2 Fast 2 Furious

''2 Fast 2 Furious'' is a 2003 action film directed by John Singleton from a screenplay by Michael Brandt and Derek Haas, based on a story by Brandt, Haas, and Gary Scott Thompson. It is the sequel to '' The Fast and the Furious'' (2001) and the second installment in the ''Fast & Furious'' franchise. The film stars Paul Walker as Brian O'Conner alongside Tyrese Gibson, Eva Mendes, Cole Hauser, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, and James Remar. The plot follows ex-LAPD officer Brian O'Conner and his ex-con friend Roman Pearce, who transport a shipment of " dirty money" for shady Miami-based import-export dealer Carter Verone while secretly working with undercover agent Monica Fuentes to bring Verone down.

A second ''Fast & Furious'' film was planned after the box office success of its predecessor in 2001, and was confirmed with the returns of Walker and producer Neal H. Moritz. Vin Diesel and Rob Cohen, the co-star and director of the first film, were unable to return; Gibson and Singleton joined the cast in their absence in 2002. To canonically account for Diesel's departure, the short film '' The Turbo Charged Prelude for 2 Fast 2 Furious'' (2003) was produced and released. Principal photography for ''2 Fast 2 Furious'' commenced in September 2002 and lasted until that December, with filming locations including Miami and the surrounding areas in southern Florida.

''2 Fast 2 Furious'' premiered at Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles on June 3, 2003, and was released in the United States on June 6, by Universal Pictures. The film received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $236.4 million worldwide. A standalone sequel, '' The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift'', was released in 2006.

Plot

Ex-LAPD officer Brian O'Conner has escaped to Miami and is in hiding, after aiding wanted felon Dominic Toretto in Los Angeles escape from authorities. He makes a living by street racing, driving his 1999 Nissan R34 Skyline GT-R in events organized by his friend, mechanic Tej Parker. Brian is arrested following a race, but his former boss, FBI Special Agent Bilkins and Customs Enforcement Agent Markham offers a deal to clear his record in exchange for going undercover to help arrest drug lord Carter Verone. Brian agrees on the condition he choose his partner, deciding on his estranged childhood friend Roman Pearce. Initially, Roman distrusts Brian for being a cop and not preventing his own prior arrest, but nonetheless agrees to the same record-clearing deal.

Back in Miami, Customs Agent Monica Fuentes, who is undercover working for Verone, gets them an audience. After a test in which Brian and Roman beat six other drivers to retrieve a package from Verone's car in an impound lot, they get a job to bring a package to Verone in the Florida Keys. During the test, Markham believes they are fleeing, and nearly compromises their cover by meeting them at the lot. To prevent Markham from undermining the next job, Brian and Roman acquire a 1969 Yenko Camaro SYC and 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T in a pink slip race from two of the drivers who lost Verone's test.

At a nightclub, Verone tortures corrupt MPD Detective Whitworth into giving the men a window to make their getaway. Verone then threatens Monica, whom he saw speaking affectionately to Brian earlier at the club. Brian and Roman revisit Tej and his crew, and they arrange a diversion during their drive to the Keys. One morning, Brian wakes up to find Monica in his house. She warns him that the drop will take place in an airfield and that Verone intends to kill them once it is complete. Enrique and Roberto arrive, looking for her, and a confrontation ensues before Verone arrives to defuse the situation, with Monica escaping beforehand.

On the day of the job, Brian and Roman split the money between their cars and leave. Whitworth eventually sends in the Miami police department, and a chase ensues. The pair lead the police to a warehouse where a scramble organized by Tej causes chaos. Brian and Roman elude the police in the muscle cars, while Tej and Suki, another street racer, are detained driving the GPS-tagged vehicles to lead the cops away. As Brian approaches the airfield, Enrique orders him to detour to a marina. At the same time, Roman ejects Roberto from his car with an improvised ejector seat using nitrous oxide. At the airfield, Customs surround the plane but realize they have been duped. At the marina, Verone reveals he was aware he was under surveillance and gave Monica false information. Verone orders Brian killed, and Monica onto his private yacht, intending to use her as leverage. Before Enrique can kill Brian, Roman arrives, and the pair incapacitate him. Verone flees aboard the yacht, but is intercepted when Brian drives the Yenko off of a ramp and crashes into the deck. Brian, Roman, and Monica incapacitate and subdue Verone.

Their deal upheld, Markham clears Brian and Roman's record, and Roman hands over Verone's cash. Brian and Roman agree to stay in Miami, and they decide to open a garage together, funded by a cut of the cash they secretly kept for themselves.

Cast

Production

Development

Plans to make a sequel came about after the box office success of '' The Fast and the Furious'', which grossed over $200 million worldwide. John Singleton had seen the first film and was awed by it, saying: "When I saw ''The Fast and the Furious'', I was like, 'Damn, why didn't I think of that?' Growing up in South Central L.A., we had street races all the time." Singleton's rave reaction of the film as well as the culture of street racing in general influenced his decision to direct the sequel. The director also claimed that the concept of street racing could be something young audiences can relate to.

The screenplay was written by Michael Brandt and Derek Haas, along with Gary Scott Thompson (the co-writer from the first film). There were two film treatments submitted early on, one of which did not involve Vin Diesel's character in the event the actor would not return for the sequel. Singleton credited ''Top Gun'' as a major influence for the film, particularly with regard to the action sequences.

Pre-production

Vin Diesel was offered $25 million to return in the sequel as Dominic Toretto. However, he refused after reading the screenplay as he felt that its potential was inferior compared to that of its predecessor; rather, he chose to appear in '' The Chronicles of Riddick'' instead. According to '' Variety'' magazine in 2015 he was less taken with what the screenwriters had in mind for the film, "They didn't take a Francis Ford Coppola approach to it. They approached it like they did sequels in the '80s and '90s, when they would drum up a new story unrelated for the most part, and slap the same name on it." However, Diesel reflected on his decision in a July 2014 report from Uproxx, saying: "I would've said, 'Don't walk away from it just because the script sucked in ''2 Fast 2 Furious'' because there's an obligation to the audience to fight, no matter what, to make that film as good as possible.' ... I might have had a little bit more patience or belief in the long-term of it."

Paul Walker, who had just finished ''Timeline'' at the time, reprised his role in the second picture as Brian O'Conner. Tyrese Gibson, then known mononymously as Tyrese, also became a part of the cast having previously acted in Singleton's '' Baby Boy'', which was the singer's feature film acting debut; he portrayed Roman Pearce. Ja Rule, another prominent rap artist who appeared in ''The Fast and the Furious'' as Edwin, was originally tapped to reprise his role. Ja Rule was offered $500,000 for the role, which was more than what he had been paid to appear in ''The Fast and the Furious'', $15,000. According to Singleton, "Ja got too big for himself. He turned it down. He turned down a half a million dollars. ... He was acting like he was too big to be in the sequel. He wouldn't return calls." Ja Rule later stated in an interview in 2021 that he was already obligated to go on tour at the time after Vin Diesel and Rob Cohen both declined to be in the movie. Ja Rule had to make the decision: to take the half a million dollars for the second Fast and Furious film or thirteen to fourteen million dollars on tour.

The character of Tej Parker was then created, at first with Redman in mind, however, when Redman also had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts with his own show Method & Red, the director then hired Chris "Ludacris" Bridges as a substitute. Bridges would later rise to prominence for appearing in the film and star in later films such as '' Crash'' and ''Hustle & Flow''. Additional cast also included Cole Hauser as key villain Carter Verone, who appeared in Singleton's ''Higher Learning''; Eva Mendes as undercover agent Monica Fuentes; and Devon Aoki as Suki, the sole female driver in the film.

Filming

Principal photography began in the fall of 2002, and Matthew F. Leonetti served as the director of photography. Filming was done mostly in various parts of South Florida such as Miami Beach, Seven Mile Bridge, and Homestead Air Reserve Base. Hauser's character's mansion was shot in Coral Gables, in a house owned by Sylvester Stallone. At Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park, ''2 Fast 2 Furious'' was filmed on one side, while ''Bad Boys II'' was filmed on the other side at the same time.

A car enthusiast himself, Walker drove a Nissan Skyline GT-R model R34 borrowed from the film's Technical Advisor, Craig Lieberman, in the film's opening scenes. Aoki did not have a driver's license or any driving experience prior to the film's production, and took driving lessons during filming; she drove a pink 2001 Honda S2000 AP1 in the film. Gibson drove a convertible Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder, while Michael Ealy drove a Toyota Supra Turbo MkIV model JZA80 that had been used by Walker in ''The Fast and the Furious''.

Music

The musical score was composed by David Arnold. The soundtrack was released on May 27, 2003 on Def Jam Recordings, the same record label that Ludacris was signed to.

Release

''2 Fast 2 Furious'' premiered at the Universal Amphitheatre on June 3, 2003. The short film '' The Turbo Charged Prelude for 2 Fast 2 Furious'' was released before select screenings and on special edition home releases of the first film. It was then released to theaters in the United States on June 6, 2003.

Home media

''2 Fast 2 Furious'' was released on DVD and VHS on September 30, 2003. It was later released on Blu-ray on March 24, 2009 and 4K Ultra-HD on October 2, 2018.

Video game

A mobile game was released in 2004 by Digital Bridges.

Reception

Box office

''2 Fast 2 Furious'' earned $52.1 million in its U.S. opening in 3,408 theaters, ranking first for the weekend above ''Finding Nemo''. The film went on to score the fourth-highest June opening weekend, behind ''Batman Forever'', ''Scooby-Doo'' and '' Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me''. This was also one of three consecutive Universal films of 2003 to make an opening weekend above $50 million, with the others being '' Bruce Almighty'' and ''Hulk''. Furthermore, the film suprassed '' Shaft'' to have the highest opening weekend for a John Singleton film and '' XXX'' to have the biggest opening weekend for a Neal H. Moritz film respectively. During its second weekend, it fell behind ''Finding Nemo'', making $19.1 million. Throughout its 133 days in release, the film reached a peak release of 3,418 theaters in the U.S. and earned $127.2 million in domestically. The film had the 15th largest US gross of 2003 and the 16th largest worldwide gross of 2003; combined with the international gross of $109.2 million, the film earned $236.4 million worldwide.

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, ''2 Fast 2 Furious'' has an approval rating of 37% based on 160 reviews and an average rating of 4.80/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Beautiful people and beautiful cars in a movie that won't tax the brain cells." On Metacritic it has a weighted average score of 38 out of 100 based on reviews from 36 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews. Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on scale of A+ to F.

Todd McCarthy of Variety magazine wrote: "While this John Singleton-directed sequel provides a breezy enough joyride, it lacks the unassuming freshness and appealing neighborhood feel of the economy-priced original."
Scott Tobias of The A.V. Club wrote: "Singleton abandons the underground racing subculture that gave the first film its allure, relying instead on lazy thriller plotting that's only a bag of donuts and a freeze-frame away from the average TV cop show." ''USA Today''s Mike Clark gave film 2 out of 4, and wrote "The movie is all about racing, and character be damned, though the still dazed-looking Walker and Tyrese finally get a little rapport going after a worn-out story's very rocky start." He concludes "Lack of pretension helps the viewer get over the fact that this is just another retread." Roger Ebert of the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' gave the film 3 out of 4 and said, "It doesn't have a brain in its head, but it's made with skill and style and, boy, it is fast and furious." In 2018, Derek Lawrence of the ''Entertainment Weekly'' called it "the forgotten Fast and Furious gem" and praised the chemistry between Walker and Gibson and John Singleton's direction. In his Vulture piece, Bilge Eberi defends ''2 Fast 2 Furious'' as an underrated entry in Singleton’s career. Beneath its flashy exterior, the film is filled with simmering mistrust and personal grudges, turning typical action tropes into something more authentic. Eberi highlights moments of unexpected tenderness and camaraderie, like the playful joy during a car chase, showing Singleton’s unique ability to add depth even to a seemingly second-rate action flick.

In 2014, John Singleton said: "It was awesome. The heads of the studio at the time were just like, just make it fun, make it cool, make it this gen." He also added, "I didn’t do all that techno music that they did in the first movie. I used nothing but Southern Hip Hop which was like the rage at the time. I just funked it up, I made it more multi-ethnic." He also reflected on Paul Walker’s role: "Paul alkeris going to be edgy. He’s going to be more like a bad boy. That was the film where he was the star." On the experience itself, Singleton said, "It was a real fun experience. I got a chance to spend a year in Miami working on a multi-million dollar movie."

Accolades

Sequel

After failing to secure the returns of Diesel, Walker, or any other member of the original cast, Universal ordered a standalone sequel, '' The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift'' (2006). Moritz returned and hired director Justin Lin, who directed several subsequent installments in the series.

Notes

References

External links

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2003 films
2003 action films
2000s chase films
2000s heist films
2000s road movies
American action films
American chase films
American heist films
American road movies
American sequel films
2000s English-language films
Fast & Furious films
Fictional portrayals of the Miami-Dade Police Department
Films about automobiles
Films directed by John Singleton
Films produced by Neal H. Moritz
Films scored by David Arnold
Films set in California
Films set in Miami
Films shot in Miami
Original Film films
Films with screenplays by Gary Scott Thompson
Universal Pictures films
2000s American films
San Bernardino County, California in fiction
English-language action thriller films
English-language crime thriller films
Teen Choice Award winning films