Later today I will be watching The Fate of the Furious, the latest entry in the multi-billion dollar Fast and Furious franchise, and I expect it to be utterly ridiculous. And I can’t freaking wait.
It still boggles my mind that this series began life as a middling small-scale petrolhead movie. The fourth entry upped the ante to incorporate more of a heist feel, and then the absolutely spectacular Fast Five perfected the formula and ramped the action up to unprecedented levels. Commercial and critical success followed suit, leading to it becoming one of the most successful film series of modern times.
And since Fast Five, every subsequent entry has just gotten even bigger, leaving many fans wondering where could they go from here? Fate of the Furious aka Fast 8 apparently features an ice-tank as well somebody ramping a submarine, and this is after we’ve already seen cars driven out of planes and skyscrapers being used as vehicle launching pads. With the laws of gravity being flouted by Vin Diesel’s Dom Toretto and co at every turn, many have joked that the only possible avenue left for Fast and Furious is to go to space.
This may seem like a ridiculous idea that should not get any traction, but Chris Morgan – who has penned the franchise ever since its started turning itself around in Tokyo Drift – already has an idea about how to do it. As he explained to Uproxx, he gets asked about this all the time and has an inkling of the series’ possible celestial direction.
“Look, I get all versions of that question. [Laughs] I get, ‘Are you going to space?,’ and, ‘Please, God, tell me you’re not going to space because you’ll lose me if you do.’ The only way I’d go to space is if I had something so good.”“What if Dom’s long lost brother, Richard B. Riddick showed up?”
“[Vin Diesel impersonation] ‘Listen, brother.’ Oh my God, I think Dom and Riddick would be so awesome.”
Well, I’ll be dammed. That sounds so off-the-wall that it might just work. Of course Diesel’s Riddick movies are big sci-fi creature features set in the distant future, but can anybody really accuse the Fast and Furious franchise of jumping the shark anymore? These movies are already bordering on being adaptations of superhero comic books that don’t actually exist, so throwing another crazy genre into the mix definitely won’t break things.
Before you start spitting out your popcorn though, Morgan does note that there are no immediate plans for Toretto’s crew to start getting into spacesuits anytime soon.
“Look, no plans for it right now, so hopefully people will be good with that. But, never say never. If we came up with the perfect thing and it made sense, it will be awesome.” [makes rocket noise]
The Fate of the Furious is directed by F. Gary Gray (Straight Outta Compton) and also stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Jason Statham, Charlize Theron, Michelle Rodriguez, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Tyrese Gibson, Nathalie Emmanuel, Kurt Russell and Helen Mirren. It is scheduled for release on 13 April.
Last Updated: April 11, 2017
miaau
April 11, 2017 at 08:13
“The Fate of the Furious is directed by F. Gary Gray (Straight Outta Compton) and also stars” ahhhhhhhhh, the suspense is killing me!!!!!! Who else does the movie star????
BUT, yeah, that is so crazy. I have not watched any of these bar the first 2 or 3 (Tokyo drift???) BUT I would, pretty much, watch this. Not make effort for cinema, but still, damn, that might be very, very funny. If handled in a less than serious tone, of course.
If they do this, then why not have Dom’s brother be watching Dom as he is a Navy seal (rehabilitated from the Fast Movies, of course) looking after a bunch of children….. Yeah. Can then mock Dom “The Mummy” as a running gag throughout the movie.
Kervyn Cloete
April 11, 2017 at 10:08
Firstly, I’m just going to blame Darryn for the cliffhanger ending. He had nothing to do with it, but I’ve found that blaming Darryn for everything is a really good approach to life.
Secondly, if you’ve only seen the first two or three, then you’ve essentially only watched the worst parts of the franchise. Tokyo Drift was where they started planting the seeds of an overarching timeline, and while the fourth movie is a bit too glum, it’s still a solid action thriller. Most importantly, it sets the scene for Fast Five, which is genuinely a marvel of action movie filmmaking. Even if you just wiki the events of 3 and 4, you HAVE to see Fast Five. As crazy fun (and surprisingly emotional) as the later entrants have been, the franchise has never managed to hit the non-stop high notes of Fast Five. It really is an incredible movie.
Matthew Holliday
April 11, 2017 at 10:22
“action thriller”
“worst parts of the franchise”
Fast five is where fast and the furious died and “Vin Diesel: the ultimate fight show” began.
Kervyn Cloete
April 11, 2017 at 10:26
I completely understand if you want a return to the more purist petrolhead roots, but that simpler approach just wasn’t sustainable as a blockbuster franchise.
And by “worst”, I’m talking comparitively. Though 2Fast 2 Furious is an outright embarrassment, the first film and Tokyo Drift are just fine films. They just lacked that movie magic to really make them grasp the wider audience’s attention.
Matthew Holliday
April 11, 2017 at 13:34
I thought the first one was pretty much perfect, the cars themselves were parts of the character, and it still had the action crime drama stuff to make it appeal and stuff.
The second one though yeah, terribad movie, but still, cool cars and stuff, Id still have a poster of that Skyline on my wall if it hadnt fallen apart on me.
Tokyo Drift was an absolute travesty in terms of casting, but it was atleast the last movie to be about the cars, which is what I was watching it for.
All the ones past that though, are arguably better movies, and if they werent a part of the F&F franchise, Id have nothing to complain about, but theyr just so far removed from what made the original movies special.
Theres nothing wrong in making a franchise about Vin Diesels biceps, I just wish they stuck to their roots a bit more and kept the street racing theme, even if it was just a theme or overtone.
Matthew Holliday
April 11, 2017 at 09:34
Im sure theres a Kessel Run joke in there somewhere.
Jim of the Banana
April 11, 2017 at 17:52
It’s almost like this franchise needs a Game of Thrones type character cull….