With each installment of Universal’s Fast & Furious franchise, the stakes, set pieces, and action sequences are raised immeasurably higher. While the 2001 film The Fast and the Furious centered on illegal car racing (were we ever so young?), the franchise has gone to ridiculous extremes with each sequel. Now, Dom (Vin Diesel) and his crew are essentially super-spies, traveling across the globe to stop international terrorist threats and near-superhuman enemies.
Fans like to joke that the franchise will eventually end up in space, the ultimate escalation of the premise. Well, the idea of FF meets Moonraker may not be so ridiculous after all, according to screenwriter Chris Morgan, who has written the last six films in the franchise. In an interview with Polygon, Morgan said “Nothing’s out of the question … Absolutely nothing. It just has to be cool and it has to be good. You know, that’s the thing.”
The upcoming spin-off series Hobbs & Shaw pushes the envelope even further with the addition of Idris Elba’s terrorist Brixton Lore, who uses cyber-genetic physical technology to give himself superpowers. Elba’s character refers to himself as “black Superman” and seems to be bullet-proof and super-strong. He’ll be fighting Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham, both of whom have displayed and absurd amount of strength and skill that rivals a Marvel superhero.
Morgan also discussed the balancing act of pushing the series to extremes while still remaining grounded in some sort of reality (Sure, Jan) saying, “I’m a big action guy and a big action fan and I love physics too, by the way. I think the limiter for me is that we will bend to physics and never outright break it-break it. So how do you determine that? Well, for me, while you’re watching the movie and while you’re watching the action sequence, does something happen that’s so physically impossible or absurd that it breaks faith with the audience? That you suddenly can no longer enjoy the movie and you don’t care about the characters because of that breakage.”
While I feel like Morgan has blown through any semblance of reality, I honestly don’t mind it. For my money, the most recent chapters in the franchise have been the best ones of the series, a balls to the wall explosion of ridiculous and highly entertaining nonsense. Do I want to see Dom and Letty race some space cars with aliens? The answer is yes. Do I want to see Dwayne Johnson strangle a space Kraken with his bare hands? Yes. Do I want to see Tyrese punch a hole in the moon? Obviously. Bring on the crazy, Fast & Furious, I’m here for it.
(via Polygon, image: Universal Pictures)
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