Before it was a household name, the original The Fast and the Furious was a B-movie not many would peg as the start of the multibillion-dollar dynasty it is today. With no real big names, niche subject matter, and some, uh, questionable writing, the 2001 action-drama apparently did not inspire faith within Universal Studios. Until, of course, they showed it to some actual car people.
In an Instagram video recounting several interesting anecdotes about the first FF movie’s production, composer BT said the studio saw a rough cut and concluded, “This is terrible, no one’s gonna go watch this.” It changed its tune, however, after three pre-screenings (notably filled with car enthusiasts) in which the movie—then tentatively titled Redline—screened 100, 100, and 99.
“The studio actually did not believe that the numbers weren’t played around with,” said BT. “So they made us re-screen the film. We screened it three times. All three times, it scored 100, 100, and 99, and they were like, ‘Wait a minute, maybe this movie doesn’t suck as bad as we thought.'”
Nine sequels and a Rock-led spinoff later, we all know how misguided that attitude was, but even if you isolate just that first movie, it still did pretty well. According to Box Office Mojo, The Fast and the Furious made $207 million against a budget of $38 million. Conventional Hollywood wisdom says a movie has to make 2 to 2.5 times its production budget to break even after accounting for distribution and marketing costs.
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BT—not to be confused with Brian Tyler, who did help out with one track on this first movie but went on to score most of the Fast sequels—also says he used car parts as percussion instruments when putting together the background music for the original.
Good luck rewatching this scene ever again without imagining some studio drummer just going ham on a set of smashed up TE37s.
[Ed note: As the resident F&TF defender around here, I have to once again remind everyone that many of these movies are actually good! There’s definitely a range (Tokyo Drift and the original at the top, FF9 on the Rocket Fiero near the bottom), but if I have to sit through the 19th Avengers movie, you can enjoy sweet, sweet drifts and Ludacris quips. The original has a ton of memorable lines, some extremely silly car moments, but also it’s a ton of fun! – MH]
Top screengrab: Universal Studios
I can’t tell you how many times I fell asleep to one of the TF & F movies in a hotel room on the road. I don’t remember the conclusion of any of them. The sheer ludicrousity of them knocked me out better than an Ambien. And I didn’t sleepwalk to my car and commit mayhem on public roadways.
Uh, the first The Fast and the Furious movie was released in 1954 and yes, it was car racing based. There was a 1939 movie “Fast and Furious” but it wasn’t car-based.
Reminds me of a porn dvd my neighbor has.
The Fast and the Furriest…
You all have no idea how fast I drove my mom’s Astro after watching this move, totally changed my (young) life!
Yep they are enjoyable movies, you have to turn your brain off more and more for the newer ones, like when they were driving across ice, a submarine surfaced and fired a torpedo at them, across ice, and The Rock kicked a torpedo off course. But they still have their moments.
If you like Jason Statham movies like The Transporter and Crank the F&F movies are the same sort of thing. They even brought Statham into later F&F movies.
You can probably figure out what age group someone is in by how they feel about this movie. If your 45 or below you were 20 or younger when it came out and probably though it was the coolest thing you had ever seen. Any older than that and you probably thought it was pretty dumb, and still do. Let’s understand one thing though. This was never a B-movie. It had a huge release when it came out. Both Vin and Paul had been in several other films and were pretty big names.
Older than 45 and you probably watched Point Break and realized how big of a copy Fast and Furious is.
52 and I have enjoyed the movies, though the super spy secret agents they morphed into from a gang of thieves hijacking tractor trailers filled with DVD players is a bit much. I remember seeing the trailer for Tokyo Drift and thinking they had hit rock bottom with none of the original stars and a dopey premise. It’s certainly in the top three for the series.
I’m in my mid 40s, and I was the target demographic for TF&TF.
My friends and I were into tuning imports and pony cars, nitrous oxide, and drag racing in the Toronto area.
So of course, I was excited to see TF&TF.
At the time I thought it was a fun watch, but extremely cheesy in a hilarious way. At times it just felt like satire. 90% of the dialog was cringe-worthy. Most of the cars were garish. They wouldn’t stop saying NOS.
It wasn’t re-watchable.
I realized later that of course it was never for enthusiasts, but rather a catchy re-skin for a heist B movie (I say heist B movie because there were many truly great heist movies of the time, and this one does not hold up to its contemporaries. It’s really in a different league. It’s surprise success doesn’t change what it essentially is.)
Much of the shittiness I believe could be attributed to their car culture advisor Craig Lieberman, who actually handed a list of cool “car guy” words to the production team so they could be inserted for street cred. What did he think they were going to do with Motec System Exhaust?
Looking back now, it’s still cheesy, but I can really appreciate the practical effects and stunts used in the film.
And I have to respect the influence it’s had on car culture now that those who watched it as kids are all grown up and pushing car and tuning culture to greater heights than we ever would have believed possible in the 90s.
the original one absolutely fueled my interest in car passion and especially car mods and tuning. Hector and his Spoon Civics….Jetta, S2000, Maxima even!
this is definitely “So cheesy that I love it” type of movie.
Hard pass on anything after Tokyo Drift though.
I will always have a place in my heart for the first movie. it found me at an impressionable time, its the thing that got me into cars, it got me into engineering and to where i am today. Cheesy yes, but even terrible cheesy movies can have an impact on young impressionable teens (WARNING).
Also if it hasn’t already been mentioned, not only is it a rip off of “Point Break” but going even farther back its a rip off of one of the stealth great car (Porsche) movies “No Man’s Land”
Yeah, I don’t mind them as much as some people…they are just fun outside of all the absurdity and bad acting. The 1st one is DEFINITELY the best and my favorite…then probably Tokyo Drift
But dang, I really miss seeing bunches of riced out Hondas with coffee- can exhausts out in the real world.
we need more young car enthusiasts. If F&F helps, bring on more.
Although I always make it there I’m a rather slow hiker, so my backpacking nickname is “Fast and Furious” because “I live my life a quarter mile at a time.”
It’s so easy to hate on these films, they’re cheesy and over the top now a days and vin Diesel is a caricature of himself. BUT, when the first one came out it was an absolute culture shift. Truly one of the coolest counter culture films of the millennium turn and absolute car porn for my 12 year old eyes obsessed with cars and learning what import tuning was at the time.
You can hate it if you’d like, that’s your prerogative, but you’re wrong and that’s also ok.
Oh they’re very easy films to hate on. But, also easy to see why they became so popular.
One of the few times I wanted to walk out of a movie theater, what awful dreck. I thought it would be a car guy movie but it’s a bunch of threadbare cliches about car people draped over some crappy heist story. Puke.
You’re no fun dude. The Fast and The Furious is one of the best car movies of all time, ask any racer, any real racer.
I guess some people really do prefer fatburger huh?
Whatever you say, internet stranger. Enjoy your dreck. 😉
Ehh..
I watched one of the films-Fate of the Furious, and didnt like it sadly.
I feel most of the stunts are way to exaggerated. There are far more realistic ones (eg: the scene where Bond defeats two LRs/Defenders using a Land Cruiser Prado). There is another scene from Spectre where one of Blofeld’s goons rams Moneypenney (or Q’s) Jaguar using….an “indestructible” Hilux.
Those scenes are far more better than what they produce now.
you can’t just watch a random one (in this case #8), they’ve evolved into fantasy heist movies. Watch #1, it’s amazing and you’ll love it.
Yeah, the 1st one is DEFINITELY the best and my favorite (then probably Tokyo Drift) Also, they are all just…fun! I don’t care how realistic they are…I’m watching a movie to get away from reality
I don’t think there is much if any CGI in the first one. It creeps into the second one and balloons from there into absurdity; here’s looking at you space shuttle Fiero.
I regularly drive in a 10 second car- my brothers LS swapped, drag slicks on the street, Dakota R/T. Wheelies it does not do on the street, let alone the track.
That said, I’ve always enjoyed all of the fast and furious movies. Great entertainment!
An art car friend back in the 80s drove a BMW Isetta with a VW engine on the street, and it popped wheelies all the time. Of course in his case , the fact that it was covered in fluorescent colored fake fur was probably more noticeable than the front wheels constantly leaving the ground, some photos of it here;
https://lostinjersey.wordpress.com/2009/03/24/836/
This is awesome- I dig it
Great article and fabulous art cars. I used to run into Harrod Blanc quite often in Santa Cruz when he first released his book and would come into the Kinko’s for whatnot. Both of Blanc’s and Hoop’s passion for their cars is so infectious and you can’t not love their creations.
I think I was introduced to Harrod Blank the opening of Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers, and Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe, both directed by his father, Les. It was at the film forum in NYC , and they were passing around cloves of raw garlic for the audience to eat.
I can’t remember if the car I was driving at the time came up or not. Hoop I met later after I spent a year living in the woods, then going out to CalArts for a couple years, then returning with a Ford F100 with the same paint job.
The VW in the picture got impounded and probably crushed. Which sucks because Keith Harring drew all over the interior. I could trade it for a nice house if I still had it.
The link seems to be unavailable Hugh, at least in my location. Love to see the VW! Even if you let some friend doodle all over the interior. (Makes my head explode – thanks, your Harring comment woke me up with brutal acceleration, more so than my first cup of coffee).
yeah, the site it is on seems to be having problems, in the meantime
It’s Point Break but with cars instead of surfing.
(I love both)
Point break and everything else Kathryn Bigelow has directed.
Have you seen Strange Days recently? For being a 30 year old film it’s pretty relevant.
I saw it when it came out, and then again on cable in the early 00s. Great movie.
its “No Man’s Land” but the DVD Players are Cars!
Ditto on Tokyo Drift, that was some fresh stuff. Not sure if it get inspiration from the Initial D one (the motion pitcture, not the anime), which was also great, or vice versa, but it was absoluterly great.