All language subtitles for The.Unknown.Story.S01E06.Fast.and.the.Furious.1080p.PCOK.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-playWEB_track3_[eng]

This is a franchise that
nobody saw coming.

Initially
dismissed by critics,

expectations were minimal.

It doesn't fit the model of an
action franchise.

But somehow
The Fast and the Furious

has grown into one of the most
successful and profitable

action film series ever.

We're about to make history

as being the most successful
franchise of all time.

Why did
Vin Diesel walk away?

And what lured him back?

Vin Diesel came with a long
list of demands.

It's rare that you get
to do that in Hollywood.

The series
has created

a whole
Fast and Furious universe.

Every film
talks back to itself

and that's what I think
makes the franchise

such an amazing piece of art.

As the plot lines
became more incredible,

so did the stunts.

That's a fun part, right?

Hey, if you
can fly a rocket-propelled car

and live to tell the tale,
then we're here for it.

You have a lot of
die hard fans out there,

the last thing we could
do is let them down.

How did the series
survive the loss of Paul Walker?

I just couldn't wrap
my mind around it.

It just seemed impossible.

They essentially turned the
final act of the seventh film

into a sort of memorial service,
a memoriam to Paul Walker.

It became
a real responsibility

on behalf of Paul Walker.

They lost a brother.

The Fast and Furious
films broke all the rules

and ultimately became an
enduring pop culture legacy,

with no signs of slowing down.

You're going to have
excitement, color,

characters that you have
grown up with,

you're going to not have
a dull night at the movies.

As long as the fans want us,

that's why
we'll keep coming back.

By 2015,

The Fast and Furious films are
six movies in

and the series
has become an undeniable

global action movie phenomenon.

The films navigated the
departure of major characters

in the second and third films

only to come back with the
original team

better, stronger and faster,

with a fan base
that clamors for more.

I think
the first movie was great

because it kind of
introduced me,

and many fans,
to this subculture

of the illegal car racing scene.

It was really exciting,
really dangerous,

and there was
just a lot of intrigue.

At the time,

no one really thought this would
be a massive action franchise

because it doesn't fit the model
of an action franchise.

Fast and Furious is a story of
human beings,

of people that actually have
feelings and relationships,

even though it's told
within a set of stories

that are every bit as ridiculous
in many ways as Star Wars.

They're also really good stories
about people dealing

with some human issues.

And I think when we make fun of
Fast and Furious,

we're often not thinking about
the fact that as a whole,

this body of work, at times,
can be really quite moving.

I'll also say, you know,

you raised the sacrilegiousness
of comparing it to Star Wars,

I would also say, or Bond,
or any given Marvel.

How many Spider-Man's have we
had now? Right?

That we remake those narratives
over and over and over again.

I do think that there's more
human flaws

that drive the narrative in
Fast and Furious

to make it more comparable
to real life.

Family is a major theme
throughout the entire franchise.

From the very first film,

which stressed the importance of
making your own family.

With each
consecutive film,

the plotlines shift from street
racing to saving the world.

Together, the movies create

a larger
Fast and Furious universe.

All the while keeping the focus
on the idea of family,

and making household names out
of Vin Diesel, Paul Walker,

Jordana Brewster,
and Michelle Rodriguez.

None of these
people were stars,

which is one of the reasons the
billion dollar franchise,

multi-billion dollar franchise
aspect of it all,

no one would have predicted.

It's April 2015,
and the cast is at the premiere

of the seventh Fast and Furious
film, Furious 7.

No one knows that this will be
the last in the series.

Just two years earlier,
in the middle of filming,

series star Paul Walker,

who played the
character Brian O' Conner

is tragically killed
in a car accident.

Hollywood was shocked about
the death of Paul Walker.

However, it hit nobody harder
than his brothers, his co-stars.

They had become a family,

and they lost somebody very near
and dear to them that day.

Filmmakers were faced with a
really tough challenge.

How do they complete the movie?

The story
is rewritten

and Walker's brothers
were brought in

to help finish his scene,

Then have to figure out how
we're gonna rework the story,

how can we use CGI?

It ended up
leading to filmmakers

doing a full rewrite and rework
to honor him with the movie.

Instead
of us looking at it

like an opportunity
to finish the movie,

it became a real responsibility
on behalf of Paul Walker.

But no one knows
how the audience will react.

Could this be the end of the
billion dollar franchise?

People were not only going to
see the movie,

they were going to say
goodbye to Paul.

There were people
weeping in theaters.

In fact, it rakes in
1.5 billion dollars globally.

It's the first one to cross
the billion dollar mark

at the box office.

The success means

that even without one of its
main stars,

The Fast and Furious films
would continue on

to an eighth and ninth
installment, with more planned.

It's an unexpected Hollywood
success story

that all started nearly two
decades earlier in 1998,

with an article in Vibe magazine
titled "Racer X."

The piece describes an
underground circuit

of urban street racing
in New York City.

You wouldn't believe a movie
this big, this huge,

was actually inspired by just a
magazine article,

but that's exactly how this
movie started,

and it inspired one of the
greatest franchises of all time.

There was clearly an audience,

there was an audience who is
excited for car movies,

and we've had other car movies,

but it's been decades
since Steve McQueen.

A Universal Studio
exec hands director Robert Cohen

the article and he is
immediately captivated

by the gearhead subculture.

I read the thing, and the
first reaction I had was,

"There is something definitely
here, there's a heartbeat."

And I felt it very strongly
right from the article,

this is a whole world
no one knows about.

Cohen attends
an illegal street race

in Los Angeles
to see the action firsthand.

I went,
"Oh my God, what a world,"

And at that point,

I became absolutely obsessed
with this film.

That original spark
was what Rob Cohen saw

when he was on the
streets of L.A.

There was an absolutely
clear cut subculture

that had all sorts of

socioeconomic, caste, class,

kind of overtones that would go
across the pond,

far, far beyond the epicenter
that I saw that night.

Cohen
starts developing a plot

that revolves around
Brian O' Conner,

an undercover police officer

who infiltrates
the world of street racing,

but ends up falling in love
with the sport and the culture.

Cohen admits it is
somewhat reminiscent

of Kathryn Bigelow's
1991 film, Point Break,

with street racing
replacing surfing.

I know it's theft.

I'm gonna say it out loud
from the get go.

The plot of Point Break would
fit into this perfectly.

Alongside Cohen,

producer Neal Moritz is onboard
to get the film made.

They cast Paul Walker,

with whom they had worked in the
film The Skulls.

At this point
in Paul Walker's career,

he was mainly known for
Varsity Blues, She's All That,

so he was known as sort of
this heartthrob character.

He hadn't been established
as an action star.

We were at the table.

I said, "I'm developing
one of these leads for you.

You are the one in my mind."

He said,
"This is a no brainer.

Get the girl, got the gun,
fast cars, undercover cop,

you're directing, I'm in."

I said, "Well, you gotta wait to
read the script."

"No, I don't."
He said, "No, I do not.

I know what
you're gonna do with this,

and I want to be part of it."

Against the advisement
of my representatives,

I signed on without a script,

in good faith
that it would come together.

It turns out Walker
is a bit of a gearhead himself.

I was exposed to it
in high school.

In high school,
that was the thing to do.

Wednesday night,
we'd watch the cars line up,

we'd watch them race,

cops would come in and
we'd run out, the whole bit.

The studio wants

Timothy Olyphant
to co-star,

but the actor, who just appeared
in Gone in 60 Seconds

turns down the role
of Dominic Toretto,

so they meet with Vin Diesel.

Vin Diesel at that point was
relatively unknown.

He had been in the movie
Pitch Black,

that's where Rob Cohen
had seen him

and decided to give him a chance

in this new
Fast and Furious idea.

But the action isn't
limited to just the boys.

I had seen Michelle Rodriguez
in Girlfight,

and she blew me away,

because I had not seen a
presence like that,

and I'm trying to find a woman
that can go toe-to-toe with Vin.

She's strong, she's intelligent,
she's street,

and she looks like she could
handle a guy

as dynamic as Vin is.

And Michelle is, she's as
tough and probably as cool

as the character is in the movie
in real life.

She ended up becoming the
personification of Letty

in the perfect way.

She was the kind of girl who
could hold her own.

She was tough, but she also had
a sweetness about her,

and so much heart.

The final core
family member is cast.

Jordana Brewster plays Mia,

Dominic Toretto's sister and
Brian O'Connor's love interest.

She was mainly
known as a soap star,

she was a young actress on
As the World Turns

for over 100 episodes, and
that's really where she got

her experience
in front of the camera.

Ironically,
the two women are missing

a pretty key element
in order to film a car movie.

Hilariously enough,
both Michelle Rodriguez

and Jordana Brewster didn't have
a driver's license

before making this movie.

I had to learn how to drive.

I was under a lot of pressure,
because I had about a month

to learn and to get my license.

Walker and Diesel

get to do some of their own
stunt driving.

I love doing
a lot of my own stunts,

and they allowed me to do
quite a few of them

during the filming
of this movie.

There was a part where the
shot I needed,

I had to get wider,
and I asked Vinnie,

would he feel comfortable

driving at 70, 80, miles an
hour, free driving and acting

while we were filming from
another vehicle.

And he was game and he did it.
And you see that scene where--

Give me your hand!

And you see the whole car
is near the truck,

and you see the tires,
there's no faking possible.

Fast and the Furious,
I think,

is every bit as much ballet as
it is cinema.

Fast and the Furious looks at a
car chase and says,

"Oh, we've done that before.
A chase?

What is this? The 1970s?"
Forget chasing."

They perform so
breathtakingly beautiful.

But for all the
action sequences and fast cars,

the theme of family
becomes its most notable thread.

Cool edgy cars
and outlaw characters

just seem to go together,

but the key was their
affection for one another.

That's what I wanted
more than anything.

You were watching
an admirable group of people

who would die for each other,

and who felt like a family,
and you really believed it,

and it wasn't because they said
they were family,

it was because they acted like
they were brothers and sisters.

Basically, the character
Dominic, what has he done?

He's embraced
all these street kids

and he's created
a family for himself.

And I think just about anybody

can sympathize
and understand that.

Respect that.

You go into that first
Fast and Furious movie,

and you've got Brian and Dom,
Vin Diesel and Paul Walker.

There's an ego clash,
but then unexpectedly somehow

there ends up being the most
epic action movie bromance.

Vin and I you know, it took us
a while to feel each other out.

We come from
two different worlds

just like as our
characters do in the film,

but we ended up getting along
really well.

I don't
know of a whole lot of movies

of any kind that blend
those two things together,

taking both of them over the
top, fantastic vehicular ballet,

and the serious notion of
dealing with human beings

who have decided
to link themselves

in some kind of family.

The early
test screenings

of the film are promising.

They were applauding in
the middle of the film.

Cheering.
This movie has them viscerally.

And then when it ended,
huge applause.

I mean cheers, I mean people
throwing popcorn boxes

and standing on their seats.

All I heard out
of the parking lot--

You know, these people
were drag racing

out of the movie parking lot
and the tires were squealing.

I go, "Yeah it went okay."

It's so
well received,

Universal decides to push the
release date

from the spring to the summer,

hoping it becomes
a summer blockbuster.

There's only one small problem:
the title of the film

Red Line was the
working title of this movie.

I knew this was the next issue
because it's a terrible title.

I hate it
and I've always hated it,

but I didn't know
what else to call it.

The studio
pitches the title

The Fast and the Furious,

and the movie is released
in June of 2001.

It goes right to the top of the
box office,

earning 40 million dollars
opening weekend,

and 206 million
dollars globally.

I don't think anyone really
saw it coming,

that this would be
a number one film

grossing over 40 million dollars
in its first weekend.

I don't think anybody predicted
that we would be here today,

so many movies later.

It became both a cult classic,

but also had enough of a box
office original draw

to be a little bit more
than a cult classic.

There was something
to build on, for sure.

The first
Fast and Furious movie

ended up making over 200
million dollars worldwide,

which meant mainly one thing;
there would definitely be more,

It's enough
for Universal

but one of its stars
isn't interested in coming back.

In 2001, The Fast
and the Furious is a major hit,

making 206 million dollars
around the world.

Revving up to ride the momentum,
a sequel is in the works.

But, there will be
something missing

when an original cast member
doesn't sign on.

The first Fast and Furious
was successful enough

that naturally a sequel
was going to follow,

and they tried hard to get
Vin Diesel to come back,

but he felt like it should be
a standalone film.

Was that a risk when you found
out Vin Diesel, for example,

wasn't coming back?
Did you kind of think,

"Well, this may be
an uphill struggle,"

'cause it is a different movie?

Yeah, I think initially,

I think that was everyone's
concern, you know?

Because a lot of people
attributed the success

of the first one to Vin.

But you know, apparently the
fanbase was there

and the interest to see a sequel
was there

regardless as to
whether or not he came back.

So, we went out
and made another one.

With Vin Diesel out,

Paul Walker is paired up with
model and actor Tyrese Gibson,

who plays Roman,
and rapper Ludacris as Tej,

for a Miami based story.

It turned out Tyrese brought a
whole new flavor.

Him and Ludacris
together were fun,

they rounded out the team
a little more.

So, we're starting to
establish a format

of what Fast and Furious is,
regardless of who is there,

and building the family.

The role of Dom is split
between Brian and Tej.

Tej knows everyone and makes a
home for anyone who needs it,

and then Brian is the one who
can piece everyone together

to take on this mob boss.

Director
John Singleton

steers the film
in a buddy comedy direction.

They had
brought in John Singleton,

Boyz in the Hood,
Higher Learning,

had a bit more
of a resume behind him,

but definitely had
the comedic sensibilities

to come in and add
that element to it.

That second one is
John Singleton having fun,

like you can see it in every
shot, over the top.

The sequel,
2 Fast 2 Furious,

is released in 2003,
and the reactions are mixed.

Paul Walker was the only
original cast member

to come back.

He was great,
but it wasn't enough,

at least in terms
of the critical review.

A Slate magazine
movie review says,

"2 Fast 2 Furious
is just 2 lame, 2 tame,

and 2 much like a video game."

The chemistry
wasn't exactly the same.

The action set pieces
weren't exactly the same.

It had a goofy title in
2 Fast 2 Furious,

and the critics just
used that to death.

Yet it still makes
236 million dollars worldwide,

30 million dollars more
than the original film.

People didn't love it.
The critics called it lame,

they had nothing
but bad things to say.

But luckily for filmmakers,
luckily for the studio,

it ended up making 200 plus
million dollars

at the box office,
which is good for a sequel.

The third movie,
Tokyo Drift, gets the go ahead,

but this time none of the
original players are onboard.

Paul Walker drops out as well.

So now they've lost
Vin Diesel after one,

they've now lost Paul Walker,

so they know they've got
to start over from scratch.

The story is
rebooted and reset in Japan.

Justin Lin directs.

It's basically
like a spin-off film.

It kind of does its own thing.

It introduces new characters
and new setting, a new world,

which honestly was a little
daring to try.

Like, imagine a James Bond movie

that just goes and focuses
on other characters.

Like, for a third film in a
franchise, it was crazy.

It's a really entertaining,
interesting movie

in terms of structure.

The third movie is as much
about racing as any of them,

including the first one.

They nerd out on the car
culture, the types of cars,

the parts, everything,
as much as any of the movies.

The race scenes and the
driving scenes themselves

are the best
across the whole thing,

especially given
when it was filmed.

The final race scene
down the mountain

is beautiful in every single
way, is done so well.

The race up a parking garage
is innovative,

as far as how it was filmed,

and the cars they're using in it
and bringing in, again,

that, "Over here we drift,

and this is
a whole different thing.

It's still the same street
racing world,

but it's a totally
different genre,

it's a totally different style,
opening you up,

realizing this underground
community is underground

across the globe and there's
different little niches

within it, but it's all part
of one big culture.

They were like,
"Okay well we're going to

do this Fast and Furious thing
in this other place,"

Tokyo in this case,

"With a whole different
cast of characters,

none of which
you've ever met before,

but it's gonna feel like Fast
and the Furious, right?"

So, we see that
over and over again.

Right, world building is an
important part of a franchise.

Just like Star Trek had to have
its Klingon language,

and it's all
this other kind of thing,

Tokyo Drift
was a world building.

Among the new
characters in Tokyo Drift,

Han, played by Sung Kang.

Han becomes the Dom character,
Han has the chop shop,

Han has the space where
everybody can go and live

when the girl gets kicked out of
the family that she thought

was taking care of her.

Han is Dom, and we will always
love whoever does the Dom work,

because we want to be
part of Dom's family,

so we'll be
part of Ham's family.

However,
the movie doesn't feel the same

without Dom.

Director Justin Lin and the
Universal executive

are hell bent on trying to
convince Vin Diesel to,

at the very least,
appear in the final scene.

They set up a meeting with him.

Diesel finally agrees to the
cameo, but it comes at a price.

Vin Diesel
came with demands

in order to appear
in the third movie.

He wanted the rights to make
Riddick into another movie.

They said yes and
that's how they got him back.

Tokyo Drift
is released in 2006,

and the reviews are worse
than its predecessor.

It clocks in as the lowest
grossing film in the series,

earning 158 million dollars.

It existed in its own lane,
pun intended,

and it was a bad lane.

It got even worse reviews
than the second movie.

Audiences didn't really
take to it either,

partially because you need the
stars, you need those faces.

Although fans
and reviewers

are critical
of this installment,

the one thing
they absolutely loved

was seeing Vin Diesel
in the final scene.

Nice ride.

I won it from my friend Han a
few years ago.

I didn't know he was
into American muscle.

He was when he was
rolling with me.

This cameo might have been the
most famous,

the most celebrated cameo,
in history of cinema.

Fans when berserk.

What Vin Diesel actually did,

I'm not sure if
this was the intention,

but he created an environment

where a short cameo stole the
film. Fans went insane.

The studio is
willing to make more sequels,

but what will it take
to get the original cast

back behind the wheel?

The third
Fast and Furious installment,

titled Tokyo Drift,
is released in 2006.

And while fans love Diesel's
cameo in the final scene,

the box office numbers
are declining.

The studio realized they had
to retool this

if the franchise was
going to continue.

It was at the
meeting a year earlier,

when Justin Lin was trying to
convince Diesel

to appear in Tokyo Drift,
that the two crafted the future

of the
Fast and Furious universe.

They discussed the
mythology of the series

and brainstormed storylines.

We also should be careful
not to underestimate

the importance
Justin Lin played here.

So, we have these two movies

that really kind of established
the attitude, the themes,

the characters, and Justin Lin,
I think, comes in

and organizes, rationalizes,
gives it a plan.

The extent to which this
franchise has risen and fallen

and been rebuilt,
and the idea that Justin Lin

brought it back from
a comatose state is, I think,

part of the charm
of why we love it.

There's a couple people
really responsible

for the entire franchise, but
Justin Lin is the heartbeat.

Billed as "The
new model with original parts,"

In 2009, the fourth film,
titled Fast & Furious,

is released with the
original cast,

Paul Walker, Vin Diesel,
Michelle Rodriguez,

and Jordana Brewster.

It's rare that you
get to do that in Hollywood,

return to a film,
return to a franchise,

with the same characters,

and to continue to explore the
character relationships.

It's a rare thing,

and it's actually a refreshing
opportunity in Hollywood

to do it right.

Many regard the fourth film
actually as the true sequel,

because it actually finally
reunited, after two films,

the full cast of the first movie
and really picked up

where the first movie left off.

In one and two,
it's kind of feeling out

and inventing
itself and everything.

Three is moving
into new territory.

Four, we've got
a director here now,

who's got a vision that's going
to extend over several episodes.

In this film,
the character Han,

who died in Tokyo Drift,
is now suddenly alive,

and the only way
to reconcile the gap

in the space time continuum

is to change the order
you watch the films.

The fourth movie becomes the
prequel to Tokyo Drift

and many consider it the true
sequel to the first film.

It is not appreciated for
being an amazing sequel,

because if you
remove two and three,

number four really
is the sequel,

not the actual one
they had originally written,

but four is the sequel to one.

At the
end of the first film,

Dom, Mia, and Letty
are on the run.

They come out of hiding
in the fourth film

and reunite with Brian.

With the timeline
not sequential,

the films create
a shared universe,

much like
the Marvel movies.

Every film
talks back to itself,

and that's what I think makes
the franchise

such an amazing piece of art,
is that every time you watch it

you're seeing
dots being connected

across different chapters,

which makes you want to go back
and watch those other chapters.

And so, it doesn't die because
it's constantly talking back

to itself and inviting you,

"Go back and watch
this other thing."

The films doubled
down on the idea of family,

and it is a family more diverse

than what is typically seen in
Hollywood blockbusters.

The Fast and Furious
movies are also very successful

because of representation.

They brought in a ton of faces
and personality types

and races that we didn't see
in major action blockbusters

With each film, it grows

and how the audience has
embraced us.

I mean, it's a very special
thing to be a part of, you know?

And you realize that it is
becoming more of a global world,

and this diverse cast has
something for everyone.

It's a
racially diverse cast.

It foregrounds
the emotional relationship

between these two men.

It's your heist film,

your lovable criminal
kind of narrative,

which is deeply
class based.

Like, there's so much there

when you talk about diversity
and inclusivity

The first films
allowed Americans,

average guys like Dom,
to see themselves,

and then later films
added people

like Sung Kang and Gal Gadot
and Ludacris

and everyone had someone they
could recognize in there.

The action stars for generations

were all pretty much cookie
cutter white guys,

from Bruce Willis
to Nicholas Cage

to Vin Diesel
to Tyrese to Ludacris,

people like that
who weren't really allowed

to be in massive
action blockbusters.

I just wanted to make a movie

that had a multicultural
American feel,

because everything
around the turn of the century

was very white.

To have that kind of family
where it represents

different people in different
cultures is a huge,

maybe the biggest,

reason these films are as
successful as they are.

All of us
who made this franchise

have created
an American experience

that a very wide worldwide
audience has been drawn to

like moths to flames.

With a growing
international audience,

the fourth film makes 360
million dollars worldwide,

and with the fifth installment,
Fast Five,

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is
brought into the family.

We can actually thank social
media, specifically Facebook,

for getting The Rock
involved in this franchise.

Vin Diesel put out a request
asking fans,

"Who would you like
to see in the movie?"

The Rock was the name
and that's who they got.

It was a big name to bring in

as the new protagonist
slash antagonist,

depending who you're
rooting for.

But, it was also big for
The Rock to be able to say,

"This is one of the biggest
action franchises out there.

I'm trying to be the biggest
action movie star in the world."

To be brought into that fold was
essentially a stamp of approval

for him as much as it was for
the franchise itself.

This is a match made
absolutely positively in heaven.

In Fast and Furious Five,

he gets to play both
sides of the fence;

a bad guy,
and then one of the family.

Hands down, like this is
when I think they hit a stride

and we get a formula and we
watch that formula be executed

over and over
and it turns into a heist film.

We need to assemble the team and
we need to execute this heist.

Four laid the seeds, it
started to evolve a little bit.

But, Fast Five was when they
came out and announced,

"We are a true blockbuster now.
We are a franchise.

We're not only here for this
amazing movie,

but we're going to be
around a while."

The 2011 release
of Fast Five

makes 630 million dollars
at the box office.

Two years later,
Fast & Furious Six is released

in 2013 and makes a whopping
789 million dollars.

That same year, they get to work
on Furious Seven,

adding another big name to the
cast, Jason Statham.

I think once people saw
The Rock find success,

everyone wanted to get in.

So you got
Jason Statham coming in.

It was like, "How can we
reactivate our fans

and get more?"

Now that they
had moved into

kind of this absurdist action,
save the world genre,

you needed someone who knew what
they were doing in that world.

The rest of the cast was kind of
learning on the fly,

adapting very, very well,

but if you're going to make a
movie of that scale,

of that type,
and that kind of tone,

Jason Statham's who you go get,
you bring in as a villain.

But then the
unimaginable happens.

It's autumn of 2013,

and filming for the seventh
Fast and Furious installment

is underway.

The cast and crew
suspend shooting

to spend Thanksgiving
with their own families.

They take a holiday
break on the shoot,

halfway done with the movie,
and tragedy strikes.

Paul Walker is
leaving a fundraiser

with pro car racer
and friend Roger Rodas,

and they are driving
a Porsche Carrera GT.

Rodas is behind the wheel
when the car loses control

and strikes a light post.

Both Walker and Rodas
die at the scene.

One of the things
that was so heart wrenching

about Paul Walker's death
was the way he died,

that he died in a car accident.

It was almost a really
tragic and sad irony

that he would have died
in such a way.

This sudden
and tragic loss

shakes the bedrock
of the Fast and Furious family.

It hit them so hard

because the relationship
you saw onscreen,

was exactly the same
as the relationship off screen,

they lost a brother.

The connection
between that main cast

is as real and genuine
as it gets.

They talk about each other
like brother and sister,

Like real family.

Like, this family is broken,

and it's not just broken
onscreen, it's literally broken.

Rob Cohen is on set
directing another film

when he hears the news.

And an assistant of mine
came up to me

and he looked like bad news.

And he said Paul Walker was just
killed in a car accident.

And I remember nothing other
than I collapsed,

and I just couldn't believe it,

I just couldn't wrap my mind
around it.

It just seemed impossible that
this life force,

this beautiful man,
this beautiful person,

this giving generous,
charitable, loving person

was gone.

One of the things that stuck
out to me after he died,

I remembered the last interview
I did for him,

which was for the sixth movie,

and I asked him if he was in
some ways like his character,

sort of an
adrenaline junkie,

someone that loves the rush,

and he told me in that
interview, he jokingly said,

"I love it. One day,
it's going to kill me."

And I will never
forget that moment,

in light of his death.

That was just a chilling
statement that he had made,

even though at the time he had
said it jokingly.

But there was a sense that his
death and the way he died,

I think really did put a much
more serious interpretation

over the whole thing and of this
whole theme of family,

one of the things that happens
in real families

is that people go away and don't
come back again.

Vin was really stricken.

I mean, they had played every
form of brothers or opponents.

They had been together every day
for months on end.

Everybody felt like they knew
him, like he was a relative,

or he was somebody they
desperately wanted to know,

and all of a sudden gone,
gone forever, except onscreen.

Off screen,

the writers retool
and reshoot the script.

James Wan,
newcomer director,

gets thrown into this franchise,

which is a big deal, to take the
car keys of this huge thing,

and then to have your lead actor
pass away mid-filming,

and have to decide
what to do with that.

"How can we finish this?"

And also,
"How should we finish this?

What should we do
with this character?"

The filmmakers come
up with an idea

to use Paul Walker's brothers,
Cody and Caleb,

as body doubles and rely on CGI
to help with facial features.

His brother was able to sort
of stand in for him

in certain scenes, and he pulled
it off beautifully.

No one would have
even known the difference.

The cast members even talked
about how seamless

that transition was,

and how much Paul's brother
reminded them of him.

The next
big decision for filmmakers

is how to resolve the storyline
for Walker's character,

Brian O' Conner.

At the point that the seventh
movie came out,

there was so much love for Paul
Walker that had been expressed,

and so much anticipation for how
they were going to address it

it on the big screen,
and within the storyline.

The monumental achievement

that the end scene of
Furious Seven is,

to have lost the guy that this
all started with,

to lose Paul Walker, and decide
not to kill his character.

They decide that
O'Connor would retire

from saving the world
with the team

to focus on
raising his own family.

And they essentially
turned the final act

of the seventh film into
a sort of memorial service,

a memoriam to Paul Walker

At the end of it, to have such
an emotional moment,

to move everyone in the theater,
including, you know,

a bunch of macho gearhead guys

that you might
not necessarily think

you're going to look around and
see all teary eyed steaming up,

to just be hit
with that emotion,

to have it be so poetic,
to have it be so beautiful.

To be such a perfect way
to send him off,

and to give the fans
of the movie a way

to say their own goodbyes to
Paul Walker and to thank him.

Furious 7 makes
1.5 billion dollars worldwide.

At the time, it
was the third most ever

at the box office,
behind only Titanic and Avatar.

And I think after this one,
we're about to make history

as being the most successful
franchise of all time.

That tells you not only
the love for Paul,

but that the audience
appreciated how it was handled.

When he drives off
into the sunset,

it became this incredible
emotional touchstone

for a generation.

A big question
still looms:

what will the Fast family look
like without their brother?

After the sudden and
tragic death of Paul Walker,

Vin Diesel and the rest of the
team reunite in 2017

with the eighth film
in the series,

titled Fate of the Furious.

Charlize Theron is added to the
cast as Cipher,

a cyber terrorist with
plans of world domination.

I think Cipher might actually
be the perfect character

that kind of brings in these
new interpretive ways

to make this franchise continue
to seem like it's taking place

in the time in which
it's been made.

I think that there's
a level of maturity.

We're now having
a conversation on humanity.

We are not having a conversation
on family or avenge or revenge.

We need to save the world
from ourselves,

because Cipher is framing her
evilness as a way

to save humanity from itself.

So, all of a sudden,
we get real cynical

on the other side of
Walker's passing.

With every new
film, they up the stakes.

The Fast and Furious
movies have managed

to tow the line perfectly
between being so absurd,

because their over the top
action sequences

are just, like, mind blowing.

The suspension of disbelief
is maxed out.

That's a
fun part, right?

And Luda will tell you
this is that, you know,

where in the franchise, we get
an opportunity to do things,

here's reality,
and we take it to this level

above reality and have fun.

So redirecting a torpedo with
one hand, yeah, not two.

There's no slowing
down for the Furious family.

Sequels are announced for
films nine and ten,

and the universe expands
with a spin off,

Fast & Furious Presents:
Hobbs & Shaw.

Hobbs & Shaw for me,

reminds me that the franchise is
still, at its core,

fun for the people making it.

You watch Hobbs & Shaw,
and it's just pure joy.

After going through
the hand wringing

of Paul Walker's death, and then
just to have this little okay,

Hobbs and Shaw are going to do
Oscar and Felix for two hours.

It was so Fast and Furious,
but it was so chill

compared to where we've been for
the last couple of films.

Hobbs & Shaw
hits theaters in august of 2019,

and grosses 759 million
dollars worldwide.

Plans are put in place
for a sequel.

Meanwhile, F9 goes into
production in June of 2019.

They bring back Sung Kang's
character, Han,

who's back from the dead again.

One of the
great things about F9

that fans
were so pumped to see

were the introduction
of new characters.

You had Helen Mirren,
you had John Cena, and others.

You also had the return of Han.
He's back.

And and so going into it,

people weren't sure how
it was going to play out.

So I think
having those callbacks

and then introducing
new blood

was something that fans really
glommed onto.

And to tie up the
rest of the loose ends,

they bring back Lucas Black's
character, Sean,

from Tokyo Drift.

Sean is in it. I'm excited,
I haven't seen Sean since three.

They add another one
time professional wrestler

to the universe, John Cena.

One thing we knew
coming into F9,

was that John Cena
was now in the mix,

and he would be Dom's long lost
brother, the evil brother.

F9 is scheduled to
be released in theaters

in May of 2020, but is pushed to
2021 due to the Covid pandemic.

A tenth sequel is planned as
well as an eleventh.

They said that the 11th movie
is going to be the last.

That obviously doesn't include
Hobbs & Shaw

and the offshoots that they have
planned for the franchise,

but they seem to want
to wrap up the main saga,

The Fast and the Furious saga,

to really keep
that family aspect going.

They have such a huge band of
characters, and they want

to bring a finale for the world
to really love and admire.

I'm excited for prequels.

So, I have this grand idea,
and I'm gonna say it here,

so hopefully to
bring it to fruition,

of Mia and Letty teaching each
other how to drive

when they're teenagers,

because the boys won't let them
drive in their cars,

You know, and so the two girls
come together

and figure out how to beat the
boys at their own game.

I think the lasting impact

for the Fast and the Furious
franchise

is really the fact that fans can
make movies happen.

This is a franchise that
I'm sure nobody saw coming,

especially with the first film,
which was a big hit,

but by no means
a global blockbuster.

And the fans worldwide just kept
clamoring for these films,

kept asking for more,

And the cast and the crew just
kept delivering

and really upping the ante
with each film.

So, it really just goes to show

that if you really try to reach
a large multicultural audience,

you will get it.

The Fast and Furious movies to
me are fascinating,

because not only of their
massive success,

there's no bigger franchise of
the millennium right now,

but what that success means for
other movies.

It means you don't
have to have household names

in your blockbuster.

It means you don't have to have
people who all look the same

in your blockbuster.

It means you can
make giant blockbusters

that don't have to have super
heroes or super spies

or Marvel villains.

They found something relatable,
the love and the cars,

and then they made it
bigger than life.

And that's what movies
have always done.

The best movies,
the movies we remember,

take things we can relate to
and then explode them

in a way we don't expect.

I created a dream state
built around the automobile,

the aftermarket engineering that
came from a bunch of street kids

and there was a dream of family
and a dream of the street

and a dream of
car beauty and power,

and the dream still goes on.

It's not the standard
demographics of the family

we hear of.

And then the added bonus to
watching the story

of this family as it develops
over many things

is occasionally just for laughs,
they throw in

some of the greatest action
adventure sequences

I think that Hollywood
has ever put on film,

and I'm not being hyperbolic.

I think when Fast and Furious is
doing its action at its best,

there's nothing better.

We watch this
family come together,

we watch their tribulations,

we feel like we
could be a part of it.

And it all comes back to what
was that original spark?

And that original spark
was what Rob Cohen saw

when he was on the
streets of L.A.

This subculture
that had a fiery following,

a fanbase that was
passionate and connected.

The energy of that, starting
with what I did and continuing

swept everyone away

and continues
to sweep everyone away

and everybody's happy to go
with it and to see where it goes

because there is
no doubt about it,

you're gonna have excitement,
you're gonna have color,

you're going to have characters
that you have grown up with,

and you're going to not have a
dull night at the movies.

And that's a
winning formula for everyone,

for the audience,
for the studio,

for the actors, for me.

It's a win-win,
and I hope they go on forever.