My rewatch and deep-dive into the Fast and Furious universe is going well. In my memory, the 5th movie was perhaps the best overall, so I’m interested to rewatch the subsequent ones to see how they stack up.

This is possibly the first sensibly titled film since the first one. It’s just simply called Fast & Furious 6.

Here are my notes as I rewatched it.

  • I really liked the title sequence which recaps everything that has happened in all the movies so far (barring Tokyo Drift). Nice way to refresh your memory on the previous stories.
  • It was weird seeing the bridge that is 30 seconds walk from my office in London being used as a Moscow location.
  • Nice touch how they make us think that Hobbs is referring to Dom’s crew when he says only one crew in the world could have done this. And then we see a bald guy in a white t-shirt, but surprise, it’s not Dom! And it’s Shaw’s crew they’re talking about. Things like this happen a few times actually where they say something or something happens and you think that it’s really cheesy or ridiculous, and they then twist it around or make one of the characters call it out for being ridiculous. Quite clever.
  • Fun seeing Hobbs go hunting for Shaw, when we now know he will end up working with Shaw’s brother in their own movie.
  • Corona Alert! Looks suspiciusly like a Corona he’s having in the house in the Canary Islands
  • Letty’s alive! Big gasps from all the people who didn’t stay for the mid credit scenes in the last movie.
  • I always love the ‘let’s get the crew together’ scenes. I particularly liked how they all immediately dropped everything they were doing once they got Dom’s Bat-call. Even Roman ordered his babe-jet to turn around!
  • Loved how Roman’s private jet had “It’s Roman, bitches!” painted on the plane. I guess he’s not worried about getting caught by the police either?! Aren’t they all still wanted?
  • It was good that they gave Leo and Santos a shout out. They appeared in the last two movies but weren’t brought into this one. Still no mention of Leon!
  • Tej really does get smarter every movie. He started out as a mechanic and ends up like Q from James Bond. I’m not complaining though. It’s great.
  • Lovely little touches like Roman, who is nearly always eating, asking Han, who is also nearly always eating, if he has any snacks left.
  • Pretty cool how Shaw’s car makes all the other police cars fly into the air. Smart design.
  • Very cool how Brian scrapes the chip off his car. Pretty scary those things, how they can disable modern cars. I guess Dom would be fine in his muscle cars.
  • I liked the slow motion, silent “Oh shit” when Brian rolls the car.
  • Dom says “Letty” when he glanced across at another car in the chase, but I’m not sure how he knows it’s her. I might need to go back and freeze frame it. Maybe he just sensed her.
  • When Hobbs jumps off the road above onto the F1 style car, that is a baller move. It’s not made a big deal of in terms of camera angles etc but it’s a crazy ass move. I like how it’s understated. Even though some of the stunts are crazy they’re often shot in a ‘realistic’ way and not totally milked, which actually makes them more effective
  • Pretty crazy seeing Letty shoot Dom.
  • I love the whole bit with Brian going into Prison and having to get out within a certain number of hours. Like a mini heist from prison break.
  • Love how Stasiak gets his nose broken again.
  • Pretty intense scene where Brian is in prison talking to Braga. Braga tells him about how Letty survived, and Brian says “You’re lucky this door’s between us” and then they open the door, only for Brian to see Braga’s henchmen with knives. That’s a pretty tough situation to be in and we really get to see Brian being a hard-ass using his police training for the first time. Go Brian.
  • The street race round London is possibly the best one of the series. Perhaps the most unrealistic too as doing illegal street racing along Whitehall, right past Downing St is seriously asking for trouble, but it’s great to see all the London landmarks pop up. Also fun to see what must be Justin Lin’s child again looking in awe out of the bus, just like in Fast Five. Although he doesn’t look much older, so maybe it’s a different child of his!
  • And they end up at Battersea Power station. Very cool.
  • Nice ‘bloody’ joke by Dom when he meets Shaw.
  • I like how Shaw makes a reference to how Dom went from stealing DVDs to heisting $100 million in Rio. He admits how crazy the story is. That’s the sort of self-referential comment that I was talking about earlier.
  • Hilarious that Tej has Hobbs named as ’Samoan Thor’ on his phone
  • I love how Dom handles Brian admitting that what happened to Letty was his fault. He’s a bit of a zen guru, old Dom
  • Nearly every time the camera is on Han he’s lifting up a sweet or snack to his mouth. I wonder if he’s just pretending or whether he actually went through loads of sweets during filming
  • “I’m sorry, did someone just say a tank?!” Great line.
  • There are some pretty kick-ass drone shots during the convoy attack
  • Roman’s white Mustang is sweeeeet
  • Awesome dive from Roman onto Brian’s car (or rather Roman’s awesome stunt-double I guess)
  • Let’s just stop for a second. That jump where Dom catches Letty is one of THE best stunt scenes in the world ever. Unbelievable. It is SO unbelievable and yet it works. It totally works and is totally awesome. And again they even call it out later when Letty asks Dom how he knew there would be a car there to break their fall. “I didn’t”
  • Very sweet to see Han and Gisele getting closer, but poignant when she says let’s go to Tokyo, because we know what’s to come (if you watched the movies in theatrical release)
  • Then Shaw mentions how he has Mia. Jeez, these Fast and Furious movies hit me right in the emotion nerve. I think there’s something in my eye. A bit of dust. It’s very dusty in there. Just give me a moment.
  • Ooh and I forgot about the twist about who’s working with Shaw. 
  • The fight on the plane has some incredible moments; an amazing spinning round house kick, and a superman punch and THAT flying headbutt from Dom. Plus that moment when the Rock joins is awesome, followed by a  flying clothesline!
  • That really is the longest runway in the world. I’m sure sometime must have worked out how long it is. I’ve just checked. They have. Here and here.
  • What a way to lose Gisele. And then Han, the most peaceful guy in the gang, absolutely goes to town on the bad guy. Another emotional moment. Very dusty in here.
  • The non-eye-contact chat at the end between Dom and Hobbs is slightly odd. Just look at each other guys
  • It’s so good to see them back at no. 1327 having a BBQ with all the flash cars outside. But I bet the neighbours weren’t happy to have them back after the shootout at the end of the first film.
  • Pretty awesome grace from Roman. Nice way to end the film.
  • THEN…confusingly to people watching the films in chronological order, the heartbreaking mid credit scene is set after Tokyo Drift. I really don’t think the writers had this plan in mind when they made Tokyo Drift, but to be able to retcon Han’s death to be done by Shaw is genius. What a way to hook the audience in for episode 7

Deleted scenes
I could only find two scenes online. One where Hobbs is talking to his female no.2 and one where Han and Gisele talk about settling down. Nothing crucial missed.

Main characters
Dom
Brian
Mia
Letty
Roman
Tej
Han
Gisele
Hobbs
Elena
Owen Shaw
Deckard Shaw
Hobb’s no.2
Stasiak (broken nose guy)
Braga

Corona scenes – 2

Most memorable scene
Quite a lot of memorable scenes in this one but I’d say the most memorable are the action ones. The London street race is great. Great landmarks but it’s also just really well shot and crazy how many people are around during the race.

The tank convoy on the bridge is pretty spectacular. I can’t believe what it must take to film something like that.  But for me I think the thing that everyone thinks of when they think about Fast 6 is the runway sequence. That super long, never-ending runway. The fights on the plane within that sequence are incredibly too but just the whole 15min scene from start to finish is so memorable.

Best stunt
There is absolutely no contest. The absolutely balls to the wall crazy and ridiculous move where Dom rams his car into the side of the bridge to catapult himself into the arms of the already catapulted Letty and then land on a car bonnet is just audacious, genius and beautifully shot. It should win an Oscar or something.

Quote of the movie
“I’m sorry, did someone just say a tank?!” – great line from Roman of course. Roman – “Hey Mia, you better hide that baby oil”. Hobbs – “And you better hide that big ass forehead” – I laughed out loud at this one. The timing from everyone is perfect.
But I’m going to go for… “Ride or Die”. Both Dom and Brian say it. It’s a call back to earlier films but when they say it here it just seems to have so much more weight.

Score – 8.5/10
It’s very hard to compare this film with Fast 5 and choose a favourite. Fast 5 is just breathtaking throughout and it’s the first one that really gets the family back together, so it will always have a special place in my heart. Fast and Furious 6 has quite a few stretches, particularly near the start, where it is entertaining but not amazing. It’s a bit dark, in the streets of London, compared to the incredible vistas of Rio. But Fast and Furious 6 has some simply outstanding moments and some incredibly powerful plot points. It’s hard hitting and hugely stacks up. I do put Fast 5 slightly higher, and I have so much love for the first one that I need to begrudgingly put Fast and Furious 6 into third place, although currently with the same score as The Fast and The Furious. I might tweak all these scores slightly once I’ve watched all the films.

Ranking
Fast Five – 9/10
The Fast and the Furious – 8.5/10 
Fast & Furious 6 – 8.5/10
2 Fast 2 Furious – 8/10 
Fast & Furious – 7/10
Los Bandoleros – 3/10 
Turbo-Charged Prelude – 2/10