven crew together they try and find some syck a$$ cars because they force Reyes to put all of his money in one place (much easier to steal that way) and that place was this super high tech Police station. (Deep inhale and exhale) okay finally we got the the street racing bit….just kidding that wasn’t important enough to include, but you get a short glimpse into the Rio car scene.
So they go through car after car after car, which who knows where they were getting them, and finally figure out they needed: Police Cars. to pull this off ( along with fingerprints and stuff but they cover all that in a montage) It comes down to the day to pull the heist but before Dom or O’Conner can leave Hobbs and gang break in and bust the remaining Toretto crew. AND at the same time Reyes decides them sons of a b!!ches need to die and be out of his hair even though that they were literally on their way to the airport, They barely manage to escape that fiasco with Hobb’s team getting all killed along with Vince because f**k that guy. they make it back to the hideout, regroup and all agree that sumbich needed to pay, break into the Police station by force use t o Police cars ( painted black) along with Hobb’s Knight XV ( to break in a wall or two) and, with the Police cars, steal a 10 ton safe full of money and drag it along the streets of Rio ( sneakingly trading the full safe for an empty one) and the whole thing ends with Reye’s brain 15 g heavier and Toretto’s crew richer. And Everyone lives happily ever after….except for Han who goes back to Japan and dies because Sean can’t keep it in his pants.
So it is safe to say that this film is EVEN less about street racing and more about revenge and heists. again, following the aforementioned pattern.

D@@@mnt I didn’t really get around to watching this one. Based off the image above I can only guess that Roman learns to fly, and they get attacked by a tank. Just kidding. Thankfully there is the internet and I can look up the Plot.
So Movie 6 takes place somewhat shortly after Furious 5, everyone is rich and living reclusive lives in foreign countries because they are all wanted for murder…amungst other crimes, and the moment they step foot in the Freedom loving US of A they will be imprisioned. The Rock Needs help catching another big criminal so he tracks down Torrettos Eleven and enlists them to catch this criminal or go to prison. Surprise Surprise Letty is Alive but brainwashed but they were able to undo that somewhere in the movie. Timeline-wise this is around the same time Han gets punted into a wall because Shaw’s brother needed that three point conversion. This is also the same movie with the really, really, really long runway. In effort to keep things short, They use cools cars, someone has a Volvo, Street chase scenes, Highway Chase scenes, Runway Chase Scenes, they get the bad guy in the end, and are able to return to the States. this is honestly the basic plot for both movies seven and eight so I am not going to go over them. (7) Little Brother Shaw gets revenge, he gets captured, and (8) Torretto becomes the bad guy for some feminine fatale who wants to steal a submarine.

These are action movies. They just so happen to use various awesome vehicles as their main tool, mode of transport, or Macguffin. They follow the three Es: Exotic cars, Exotic locations, and Explosions. Not really about street racing. They were more unique about their movies up until the sixth movie and I just cannot imagine that the rumoured nine and ten (and an Eleven?) will be any different. Just the same rehashed Movie 6.

So just to rehash this. These movies were never about Street racing, rather the action packed crime and crime fighting with the use of cool sometimes exotic vehicles and catching baddies
1st Movie: Catching Torretto
2nd Movie: Catching Latin Drug Lord
3rd movie: Catching mad Drifts
4th Movie: Catching Braga
5th movie: Revenging Reyes (crime lord guy)
6th Movie: Catching Shaw
7th Movie: Catching Shaw 2.0
8th Movie Catching Cipher
So really Street racing was and has always been a very minor part of Fast and Furious and never really a part of the main plot. There is always a general bad guy (well apart from the first) that needs to be caught.