2 Fast 2 Furious
2 Fast 2 Furious is a 2003 American 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 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 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 grossed $236 million worldwide and received generally negative reviews from critics, although its reception has improved over time. A third film with an unrelated story, titled The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, was released in 2006, and a sequel, Fast and Furious, was released in 2009.
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. Fuentes provides Brian and Roman two customized vehicles for the job – a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VII and a Mitsubishi Eclipse GTS Spyder. 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. Brian and Roman find out the two Mitsubishis are GPS-tagged vehicles, which allowed Markham to intercept them at the impound 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 Mitsubishis 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. 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
Instead of portraying Jim Street in S.W.A.T., Paul Walker would reprise his role as Brian O'Conner from the first film. 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 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 Ludacris 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
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 GTS Spyder, while Michael Ealy drove a Toyota Supra Turbo MkIV model JZA80 that had been used by Walker in The Fast and the Furious.