The Gay Fantasia of the 'Fast' Series
Thursday, September 9, 2021 at 4:30PM Christopher James has taken over The Film Experience. Buckle up, it's going to be a bumpy day (hopefully Nathaniel's flight from Venice is less bumpy)
Is this a Sean Cody video you'd like to watch? Good news, there are nine (technically ten) of these movies.By: Christopher James
The men race cars because they can’t kiss.
They also sleep with the other’s sister, because that’s the only way they can be family (in their minds).
In 2001, The Fast and the Furious had a big climax where a group of street racers heisted DVD players. Twenty years later, Ludacris and Tyrese Gibson go to space IN A CAR and wax on about invincibility. This is punctuated with a joke about their makeshift spacesuits making them look like minions. No franchise has morphed and changed more than the Fast & Furious franchise. Also, no other franchise has been as homoerotic. This isn't a new observation, but it still needs to be shouted from the rooftops. Now that F9 is available to buy - buckle up, grab a bucket of Corona, and have the binge of your life!
Simply put, the Fast & Furious has something for everyone… as long as you are up for the insanity. It is pure drag machismo, and all most are in on the joke. Spoilers ahead, though really they should just make you want to watch them all.
If only these crazy kids knew what the franchise would be 20 years later.So where did it all begin (besides being about DVD heists)? Director Rob Cohen’s The Fast and the Furious began as a Point Break knockoff. Brain O’Conner (Paul Walker) is an LAPD cop who has been tasked with bringing down a gang of street racers, headed by Dominic “Dom” Toretto (Vin Diesel). In order to do this, he must go undercover as a street racer and befriend from within. Soon, he becomes friends with Dom and falls in love with his sister, Mia (Jordana Brewster). He says he’s in love with Mia, but is actually in love with Dom (read the subtext). Why work for the man when you can rob from the man? Obviously the men are heartbroken when Dom discovers Brian’s original motives. Brian tries to make it up to Dom while they go after a huge DVD shipment. He always told Dom that he owed him a “10 second car.” They both do one final race and Brian gifts Dom with a “10 second car,” watching him sail off into the sunset. It’s heartbreaking, but poetic and wrenching.
Over the two decades of the film, a lot happens. Brian goes on the lam to Miami (a short film chronicles his cross country trip in what can best be described as a silent film set to Sum 41. No one goes to Tokyo (and technically it is set in the future). The gang gets back together and eventually has to flee LA to Brazil. Dom’s girlfriend Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) dies, but actually just has amnesia. After Paul Walker’s death, the franchise lets Brian sail off into the sunset to be a Father. In the blink of the eye, these DVD thieves are covert operatives for Kurt Russell gallivanting around the world (and space) saving the world from cyber-terrorism.
20 Years of Vin Diesel.At the center of it all is Vin Diesel, an version of Nicholas Cage without self awareness. That’s meant as a compliment. For a whole week on Twitter, everyone came up with their own versions of Vin Diesel infiltrating other movies talking about “family.” There’s something authentic to Dom’s insistence on family, something the franchise recently challenged when Dom faces off against his long lost brother, Jakob (John Cena). His machismo is tied to his intense love for his friends, lovers and family. It’s not that he’s coded as some sort of big dicked lothario, a la James Bond. His passion is less sexual and more heartfelt. His superpower is this malleable love. If you put your trust in Dom Toretto, he will lay down his life for you. That’s why Brian’s betrayal in the first film hurts so deeply. Dom loves hard. His macho persona actually stems from many of his feminine qualities - his nurturing nature, his open heart and his ever-present emotions.
The gayness only gets more amped up in the spin-off, Hobbs and Shaw (as Sean Donovan notes). The rumor has it that Vin Diesel and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson refused to film scenes together. Vin said it started when he gave The Rock acting notes. The Rock deleted an Instagram post where he alleged some on set were “candy asses” (reportedly referring to Vin). Gossip aside (though we do love gossip), there was a practical hurdle to overcome. How can the “family” stick together when two of the members won’t speak.
One of the major themes of the series is that the bad guys can eventually play for the good guys. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, says the old adage. In The Fate of the Furious, Dominic Toretto brokers a deal with the Shaw matriarch (Helen Mirren, see… it is gay) to have the Shaw family (Jason Statham and Luke Evans, both former villains) join him in a quest to bring down Cypher (Charlize Theron… again, it’s a gay series). This conceivably brings Deckard Shaw (Statham) back into the storyline and into Hobbs’ crosshairs. They meet when they are both imprisoned in facing cells, beginning a peacocking ritual that plays like a Cocky Boys scene, the two men eye fucking each other while lifting concrete benches. From there, they are joined at the hip, eventually creating a spinoff, Hobbs and Shaw. It’s not subtext that they are gay. Instead, it feels like the reason some gay boys love wrestling. There’s a theatricality to their performed masculinity that feels sexy, and not in a way that’s making fun of them or trafficking in gay panic.
Vin commented "I could've danced all night." My Fair Lady heads, we ride at dawn.Gender is a performance art in The Fast and the Furious series. The characters all fill certain templates, only to undermine them in subtly unsubtle ways. Hobbs and Shaw try to impress each other with how much they lift. Brian and Dom race cars at fast speeds while always locking eyes. Letty opens her heart to Mia in Tokyo, though mainly about how after her amnesia she craves chaos. One Oscar winner controls zombie cars while another Oscar winner robs a jewelry store while carrying on a conversation with Vin Diesel. Every time Charlize Theron returns, she changes her hairstyle to SOMETHING CRAZY. A slew of Interpol agents comes to arrest Dom, only for one to take their helmet off to reveal CARDI B herself. Talk about a wig reveal.
In short, The Fast and the Furious is a soap opera, not an action movie. Even the action scenes reflect this. You tune in to watch each and every one of the family members defy gravity. Take a hit of nos and get on the ride. You'll laugh (intentionally and unintenionally), you'll cry (I've bawled in most of the films), you'll have a great time!
From Angelina Jolie inspired white lady dreds to a Melora Harden-esque bob, Charlize Theron can do it all.
RANKING OF THE FAST FILMS
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Fast Five (2011) - A masterpiece in action cinema. It’s the perfect calibration of the series’ charms for fans and non-fans alike.
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The Fast and the Furious (2001) - Where it all began. A time capsule classic with charm to spare.
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Furious 7 (2015) - Yes, it’s a fitting end for Paul Walker (and should’ve been an Original Song nominee for “See You Again”). Still, the movie around it blends reverence with fun and spectacle.
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F9 (2021) - Few series can send their characters into space and then have them wax poetically about mortality. F9 is the logical next step for a series that has made jumping the shark an art form.
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The Fate of the Furious (2017) - Charlize Theron understood the assignment. Bring all the zombie cars and submarines.
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Fast & Furious 6 (2013) - Scientists are still studying Vin Diesel and Michelle Rodriguez’s lavender marriage and this is their excavation site.
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2 Fast 2 Furious (2003) - Dumb and Dumber. John Singleton’s sequel is a candy-colored Miami mess, but it’s a hell of a good time. This is where the series first dabbles in sheer lunacy.
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Hobbs and Shaw (2019) - The Rock and Jason Statham have great chemistry. However, they are stretched a bit too thin in a movie that doesn’t quite find its groove in its villain plot. Bonus points for Vanessa Kirby.
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The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006) - Yes, some swear by this. Good for them. It’s a tangent that doesn’t have the magic formula of the others. Still, worth checking out. You either are in for this one, or you aren’t.
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Fast & Furious (2009) - Something the others aren’t: pure boring. This installment reunited the cast, then didn’t use them.
What are your favorite films in the Fast series? Let us know in the comments below.
Reader Comments (4)
Fast Five is definitely the crown jewel of that franchise and it was the film that won me over as I had re-watched a few of the early films and found something that I like about them.
That scene of Vin Diesel and the Crock where they're confronting each other. It definitely had some homoerotic vibes as I was like... "guys, get a room. You know you want each other. Just get on with it. I ain't judging you!"
@thevoid99: Maybe they did get a room and that's the real reason the two men don't talk anymore...
@Christopher James-Oh yeah... you're right. I think Paul Walker always had Vin's heart and there is no way anyone could replace Paul Walker.
Plus, Paul Walker nor Vin Diesel are gullible bitches like the Crock.
I always wondered why, as a gay, I was super into this series. I'm not a car guy AT ALL. AND YET. So thanks for this article!