TV Icons Unearthed: The Fast & The Furious

[Trinten]

A series on Vice that goes into the F&F movies. They talk to producers, stunt coordinators, writers, the reporter that wrote the story that kicked it all off, some of the cast so far. They talk a lot about production, the stunts (the first movie was full of practical effects, including where the Charger flips over the Supra? Yeah, real stunt, the Charger did actually go over the Supra at around 70 mph).

I've seen the first 3 episodes on it, it's pretty good. There's a little filler on "callbacks" when they come back from commercial breaks, recapping what you just watched five minutes ago.

The street race scene -- the extras were mainly street racers in LA. One of the guys in there was a well known street racer, and by the third night of shooting they had over 100 extras there, in their own seriously dialed up cars (they didn't have the budget to make all their own cars everywhere). Neat tidbits I hadn't heard before.

Click to read more...

 

[IDAFC21]

Ive been recording this but have only watched the first episode so far.

Ive been loving the icons unearthed series. The simpsons one they did was pretty good, and the star wars one was great too

 

[importcrew]

I guess I can add this to my watch list.

 

[IDAFC21]

just watched ep 2 on 2 fast 2 furious. Actually learned a lotta insight into this one. And found out some of the accidents filmed w/ the cars were not always scripted, but they ended up using the footage in the movie anyways

 

[IDAFC21]

got caught up. last weeks ep was tokyo drift and fast 4, this weeks was fast 5. I gotta say these are almost more interesting to watch than the actual movies I love learning about the "mistakes" that actually turned into something they used in the movies. And also learning just HOW much of these big stunts and scenes were practical effects vs CGI. But seeing how these are progressing its not hard to understand WHY the franchise went the way it did, but man, i still yearn for those simpler days

 

[Trinten]

Yeah, it's been a good series. And agreed, there's only so many variations of "Point Break with cars" you can do before the audience is done with the series.
Personally, I still hope they come out with a second Hobbs and Shaw movie.

Agreed on the practical effects part, some crazy stuff!

 

[IDAFC21]

Yeah, it's been a good series. And agreed, there's only so many variations of "Point Break with cars" you can do before the audience is done with the series.
Personally, I still hope they come out with a second Hobbs and Shaw movie.

Agreed on the practical effects part, some crazy stuff!

I legit never knew they actually had someone "driving" the safe. But i suppose its not hard to believe when they had people driving the gas tankers in 4 also But the fact that they had to put dry ice in there to keep it cool enough, but then realized that dry ice sucks up oxygen, so they had to rig it so he could actually BREATHE in there, crazy stuff. Its actually a wonder these movies even got made. If they had just gone full cgi on everything we wouldnt even be talking about these movies right now

 

[Trinten]

And CGI has come a long way, but when Fast 5 came out... I don't think it would have been as believable. I do like Honest Movie Trailers video for Fast 5. At one point he says "To get the job done, they're going to need to break all the laws.... of physics." lol



edit - found the video, my quote was off a little, but still funny.

 

[Thirdgen89GTA]

I thought in the first F&F movie that the final stunt (train track jump) and the charger flip were composited shots. Aka while its all real footage it was filmed separately and composited together later.

 

[IDAFC21]

"because it got rid of all the street racing" god

 

[IDAFC21]

Just watched the newest episode. this one was a bit heavy, since it has to deal w/ Paul's death. I cant believe its been nearly 10 years now.... Still feels like just yesterday.

Season finale is next week.

 

[Trinten]

I haven't seen that episode yet. I am really curious to see how much of a spin they put on it. I remember when it first happened, there was immediate defense of him, saying it had to be something wrong with the Porsche, that he would never do anything wreckless, etc, etc, then it was released that the car had seriously dry rotted tires and was going well into the triple digits (those details are from memory).

 

[IDAFC21]

They dont go into TOO much detail w/ the wreck, but they actually did bring up the tires

 

[IDAFC21]

Just watched the finale. I love how at this point most of the people they interviewed were basically like "uhhh yeah we're still doing these??" But I will say this series was actually really well done. It actually made me rethink how I feel about this franchise.....tho the movies after Paul's death are still gonna be a hard sell for me. I know why they kept going, but at that point it was just what can we put on screen that will get them $$$$$

 

[Trinten]

Just watched the finale. I love how at this point most of the people they interviewed were basically like "uhhh yeah we're still doing these??" But I will say this series was actually really well done. It actually made me rethink how I feel about this franchise.....tho the movies after Paul's death are still gonna be a hard sell for me. I know why they kept going, but at that point it was just what can we put on screen that will get them $$$$$

Exactly, and there's only so many times that you can "wrap Point Break with street racing" and have a movie that isn't entirely guessable in the first five minutes, especially when using the same cast. Hell, in the one in Brazil, it was easy to guess that Vince was going to be the guy to betray them to the crimelord, just because of his personality from the first movie.

I have mixed thoughts about them, especially with some of the goofier stuff (like the one with the military cargo plane that was apparently on a 15 mile runway for it to be trying to take off for that long). The shift to making them a "Mission: Impossible with cars" gives them some more room to work, as long as they can find excuses for the car part.