[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
[GRUNT]
This is the sequence that started Dominic Toretto's
ascension, or descension, depending on your perspective.
What's inarguable is it marked the point
of no return for the Fast and Furious franchise.
Before we get too deep into today's episode,
please be sure to like this video
and subscribe to Nerdstalgic in order
to check out our other Fast and Furious videos,
just like this one.
It's almost hard to remember now,
but there was a time when the Fast franchise was actually
about racing cars.
It's not how you stand by your car.
It's how you race your car.
You better learn that.
These days, the series is a bombastic cacophony
of Spandau Ballet, inflated egos, and Twisted Metal.
And the central driving force behind these tidal waves
of mayhem is the franchise's star and producer, Vin Diesel.
And that simple fact might be a key factor
in the franchise's most successful entries
and most overwrought mistakes.
But before we get into that, let's go back to the start.
While the first film in the franchise, released in 2001,
ostensibly amounts to Point Break with cars,
it objectively captured the zeitgeist
of inner city car culture to become a resounding success.
Despite being offered $25 million
to return to the role of Dominic Toretto,
Vin Diesel passed on appearing in 2 Fast 2 Furious,
saying that the script he was offered
was not connected enough to the first film's story.
Not wanting to squander a moneymaking opportunity,
Universal moved ahead with making another outing
for the fledgling series.
Despite receiving largely negative reviews,
2 Fast pulled in $236 million worldwide.
The Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift was released in 2006.
The film was originally shot as a direct-to-DVD standalone
sequel, but after positive test screenings,
the choice was made for it to go theatrical.
But it needed something, a little bit of extra gas.
It needed a tag featuring Vin Diesel.
What worked so well about the initial film
is that it's about a team of found family
who have their own moral code.
And even the cop, Paul Walker's Brian O'Conner,
who has been sent to infiltrate them,
recognizes this and eventually realizes
that their code supersedes the laws that they're breaking.
The next installment, Fast and Furious,
lays the groundwork for what the franchise will grow into.
An emphasis on character dynamics,
racing, and living a life on your own terms
take narrative primacy.
The core three people responsible for the next decade
of films would all come together on this project--
Diesel and the Tokyo Drift screenwriter Chris Morgan
and director Justin Lin.
These three would essentially be the engine
that kept things moving forward and raking
in money for Universal.
They decided to craft an elevated vigilante film that
would see Dom returning in order to solve
the murder of his longtime girlfriend, Letty,
played by Michelle Rodriguez.
However, this film would begin to shed the campy naturalism
of the original films.
It would instill in its viewers that maybe the world
that Dominic Toretto lived in was distinctly heightened.
We see the car-obsessed Toretto develop uncanny detective
skills, Punisher-style interrogation tactics,
and a drive for revenge that is seemingly
right out of a Charles Bronson death wish film.
Dom's quest apparently gives him the newfound ability
to possess superhuman strength, like holding an engine
block with one arm.
You're probably saying to yourself, yeah,
but it's cool that he's interrogating a guy by holding
an engine block on his face.
Who cares about the reality of this moment?
And you're right.
But these are the narrative stutter steps that
can quickly get out of hand.
While it's a little weird that the street smart drag racer
has Sherlock Holmes level detective skills,
this film does a great job of fulfilling the promise
that the first film established-- two friends
on opposite sides of the law attempting
to do the right thing.
Fast and Furious's grip on reality
might be tenuous at times, but it
seemed like that's what the audiences wanted.
The new tone and reunion of Paul Walker and Diesel
on the big screen worked.
It pulled people back into theaters
with a worldwide haul of $360 million.
This win allowed Diesel, Lin, and Morgan
to progress the franchise even further.
And as you might expect, this is where
the wheels start to come off.
Fast Five is a highly enjoyable film.
The core creative trio decided to pivot
the franchise into being an Ocean's 11 style film,
but with cars.
It's a heist story.
And wisely, they also decided to bring back almost every
familiar face from the franchise's previous four films
to assemble a-- wait for it--
Family.
However, this fun comes at a cost.
The franchise's already tenuous grip on reality
is beginning to fray.
The opening of Fast Five sees Brian diving off a speeding
train onto a car, and then Dom driving
said car off a cliff and both of them surviving no problem.
As if this wouldn't be enough to give someone PTSD,
the climax of the movie features an utterly thrilling and yet
completely insane sequence where Dom defeats
a whole army of Brazilian cops using a bank vault.
This larger than life tone is right in line
with classics of the action genre.
And if the franchise had stayed here,
all would have been right in the world.
Which brings us to Furious 6.
Here we are, the specific moment where Dominic Toretto
stopped being a human and became an adrenaline powered car
whisperer, super spy, globe trotting superhero, usually
clad exclusively in tank tops.
It doesn't need to be said, but for the sake of clarity,
a person who flies through the air at that velocity and slams
into a car's windshield would no longer be alive.
Dominic, on the other hand, it doesn't even
make his white t-shirt dirty.
And this serves as the point of no return for the franchise.
From this point on, Furious 7, Fate
of the Furious, F9, and Fast 10 fully lean into the idea
that the extended Toretto family are
the Avengers with car powers.
You made one mistake.
You never took my car.
The franchise becomes a morass of bizarre character retcons,
shifting timelines, and an ever increasing sense
of wild abandon.
A franchise that literally started about two guys racing
cars now sees Ludacris and his friends
creating a makeshift space vessel and taking to the stars,
or Dom literally lifting a car with his bare hands.
So the question is, why?
Why had Diesel and company steered their franchise
in this direction?
The answer is simple--
ego.
Well, that and money.
Outside of Marvel and DC, the one thing
every studio is hungry for is a cinematic universe.
Universal had tried to establish one with the Dark Universe,
and that failed gloriously.
And then when the Fast and Furious movies
kept making money, they just doubled down, leaned in,
and encouraged Diesel and crew to make
the franchise similar to the big budget superhero fare that
was dominating the box office.
However, here's the difference between Dominic Toretto
and Captain America or Superman.
As a character, Dom was never intended
to become an all-powerful demigod who
can conquer death, thanks to his impressive driving skills.
But Vin Diesel, the actor, has willed himself back to life
after multiple career deaths.
And thus there's an inherent connection
between Diesel and Toretto that characters like Iron Man
or Thor just will never have.
These traditional superhero characters
are controlled by companies that have multi-decade histories.
Countless people will play them over their existence.
There might be a definitive person,
but there's always going to be a new person attempting
to redefine the role.
In Diesel's mind, there's no Fast franchise without him.
And he's probably right.
In many ways, Vin Diesel is Dominic Toretto.
So when Toretto drives his car off a parking structure
and smashes it into a helicopter and survives,
it's not just the character doing it.
It's also a visual representation of Diesel's ego.
And this is why the films have been getting
more and more outrageous in scale
and why they've been less narratively effective.
Most long-running franchises understand
that you have to build up a hero and then tear him down.
You need to reset a baseline, and then
have the character's abilities, skills, and personality build
them back up and win the day.
However, even when the status quo
is attempted to be dialed back in the Fast films,
Dom never really loses.
In fact, that's literally in his contract.
According to a Wall Street Journal article,
there are provisions in Vin Diesel, Jason Statham,
and the Rock's contracts where they literally cannot lose
fights.
When you know that it's contractually
forbidden to have any of these characters lose,
it helps understand the feeling of watching these films.
Nothing has stakes.
Nothing has any danger because in order
to counteract the fact that the characters can't suffer
emotional losses, the stakes have
to keep being raised to utterly inhuman degrees, which, for Vin
Diesel, is almost the point.
He's single-handedly willing his franchise and himself
into being something more--
a demigod free from human frailty, faults, or real loss.
With every successive film, it becomes more evident
that the core theme of the franchise
isn't family and faith, but cynicism and ego.
Show people some fast cars, cute girls, and explosions,
and they'll show up in droves.
Yes, the Fast franchise was a definitive turning point
in global culture and proved beyond a shadow of a doubt
that films with diverse casts could and do make money
in overseas markets.
However, outside of monetary rewards,
these films are less truly compelling narratives
and more just an extended fantasy world for Vin Diesel
to live in and be adored for his flawlessness.
While there's obviously still legions
of people who thrill to these adventures,
love the practical stunts, and have
deep attachments to the characters,
it's becoming evidently clear that the films are
a parody of their past glories.
And this leads to almost every character
in the series becoming less relatable because they've just
stopped being human.
And Dominic Toretto is the apotheosis of this.
The laws of our world don't apply to Dom.
He's something more.
He's now a highly lucrative franchise mascot.
Well, that's all we have for today's episode.
What do you think?
Did Fast 10 live up to your expectations?
Let us know down in the comments below.
And as always, please like and subscribe to Nerdstalgic
for more videos just like this.