The Fast and Furious Cinematic Universe

The Fast and Furious franchise is one of the most insane, successful, and surprisingly compelling franchises of all time, and it also has this strange but fascinating expanded universe. I'm not talking about Shobbs and Haw, because everyone already knows about that movie. I'm talking about the properties that you might not know about, indie movies, short films, and Netflix series. And now that Fast and Furious 9 has been delayed a whole year, it's the perfect time to dive into the Fast and Furious Cinematic Universe.

The rules are simple. We’re gonna rank each of these properties using a car's transmission, and I can’t drive stick so I don't really know what I'm talking about. Standard Fast & Furious rules apply, meaning 1 Family = 1 Drink, so you can play along at home if you like. You can have any drink you want, as long as it’s Corona.

The Italian Job (2003)

I won’t spend too long on this one since it’s more of just a wink to the audience, similar to those scenes from Legends of Tomorrow where they reference Prison Break. But basically, in Hobbs and Shaw, Jason Statham mentions that he used a MINI Cooper in a "job I did in Italy," as just a fun easter egg. So The Italian Job is just like a pretty good heist movie with a great cast. Edward Norton, Marky Mark, future Fast and Furious actors Statham and Charlize, and Seth Green plays their tech guy who claims Sean Parker Zuckerberged Napster from him in college. Now I’m no expert, but I’ve seen The Social Network literally a hundred times, and that definitely seems like something he would do. Director F Gary Gray would go on to direct F8 of the Furious, and this film proves that he was a great choice. Rank: 3rd Gear.

Turbo Charged (2003)

This short film fills in the gaps between the first 2 films. Basically it’s just a montage of Bryan driving from LA to Miami, and he also gets a new car. I feel like this might be interesting for the fans of this series that care about the cars and driving stuff, but that is not me. I am in for the insane real stunts, the dumb one liners, and the crazy comic book-anime storytelling. I feel like if all you wanted to do is show how Bryan got a car, you could at least make it kinda fun, like maybe he wins the car in a race by doing a cool trick or something. Or at least show how Bryan met Ludacris' character. Overall, this one feels like a missed opportunity. You can probably skip it. Rank: N for Neutral

Los Bandoleros (2009)

This one is much closer to a real movie. It’s essentially about Dom putting a crew together for the opening heist in Fast 4. I kinda dig it. We get to learn a little bit about the two Latino guys, Don Omar and the other one, and what they’re motivation is. Which is cool, because even in Fast 5 when they have a bigger role, we still don’t learn much about them. We also learn the Han met Dom in Mexico, back when Dom was living his life a quarter mile at a time, so that’s kinda cool. With all these different movies together, you kinda get this full picture of Han’s entire life. Then they just have some scenes of Dom and Letty together, to remind you that they actually have chemistry together and do care about each other, when directed properly. This stuff is much more interesting than their one scene together in Fast 4, which always felt too brief to me. Vin Diesel himself directed this one, and you can tell how much he really cares about these characters and this franchise. Even though not much happens, I still gotta give this a recommendation for anyone who is a fan of the series. It feels like a missing piece of the puzzle that makes the franchise feel more whole. They even use a clip from this short in the Fast 6 opening credits recap. Not groundbreaking, but you get some extra character development which is always a good thing. There is one use of the word "Family," so that's 1 drink. Rank: 4th Gear.

Better Luck Tomorrow (2002)

So this one is essentially your average 2000s teen drama, but with a dark twist. It’s just a solid character movie, elevated by a specific voice from director Justin Lin, and tons of early 2000s style. The movie is about this group of Asian-American teenagers who start to do crimes, and eventually it all goes wrong. But guess who is part of their crew, our boy Han. So when Justin Lin got to direct Tokyo Drift, he just brought over the character of Han from this movie, because I guess he likes working with Sung Kang. I don't remember where I learned this but I still think it’s interesting: So in this movie Han is a smoker, actually, most of the characters are, but, when they were doing Tokyo Drift, the movie had to be PG13, so they couldn’t use too many drugs. So instead, they gave Han this quirk where he is always eating chips or something to try to satisfy his craving. They even refer to this in dialogue in Fast Five. Also this movie has a pre-Harold and Kumar John Cho, so that’s cool. Fast & Furious Fun Fact: John Cho and Justin Lin would work together again in Star Trek Beyond. But this movie is really good, and I don't want to give anything away, because I highly recommend it. There's no lines about family unfortunately, but there is a line about rumors spreading "fast and furious," so that is definitely worth a drink. Rank: 4th Gear.

Fast and Furious Spy Racers (2020)

From the writers of Avatar and Voltron, Tim Hedrick and Joshua Hamilton, comes a brand new animated series, Fast and Furious Spy Racers. Yes, this is actually who is behind this show. So the show is focused on Tony Toretto, Dom’s cousin, which apparently he just has a bunch of, and it’s a pretty standard Fast and Furious plot. Tony and his crew get recruited by Ms. Nowhere, an associate of Kurt Russel’s Mr Nobody, to infiltrate a street racing gang that is secretly doing heists. They put all this spy gear in their cars, like grappling hooks and shit, so the series kinda feels like a spiritual successor to Hot Wheels World Race. It’s definitely a little weird that this show is aimed at kids, and it kinda glorifies criminals in the same way that the rest of the series does, but it gets more and more ridiculous as it goes on to the point of just pure insanity by the end, that I doubt any kids will get any ideas. This is a pretty decent show with some really fun and cool action sequences. You basically get one classic ridiculous Fast and Furious sequence per episode, and although it’s not quite as exciting as seeing real stunts, it is still entertaining and visually interesting. I mean, there’s a new season of The Clone Wars out now, and you can tell that they are trying really hard, and it has some of the best action of the entire 7 season run, and then this Fast and Furious spinoff comes out of fucking nowhere and just destroys it with its action scenes, without even breaking a sweat. As goofy as this show’s plot is, it kinda feels like the natural progression, as technology has played a bigger part in this series with each instalment. As far as kids' cartoons go, it’s pretty fun, and is only 8 episodes so they don’t wear out the premise. Oh yeah, one of the characters just casually has two moms, which I think is the first gay character in the entire franchise. So that's cool. I counted 9 instances of the word Family, so drink up. Rank: 3rd Gear.

I’ve always liked how comic book-y this series is, and so I think I like this supplemental material because it makes it feel more like a shared universe. Taking a side character from a different movie and bringing them into this whole other franchise, just because you like that character is such a comic book thing to do, that I kinda love it. I also love how passionate Vin Diesel is about the series, whether it’s directing a short, cameoing in Tokyo Drift to give the series more connectivity, or producing and guest staring in the Netflix spin off, to give it more street cred, the dude is down to make this series more engaging and interesting. The Fast and Furious series is one of the strangest and most interesting franchises of all time. No other series of movies got good at the fifth instalment. It's one of the only series that isn't based on anything, has a diverse cast, isn't owned by Disney, and has a movie that cracked the top ten highest grossing films of all time. This series is important and shouldn't be underestimated. I am extremely excited for Fast 9, even though it got delayed due to our sponsor, the coronavirus. "You can have any virus you want, as long as it's Corona."