With the exception of fine wine and J.K. Simmons, nearly everything in the universe gets worse with age. And that often goes double for movie franchises.
It’s gone from a small, street-racing movie to a heist movie to a mission movie.
- Producer Neal Moritz
Would you rather watch “Raiders of the Lost Ark” or “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”? “The Terminator” or “Terminator Salvation?” “Transformers” or “Transformers: Age of Extinction” — though in that case, “neither” is a perfectly reasonable answer.
Concepts get tired, stars phone it in, audiences get bored, and by the time a movie is followed by a “3,” it should come with the mandatory subtitle “The Cynical Cash Grab.”
Next weekend, however, it’s very likely that thousands of excited ticket buyers will line up for something with a “7” in its title.
“The Fast and the Furious” is one of the rare movie franchises that has actually gotten, if not better, more entertaining and certainly more popular as it has gone along.
The latest, “Furious 7,” picks up where 2013’s “Fast & Furious 6” left off. After outlaw street racer Dom (Vin Diesel) and his crew took down an English criminal, the baddie’s brother (Jason Statham) is out for bloody revenge.
Lawman Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson, minus any visible neck), Dom, his girlfriend (Michelle Rodriguez) and former undercover agent Brian (Paul Walker) travel around the world to try and stop Statham’s character.
Really though, the plot hardly matters.
Begging Diesel’s pardon — he must have been sniffing some of his Dodge’s nitrous when he told Variety last week that “Furious 7” would “win Best Picture at the Oscars” — audiences won’t be buying tickets for the smart dialogue and heartfelt writing.
They’ll be there to gawk at the ridiculous stunts and the hot muscle cars, including a $3.4 million Lykan HyperSport jumping between skyscrapers and a fleet of vehicles parachuting out of a cargo plane.
It wasn’t always this way. The original, 2001’s “The Fast and the Furious,” was a reasonably grounded B-movie set in the world of illegal street racing, as were its first two sequels: 2003’s “2 Fast 2 Furious” and 2006’s “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.”
The stunts were practical, the story lines similar. Then something happened. The franchise shifted from second to fifth gear, becoming almost like a live-action cartoon, full of boundary-pushing action and gigantic set pieces.
“It’s gone from a small, street-racing movie to a heist movie to a mission movie,” producer Neal Moritz tells The Post. “We keep extending it.”
And with the shift came popularity on the level of Hollywood’s more established franchises. The six films have together earned about $2.4 billion worldwide.
“Tokyo Drift” was the lowest earner, pulling in just $62 million domestically.
But revenues started to climb with 2009’s “Fast & Furious.” That fourth installment reunited Walker and Diesel after each had abandoned ship, and producer Moritz says it was the beginning of building a true cinema franchise.
“With the return of Vin and Paul, that’s when people started to say, ‘Wow, this is unique and different. We’ve never seen a movie where the original cast comes back together,’” he says. “It all started to come together.”
“Fast Five,” released in 2011, really cemented the living-cartoon template, earning a massive $630 million globally, as well as the first positive notices since the inaugural film.
“What it all comes down to is a skillfully assembled 130 minutes at the movies, with actors capable of doing absurd things with straight faces and action sequences that toy idly with the laws of physics,” Roger Ebert wrote.
“Fast Five” centered on Dom’s crew stealing money from a Brazilian vault, and featured a climactic (and improbable) chase scene in which two cars dragged a massive safe through Rio’s crowded streets.
Viewers ate it up. Every movie since has included something just as implausible, though Moritz insists the action is governed by strict rules.
“Do physics apply to our movies? Yes, but we kind of extend the boundaries of what is real,” he says.
Diesel, driving in the opposite direction, smashes his car into the bridge’s railing, flinging himself over the side, and grabs Rodriguez in midair, only for them both to land safely on the windshield of another car.
“We were very, very, very concerned that we had gone way too far,” Moritz says. “[But] of course, the audience goes crazy [for it].”
The franchise’s set pieces are brainstormed among the studio execs, producers, writers and director. Ideas are then vetted by others, including stunt experts. The sequence is storyboarded, then a rough animatic is produced.
And then the real-world testing begins. The sequences may seem far-fetched, but Moritz insists they’re anchored to reality.
For example, the production dropped real cars out of a real plane for the “Furious 7” set piece. Tests were also performed (granted, on ground level) for the skyscraper stunt to determine how far a car could jump.
With the return of Vin and Paul, that’s when people started to say, ‘Wow, this is unique and different. We’ve never seen a movie where the original cast comes back together.
- Neal Moritz
“Could you jump a car from one building to another? Are the chances that you would die extremely high? Yes,” Moritz says. “We’re not doing things that couldn’t be possible, but we really are pushing them to the edge.”
Some of the sequence was shot using a real car smashing through real glass on a set.
The question now is, how do you top that? Moritz says it’s unclear if the franchise will go on. Walker was killed in a 2013 car accident unrelated to the movies, though it’s likely “Fast & Furious” will motor on without him.
Universal chairman Donna Langley recently said she thinks “there are at least three more” movies coming, and Moritz says he has a folder containing set-piece ideas that couldn’t be used in previous films.
Good. We’ve always wanted to see a Dodge Challenger jump the Space Station.
The craziest, most ridiculous moment in each ‘Fast and Furious’ movie
“The Fast and the Furious,” 2001
A drag race between Paul Walker and Vin Diesel sends them into the path of a speeding train and ends when Diesel flips his ride after crashing into the front of a semi. (It’s at 3:23)
“2 Fast 2 Furious,” 2003
In order to save Eva Mendes, Walker and Tyrese Gibson improbably ramp their car from land onto the top of the fleeing bad guy’s yacht hundreds of feet away.
“The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift,” 2006
While racing on a narrow mountain road, Lucas Black’s opponent tumbles down the side of a cliff, remaining mostly unharmed.
“Fast & Furious,” 2009
As a burning oil tanker truck bounces toward them, Diesel and Michelle Rodriguez are somehow able to perfectly time their drive beneath it, escaping unscathed. (It’s at 6:20)
“Fast Five,” 2011
Diesel and Walker drive their convertible off a bridge that appears to be about the height of the George Washington, splashing unharmed into the water below. (It’s at 2:05)
“Fast & Furious 6,” 2013
Diesel launches himself off the front of his speeding car in order to catch a tumbling Rodriguez in midair, until both finally smash safely into the windshield of another car. (It’s at 9:40)
“Furious 7,” 2015
Diesel jumps his Lykan HyperSport between Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Towers, crashing through the glass window of one skyscraper before safely crashing through the glass of the neighboring one. (It’s at 2:23)