My deep dive rewatch of the #FastandFuriverse continues and now we’re on to the big guns. I remember Fast Five being the film that made me really sit up and take notice of just how big and awesome this franchise had become.

I think it was called ‘Fast Five’ in the US and ‘Fast & Furious 5’ in the UK. I much prefer ‘Fast Five’.

Here are my notes while I rewatched the film.

  • Pretty cool how it starts immediately where the previous film finished. It even replays the last few shots of the previous movie
  • What a ballsy and crazy escape plan, to make the bus roll over about twenty times and just assume that Dom would be ok
  • The F&F movies are becoming like Bond films, with their big stunts right in the cold open at the beginning of the movie
  • Vince is back! Good to see him again for the first time since the first movie
  • They do some funky things with the subtitle animations. I kind of like that, although it’s a bit distracting
  • Vince’s girlfriend has some super-human power to detect that Mia is pregnant
  • Brian is suddenly getting an offer from Vince to actually get involved in a robbery for the first time. He’s a proper criminal now
  • I love the bit when Brian jumps from the train onto Dom’s convertible. You think it’s going to be the usual trope where the person gets saved right before they screech to a halt before the edge of the cliff. But I like how here Dom just drives even faster and drives off the edge. It’s done so well when the audio just goes silent and you see the shot from the bonnet of Brian and Dom jumping out of the car. It’s been a pretty adrenalin fuelled first 15 or so minutes
  • I know some people didn’t like how they brought The Rock into the F&F universe, but I think he fits perfectly. Another muscle-bound bald guy. Perfect. But his character is very cool here. So intense.
  • I love Dom’s expression when Hobbs bursts through the window while Dom is mid air
  • Some of the bits of close quarter action are great and with perfect sound effects. Like the guy being thrown from the train into the bridge metal making a clanging noise, and when Brian jumps on a guy in the Rio rooftops and smacks his head against a wall
  • There are some really beautiful shots of the characters all running along the Rio rooftops
  • They plan to do the big job and say “We’re going to need a team” and then it suddenly becomes like a Mission Impossible movie or an Ocean’s Eleven movie, and it’s awesome. We get the heist team role call. Great to see people like Han, Roman and Tej all coming together in this film
  • Roman’s lines are just hilarious. There are simply too many to list here
  • I love when, during the scene where Brian and Mia tell the crew that Mia’s pregnant, Dom watches Brian and Mia get congratulated, and is smiling (as if it’s something he’s not used to doing) and the Brian sidles up to him. It’s just a very weird cut because we think that Dom is looking at Brian and Mia. When Brian comes in from the side it’s hilarious (to me anyway)
  • Great speech from Dom about family.”Salute mi familia”
  • Fantastic fight between Dom and Hobbs. And a great wrestling touch when they fall through the window onto a table below
  • Great moment when Dom, Brian and co come out shooting and save Hobbs from the ambush
  • Pretty crap death for Vince. He just has his hand on a wound in the van, and then less than a minute later he’s on a table dead
  • The car chase with the vault is just insane
  • The sound engineers in this movie are great. So many little sounds that just enhance the action. One great example is when Dom’s car gets yanked in the air due to the momentum of the vault. Dom jumps out in the nick of time and the metal cable makes a wincing noise that just tells us how much tension was on that cable and therefore how quickly Dom’s car was going to get yanked away
  • Brian saves the day!
  • Love the vault swap. This really is a total heist movie.
  • Very poignant when Gisele asks Han about going to Tokyo and he says “We’ll get there”
  • I love how Brian really wants to beat Dom fair and square in a race. After everything else that’s happened he just wants to prove that he can beat Dom
  • I noticed that in the end credits it shows video clips for each character, and it shows a clip for every move they’ve been in, so Paul Walker gets 4 clips, I think Vin Diesel got 4 too, Vince’s actor only got 2, Han’s actor got 3 etc
  • Great mid credits scene. Monica Fuentes from 2 Fast makes an appearance. And Letty’s alive!! This film really did include pretty much everyone of note in the series

Deleted scenes
There are only two deleted scenes from Fast Five. One is just where Vince introduces his wife and son, but the other one is pretty cool where Hobbs climbs up and takes hard drives from a street traffic cam.

Main characters
Dom
Brian
Mia
Hobbs
Vince
Roman
Tej
Han 
Gisele
Rico
Santos
Leo
Tego
Monica (mid credit scene cameo)
Elena

Corona appearances – 0
Lots and lots of Brahma though. Makes sense I suppose as the whole film is set in Rio.

Most memorable scene

  • No contest. It has to be pulling the vault through the streets of Rio. You can’t get more memorable than that. It must be the main thing that people think of when they think of this film

Best stunt

  • Prison bus roll – A pretty awesome scene to start the movie with. How the hell did Dom survive the roll?
  • Train heist and cliff jump – Again this is pretty audacious how they steal the cars from the train. It’s pretty crazy how Dom jumps from the train in his car but the bit where Brian and he jump over the cliff is pretty outstanding
  • Vault chase – But there can be no doubt that the best stunt sequence has to be driving the vault through the streets of Rio. Here is a great breakdown of this chase sequence as told by the stunt coordinator https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaHxGu5YeKM

Quote of the movie
I love Dom saying, “This is Braziiiiill!”
There are several amazing Roman quotes including the vaginal action one.
Hobbs saying “I’ll ride with you Toretto” is a pretty great moment, but I think I’ll go with Dom’s toast about family…
“Money will come and go, we all know that. The most important thing in life will always be the people in this room. Right here, right now. Salute, mi familia”

Score – 9/10
This film is all kinds of awesome. It really is the start of the franchise setting on fire. It is the first one that pretty much unites all the cast from the previous movies, it’s the first one with The Rock and it’s the first one that is a crazy heist movie. I love how the bring the team together again, and that chase with the vault in tow is incredible. I’ll review all my scores and ranking again after watching all the movies, bu at the moment this one is pipping the original movie to the top spot.

Ranking
Fast Five – 9/10
The Fast and the Furious – 8.5/10 
2 Fast 2 Furious – 8/10 
Fast & Furious – 7/10
Los Bandoleros – 3/10 
Turbo-Charged Prelude – 2/10