[Not getting into the actual plot or anything…don’t think there’s a whole lot to talk about, even if it were possible to get a F&F discussion going here. I’m also sticking to character names since I can’t remember all these actors. I’m leaving Star Wars out of the discussion because I consider the two trilogies to be separate stories and too far apart both in time and style to be comparable.]
After watching Fast and Furious (PS3 Blu-Ray, woot!), something just occurred to me about the casting:
No one appears in all four movies, not even as a token flashback.
Exactly two, Dominic Toretto and Brian O’Connor, appear in three installments, but not the same three (1, 3 and 4 for Dom, 1, 2, and 4 for Brian).
Four have been in two installments, Bilkins in 1 and 2, Han in 3 and 4, and Mia Toretto and Letty in 1 and 4. (Reportedly Roman Pearce was supposed to have a bit part at the end of 4, but Tyrese Gibson made too much noise about it so it was pulled.)
Has there been any other four-movie series, or the first four movies of a longer series, that’s had this unusual a distribution? Normally there’s either a core of characters that stick around for a long time, maybe one or two early dropouts (e.g. Police Academy, Star Trek), one central character and lots of one-shots (Indiana Jones), or a small handful of key players (Terminator). Rambo had two indispensible characters for the original trilogy, then had an unexpected fourth movie which left one of them out because Richard Crenna died; otherwise, it’s exactly like the second scenario. No “quadralogy” that I know of has two characters that appear in three of them with a different odd movie out.
From what I’ve heard, the second movie was supposed to have Dom, but Vin Diesel demanded more money than Universal was willing to pay, so the entire story had to be redone with Roman Pearce. Then a new director stepped up at a time drifting suddenly became red hot, and there was no reasonable way to get Brian to Japan, necessitating an entirely new story with an entirely new lead. Then the original director came back (and Diesel apparently had a change of heart), so the decision was made to bring the original cast back, only most of them had moved on to other things or didn’t want to be typecast or whatever, so it was four and no more. Confirm/debuk any of this as you will.
Okay next…you no doubt know about the “Don’t try this at home!” warning in all four movies, a necessity in this litigous age. Or is it? Maybe copycat drivers getting into wrecks was an issue with the first movie, which had one-on-one drag racing in an abandoned lot and Brian swerving into an oncoming lane and avoiding one car before getting back to where he should and similar plausibly doable stunts. But things got steadily crazier from then (the jump onto the boat alone took weeks to set up, including numerous CGI and dummy car dry runs). Now just look at the kind of impossible things they do. Go ahead. Name something. Explain how some dumb kid is going to even imagine possibly setting it up, let alone actually attempt it. (Also there’s the whole issue about how the movie doesn’t make street racing look very much fun, with all the wrecks and fatalities and all, but that’s a separate issue.)
One could argue that the Terminator Quadralogy ranks up there with F&F.
Sarah Connor was in the first 2 (she died between 2 and 3, and was not a factor in 4)
Kyle Reese appeared in 1 and 4 (as two actors at two different ages)
John Connor appeared in 2, 3, and 4 (as three different actors at three diferent ages)
Dr. Silberman appeared in 1, 2 and 3
The Terminator (Arnold) appears in all 4, but 4 was his face superimposed via CGI on another body (the Gov is getting kinda craggy in his old age, y’know).
During the heydays of the first 2 movies, I was fairly involved in the Import racing scene.
Street racing, as shown at the beginning of the first film, was something that actually did happen, though not as glamorously of course. Street racing on crowded streets also did/does happen, with the resultant fatalities and accidents.
Some of the stunts were heatedly talked about, and I know of at least one guy in a dropped CRX who kept his eyes open for a sufficiently high up semi so he could at least TRY to go underneath it.
Never happened, of course, as most semi trailers aren’t raised up an extra foot.
Of course, right about the time the 2nd movie came out, California police started rather draconian crackdowns on ANYONE in a modified import, which curtailed the hobby quite a bit.
Then I moved, so I don’t know the current state of things.