10 unpopular opinions on Fast Five, according to Reddit
As the Fast Furious the series is ramping up for its ninth release, it’s amazing how F9 is from very original film. The Fast and the Furious was a crime drama founded, while F9 is apparently a huge, successful space odyssey. But how did he get to this point is fascinating, because all thanks to Fast Five – a movie that was more transitional than anything else, but still arguably the most entertaining movie in the franchise.
Fast Five sits dead in the middle of all the versions, and it’s the one that was the biggest leap in the narrative, ultimately changing the series forever. But it didn’t get to this point without having some ridiculous behind-the-scenes facts.
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9 It was actually shot in Puerto Rico, not Rio de Janeiro
Although the film has an alternate title of Rio robbery and being based in the location, Fast Five was not shot in Rio de Janeiro. It was originally planned to be shot there to be as realistic as possible, but the Puerto Rican government offered the studio tax incentives that it was impossible to refuse. So instead of Rio, Puerto Rico is what audiences can see in the film and represents Rio de Janeiro. It also saved the studio over $ 11 million.
8 He was influenced by Italian work
All Fast Five builds up to the ultimate heist, which sees Brian and Dom drag a bank vault through Rio with muscle cars. So it’s no surprise that the film was influenced by one of the greatest and funniest heist movies of all time.
Italian work follows a group of British crooks, who steal gold bars from Italy using three Mini Cooper. But Italian work wasn’t the only heist film the studio was influenced by. Justin Lin also found inspiration in The French connection and Bourne’s identity too, and it was the implementation of car chases in these films that the director found fascinating.
7 Tyrese Gibson thought the movie wouldn’t make sense
In a behind-the-scenes interview promoting the film, Tyrese Gibson admitted that he didn’t think the film would make sense. He wondered how all of the returning characters could come together in a way that was both satisfying and logical. And yet Fast Five isn’t the most complex movie in the world and audiences are very present, writer Chris Morgan did a great job attracting characters from the previous four films, many of whom didn’t really know each other, in such a way rewarding.
6 Hobbs was written for Tommy Lee Jones
Being one of the best characters introduced after the first movie, Hobbs was part of what made Fast Five feeling so fresh compared to street racing movies that had gotten a bit out of date. The character is played by Dwayne Johnson, who is so charismatic and steals the show every time he appears. But the character was originally going to be very different, almost the exact opposite, in fact.
The role was originally written for Tommy Lee Jones, and it would have been a very different movie, given how stoic and serious the actor is. He’s not defending any fun business, as he called Jim Carrey a “buffoon” on the set of Batman forever, so it is unlikely that he would have been a good candidate for the Fast Furious series. However, it would have been hilarious to hear Jones spit out one of Hobbs’ iconic lines.
5 Diesel and Johnson contracts
The on-set tension between Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson has been very well documented as they don’t seem to get along too much and constantly accuse each other of being late. But it all started with Fast Five and their contracts, because the contracts of the two dominant males say that neither of them can lose a fight. It goes so far that it is reported that there are producers on set who are counting their shots. And that’s the reason they never really got into a fight in the movie.
4 Paul Walker did all his own stunts
Stunts and action sequences might not be as authentic as Mission: Impossible, overall Fast Furious the series takes great liberties with CGI, but there are still some really awesome stunts in Fast Five. Most real-life stunts happen when Brian O’Connor hops trains and gets into a car at high speed, leaping over the rooftops of Rio.
Just like he did in 2 Fast 2 Furious, the late great Paul Walker has performed all of his own stunts, working closely with his understudy to perfect them. And at one point, Walker jumped 30 feet from a building on a safety mat.
3 Switching to street racing was a very conscious decision
The first films were about street racing, the original being based on a magazine article about underground racing in LA titled Runner X, the series has since moved away from that niche. Fast Five was the first in the series to give up street racing almost entirely, and it was apparently a conscious decision made by the producers.
They were concerned that there would be a cap on the scope of novelty and that there would be diminishing returns. There is always street racing in the movies, but there is usually only one arbitrarily forced race in the narrative just to appease fans of the older films.
2 Michelle Rodriguez didn’t know about the end of the twist
Although Michelle Rodriguez was a main character in The Fast and the Furious and the fourth movie, she wasn’t in Fast Five after being killed in Fast Furious. However, in the Fast Furious series, no one ever stays dead, because Han even came back in F9 after fans literally saw the car he was in explode Tokyo drift.
And in a mid-credits scene in Fast Five, it is revealed that Letty is actually alive. According to Rodriguez, she didn’t really know her character was still alive until she saw the movie as an audience member. And it’s a good job that she came back, as the only one F&F missing clip Fast Five Letty constantly shouts “Dom!” at the top of his lungs.
1 It was inspired by Golden Girls
In addition to the classic ’60s heist movies, director Justin Lin found inspiration in other places, and one of them was Golden girls. Being a huge fan of the sitcom about the elderly when he was growing up, Lin cited the show as what influenced him to bring back characters from previous films.
The director noted that he understood that NBC is showing Golden girls, empty nest, and Nurses all shared the same universe after the shows all featured the same hurricane over the same weekend. And yet Fast Furious isn’t quite the shared universe that the MCU is, it’s definitely getting there.
