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The Rewatchables ·

Fast Five

year 2011decade 10sdirector Justin Lingenre Drama
host Bill Simmonshost Shea Serrano
All 15 categories

Most Rewatchable Scene · 18:27

The favela rooftop chase

Picking a most rewatchable scene from this movie is hard; the opener, where the gang frees Dom from the prison bus, is nominated first as a great scene.

Because nitpicks and unanswerable questions are inherent in these scenes, the hosts jump the gun: prisoner transports in action movies always run down an empty highway with no police protection and no explanation, the bus driver alone with forty felons and one guard must be asking the same questions, and a prisoner seeing that empty highway would start to feel he might get out.

The Neil McCauley “A Book about Metals” Award for Best Line from the Movie · 1:13:55

"I'll see you soon, Toretto"

'I'll see you soon, Toretto' is offered as the obvious best quote and the other agrees there is probably no better one; also loved is Brian's smirk and 'you know we got that' after Dom's speech about needing two precision drivers who don't crack under pressure, which the hosts perform.

The film

Fast Five (2011)

Directed by Justin Lin · Drama

130 minutes

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Cast

Selected cast credits · Film reference

Cast credits have not been imported yet.

Everything from the episode

In the order the hosts got to it. Open a row for the discussion.

17:38

Roger Ebert's review
In the discussion (1)
Approx. transcript time · 00:17:38Read transcript
  • Ebert gave the film three out of four stars, which gets a 'good for him'; Richard Corliss of Time called it maybe the first great film of the post-human era, a phrase the host likes without knowing what it means.
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55:05

Casting What-Ifs

Hobbs was originally developed for Tommy Lee Jones before Vin Diesel and Justin Lin redesigned the role for The Rock

Hobbs was originally developed for Tommy Lee Jones before Vin Diesel and Justin Lin redesigned the role for The Rock

In the discussion (1)
Approx. transcript time · 00:55:05Read transcript
  • According to Vin Diesel, the role of Hobbs was originally developed for Tommy Lee Jones; on his Facebook page Diesel saw a fan who wanted him and The Rock in a film together, and he and Justin Lin redesigned the role for The Rock.
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58:02

Half-Assed Internet Research

The first trailer premiered on Vin Diesel's Facebook page in December 2010; Puerto Rico's tax incentives moved the sh...

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.
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1:08:37

Picking Nits

The pregnant Jordana Brewster gains no weight; the team shows up in Brazil without asking questions; action-movie Mad...

The pregnant Jordana Brewster gains no weight; the team shows up in Brazil without asking questions; action-movie Mad Libs lines; the ludicrous train heist; Wi-Fi in the warehouse; the warehouse staying secret; a brutal fight with no bruises; Hobbs joining the heist; the ten-second safe swap; the prison bus with one guard and no fatalities

In the discussion (9)
Approx. transcript time · 01:08:37Read transcript
  • Jordana Brewster is pregnant yet has gained zero pounds, in perfect shape at three months, while the older woman knows just from watching her eat.
  • Getting the team together: anyone told to be in Brazil in 48 hours without being told why would ask what it is about, what to bring and how much cash, yet everyone just appears; the hosts admit they have had the exact 'we need you in LA' conversation themselves.
  • Vin Diesel's 'I see you've all met' is a line only an action movie can say, and the film also uses the rest of the action-movie Mad Libs: don't worry about it, you're gonna want to see this, we're going to need a team, I heard about you.
  • The train heist is ludicrous, though loved; the train should have derailed and they should have died in the water jump, but otherwise it was realistic.
  • How did they get a wifi signal in the Brazilian warehouse, and how does Dom's giant warehouse stay secret with cars zooming in and out and a fake bank vault wheeled in by truck; the movies simply refuse to explain, as in 'I had a life before I met you'; Rock and Dom have one of the most brutal two-minute fights in movies with no bruises or cuts afterwards.
  • Hobbs deciding to join the final heist is absolutely ludicrous: revenge for his killed team is the motive, and he would have to tell his boss the team was wiped out but he will be back in two days after helping with a bank heist.
  • Asked whether the wrench blow crushed The Rock's skull, the answer is no, it was never in doubt because The Rock is not signing up to a movie to die; the moment recreates Dom beating a man with a wrench and then pivoting at the last minute, good moviemaking that becomes undeniable after watching all the films; and the ten-second safe swap, with the second safe coming out of the truck, needed a wide shot of how they did it.
  • Earlier, during the prison bus scene: forty felons and murderers guarded by one man with one gun on a deserted highway cannot work out, and the reporter's 'no fatalities' after the bus flipped 85 times is absurd when handcuffed prisoners without seatbelts cannot brace themselves.
  • Earlier, the cars should have exploded on hitting the water from 350 feet, since water is like concrete from that height, and the car they land near in the water is a factor.
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1:15:16

Probably Unanswerable Questions

What happened to the two Brazilian teammates in Monaco? Why not rob the first stash house and stop? What if the safe ...

What happened to the two Brazilian teammates in Monaco? Why not rob the first stash house and stop? What if the safe went over the bridge? Was failing to spin off Han and Giselle the biggest mistake in movie history? How do you score the Dom-Hobbs fight? How did they film Dom and The Rock as the same height? Why is a prison bus always alone on an empty highway?

In the discussion (8)
Approx. transcript time · 01:15:16Read transcript
  • What happened to the two Brazilian guys on the team who went to Monaco: it looks as if one won on roulette and gave the other his half back, but they were not invited back for Fast Six and only pop in briefly later, which is called bullshit and raises whether Dom treated them correctly.
  • Why not rob the first stash house and be done, since with ten or eleven houses holding around $10 million each they burned $10 million to reach the big money; Dom, Brian and one other person could have split $3 million apiece as a safer bet.
  • What would have happened if the safe went over the bridge and pulled the car down with it, though nothing was in that safe anyway; it could have been a twist with scuba divers sent for empty money; and was not spinning off Han and Giselle the biggest mistake in movie history, though Han may be a complementary Klay Thompson type who cannot carry a full season, so they could have been the Netflix show instead.
  • Scoring Dom versus Hobbs as a boxing round, it is at least 10-9 for Dom and maybe 10-8, since Hobbs is basically knocked out at the end, no longer trying to get up or pretending he wants to fight.
  • A 'copy box' (as transcribed) count of the fight is read: Dom 11 punches to five, four elbows to three, Hobbs five kicks to Dom's one since Vin is not athletic enough to kick, Dom seven takedowns to five, Dom two headbutts to one, Hobbs an arm bar and a sleeper hold that almost got Dom; that makes it closer than it looked, a 10-9, while the other cannot give nine points to a man who had a rear naked choke and an arm bar, failed to finish and nearly died; Craig the producer is enjoying it.
  • Statham versus The Rock is a 10-9 fight and Dom versus The Rock a 10-8; supposedly there was a lot of negotiation because The Rock did not want to get his ass kicked, part of why the shoot lasted a week, with the violence on each side spelled out evenly, yet he loses and then has to be saved by Dom, so he must have been angling for a different ending, since being unbeatable is his whole thing.
  • How did they film the Dom and Rock scenes to make them look nearly the same height when The Rock is far taller: you never see their full bodies facing each other, the camera looks up or something is in the way, with the moment in front of the car one of the few giveaways; the same thing happened with Josh Brolin, imagined as 6'6" until wide shots in Sicario 2 showed a 5'8" man with a gigantic head, listed at 5'10".
  • Earlier, during the prison bus scene: why prisoner transports are always on an empty highway with no police protection, how far away the prison is, and why Dom is on a bus in the middle of nowhere, to which there is never an explanation.
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