Half-Assed Internet Research
The first trailer premiered on Vin Diesel's Facebook page in December 2010; Puerto Rico's tax incentives moved the shoot from Rio; a 420-foot cable camera rig shot the rooftop chase; the vault was real with a truck hidden inside and destroyed over 200 vehicles; Tyrese commuted to Transformers; the train stunts were real and nearly derailed the train; Giselle's name is never spoken; Michelle Rodriguez learned of her twist return in the theater
In the discussion (9)
Approx. transcript time · 00:58:02Read transcript
- The first trailer was released on Diesel's Facebook page in December 2010, believed to be the first use of that marketing approach; he had 20 million subscribers, the rest of the cast followed on their own pages, and the groundswell laid the groundwork for how movies would be marketed this decade.
- The production intended to film in Rio de Janeiro, but Puerto Rico offered nearly $11 million in tax incentives so most of it was shot there; asked what a tax incentive means, the explanation that it saves money in the budget begins with 'I think basically', which signals not knowing; the production contributed $27 million to Puerto Rico.
- The rooftop chase across the favelas was filmed in Puerto Rico with a 420-foot cable camera rig for a bird's-eye view plus cameras on cranes on roofs and alleyways, a scene worth a documentary; the bank vault chase used camera cars including crane-mounted cameras on a Porsche Cayenne and a Subaru Impreza with a steel cage, and the Subaru's driver occasionally collided with the vault, which is why there are sparks.
- A revelation: the bank vault had a truck inside it, a real vault plus a mock-up fitted around a truck that was driven inside to give the illusion the cars were pulling it; six versions of the eight-foot vault were built and over 200 vehicles were destroyed by it.
- Tyrese was committed to Transformers Dark of the Moon, so he flew between Puerto Rico and Atlanta to do both films at once, the Deion Sanders of our lifetime; the brawl between The Rock and Dom took several weeks of rehearsal and more than a week of filming, with minor injuries to the actors and stunt doubles.
- Tyrese gets a bad rap in these movies but is loved and called perfect; the people who knock him can go fuck right off.
- Justin Lin had the cars really jump out of the train at full speed, a 1972 Di Tommaso Pantera (as transcribed), a 2007 Chevrolet Corvette GS Roadster and a Ford GT40 replica rather than a genuine one costing millions; the flatbed truck slamming into the moving train was real, not CGI, and the collision nearly derailed the train.
- The reaction is to find Justin Lin's birthday and pray toward whatever city he lives in; he is back for Fast 9, and learning that what seemed like CGI was done for real, Mad Max style, is called unreal.
- Gal Gadot's character's name Giselle is never said in the film, though maybe it was in Fast 4; in an interview while filming Fast 6, Michelle Rodriguez revealed she did not know about the twist ending with her in it until she saw herself in the theater; as Letty she is responsible for two of the six best fights and the three best driving stunts in the franchise, and bringing her back may prove more powerful long-term than adding The Rock.