Fast & Furious (2009 film)

Five years after escaping from the U.S.,[N 1] Dominic Toretto and his new crew, consisting of his girlfriend Letty, Tego Leo, Rico Santos, Cara and Han Lue, are hijacking fuel tankers in the Dominican Republic. Dom suspects that the police are on their trail, forcing the crew to disband and go their separate ways, with Han deciding to go to Tokyo. Realizing that he must leave, Dom runs, leaving Letty behind to protect herself from harm.

Three months later, Dom is now residing in Panama City. He gets a call from his sister, Mia Toretto, who tells him that Letty has been murdered. Dom heads back to Los Angeles to attend her funeral and examine the crash and finds traces of nitromethane on the ground. He visits the only car mechanic that sells nitromethane in LA and forces him into giving him the name David Park, the man who ordered the fuel, and informs him that the only car that uses nitromethane in the area is a green 1972 Ford Gran Torino Sport.

Meanwhile, FBI agent Brian O'Conner is trying to track down a Mexican drug lord, Arturo Braga. His search leads him to David Park, and he tracks him down using an illegal modification record on his car. Dom arrives at Park's apartment first and hangs him out of the window by his ankles before Brian arrives. Brian saves Park and Park becomes the FBI's new informant. Park gets Brian into a street race. Brian selects a modified 2002 Nissan Skyline GT-R R34[9] from the impound lot. Dom races in his modified 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS. Gisele Yashar, the liaison for Braga, reveals that the winner will become the last driver on a team that traffics heroin between the Mexico–United States border. Dom wins by bumping Brian's car while it is in nitro, making him lose control. Brian uses his power as an FBI agent to arrest another driver, Dwight Mueller, and takes his place on the team.

The team meets up with Braga's personal henchman, Fenix, and Dom notices that Fenix drives the same Torino the mechanic described. They drive across the border using tunnels to avoid detection. Dom confronts Fenix and learns that he himself killed Letty when she tried to escape him. A stand-off ensues, though not before Dom creates a diversion by loosening his car with nitrous—sparking a vehicle explosion that destroys his car and several others, including Brian's. In the ensuing chaos, Dom and Brian hijack a 1999 Hummer H1 with $60 million worth of heroin in it. Dom and Brian drive back to LA and hide the heroin in a police impound lot, where Brian picks up a modified Subaru Impreza WRX STI Hatchback; they subsequently drive back to Dom's house, where they reunite with Mia.

Dom finds out Brian was the last person to have contact with Letty, which results in Dom attacking Brian until he explains that Letty was working undercover—she was tracking down Braga in exchange for clearing Dominic's record. Brian tells his superiors that in exchange for Dominic's pardon, he will lure Braga into a trap, forcing him to show up to exchange money for the heroin. At the drop site, the man who claims to be "Braga" is revealed as a decoy, and "Campos"—the real Braga—escapes with Fenix and the pair flee to Mexico. In the ensuing chaos, Fenix nearly runs over Gisele, before Dom saves her.

Brian and Dom travel to Mexico to catch Braga, with the help of Gisele, who gives them directions as a favor in return for Dom saving her life. Brian and Dom find him at a church and apprehend him. As Braga's henchmen try to rescue him, Brian and Dom drive through the tunnels back to the United States. Brian crashes his car after taking fire from Braga's men. He is then injured after being T-boned by Fenix. Before Fenix can kill Brian, Dom drives into and kills Fenix in retaliation for Letty's death. As police and helicopters approach the crash site on the American side of the border, Brian tells Dom to leave, but Dom refuses—saying he is not running anymore. Despite Brian's request for clemency, the judge sentences Dom to 25 years to life.

Brian resigns from the FBI and Dom boards a prison bus that will transport him to Lompoc penitentiary. As the bus drives down the road, Brian, Mia, Leo, and Santos arrive in their cars to intercept it.[N 2]

• Vin Diesel as Dominic Toretto, a professional street racer, car hijacker, and fugitive.
• Paul Walker as Brian O'Conner, an FBI agent and former LAPD officer, who previously aided Dom in avoiding law enforcement, and was in a relationship with Mia Toretto.
• Michelle Rodríguez as Letty Ortiz, Dominic's girlfriend, who dies in an automobile explosion caused by Fenix Calderon.
• Jordana Brewster as Mia Toretto, Dominic's sister and Brian's ex-girlfriend.
• John Ortiz as Arturo Braga / Ramon Campos, a Mexican drug lord who recruits street racers to smuggle heroin across the Mexico–U.S. border.
• Gal Gadot as Gisele Yashar, a liaison for Braga, who shows a romantic interest in Dominic.
• Laz Alonso as Fenix Calderon, Braga's right-hand man, who murders Letty.

The central cast is rounded out by Sung Kang as Han Lue, Dominic's right-hand man, while Puerto Rican singers Tego Calderón and Don Omar feature as Leo and Santos respectively, members of the oil heist team. Shea Whigham plays Brian's snarky colleague Michael Stasiak, and Liza Lapira portrays Sophie Trinh, an FBI agent who works closely with Brian. Jack Conley features as Penning, Brian's boss, and Ron Yuan acts as David Park, a scout of street racers for Braga. Greg Cipes, Neil Brown Jr., and Brandon T. Jackson play Dwight Mueller, Malik Herzon, and Alex, respectively, the other members of Braga's street racing team.

The film was announced in July 2007. Paul Walker, Vin Diesel, and the rest of the cast of the original film all reprised their roles. Filming began in 2008. The movie cars were built in Southern California's San Fernando Valley. Around 240 cars were built for the film.[8] However, the replica vehicles do not match the specifications they were supposed to represent. For example, the replica version of F-Bomb, a 1973 Chevrolet Camaro built by Tom Nelson of NRE and David Freiburger of Hot Rod magazine, included a 300 hp crate V8 engine with a 3-speed automatic transmission, whereas the actual car included a twin-turbo 1,500 hp engine and a 5-speed transmission.[10]

The original Dodge Charger 426 Hemi R/T that was used in the original movie was a 1970, but the car in this movie was a 1969 Dodge Charger R/T 426 Hemi with a slightly modified front grill and rear tail lights to appear as a 1970 car; the original 1970 Dodge Charger was in pieces, being totally disassembled for restoration.

The original red 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS seen in the end credits of the first Fast & Furious movie, also makes an appearance but is later highly modified for a street race.

The most radical vehicles built for the film were the Chevy trucks constructed for the fuel heist. Powered by 502ci GM big block motors, the '67 had a giant ladder-bar suspension with airbags using a massive 10-ton semi rear axle with the biggest and widest truck tires they could find. The '88 Chevy Crew Cab was built with twin full-floating GM 1-ton axles equipped with Detroit Lockers and a transfer case directing power to both axles and capable of four-wheel burnouts.[11]

Another vehicle built for the film was the blue Nissan Skyline GT-R R34 owned by an uncredited owner which brought a 241-mile per hour top speed at the Bayshore Route Highway in Japan. It was a hard car to build by the production so they made clones by acquiring Nissan Skyline 25GT's and made them look like the original car. The Skyline that was also used at the desert was actually a dune buggy using a Skyline R34's shell.

The score to Fast & Furious was composed by Brian Tyler, who recorded his score with the Hollywood Studio Symphony at the Newman Scoring Stage at 20th Century Fox.[12] The score album was released on CD by Varèse Sarabande Records with over 78 minutes' worth of music.

The trailers for the film feature the track "We Are Rockstars" by Does It Offend You, Yeah? and a Travis Barker-remixed version of "Crank That" by Soulja Boy Tell 'Em.

The official soundtrack was released on March 31, 2009 on Star Trak. The first single from the soundtrack was titled "Blanco" and is by Pitbull featuring Pharrell Williams and is produced by The Neptunes.[12] The second single from the album is "Krazy" by Pitbull featuring Lil Jon. The track is also featured on Pitbull's album Rebelution. The third and final single from the album is "Bad Girls" by Robin Thicke. The soundtrack also features the song "G-Stro" by Busta Rhymes featuring Pharrell Williams and also produced by The Neptunes. The track is a leftover track from Busta Rhymes' album Back on My B.S. Amazon.com gave the album an average score of 3.5 out of 5, calling it a Spanish-themed rap soundtrack with mostly average tracks. Interscope and Star Trak Records released the soundtrack for the film with "Crank That" not included.

Another song that was omitted from the album was song "Rising Sun" by South Korean group TVXQ.

The Japanese version of the movie features the song "Before I Decay" by Japanese rock group The GazettE.

Also featured in the background under a club scene which was omitted from the album, was song "Ride" written by Kervins Joseph and Travis Baker, published by InDigi Avenue Music Publishing (ASCAP), courtesy InDigi Music, and Virtual Diva performed by Don Omar.

It was originally set to release on June 12, 2009, but moved it up to April 3, 2009 instead. It was the first motion-enhanced theatrical film to feature D-BOX motion feedback technology in selected theaters.[13]

Paul Walker and Vin Diesel reunited for a Fast & Furious sequel, entitled Fast Five. Justin Lin directed, while Chris Morgan wrote the screenplay. It was released in April 2011.[29]

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• Official website
• Fast & Furious at IMDb