Fast, furious and completely insane: The wildest moments in the 'Fast & Furious' saga
This article reflects on the 25-year evolution of the 'Fast & Furious' film franchise, noting its transition from modest street-racing movies to absurd, physics-defying global blockbusters. The author examines how the series has ballooned in budget and scale, questioning what extreme stunts might appear in the upcoming 11th installment.
Why it matters
It highlights the shift in Hollywood production trends toward high-budget, spectacle-driven franchises that prioritize visual excess over narrative realism.
On June 22, 2001, a slick, entertaining action movie hit theaters about robbers who happened to be very good drivers, spent their free time street racing and found themselves infiltrated by an undercover cop sent to catch them. Instead, he fell for one of them and bonded with their tough, laconic leader. The movie cost $38 million, made a tidy profit and spawned a sequel. Then another. And another and another. A quarter-century later, we are about a year and a half away from the 11th installment in the "Fast & Furious" franchise, a movie whose estimated budget could have financed the original 2001 film six times over. Why has the budget ballooned so wildly? Well, because the "Fast & Furious" movies themselves have ballooned to enormous proportions. And that is an understatement.
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