The Fast and the Furious
By Tyler Stephens
The Fast and The Furious is forgotten or ignored altogether by newer and flashier movies in the series. But this might just be the best movie in the series. I say that because of just how simple and fun this movie truly is. The original Fast and The Furious isn’t about saving the world or saving someone in their group. It’s about racing and that’s why it’s my personal favorite in the whole series.
Plot
Ok, so the story is extremely simple. The main character of this movie is Brian Spilner. Brian is a street racer and an undercover cop looking to find who’s been committing a string of robberies. On his journey, you’ll meet Dominic Toretto and his gang of street racers. Brian is tasked to infiltrate and gather evidence to discover who’s committing these crimes. A very plain yet interesting and engaging story.
Has it aged well?
I would personally say yes it has. Even though some of the shots are grimy, overly colorful and just plain clique. This adds to the movie as I do truly believe that this movie is like a time capsule back to the early 2000s. The movie achieves this legendary feat by not only creating a believable environment with carefully crafted shots and dialogue. But with absolutely amazing sound design. The sound design in this movie is definitely a high point, the cars sound amazing, and you can feel every foot pound of torque they have to offer, but also in a lesser way with the music choices they made which were very recognizable in the early 2000s. All and all, I believe, that the fast and furious hasn’t aged well enough to meet today’s movie standards. However, it does something more impressive, it pulls you back into the early 2000s and that is extremely impressive. So, the answer to has it aged well isn’t just a yes or no question, you need to sit down for yourself and decide whether or not it has.
Cars
Now the cars are truly a high point in this movie and showcases just about everything the JMD (Japanese Domestic Market) has to offer. And funnily enough, this movie is what got me into cars and interested in the street racing scene.
So first off, the poster boy of this movie, the 1996 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX. Now I personally love Eclipse’s and I actually own a ’97 Eclipse but this car is definitely something special. Now in real life, the 1996 Mitsubishi Eclipse two door coupe has a 4 inline engine which produces a staggering 210 horsepower and 214 pounds of torque per foot. To say this car is fast is an understatement and with Brian’s riced out car in the movie he could easily be within the 400–500 horsepower range, which just so you know is more powerful than most modern sports cars produced today. And this isn’t even mentioning the near 500 shots of NOS (nitrous oxide) he has on standby to give his engine just an extra boost. Now my personal thoughts on this car I think it’s an amazing racing machine, however, there really isn’t any practical use for this car on the road and it’s incredibly riced out and looks incredibly ugly in my opinion.
Now Dom’s 1993 Mazda RX-7. I really like this car I think it’s incredibly slick and it also doesn’t hurt that this is definitely a car I would own. Now the Mazda RX-7 is an extremely powerful car with 255 horsepower and almost 300 pounds of torque per foot. Just remember these are specs of the stock cars and Dom surely increased those number with after part modifications. But if I were guessing as to how powerful this car is I’d personally say somewhere within the 490–500 range. Now my only grievance with this car is the paint job in the front of the car. It honestly looks like your artist got lazy halfway through detailing your car and just gave up and left you with a horrible and ugly paint job. Thankfully this car isn’t as riced out as ’96 Eclipse.
Now onto Mia’s 1994 Acura Integra. Don’t even get me started on this car I know that it’s extremely fast and that it has the ability to be modified by almost any after-market parts that are made for Acura’s. But I just don’t like it, the cars detailing looks like someone just keyed your car. It’s not cool it’s just riced out and disgusting. With the stock Integra sporting an embarrassing 142 horsepower and only a shameful 180-foot pounds of torque. It’s an absolute gift from God that this car in less than 3000 pounds and has a wide variety of modifications. Let’s move on I just genuinely hate everything about this car.
Now my absolute favorite car of this movie the 1995 Toyota Supra Turbo. This car is a beast coming in with 320 horsepower stock which is more powerful than a majority of modern cars and modern sports cars. It also helps that this car has twin turbos and is literally one of the most powerful engines Toyota has ever built. In the movie, I’m sure that they built a car with over 1000 horsepower. Now if I’m being honest this is one of my dream cars its amazing and here’s why I say that. This car comes with just about every creature comfort available within 1995 and also has the option to take the roof off, what else could you ask for? Now my thoughts on the car as a whole I like the bodywork they did to the car, and honestly, I even like the stencils and artwork that they put on this car because it makes it clean and super dope. All and all this is my favorite car in this movie.
Final thoughts and feelings
I love this movie! This movie is what got me interested in cars and is honestly the best movie in the series. This movie not only has a killer plot, with lots of fun cars to keep you on the edge of your seat but it’s also got heart and you can tell there was a lot of work that was put into this movie. This is definitely worth a rewatch!
