When’s the last time you made a change to your life?
This could be a big change, like, say, quitting your job or moving to another country or another part of the country or anything you may consider a big change. This could also be an incremental change, like trying a new diet or reading more books or watching a new genre of porn. Don’t shy away from that last one. You watch porn. I sure as hell do. We all do (except you mom please don’t think of me any differently I still love you do you still love me? No? OK moving on).
I think it’s very easy to get caught in a routine and get comfortable with doing the same thing over and over, like Wile E. Coyote continually getting his ass handed in by a cartoon bird on speed (*covering my mouth with my hand doing my best Trevor Wallace impression* “I’m talking about that OTHER speed bro”).
This question came to mind over the past few days as I decided to re-watch the greatest movie franchise in history, The Fast & the Furious. This set of eight documentaries (try to convince me cars can’t parachute out of an airplane from 50,000 feet and land safely on the ground – I dare you) is the definition of jumping from 0-100. But, for the most part, they don’t completely lose sight of what they really are about: family, loyalty, and living your life a quarter mile at a time. The first piece of cinematic art was about an undercover cop attempting to infiltrate a gang of street racers who steal TVs and DVD players. Fast-forward ten (!) years, the fifth (and best) installment involved “the team” stealing $100 million from Brazil’s richest man. By the time Fate (F8te?) of the Furious came out, “the team” were international agents of espionage blowing up submarines with their cars.
Change can be a good thing. But even though these films have blown up to heights no one could have ever imagined (the last two grossed over $1 billion), they have still managed to stay true to their roots. Dom Toretto is the straw that holds this cinematic universe together (no offense, Paul Walker) and is always the same Dom Toretto who only cares about his “familia.” 
(Quote from Fast 5)
I understand that isn’t always the case, though. When most people think of The Fast and the Furious, they think of cool cars, giant explosions, Toretto crashing his car into the side of the highway on a bridge propelling him into the median to catch his brought-back-from-the-dead girlfriend from falling into the water and landing safely on the other side of the highway by using a car windshield as a cushion. (Skip to 2:24)
(That was all practical. No CGI.)
Though this franchise wasn’t always about going above and beyond, the producers/writers knew early on they had something big in their grasp. The first instance of testing the audience’s limits happened in the opening race of 2 Fast 2 Furious. Brian O’Conner (RIP in peace) is in a race with Sucre from Prison Break, the stunning Michael Ealy, and Steve Aoki’s half-sister. There is a bridge jump at the end of the race and O’Conner hits the NOS at just the right time and proceeds to pass Ealy mid-air. (Skip to the 2:00 mark)
This doesn’t seem all that crazy, but if you tried this in real life you’d probably crash and burn (don’t try to jump your car off a bridge…you’re not Brian O’Conner). There is another scene at the end of the movie when Roman Pierce (Tyrese) and Brian jump a ’70 Mustang off a ramp and onto a moving yacht to take down the villain: Carter “I want my cutter back” Verone.
The movie is only teasing the audience here, just fondling our nads a little bit, and seeing if we’re accepting of things that are otherworldly (Narrator: they were cool with it). But besides those two stunts, 2 Fast 2 Furious is pretty on brand. There’s dope cars, bikini-clad ladies dancing by their (or their sugar daddy’s) dope cars, and some mutual respect between friends and family.
After the initial sequel came the most questionable film in the franchise, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. At the time, this movie had nothing to do with the first two, save a pre-MCU end-credits scene with the reveal that Dom Toretto knew Han (sweet, beautiful Han) and wanted to learn more about his death (which plays right into the plot of Furious 7). Tokyo Drift has no deep-rooted family connection, essentially no Toretto and no O’Conner at all, and had Calvin Cambridge of the Los Angeles Knights telling us the key to drifting is to “rip the E-brake and power over.”
Also, Mike Winchell playing a rebellious high schooler and not once yelling the words “21 Razor! 21 Razor!”? Eh. This one was an outlier.
The fourth movie brought the franchise back to life. Sean Parker/Justin Timberlake told producers Vin Diesel and Neil Moritz to “drop the ‘The'” from the title because “it’s cooler,” and out came Fast & Furious (for the record, I think The Fast and the Furious is cooler; a little more fast and a little less furious). The core characters were back and some of the core themes as well: lots of racing, pretty ladies, and O’Conner again, this time as an FBI agent, getting succumbed to the criminal life and his loyalty to Toretto.
Side note: this was also the on-screen debut of known Jew/current Wonder Woman, Gal Gadot, and she will forever be known as “Gisele” in my mind.
Fast & Furious is a great example of making subtle changes but not going too overboard. There was definitely more “furious” in this one, but at the time, I don’t think anyone would’ve predicted the action-packed leap this series would take (by the time Fast and Furious 6 came out, instead of worrying about the familia and cool race sequences, my main focus going into these movies is what cool one-liner will The Rock say this time?). (My favorite is probably when his partner in Fast Five says to him “Good news, bad news,” and The Rock responds “You know I like my dessert first,” and “Gimme the damn veggies,” respectively).
I’ve made many references to Fast Five in this blog and that’s because it’s not only the best of these films, but it’s one of the greatest movies of all-time. Toretto and O’Conner are on the run in Brazil and plan to do one final heist before leaving their life of crime (an amazing plot for any movie). We get the return of Roman Pierce and Tej (Ludacris) from 2 Fast 2 Furious along with Han and Gisele from Fast & Furious, Vince from The Fast and the Furious, among others. Bill Simmons and Shea Serrano dropped an episode of “The Rewatchables” podcast the other night discussing why it is one of the best movies of all time. I have yet to listen to it but I’m sure I’ll agree with every word they say.
Fast Five is about much more than an all-time great movie fight between Vin Diesel and The Rock and two cars dragging a safe containing $100 million through the streets of Rio de Janeiro. This is as deeply rooted as The Fast and the Furious. There’s family: O’Conner learns he’s having a kid with Mia Toretto. Loyalty: Dom still considering Vince familia even though he went behind Dom’s back on a job-gone-wrong. And living you’re life a quarter mile at a time: saying “fuck it” and deciding to steal from the wealthiest man in Brazil before disappearing forever. Fast Five has it all and will not let you down.
Because it was such a big hit, Fast and Furious 6 pretty much said “fuck it” and just went bananas. The budget jump between the two movies went from $125 million to $160 million and it showed. There were more explosions, crazy fight sequences, and a battle on an unrealistically huge airplane on an 18-mile runway. And, honestly, the last three movies were like that: saying “fuck it” and doing the most outrageous stunts possible.
I could go into detail about the last three movies, but that would take a lot of time, as if I haven’t taken enough of it already. They’re very good pieces of art in my eyes, but they really lost sense of what this franchise is truly about, save for Dom Toretto and his undying loyalty to his familia.
I feel like I lost control of this blog, so let us go back to my initial question: When’s the last time you made a change to your life?
As stated many times here, Dom Toretto is the driving force in this franchise. He has the same morals and principles in all the movies, which is why they’re great, but he’s shown a lot of growth as well. Through all of the feats of unreasonable strength, flying headbutts…
…and killer smiles, this scene from The Fast and the Furious defines this character and what these movies stand for. (It’s only three minutes so just freaking watch it)
“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 ten seconds or less, I’m free.”
Change can be a good thing. Change can be progressive for your life. It’s important to learn and adapt to your surroundings. But, also, never lose sight of where you’re from or what you stand for.
I’m gonna be interning at 10tv in Columbus this summer with the intentions of parlaying that into a reporter/anchor job somewhere after. This isn’t something I always wanted do, but I need to do it, and I’m gonna make some changes in order for that to happen. I plan to do this by living my life a quarter mile at a time. Just instead of ten seconds, it’ll be more like a few minutes while I’m on-air. But the principles will stay the same.
And that quote can work for anyone. EVEN YOU. If you’re wanting to make a big or small change in your life, just think to yourself: “What would Dom Toretto do?”
Griffin Weinberg 