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The Rewatchables ·

The Fast and the Furious

year 2001decade 00sdirector Rob Cohengenre Drama
host Bill Simmonshost Shea Serrano
All 17 categories

Most Rewatchable Scene · 16:04

Dom's post-race 'you almost had me' speech to Brian

The plot is summed up as truck heists that Paul Walker's undercover cop first pins on Dom's crew, then on Johnny Tran's, with a twenty-second fake-out on Hector's crew, before circling back to Dom once he has shared a Corona with Vin Diesel; the movie is described as centered on rewatchable scenes with recovery stretches between them.

Nominees: the first big street race; Dom's quarter-mile-at-a-time speech about his background, with special recognition owed to whoever wrote real dramatic acting for Vin Diesel; his flipping out at the street race when Johnny Tran accuses him of selling him out, with the line 'I never knocked on nobody'; the aborted truck hijacking with Vince dangling from the car; and the last ten minutes.

The Neil McCauley “A Book about Metals” Award for Best Line from the Movie · 1:00:41

"I live my life a quarter mile at a time. Nothing else matters. Not the mortgage, not the store, not my team and all their bullshit. For those 10 seconds or less, I'm free."

Nominated: 'You can have any brew you want. as long as it's a corona', recommended for high school yearbook quotes because it phrases a non-choice as a choice; and 'it's not how you stand by your car. It's how you race your car', another yearbook candidate.

The film

The Fast and the Furious (2001)

Directed by Rob Cohen · Drama

107 minutes

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Cast

Selected cast credits · Film reference

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Everything from the episode

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

16:04

Most Rewatchable Scene

Dom's post-race 'you almost had me' speech to Brian; Dom's 'quarter mile at a time' speech

Dom's post-race 'you almost had me' speech to Brian; Dom's 'quarter mile at a time' speech

In the discussion (10)
Approx. transcript time · 00:16:04Read transcript
  • The plot is summed up as truck heists that Paul Walker's undercover cop first pins on Dom's crew, then on Johnny Tran's, with a twenty-second fake-out on Hector's crew, before circling back to Dom once he has shared a Corona with Vin Diesel; the movie is described as centered on rewatchable scenes with recovery stretches between them.
  • Nominees: the first big street race; Dom's quarter-mile-at-a-time speech about his background, with special recognition owed to whoever wrote real dramatic acting for Vin Diesel; his flipping out at the street race when Johnny Tran accuses him of selling him out, with the line 'I never knocked on nobody'; the aborted truck hijacking with Vince dangling from the car; and the last ten minutes.
  • One host's most-rewound scene, after ten to fifteen viewings now that it is on Netflix, is the speech after the first race rather than the one in the garage: Dom putting on a show for the crowd, arms out, jibbing and jabbing at Brian to learn what he is made of while letting him know who runs things, the most we see of what Vin Diesel can do as an actor; the clip with 'Granny shifting, not double-clutching like you should' and 'Winning's winning' is played and becomes the sixth nominee.
  • Vin Diesel, like The Rock, belongs to everybody because he checks every box; this was the first big-budget action movie where representation felt like a big part of it, with Ja Rule, the Johnny Tran gang and Hector, and that diversity, mirrored in the theater audience, is credited as a reason the franchise became so huge, even though nobody can pin down his background.
  • Dom is written with a core and a code rather than as an emotionless tough guy: you don't tell on people, you take care of your family and your car; the hosts run the action-lead lineage from Clint Eastwood and Charles Bronson through Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Swayze and Nick Cage and note the leads were almost always white, with Wesley Snipes, Eddie Murphy and Carl Weathers the rare exceptions.
  • The eighties were the steroids era, with Stallone and Schwarzenegger making nineteen action movies between them, then Die Hard and Roadhouse moved to smaller guys with a philosophy degree; Vin in this role was the first big guy doing the philosophical stuff, able to give the speech about watching his dad die and also body slam The Rock, and his height remains amorphous, somewhere between 5'4 and 6'4.
  • Vin Diesel also has the unintentional comedy Schwarzenegger and Stallone had, where imitating the voice or the walk is funny; one host enjoys making fun of how he drank a Corona and calls the acting good but also terrible, which the other rejects outright.
  • The defense is that he is so committed he might believe the Fast and the Furious is real and Dominic Toretto's family is his; both enjoy his weird run with the arms held low, ranked with the girl in Taken among the weirdest runs in recent action movies, though he is reportedly very coordinated and a former background dancer.
  • Polled, one host goes with the post-race speech because it shows both Brian and Dom doing their stuff, Brian remarkably charming and peacocking with a little Dion Waiters irrational confidence; a clarification follows that Paul Walker is considered a good actor while Vin Diesel's acting is enjoyed without being called good.
  • The other host's favorite is the quarter-mile-at-a-time speech, remembered from the theater as unclear whether it was serious yet amazing; it is recited, called really touching, and the host always sticks around for it when it is on TV.
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27:15

What’s Aged the Best?

The writing of Dom's speech about his father's death; the Brian versus Vince rivalry; Vince as a character; the youth...

The writing of Dom's speech about his father's death; the Brian versus Vince rivalry; Vince as a character; the youth of the cast; Brian handing Dom the keys; the street races; the idea of family and the barbecue grace scene

In the discussion (8)
Approx. transcript time · 00:27:15Read transcript
  • The dad speech is read aloud: Dom's father coming up in the pro stock circuit, put into the wall at 120 miles an hour by a driver named Kenny Linder, the screaming that turned out to be Dom's own; the hosts spar over whether he says 'dad' or 'father' and whether Brian and Dom, a couple of weeks and one built car into knowing each other, count as friends; it is called good writing, very touching and very sincere.
  • Brian versus Vince has aged the best for one host: a rivalry where somebody immediately decides they hate you and never wavers even after you save their life, with a little love triangle over Mia, sold so well that Vince might have hated Paul Walker in real life.
  • Vince is a great character, a blend of handsome enough to pull off Jordana Brewster and scumbag, evil but not too evil; the revisionist case is that everything he said was true, he spotted that Brian was a cop from the daily visits to Toretto's market and the break-in at Hector's, and nobody listened; a homophobic slur before the fight is the one thing that has aged poorly.
  • Vince's credibility suffers from wearing two different mesh tank tops in the movie; a mesh-tank-top Mount Rushmore holds only him and Bennett from Commando. The youth of the cast has also aged well after two decades together: Vin's head has gotten bigger, Michelle Rodriguez looks almost a kid of about 22, and everybody was caught at exactly the right time.
  • Brian giving Dom the keys at the end is wonderful, and the odd way he holds the keys, by two points rather than between thumb and forefinger, is read as a deliberate Brian O'Connor character choice.
  • Street races in general have aged well for one host, who gives any street-race movie a chance; the other counters that they have aged the worst, since the franchise itself abandoned street racing after part three; the woman who waves the flag between the cars and never gets crushed is a favorite detail whose job needs a title.
  • The idea of family is one host's pick: seeded in the first movie through the cop who keeps bringing it up and paid off at the backyard barbecue where Vince comes back to eat and kisses Dom on the back of the head, grace is said by Jesse after he reaches for the food first, and Leon helps when he stumbles; it is the thing all the movies have stuck to.
  • The other host's pick is Brian versus Vince, a really bitter two-man rivalry with a girl involved, stretched all the way through part five where Vince still does not like Brian despite Brian single-handedly saving his life as he dangled from the truck bleeding; Vince would rather have died to prove his point that Brian was a cop.
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35:08

What’s Aged the Worst?

Jordana Brewster's driving; Jesse flaking at Race Wars (disputed); Dom's account of beating Kenny Linder; the green-s...

Jordana Brewster's driving; Jesse flaking at Race Wars (disputed); Dom's account of beating Kenny Linder; the green-screen train-track jump and the NOS camera zoom; Brian's haircut

In the discussion (7)
Approx. transcript time · 00:35:08Read transcript
  • Jordana Brewster's driving is pretty rough and never realistic to one host, who never bought it.
  • Without stepping on the research segment: neither Jordana Brewster nor Michelle Rodriguez had a driver's license before the movie and both needed intensive driver training.
  • Why Jesse flakes at Race Wars is one host's pick: he races his dad's car against Johnny Tran, loses, and drives away; the defense is that he just lost the car that was his whole world and his plan to share a car with his dad after prison, and that Johnny Tran, head of what the hosts call the Asian car mafia, is not someone to cross, though by then he had only been seen pouring oil in a man's mouth, shooting up Dom's car and holding a gun; the rebuttal is to stop making excuses for Jesse.
  • Dom's speech about seeing Linder a week later, hitting him with a wrench until he could not lift his arm, leaving him an elementary-school janitor who takes the bus, and being banned from the tracks for life, strikes one host as a lot to put on Dom's plate; the other argues it has to be pushed that far so we see him struggling with how bad he can be, since he is not violent again until the narc accusation from Johnny; his two years in prison prompt a prequel idea.
  • The special effects on the jump over the train tracks had to be cut around a green screen and are noticeable in 2019, as is the first race's shot where the camera zooms through the windshield and out the back of the car when they hit the NOS; 2000 was before CGI really got good.
  • By Fast 7 in 2015 the cars go through two skyscrapers in Dubai and it looks a hundred percent real; the CGI that completed Paul Walker's scenes after his death midway through filming, using his brother as a body double, is noticeable in the beach scene or when he pulls up in the car if you pause, yet counts as an incredible job; one host had no idea it had been done until reading about it.
  • The hosts compare where they saw Fast 7, one at Grandland (as transcribed) with Rafe and Mark Lasanti, the other with a spouse, and whether they cried at the ending, agreed to be one of the most emotional; Fast 7 is promised as a future episode. The final aged-worst pick is the special effects, with Brian's haircut as a runner-up thought.
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43:58

The Dion Waiters Award for Best Heat Check Performance

Ja Rule

Ja Rule

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 00:43:58Read transcript
  • The award needs someone who was not in the movie much, and both hosts land on Ja Rule at once: his whole part is a running sexual proposition that never pays off and gets him laughed out of the movie; Johnny Tran was the only other possibility considered.
  • Part of the appeal is that it is Ja Rule, a big-time star at the time; he and DMX in the 1998 to 2003 range were way bigger than they get credit for now, and a Ja Rule scene was a genuine thrill in the theater; he wins.
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52:19

Apex Mountain

Matt Schultz (as transcribed), who played Vince; Neil Moritz

Matt Schultz (as transcribed), who played Vince; Neil Moritz

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 00:52:19Read transcript
  • The OGs Vin Diesel, Paul Walker and Michelle Rodriguez did not get there with this movie; Jordana Brewster is arguable, since she was the best of them here and seemed headed for bigger stardom than she reached; the one definite Apex Mountain is Matt Schultz (as transcribed), who played Vince and who in 2001 could plausibly have gone on to bigger and better things.
  • The other host cannot separate any one movie from the rest and calls Fast Five Apex Mountain for all of them, the greatest movie of all time alongside Godfather 2, the point where the jigsaw pieces came together, everything got bigger and better, it made a bajillion dollars and became the new James Bond series; Fast Five is scheduled as an April episode.
  • A hedged suggestion that this might be Neil Moritz's Apex Mountain, for creating a multi-billion-dollar franchise off a Vibe article, is met with 'there's your winner right there'; the jump from stealing twenty DVD players here to a hundred million dollars in Fast Five is marveled at, compared with the truck heists in The Sopranos, and the DVD player heists are belatedly nominated for what aged worst.
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54:15

The Joey Pants “That Guy” Award

Ted Levine or the actor who plays Hector

Ted Levine or the actor who plays Hector

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 00:54:15Read transcript
  • One host calls it a no-brainer: Ted Levine, Brian's boss, who played Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs and was in Heat; the other had never recognized him and is incredulous, so a Buffalo Bill line is imitated to prove it, with the explanation that he simply carries more weight here.
  • The other host votes Hector, whose actor's real name is given as Noel (as transcribed) with the surname garbled; the actor looks and acts exactly the same in every role, all of them Training Day type parts set in the same area, so it is probably the same guy; the joke is that Michael Pena plays Hector, Vince and anyone else you ask about in 2019.
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55:49

The Ruffalo / Hanna / Rubinek / Partridge Overacting Award

The second police sergeant (not Ted Levine)

The second police sergeant (not Ted Levine)

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 00:55:49Read transcript
  • Nominees are Ja Rule, whose acting one host insists was actually perfect, and Ted Levine; the running argument over whether Vin Diesel is horrible or great resurfaces, with Find Me Guilty cited in his defense and the retort that he is fun to pray to rather than to make fun of.
  • The winner is the other police sergeant, not Ted Levine, who dials it up into almost a parody of every action-movie police sergeant; an impression of his 'if we don't get this' speech is performed and recognized as a character seen many times before.
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56:34

Is This Movie Better With…?

Danny Trejo

Danny Trejo

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 00:56:34Read transcript
  • Steve Buscemi is disqualified at once for looking sixty years old, though he could have been Jesse's dad getting out of prison for one scene; Danny Trejo versus Michael K. Williams is tough, and the movie arguably needs Michael K. Williams because, other than Ja Rule, it does not have a lot of signature Black performers.
  • Danny Trejo feels like he should absolutely be in the movie, imagined working at Toretto's Market in a little paper hat as Dom's uncle who just got out and is rebuilding his life, joining the family by Fast Four; the vote goes to Trejo.
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1:03:03

Sequel, Prequel, Limited Series, or All-Black Remake

Yes: a 10-to-12-episode series in LA's street-racing world

Yes: a 10-to-12-episode series in LA's street-racing world

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 01:03:03Read transcript
  • The relatively new 2019 category asks whether it could be remade as a ten-episode Netflix show; Netflix is already doing an animated spy-cars series, but the pitch is the 2001 version stretched over ten episodes: deep in LA's street-racing scene with a gang element like Training Day, seedy and a little dangerous, with Race Wars looming and Johnny Tran involved.
  • It really could have worked as a show, with ten or twelve episodes in it; The Purge did not work as a show despite expectations, but no current show has dived into that side of LA satisfyingly.
  • Earlier, Dom's two years in prison prompt a prequel pitch, Dom in prison running foot races or scooters in the yard, abandoned almost immediately.
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1:12:21

Who Won the Movie?

Paul Walker or Vin Diesel

Paul Walker or Vin Diesel

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 01:12:21Read transcript
  • It is tough: one host would say Vin Diesel but could be talked into Paul Walker, who is beautiful in this movie, with Letty a close third; the argument lands on Brian over Dom because when part two was made only one of the two was in it, and it was not Dom.
  • The other host's case for Vin Diesel: Paul Walker was already a known quantity, basically a blonde Keanu Reeves bound for Keanu Reeves parts, devastatingly handsome, loved as Lance Harbor in Varsity Blues and the reason one couple saw The Skulls in the theater; Vin Diesel, never seen in Pitch Black, owned the screen in every scene in what was really his first signature movie.
  • By the end you know that guy is a star; Knock Around Guys, from friends Koppelman and Levine, with its 500 speech, confirmed Vin Diesel would be around for twenty years; the closing thought is that if the measure is who was most overpowering in every scene, it is Dom, electric from the moment he looks over his shoulder at the fight.
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Paul Walker
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Vin Diesel
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