Tessa 0:00 I live my life a quarter mile at a time. This is the nine days of fast and furious. Welcome to the nine days of Fast and Furious monkey off my backlogs first limited series. I'm your host Tessa Swehla. With me is Sam Morris and our special guest friend of the pod, Steve Gunn Lee of the ultra 64 podcasts and the Rogers list podcast. Is that all the podcasts you have going on right now? Unknown Speaker 0:35 That's all the ones that I'm running right now. Yeah. Andy 0:38 But yeah. Unknown Speaker 0:39 How are you doing today, Steve? Unknown Speaker 0:41 I'm great. Thank you so much for having me. I feel like I'm part of the family. Tessa 0:46 Yeah, I feel like we have sort of accumulated our own squad over the last few episodes. We've had several really great guests. And it's it's turning out to be quite a team. Today we're gonna talk about the seventh film of the franchise. But first, we have to talk about our holiday spirit. And I know Steve, you had mentioned before we started recording. You've been watching a lot of Christmas movies recently. Unknown Speaker 1:09 Oh, my goodness. Yes. Over on my Instagram, I've been writing a review of a new Christmas movie every day. The only rule is it has to be a movie I've never seen before. So I'm getting to catch up on a lot that I've missed. It also turns out that a lot of the ones I missed out on are very, very bad. Unknown Speaker 1:26 But, but I Unknown Speaker 1:28 have found a couple of gems so far, I would highly recommend Klaus on Netflix. It's an animated film, about the origins of Santa Claus that really just shot my pants off. I thought that was a delightful movie. And if you're looking for something dark and weird and violent and scary. There's a French movie called dial code Santa Claus. It's known over here as deadly games. It's from 1990 it came out. Like I think a month or two before Home Alone did and it's kind of like an R rated home alone. It's about a psychotic killer who breaks into this kid's mansion. But the kid is a super genius who's rigged a bunch of traps throughout the entire house. It's it's completely insane and totally worth watching if you're in the mood for something a little darker this year. Unknown Speaker 2:15 And is that a Christmas sweater? I spy? Unknown Speaker 2:17 This is a Christmas sweater. Let me let you guys get a better Unknown Speaker 2:21 nice I love it. That's great. Sam 2:24 Because of course Gremlins is in fact a Christmas movie for sure. Gremlins is indisputably Unknown Speaker 2:29 a Christmas movie Absolutely. Sam 2:31 But there does seem to be some dispute. And you know what I'm going to ask you right okay bring it is diehard a Christmas movie. Unknown Speaker 2:39 diehard is absolutely a Christmas movie, I'm gonna borrow something from from when a friend of a friend of my show a woman named Diana Goodman, who runs the show 30 2010 her rule is if you take the plot of the movie and swap it out for Fourth of July instead of Christmas, does it affect the story, which is why diehard absolutely is a Christmas movie because it would alter the story quite a bit if this was a fourth of July thing and that's why you know Edward Scissorhands also counts pretty much every Shane Black movie also counts. So, yes. Tessa 3:13 I hadn't thought about the Shane Black thing. But you're absolutely right about that. Yeah, we've been asking all of our guests this top three Christmas movies of all time. Unknown Speaker 3:23 Oh, my goodness, top three of all time. I think I'm a little boring in that regard. Because I'm just such a classic movie nerd. So I think it's a wonderful life does have to go number one, I think that is the best of all time. I will also follow with Nightmare Before Christmas because I am a very stereotypical 90s kid who have watched that movie to death when I was very young. And for a third one, I don't know if this is gonna be like actual top 10 but I want to bring in something a little different. There's a movie from 1994 called the ref with Dennis Leary, Judy Davis and Kevin Spacey. But was so Sam 3:59 good. It was really Unknown Speaker 4:01 good. It's a really good movie about like a couple. It's like having a meltdown. And then this burglar kind of hijacks them and keeps them hostage and he has to kind of referee they're really nasty marital fighting. And it all takes place right at Christmas as their horrible family is about to converge on the house. It's very tense. It's very smart. It's very funny. I watched that movie every year. Sam 4:24 You know Leary had like a thing going for a few years there where he was like the person you go to who like speaks the truth. You know, like, Oh, I'm trying to remember the stand up special no cure for cancer. Unknown Speaker 4:35 Yeah, Sam 4:36 yeah. So like no cure for cancer, the RAF first few seasons of rescue me like and Unknown Speaker 4:42 he was the guy on MTV, like, back in the early 90s. He would do these little interstitial bits, like in between commercials, where he would just kind of rant about something that was affecting him, you know, and it's like, yes, it's that kind of Gen X comedy that like really super doesn't fly anymore. But like it's kind of a it's kind of a fun time capsule to look back on. Sam 5:03 I forgotten that he did those. I remember the Donald load taxi driver ones, right? Yeah, right. Yeah, those Unknown Speaker 5:09 were awesome. Tessa 5:11 Hey, Andy, we were just asking people about their holiday spirit. Have you had a lot of holiday spirit recently with your infant and she'd been getting into the Christmas spirit. Andy 5:20 Oh, well, we are covered in snow right now. That's about the closest thing that we have is a lot of snow but her name is Christmas, so Tessa 5:33 that's true. I guess. I guess her name does mean Christmas. She's like I bring the crowd. Yeah. Andy 5:36 And lots of burped up milk to pretty much just like your drunk uncle. Unknown Speaker 5:43 Oh, man. That's what I brought. Andy 5:46 Just like the drunk uncle eggnog. It Noel bring gross milk. Tessa 5:51 All right, it is time before we start getting into talking about furious seven to talk about our podcasts within a podcast. Sam's holiday cocktail. Doo, doo, doo doo doo doo. Sam, what did you make today? Sam 6:05 While it is Surprise, surprise, not an actual holiday cocktail? Because I'm not. I mean, I don't know. I feel like any drink that you drink around the holidays is a holiday cocktail. But this one is a nice Christmas red color. So it is actually an Americano. Which Fun fact, if you have actual working taste buds is probably one of the only drinks that has Campari in it that you can probably with stand Wait, Andy 6:33 wait a minute, wait a minute. Americano to me is espresso and water. Explain yourself. Sam 6:39 I've been I've been riffing on James Bond a lot lately because of how much these films remind us of Bond films. So I'm hoping I'm not going to get this wrong. It's been a rough few months but in Thunderball, you actually see bond preparing a drink in his hotel room. You watch and put ice in a glass. You watch him put red liquid number one in a glass red liquid number two in a glass dumps him club soda on it, stir it and start drinking it. That is an Americano. Americano is a simple cocktail, two ounces Campari, two ounces sweet vermouth, however much you want to put in a soda water, you stir it up, you put in a little lemon squeeze if you want for garnish and then drink it. That's it. That's an Americano. It's called an Americano. Because when Americans came over once you dilute it with the soda water, and the sweet vermouth. The Campari is not so bitter. So it's one thing that Americans could stand to drink. And so this is a long tradition of people making fun of Americans because they won't try things like here. Have your fizzy soda, Campari, drink, enjoy. Oh, Andy 7:45 that actually makes sense because Okay, according to the internet, it's a cafe Americano is what I was thinking of. And it's a watered down espresso. So just Tessa 7:54 learning new stuff all the time on the episode of Sam's holiday cocktail. Sam, before we get into our super in depth film discussion of what has got to be the most bonkers Fast and Furious movie that we have seen so far. Please, could you summarize the movie for us? Sam 8:11 I can. And there are a couple of ways to go with this one would take us like five minutes. But here's my best way to summarize this film. There are two movies happening alongside each other. The first movie, very, very simple bond plot. Mr. Nobody played by Kurt Russell recruits DOM and his gang to go after a MacGuffin known as God's eye, which will allow it's the ultimate surveillance tool supervillain Gioconda already has it, and they have to get it back. And they also need the hacker Ramsay who created it to do the thing that they want to do. That is the essential plot of the movie, or at least the first parallel plot. Here's the second parallel plot. It is all about decherd Sha, played by Jason Statham. Here's how it goes. Shaw's in your hospital, Shaw's in your office, on your computer, Shahs in Tokyo, but she was also on your front porch. She finds out what happens when both people win it chicken with Dom toretto or lose I'm not sure jaws and you're chasing shows at your party shows in your climactic helicopter drone hygiene scene. Shah is doing his best 300 reenactment with Dom on top of the parking garage and Shaw's in your super duper max prison. How's that? Tessa 9:37 I actually think that's a pretty good summary of this movie, according to the vantage point of decherd Shah. But let's talk a little bit about shot. That's actually a pretty good segue I think into our first discussion, which is at the end of the last movie, we get this tag teaser I guess of Sha decherd Sha I should say because we've already seen Owen Shaw, his brother who's playing by Luke Evans we see Luke Evans at the beginning of this film as well. He is in a coma. I assume for good. I'm not sure this this this series of movies is more like a soap opera than it is anything else. So we see decherd you know, swearing revenge, but we saw him at the end of the last movie, basically killing Han, which is where we get the hashtag justice for Han. So I had no idea going into this, that Jason Stephens character was villainous. I had no idea we were rooting against him. I knew he was part of the franchise. So I would like to hear first from you, Steve, what is sort of your opinion on this decherd Shaw character and how he's introduced as sort of this major villain of this film. Unknown Speaker 10:41 I mean, it's it's a super fun addition to the, to the to the series like I really enjoy having Jason Statham here. I will be honest, though, like, I've seen each of the movies that he appears in, and I'm still not entirely clear on what his deal is. Like, I don't know if he's part of a criminal syndicate. I don't know if he's some kind of super spy. I don't know if he's like, I don't I don't know exactly what his deal is. I understand his motives in this or like revenge base for like them, almost killing his brother. I understand that. But it seems to be like he's wildly connected. He's infinitely strong and powerful. And I'm not entirely sure what, what the what the mechanisms are, that kind of keeps him going. Like I don't, I don't fully understand. And that's one of the things I like about this movie is just that it's kind of like, it's kind of like a fast and furious movie crashing into a different genre. It's just, it's just driving headlong. At one point, even Kurt Russell even says, like, you don't really know what you've wandered into here, you know, and there's this war between quote unquote, shadows and ghosts and like, you don't fully know what's going on. But it's just kind of funny. The idea that these guys just wound up driving their car real fast until whoops, we're in a superhero movie, Sam 12:00 yet is this fast and furious Ghost Protocol. Unknown Speaker 12:03 They kinda Yeah, they even go to Abu Dhabi. Eddie, what Tessa 12:06 do you think about Jason Statham entrance into this franchise? Andy 12:09 I mean, it fits everything else about this franchise. It doesn't need an explanation. It doesn't need discussions. He's there. He has an accent. And as someone who has been told multiple times that I look just like Jason Statham that I'm just as strong as Jason Statham that Jason Statham is probably playing all of his characters based on me. I'm for it. Tessa 12:33 I think it's hilarious that his accent definitely does not match. Luke Evans accent from the last movie, like they don't even try to make them sound like they came from the same neighborhood, which I think is great. Andy 12:43 Yeah, no comment on the future movie Hobson Shaw, which featured Statham more heavily. Tessa 12:50 The other thing that happens when we cut when we go from six to seven is the change of director. So Justin Lin has directed more of these movies than anybody else. He's been at the wheel as it were, since movie three. But we actually changed to director James one who would go on to then make Aquaman later. And this was partially yet and this is partially because Justin Lin was actually still finishing six by the time that they had started filming seven. They wanted him to do seven but he thought it would actually compromise the final product. He wanted to be fully committed to six. So he allowed James Wan to take take over the helm here. Why don't we think about the transition between directors? Unknown Speaker 13:33 I enjoy James Juan's style. He you know starting with like the Saw movies like which I don't like but you know, he, you get to the conjuring films. It's like Oh, wow. Okay, this guy's got kind of like a visual style. Like he's got a very clean kind of cinematics style to him. And I think he does a very good job with you know, the Fast and Furious is just all about these incredible automotive set pieces, these car racks and these chases and everything like that. And this one, it takes it to a bonkers new level, and I think he does a good job of like framing it and keeping things moving at a good clip. It works. Andy 14:11 I know. I know. Justin Lin is supposed to be a pretty cool dude, he did direct some of the most iconic episodes of community. James one also cool dude. So cool, dude. Tessa 14:22 I think that James one almost has more of an eye for like superheroes type type storytelling. And I'm not just saying that because I'm thinking of Aquaman but like Sam mentioned, the end of this is very the fight between DOM and Shawn especially is very like 300 like almost Zack Snyder style filmmaking and so for me like that's kind of what I thought of is that this is like Justin Lin but on like a more massive scale in some ways. And I don't know how much of that is James wants doing or how much of its universals doing, but I thought that that was that was interesting. Unknown Speaker 14:55 I mean, you could see the series kind of trending in this direction as it goes like each other. Episode gets just a little bit sillier and a little bit sillier and a little bit crazier. And, you know, when you think back to the very first movie, which was supposed to be, it was based on an article It was supposed to be about, like the gritty real life world of underground street racers, and now they're driving cars out of planes. And they're they they're seemingly impervious to car accidents. And like, it's it's completely wild the directions it took, but it's also been kind of incrementally leading in this direction, you know, so it's not out of the blue. Sam 15:32 Yeah. So that that chase scene, I think, that you refer to with with cars flying through the air. I think it starts off with the the most grounded, ironically, moment in this film, which is Roman saying, No, I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this. This is a terrible idea. And then ends with, I guess, only the second or third, I don't know, fifth most incredulous point in the movie, where DOM is cornered and I'm like, oh, somebody's gonna come get hit. Nope, he's just gonna roll all the way down the hill. That's that's the point here. But of course, you talk about all the car pranks in this movie. Tessa has been waiting for this one. Because she knew it happened. she'd seen it. And she wanted to know when we got to it if it was as out there as ridiculous as she thought so Tessa, as Brian reminds us, they didn't just go through one building. It was it was three they went and hop multiple times. And that's cool. Tessa, what do you think you've been waiting for it. Tessa 16:38 I have been waiting for it. I've said on past episodes that I wasn't sure how they got from one to whatever movie it was where they jumped cars between buildings. Because I remember seeing that scene in the trailers and I was like, I don't even know how we even get to this point. When we finally got to this point, it happened they jumped cars twice so through three buildings in Abu Dhabi and they're very iconic buildings. I mean, anytime a film films in Abu Dhabi, like you know exactly where you are just by the landscape there and so I it's just as awesome and as ridiculous as I thought it was going to be I mean, I don't they destroy like so much priceless art in the third building that I'm not sure like I felt kind of a little bit in pain when I saw them going through the the clay where's the third building, but I also kind of like this, this franchise really I we've talked about this before, it really balances earnestness and ridiculousness in a way that's just very endearing. Like it doesn't lean too far, one way or the other. And I think that even with, you know, these incredible set pieces that don't even make sense, these car pranks to the max, they Andy 17:48 What? Oh, hold on. They do make sense. They make perfect sense. You just need to imbibe beforehand, with sans Khalid, as Tessa 17:56 well as someone who doesn't invite beforehand, and they don't make sense. But they do make sense in the context of this world. Like they they make sense, because these characters believe that they make sense. And because these are endearing characters, it all makes sense to us. So I really appreciated that even though the car pranks are ridiculous. And I realized that you too, haven't been on the other episodes. We have been differentiating between racing, which is what cars are made to do, even right when you're pushing it to the max, and car pranks, which are things that cars are not made to do. And we're borrowing that terminology from Danny McBride and David Gordon Green's righteous gemstones they okay the word car pranks to talk about something that happens in a car. So that's what when I'm saying that that's what I am referring to there. There are a lot of car pranks, cars are not supposed to go out. Cars are not supposed to jump out of planes. They're not supposed to go between buildings. That that is not what a car is meant to do. But they do it in this particular film. However, we also get more other stunts, we get rock stunts and Vin Diesel stunts. How do we feel about the rocks rolling this? Unknown Speaker 19:05 The Rock kind of sits it out for a lot of the time? Yeah, he he just spends most of his time in a hospital bed. I'm wondering if he in the Vin Diesel we're having some more contract beefs or something like that. But yeah, I mean, I I enjoy all the ridiculous like on the ground fight scenes, too, you know, and plenty of good rock action, we get to learn that he has a daughter just kind of casually she's dropped in there and she's small and foul mouth and the that's that's kind of a fun addition. Yeah, I don't know. I think, you know, kind of going back to the car prank idea. I think that's kind of the moment when I turned the corner on this series because like, you know, I watched the first one. I was like, Alright, it's fine. It's done. The second one was terrible. And then I just kind of dropped off the series until somebody like, have you seen Fast Five. Oh my God, this movie is so good. It's so good. You have to go see it. So I finally saw it. And that's the moment it becomes this world where a car is the best tool for any job and and that's what I just kind of realized this is just this has become like this wild action movie fantasy series that has no relation to reality whatsoever anymore and it's it's fully okay to be on onboard and enjoying it. And the rock with his oversized muscles and ridiculous 80s action movie persona is a perfect encapsulation of that. Andy 20:23 If we're calling those car pranks, I think my the highlight scene for me is what I would call a cast prank where a cast is treated distinct. Unknown Speaker 20:33 he get his way out of the cast, he doesn't just pull it off he flexes his way out. Unknown Speaker 20:41 I imagine that's how he removes his shirts at the end of the day just in real life just Andy 20:47 it's a scene that this series needed. I didn't know I needed it but in my heart that's how it is right you know it's like life advice right? You just flex out of the cast. Unknown Speaker 20:58 Exactly. If Sam 20:58 you're if you're being held back you can just imagine like like as he's, you know, like I can just imagine a nurse just walking by right at that moment and going no, I can smell What's cooking in there. I'm leaving. I'm gonna let that happen. Tessa 21:10 He also has one of the best lines I would say have this entire film at the end where he is like woman I am the Calvary when he double taps the drone. I just he's great in this I think all right, what do we want to talk about next title? Oh, actually, I was gonna ask Sam this Okay, so Sam, you we've talked a lot about bond and how these this series takes its DNA for bond after watching this movie. I refer to this as the working class bond, in a lot of ways because it does actually steal some DNA points from bond including up to and including villains that seem like they should be in a Bond movie. Sam, you said this one actually reminded you the most of the humor of bond through Brian's character. Could you tell us a little bit more about that Sam 21:57 after Connery left bond for the second time, there was genuine conversation about replacing him with an American actor and there were a couple that had in mind. But of course that's when the decision was made. That bond would always be British. And so you know we come up with these these questions What would an American bond look like? And when Tessa said that it's this is the obvious answer. Fast and Furious is the American James Bond franchise in a very interesting there's some good political kind of identity issues that are tied up in that and perhaps it's the American bond we would like to have but but what this does is it brings it down from that kind of elite spy thing you know bonds the the dresser just the you know the this Dennison of high culture kind of snobby in some senses that of course that gets taken down a notch with Daniel Craig. But this is very much as Tessa said, like a working class bond, where these are real people doing incredible things as opposed to somebody who's not a real person doing incredible things. Andy 23:03 Wait, do you do you think that this is a documentary sadness? Sam 23:07 Yes, it is. Okay, I really liked the comedy of Brian in this movie and I'm sad we're never going to see more of that because he was really developing after his character arc ended into more of a bit character. Somebody who's always good for laughs like your your kayo moment on a bad guy is like banging his head against a button or doing something and watching them go by, you know, which is a very James Bond sensibility thing. So that was that was really enjoyable. So I want to put this out there for everybody. Last episode we talked a little bit about in terms of antics we talked about how fast and furious six really brought a lot of the the the women of the cast up to the forefront and had some really good girl fights which of course I'm I'm saying in honor of Michelle Rodriguez, his first film girl fight. We got some good girl fights in this movie, including a new former MMA star Ronda Rousey entering the field. What do we what do we think about some of the fights some of the girl fights in this movie? You know, Unknown Speaker 24:11 I am down with like, an elaborately choreographed action sequence with both women wearing ball gowns. Like I think they pulled that off very well. I think this is kind of just before the point where we as a culture, kind of realize that Ronda Rousey super sucks. She's been very like transphobic and like, kind of nasty on Twitter and everything like that. And genuinely a terrible actress like very good, very, very bad with dialog. If you want to hear further examples of that, check out Mortal Kombat 11 where she plays Sonya blade just just does not have a way with dialogue but she has a very intimidating physical presence and she's a good like physical performer. I'm surprised she was not in more of this. I had kind of a memory of like her coming back and and there being another fight. After this one with with Michelle Rodriguez. But no, I think that the DJ table seems to kind of take her out Tessa 25:06 as it has many of us Unknown Speaker 25:08 as as many of us yeah, DJ ended my life tonight. Sam 25:11 Yeah, it takes her all the way out into the expendable movie, right that she's Unknown Speaker 25:15 always she in that okay, I haven't signed the leaf so Andy 25:17 these were fine. They I don't think they were great, but they were fine. Tessa 25:20 Well, I do like the continuation of the telenovela that is lady's character arc in this I we left her in the last movie with amnesia after coming back from the dead, which is a classic telenovela turn, I guess, or classic novella, that is Unknown Speaker 25:36 like, this is the last movie franchise, you can probably get away with amnesia. Like amnesia is such a wild card to pull in the 20th century, like, you know, post 1980 you know, it's kind of a crazy turn to pull. Andy 25:51 I know we're going to and fast nine get Dom's brother, but I really wish it was just Vin Diesel and like a huge Mustang. It feels appropriate. So Tessa 26:03 I liked this though. I liked the idea that she had to like go and find herself and like have all these memories on her own. You know, like I appreciated this development and she definitely comes back because she's she's Dawn's right or die. And like that that to me has been a really interesting through line throughout this whole thing. Plus, it gives us one of the best Vin Diesel lines of the entire series so far, when she reveals that she remembers everything and that they're actually married that they got married before he left her in the Dominican Republic. And she says Why didn't you tell me that we were married and he says you can't tell someone that they love you. Which I think is like he says so many great wonderful lines, like just the only the the cheesiest stuff that only Dom toretto can get away with saying because he genuinely believes it as a character. And I just thought this was such a great like, sort of culmination of all of this drama and all of the dislike, obstacles that they've had to go through over the last couple of movies. Like you can't tell someone that they love you. Wonderful line. I'm gonna stand by that. Unknown Speaker 27:06 I agree. Yeah, I liked I that was a good moment. And I mean, it, I liked it, they resolved it in this as well. So that we don't need to keep doing the amnesia thing forever. But you know, it's it's just, I always I respect that wild plot turn, you know, and just kind of tells me that this series knows exactly what it is and what it wants to be and what a spy like what the audience had hopes to connect with. This is sugar, this is this is a junk food movie. If you're looking, if you're finding a whole lot of meaning in it, then that's on you, really, because I think the movie kind of just really understands how goofy and dumb it is, and and just kind of celebrates that and leans into it. And that's why it's so much fun to watch. Tessa 27:51 Well, and I think it really appeals to a non white audience because oh, yeah, that's I mean, these movies are interesting, because they're so like American exceptionalist, right, like American Muscle. But most of the people in this movies are not white. And they are very embracive of a not white culture. And the the storyline with Letty is just very much in that same storytelling tradition that a lot of the audience is going to resonate with. And so I just think that's fascinating. Oh, yeah. Unknown Speaker 28:17 And that's kind of been a reason for a lot of this series lasting success is that they have cast like a very diverse group of people in this movie, and it so it connects like across multiple quadrants. So it's just kind of one more sign that the marketing people and studio executives aren't really paying attention to. It's women's women drive movie sales and people of non white people drive movie sales like this is what these are the people you should be reaching out to. And we're still just making a bunch of like straight white guy movies. Andy 28:48 And I will tell you box office nerds when furious seven looked like it might be the number two movie of all time. Unknown Speaker 28:55 That was crazy. Andy 28:56 That was a crazy realization. And then Jurassic World just came and wiped it off the floor. Unknown Speaker 29:01 It's a it's a similar phenomenon, the what of what happened with the Dark Knight. And I don't know if I'm jumping ahead and talking about something we should be talking about. But when, when one of the principal actors in the movie dies tragically young before the film was released. Yeah, same thing happened with the Dark Knight and that made it like that became the number two best selling movie of all time. And then this one comes out. Similar thing happened to Paul Walker shortly before this came out. So yeah, I think that there is a correlation with that. Tessa 29:30 Yeah, we were definitely talking. We can go ahead and talk about Paul Walker's death since that's definitely something that is at the center of this movie. I mean, it is definitely centralized, especially at the end. Paul Walker, you know, tragically died. While filming filming this movie. They had filmed quite a bit of it when he died, and but they were able to finish it using Deleted Scenes from other films. Footage from other films. They used a lot of stunt doubles and they use CGI. To finish this film, Andy 30:01 Mm hmm. Tessa 30:02 It's really interesting to me that they won that they finished this film because he's joining people like Brandon Lee from the crow. He's joining people like Heath Ledger, like you mentioned. And of course, also Heath Ledger had done, I think about half of the Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus before he died. And so they had to like do some, some movie stuff to finish that film as well. Yeah, this is this is really interesting the way that this has impacted this particular franchise, but this film specifically, how did you guys feel about the way that this was retooled? Or like the the way that they retooled Brian storyline around this? Unknown Speaker 30:41 It was interesting, like, you could tell that there are moments of exposition like your conversations are supposed to be happening between Brian and Mia that are now Domine Mia, like there's a scene where Dom's like he's the better you're the best thing that ever happened to him, that feels like something that Brian should have said, rather than like hearing that from her brother. And then you do start to notice like, especially on a second rewatch like, you start to notice how many wide shots there are, how often Paul Walker's character is in shadow or like only shot from the neck down. A couple things like that. And and a lot of his story has been decentralized and they've they've made like his arc kind of being that he needs to go be with his family and that they give him an easy out at the end of the movie. But you know, and they did a couple of digital tricks. And luckily, they're not too terribly distracting. I still think the the kind of famous like one of the last shots of the movie is him in the the front seat of his car looking over and his face has been digitally mapped onto his brother. And that looks weird. It's kind of hard to put your finger on why I think there's just something that just kind of looks a little bit off about it. But you can tell that entire last sequence at the beach was it was largely to say they you could tell we shot after the fact like because it doesn't feel like it's a part of the same movie. It doesn't feel like it's resolving any kind of conflict that's been set up in the movie. But it's giving the cast a chance to say goodbye and giving audiences a chance to say goodbye. And so there's something about it that like emotionally hits, even if you know you're not terribly invested in this character or this story or anything like that. It does get like very emotional at the end. His death Andy 32:19 made me much more shocked at the ending of the film. Because I went in with the expectation I think a lot of people went in with which was Oh, oh, Brian's gonna die, huh? Jason Statham is going to kill Brian just like he killed Vaughn. I think that was a lot of expectations. And there was a lot of the first time you watch it. It feels a lot like nudge nudge, wink, wink like, oh, we're doing the, you know, this is his last one. This is his last hurrah kind of thing. It works. It works when you realize Brian gets to live and he gets to be happy. Unknown Speaker 32:53 You have to imagine there's a conversation because you know, Paul Walker Of course died doing some of the things you see him doing in this movie. He died in a high speed car wreck and like a fancy car, the irony of which I think is really very cruel. But I think if you have a scene where he's dying in a movie like this with a lot of like cars flying around and things like that, I think you're inviting that immediate parallel and then it just kind of gets a little achy, you know so i think i think it is a nicer choice to send Brian off. It is a shame because it essentially writes jordanna Bruce route of the movie too. But she has also just spent the last like four movies just kind of like sitting at home worrying. So hopefully she'll still get some paychecks from this and she won't have to do that part. Sam 33:41 I thought the thing about it would be a really bad case of irony for him to die in that way I definitely thought that but I found myself really emotionally affected in that scene on the beach. And then I just I just my entire body tensed up because this is the this is the pop culture training right? This is part of being like a black belt and pop culture This is honor Majesty's Secret Service we have all the time in the world to be together and family I think guys toast but then you remember no we can't do that for the reasons that Andy you just discussed. So it kind of it kind of undercut it for me because I was so tense the whole time. So that like kind of emotion which somehow is as you point out this this series has actually earned Yeah, um, how it's earned but then it's undercut by the cod action movie they're gonna come in and take it out No, they didn't okay, Unknown Speaker 34:36 but also this is this is a series that's established itself as one where death is not permanent. And so I think body Yeah, there's no there's no body you know, because I mean, I don't know if it's a spoiler from the trailers for fast nine, but another deceased character is coming back. And like it's, it's not permanent. And so you wouldn't be able to like explain a wet like, I don't know, it's not something wouldn't end a franchise film like this on a death that is indisputably permanent a character death and a human death that is never going to come back. I just feel like that wouldn't sit right for this franchise. So I never really felt like afraid that that the character was actually going to die off. They were kind of pulling that you were talking about the black belt train, they were kind of pulling that with Kurt Russell's character for a little bit like Yeah, he was. I mean, you know, like you said, if you're the black belt and pop culture, and you understand the cues and everything like that, it really looked like they were leading him to die. You know, because like, and then, you know, with him not, it felt a little anticlimactic, like, I don't know. And I don't remember if he comes back or not. Sam 35:41 Yeah, I wasn't sure if he was gonna die or turn. Yeah, you know, but like, like, it wasn't, I was amazed that he lived and was on the same side as he started. That felt like the most inconceivable part of this movie. Tessa 35:57 Yeah, I kept waiting for another shoe to drop with this character, because he kind of plays this very, like, you know, it's spies, right? They're always stabbing each other in the back. And that's kind of what you're used to with this type of government agent. What do we think about the inclusion of Kurt Russell as Mr. Nobody, it felt very m of me for him. For me from bond. But what do we think about Kurt Russell? Unknown Speaker 36:20 He was fun. You know, it's always good to see Kurt Russell and something and but I agree like he's one of those. Generally, when you get a character like this, who's so casual about all of like, the life and death stuff that he's working with? It's because like, you're gonna get a moment where he just like casually turns on you because he doesn't give. But like, from the moment he shows up, he's just like, likable older dude. And everybody just kind of is on board with them. And of course, he's got a branded bucket of Corona ready for ya the moment? And yeah, yeah, I agree. Like, I feel like a twist. I felt like a twist was coming. And maybe it still is like down the line. But at this point, it's just like, yeah, it was kind of a weird, like anti fakeout. Tessa 37:01 And of course, we get Guardians of the Galaxy being go, we have Kurt Russell, we have Jimin on zoo. And we also have of course, Vin Diesel who plays Groot? So I'm looking forward to seeing maybe more Guardians of the Galaxy members in this particular franchise, maybe we can get so Saldana to play a car thief at some Yeah. But Jimin on zoo, he's sort of like the big bad of this, but he's totally eclipsed by Jason Statham. I think he's only in a couple of scenes, but do we think he adds anything to this particular franchise besides just being kind of a plot point? Unknown Speaker 37:38 We were kind of talking about this before we started recording like I I feel like Jimin ons, who's one of our most underappreciated actors, you know, if you saw him early in his career, we debuted with Alma staad. And they showed up in Blood Diamond and the movie in America where he's really brilliant. He's a two time Oscar nominee, like he's a very, very talented, powerful actor. But for the last decade, plus, he's just been playing like, third build heavy in franchise movies. So he's like, got a big part in Charlie's Angels. He's got a big part in Aquaman he's got big part in guardians, he's got all these little tiny bit parts. And so like, I feel like people aren't really using him properly. Like even here, he doesn't even get to be like the main bad guy you know, I would even say Tony jog, it's more stuff to do, than Jimin onto does not that I'm complaining Tony Johnson amazing physical performer to watch but like, Yeah, I don't know. I hope I hope people kind of start to turn the corner on Jimin and recognize he's a brilliant actors are given Meteor parts here. Tessa 38:38 And then of course, I couldn't go by without mentioning the other new character that we get, we get Ramsey who is a hacker who created the God's eye and that they have to rescue near the beginning of this film, Natalie emanuelle, who listeners of the show might recognize as Miss Sandy from Game of Thrones. I'm so happy to see her in this film. I know that it was pre Game of Thrones, or maybe at the same time as Game of Thrones, but for her, but that character had such a bad ending on Game of Thrones. It was just kind of nice to see her in this film, like actually doing things and like reacting to all the shenanigans that they asked her to go through this this poor woman like she has to like, she gets thrown out of cars into other cars and onto cars and down cliffs. And I don't know, I just think that she does a great job, you know, for what it is. But definitely like seeing her have a better ending here than in Game of Thrones. Unknown Speaker 39:31 For sure. Unknown Speaker 39:31 She's fun. She's got a good screen presence. And I like that they're setting up kind of the love triangle with her and Ted and Roman like, kind of a fun idea. You know, one of my most welcome surprises from this franchise was like, how much I enjoyed ludicrous and all these movies like Oh, he's kind of become like my favorite character, which is like ridiculous, but it's ludicrous you might even say But yeah, no, it's it's Yeah, I don't know. I I like her like She doesn't get a whole hell of a lot to do. But she does. She has a character with like, utility like beyond like what Mia gets, you know, she's she's very much a part of the crew. Tessa 40:12 Yeah. And I think what to kind of wrap this up before we get to our fast facts of the the episode. So in the last episode we talked about how Owen Shaw was sort of the antithesis of DOM and his crew, right? Yeah, Dom and his crew are a family. They hit that very hard in these movies. But then oh, and Shaw is very anti family. He's very, like all parts can be replaced. Like if somebody dies, it's because they made a mistake. Like he has no loyalty at all. It's just very efficiency very much get the job done. Jason Statham, Shaw, his family versus family, right, like this idea is that he is coming back to avenge his family. And he's going up against another family to do so. And I thought that that parallel was really interesting. Even though Jason's statement works alone. What did you guys think about that? Unknown Speaker 41:01 It's an interesting conflict that they could have hit a little harder. That would have been, yeah, like, cuz like I said, I was left with only kind of a vague appreciation of what Shaw wanted, or like, how he was this strong and powerful, you know, like, he's just not an incredibly well developed character. I think that would have been a more interesting conflict. If they'd set it up. It's like, Shaw's v toreto, or something like that. Get some kind of like family versus family blood feud going on. I would I would like to see that. I think that's a better idea, than kind of how they use them here Andy 41:32 fully agreed with you, Steve. Tessa 41:35 Well, I was gonna say I do think it's hilarious that like Brian has been sort of like sucked into the cerreto is like, technically he's no Connor. But really, he's a Tourette. Oh, sure. Sure. All right, let's get on to the fast facts for this episode. Some of them we've mentioned already, but I will go through them. In this film, as we mentioned, CGI and body doubles were used quite a bit to to help create the to finish out the story of Brian because of Paul Walker's death most of the way through filming. And as Andy mentioned, Caleb Walker and Cody Walker, who were his brothers did some voice work. And were some of the doubles for him in this and so that that that was really interesting to me. Fast. Fact number two, the garage conversation scene between Mia and Brian, where she tells him that she is pregnant, was a deleted scene from Fast Five that they actually just picked up and put right over into this particular movie. Number three, over 230 cars were destroyed in this film alone. Unknown Speaker 42:31 Wow, that seems low. Tessa 42:33 And 30. That's Fact number four. So there were several people who were considered for the part of Mr. Nobody before Kurt Russell got involved. Denzel Washington was actually offered the part but couldn't do it. Because of other conflicts, Taylor Lochner was offered the part. strangest, like casting decision that is a direction to go in. I'm not sure it was the right direction. Unknown Speaker 42:58 This is the F. The FBI is most powerful intern like what Sam 43:04 did he do? He is a werewolf. Oh, sure. Yeah, that Unknown Speaker 43:06 is a that's a bonus. Tessa 43:08 That's actually where the Fast and Furious franchise is going. We're actually gonna do supernatural stuff after this. And Halle Berry was also considered for the role of Mr. Nobody would watch that actually, I would have watched that Unknown Speaker 43:23 they kind of gave her a similar role in the second Kingsman movie. So yeah, she's she'd be good in that part. Tessa 43:29 fastback number five. Jason Statham was originally supposed to play Owen Shaw in in fast six, but he couldn't because of other commitments. So ben de Vin Diesel actually really wanted to work with him just in general. And so he used his producing power to get him into fast seven or furious seven. So that's actually why we have Jason Statham as this characters brother instead of as oh and shot himself. Unknown Speaker 43:55 It's a good call and I feel like this should be a movie like if you have any friends who are like worried about losing their hair or feeling insecure or anything about that. I think you need to show them this movie, which is the poster movie for hot bald men like i think i think this is kind of it. I think this is how you can really like emphasize different look. This this is the this is where you're going like everybody in this movie is bald and looks amazing. Sam 44:18 Yeah, the one dude with hair. We get rid of him at the end of the movie. Come on. Yeah, yeah, he Unknown Speaker 44:22 has no place here anymore. Tessa 44:24 And finally, fast. Fact number six. In the first fight scene between Hobbs and Shaw, in the office at the FBI where Shaw is hacking into his computer to fact figure out who the team is that took down his brother. The Rock uses his finishing move rock bottom on Statham in that first fight scene. So we do get some wrestling callback references there. Sam 44:48 I'm holding out for the People's Elbow Andy 44:50 later. Exactly. Tessa 44:52 All right, Sam, give us some furious stats. Sam 44:56 Okay, so we're moving up and up with budget. This was budgeted. At $160 million did it make its budget back at the opening weekend domestic box office like some of the early movies did, nobody got close at 147. Now the total box office almost double what fast six made 1.5 billion with a B as opposed to billion with a Q dollars. Alright, so of course it won the weekend box office. After that we have home get hard. Hmm. Disney's first foray into the huge mistake that is let's just make all the cartoons in the live action Cinderella, and the second movie in the Divergent Series insurgent. And now we're back to our two running totals for the entire series. First of all, we are trying to decide whether or not the corona element of this series is overblown. It may or may not be but in this movie, it certainly is fun. Because Kurt Russell makes a whole meal out of this right, man, those monks? I don't know about the celibacy. But the share made good beer. So both Corona moments are Kurt Russell talks about, you know, his his Belgian ale. And then Dom says he's more of a Corona man. And as you mentioned, Steve, he was ready for him with his bucket, a bucket of coronas and a bottle opener, like classy. Unknown Speaker 46:27 The bucket had Corona written on it. Did he get it for like Senor Frogs or something like it feels? like where's he getting these buckets like this government have a contract? Andy 46:38 Do you not do not buy your coronas from the army surplus? Unknown Speaker 46:42 Apparently not as often as I should be? Sam 46:44 Well, of course, of course, as we know, the most logical inconsistency of this entire movie is the second Corona reference. When Kurt Russell says, I'll get you an entire keg of it. It's like, what? We drink them out of bottles. That is our thing. Unknown Speaker 47:02 I don't know if I've ever seen Corona on tap before. Now that I'm thinking about it. It's probably it's got to be a thing. But Sam 47:08 what do you get to wet your citrus into like, yeah, like you got to put it in the mouth of the bottle. I Andy 47:12 mean, I can only think of koseki Unknown Speaker 47:14 Yeah. Oh, weird. Yeah. Now that I'm thinking about it. I don't know if I've ever Sam 47:18 seen it. So. So we've learned something here, IMDb? goups. Andy 47:21 Let's, uh, let's add some information. All Sam 47:24 right, so we are at a total eight. Corona mentions over the series. Now seven movies, eight mentions of Corona? Oh, no, not a lot. Now family though. I want to preface this by saying we do not count talks about brothers or anything. The word has to be used. I will accept Amelia. I will expect family except family and other languages. But just remember, there's a lot of talk of brotherhood. I'm not counting any of these in this Tally. We have six mentions of family. We have Mia, Mia always gets the first you know that sort of thing to do. Steve, this movie talking about family and stay at home. So Mia tells Brian to protect the family. Jason Statham comes in hot and saying you messed with family, which they get. Kurt Russell mentions family in the briefing, Mr. Nobody mentions lead. He says hon was my family too. And then we get the we get another what's real is family speech on the plane. And then finally at the end, we have another great line. I don't have friends. I have family. So now we are up to a total of 25 mentions of family, in addition to all the brother talk all the great stuff that happens in this movie. So that's it. That's your furious stats. Unknown Speaker 48:43 I like it. Tessa 48:45 All right, guys. It's time to scatter. Join us tomorrow for the next installment of the nine days of Fast and Furious where I honestly asked the question, Where can we go from here? Over the next two days we have more guests and lots more holiday spirit lined up. You better watch out You better not cry. You better not pout because Jason Statham and the rock are taken over for Santa this Christmas Eve. Watch along with us. tweet at us. Email us. Let us know all your Fast and Furious thoughts. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram at monkey backlog and email us at monkey off my backlog@gmail.com Where can we find you online? Steve? Unknown Speaker 49:23 Yeah, absolutely. You can find me at ultra 64 podcast on Twitter and on Instagram and that's also my email address. You can find that show wherever you get your podcasts on iTunes on Spotify on Stitcher, all of those places. I have another show that's called Rogers list where I'm watching every single one of Roger Ebert great movies test has been on there and he's been on there Sam's gonna be on they're all going to be on here at some point. And that's been a lot of fun. You can find that at Rogers lis pod at Twitter and on Instagram and everywhere else. Ah and the other thing is I'm going to be I think by this time I'll be guesting on an episode of big game apocalypse coming up talking about the game of the year episode so that's gonna be a lot of fun. Unknown Speaker 50:10 And I think that's it Tessa 50:11 thanks i'd also Rogers list is a really fun cop podcast to be on. You should check it out. Unknown Speaker 50:15 Definitely. Tessa 50:16 You can find Sam on twitter at Sam underscore Morris nine and on letterbox at Archie Leach nine you can find Andy on Twitter and on letterboxed at Hebrews Pale Ale and me on Twitter and letterboxed at suela Tessa Swehla spelled SW e HLA. Also check out our regular weekly episodes of Monkey off my backlog as well as our newest series monkey nights. Our special holiday theme song is Scott homes version of jingle bells and can be found on Scott Holmes music.com. Find the podcast on Spotify, Amazon podcast iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. The only thing that matters is the people in this room right here right now. salumi familia, Transcribed by https://otter.ai