My deep dive into rewatching the #FastandFuriverse continues. Next up, as outlined in my post about how I am going to rewatch the Fast and Furious series, is the second short film in the series, Los Bandoleros. I’m sure many people haven’t watched this before, and I certainly hadn’t. Like the Turbo-Charged Prelude to 2 Fast 2 Furious I think it came out on the DVD of the film that came after it. I think perhaps some cinemas showed it before the main viewing of Fast and Furious too.

The main credit says this is written and directed by Vin Diesel. He certainly directed it himself and he co-wrote and co-produced. That was a shock to me. I wonder if that was part of the deal to bring back to the franchise, that he’d get a chance to write and direct a short.

Here’s the link to Part 1 on YouTube. It links to the other parts after that. It’s 20mins long in total.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WGWJmaIUkE

Here are my notes from watching it for the first time.

  • It’s a pretty long monalogue from the person at the start
  • We’re in the Dominican Republic
  • Han’s in it! This is the first appearance of Han in this chronological watching of the series, as I haven’t watched Tokyo Drift yet
  • There’s a lot of talk about gas. We’re getting the message that gasoline is important
  • 5 mins into the film and we see a car. And guess who’s under it? Dom! But the beer he drinks isn’t a Corona! That’s just wrong.
  • NIce callback to the first movie about saying grace at dinner
  • Leo says “I don’t run, I walk”. I love this because I referenced in the first movie how Dom rarely runs. He normally just walks fast. Sounds like Leo is the same
  • Han says he’s never been east of Atlanta. This shows that it is set earlier than Tokyo Drift. And Han also says that he met Dom in Mexico
  • There’s pretty blatant racism in a couple of places towards Han. He brushes it off well
  • We learn that Dom and Han have been doing ‘fun stuff’ in Mexico and South America. I love some of this teased backstory
  • Dom has a meeting with a shady business guy talking about ‘merchandise’. But we’re not talking about DVDs here. Sounds like Dom is talking about gas being the merchandise here. And does he want to give it to the people, like Robin Hood?
  • Great entrance by Letty. Fantastic quote too, which calls back to her skank comment in the first film. “It aint that hard to track you down. All I gotta do is follow the odour of skanks”. Classic Letty
  • It’s a very cool white convertible that Dom and Letty drive
  • Dom speaks Dominican which impresses Letty and he says it’s been a while since he has been back in the States. I guess he’s been on the run for a few years
  • Letty says “She’s alright”. I assume she’s referring to Mia even though Dom doesn’t actually ask
  • Things get a little steamy between Dom and Letty in a few places. I heard they were an item, or at least had a fling, during the filming of the first movie. I don’t think they were together during this, 8 years later, so I wonder if it was awkward at all to film
  • Neither Dom nor Letty really seem to be properly in their character. But this was 8 years after the first Fast and Furious movie, which is pretty crazy. Maybe they were a bit rusty getting back into character!
  • When you see Fast and Furious right after watching this it is quite cool to have seen how they set up the robbery of the gas truck

In summary, I quite enjoyed this. It’s not particularly gripping but it still gives us a bit of a glimpse back into Dom’s world before the next movie. I don’t really know of any other film series that has short films like this which fill in the gaps between films. But then not many film series have such weird starts as the Fast and Furious series, before they find their feet.

Main characters
Dom
Han
Letty
Santos
Leo
Elvis

Most memorable scene
Possibly when Letty is climbing all over Dom while he’s trying to dive that cool white car.

Best stunt
Letty climbing all over Dom while he’s trying to drive that cool white car!

Quote of the movie
Letty – “It aint that hard to track you down. All I gotta do is follow the odour of skanks”

Score – 3/10

It’s nothing special but it’s still better than the Turbo-Charged Prelude!

Ranking
The Fast and the Furious – 8.5/10
2 Fast 2 Furious – 8/10
Los Bandoleros – 3/10
Turbo-Charged Prelude – 2/10