The eighth installment of the Fast and Furious franchise saw Dom and his gang of drag racers turned government agents/assassins/human action figures go up against the villainous Cipher, a female terrorist head who has a strange power over Dom due to holding one of the people from his family hostage.
The film is filled with as much of the over the top stunts and repeated assertions as to the importance of family that you have come to expect from the series, but here are 10 other details in the movie that even eagle-eyed fans might have missed.
Not New York
A lot of the plot of the movie takes place in New York, and you see character running all over the Big Apple while trying to stop Dom from carrying out Cipher’s orders. However, filming in New York is fraught with complications for any movie, and trying to film giant action scenes in the middle of Manhattan was impossible.
So, the crew shot most of the actual scenes on the streets of Cleveland and Atlanta while giving the illusion of being filmed in New York through some judicious use of B-roll footage.
Paul Walker Tribute
In one of the scenes in the garage where all the cars are kept, including the army tank, we see a GTR also among the assembled vehicles. This was the car of choice for the character played by Paul Walker before he passed away in the seventh installment of the franchise. The inclusion of the GTR was a tribute to his character and a reminder that he was still very much a part of Dom’s crew, even if he was no longer around to be a part of the action.
Jaws Reference
The Fast and the Furious franchise is one of the most popular summer blockbuster franchises in the world these days. But, back when the trend started, there was only Steven Spielberg’s Jaws. The movie is widely considered the first true summer blockbuster thanks to its terrifying premise of a giant shark attack and unforgettable one-liners.
One such line which gets referenced is ‘we’re going to need a bigger boat.’ Near the conclusion of the Fate of the Furious, when the submarine tears out of the ice and chases after the heroes in their cars, one of the characters remarks ‘we’re going to need a bigger truck.’
Actually F8
The working title of the movie, while it was being made, was simply F8. Fans were well aware of this fact and used the name endlessly in their online discussions about the making of the film and its release date. When the movie finally finished production and geared up for release, the makers decided to name it The Fate of the Furious. Here, ‘fate’ is the phonetic representation of F8, which is why the name was chosen. Hey, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Replacement Brian?
The character of Little Nobody is a fresh one for the series, and he may have been created to fill the Brian-shaped hole left in the franchise with the death of the character after Paul Walker passed away. Like Brian, Little Nobody works for the government and is a by-the-books kind of guy until Dom and his team help him loosen up a bit.
Little Nobody also has a preference for the kind of cars that Brian used to like to drive. Finally, both characters are often mocked for their pretty-boy good looks. Not to say that Little Nobody was meant to take over Brian’s role in the franchise, but bringing him into the film allowed the team to recapture some of that ‘honest, clean-cut cop working with rebels’ dynamic of the earlier films.
The Graveyard
One of the most enduring jokes about the franchise is that there need to be additional steel plants set up across America to mass-produce the number of tricked out vehicles that each installment blows up onscreen. But the truth is that the franchise makers are a lot more judicious about their use of cars.
For instance, there is a scene in the movie where we see a car graveyard of sorts, filled with the mechanical husks of a great many cars spread out lifelessly. Instead of using all new cars for this sequence, the producers reused the cars that were blown up and crushed during the infamous New York mass car collision scene that occurs earlier in the story.
Accidental Levity
While the premise of the series has grown increasingly more ridiculous over time, what helps sell the plot is the actors taking each new preposterous twist in the story completely seriously. Yet, even the most professional actors can break occasionally. During a scene between Hobbs and Shaw, Hobbs makes a promise to his frenemy to “knock your teeth so far down your throat you’re gonna stick a toothbrush right up your a** to brush ’em.”
The two then crack up and start laughing. This was not a part of the script, but a result of Jason Statham bursting into laughter in the middle of the scene upon hearing the threat, and Dwayne Johnson then following suit. The moment of levity so organic that the makers decided to keep it in the movie.
Lesson From Brian
In one scene, we see Dom tweak the engine of the car he is driving by using the opener ring of a soda can to attach a hose to a part of the engine to act as a turbo. While making use of this contraption, he remarks “Okay Buster, let’s see if this works”. Buster is the nickname Dom had for Brian, and the remark is a reference to the fact that it was Brian who had taught him that particular trick. Further proof that, while Brian was absent from the adventure, he was with Dom and his family in spirit.
Marvel Shoutout
Kurt Russell plays a government agent called Mr. Nobody in the movie. At one point, while referring to his base of operations, he calls the hideout ‘Nowhere.’ This is a reference to the MCU’s Guardians of the Galaxy series, where both Vin Diesel and Kurt Russell have played roles. ‘Knowhere’ is a floating space city in the MCU constructed out of the head of a fallen celestial being.
Planes Are Bad
One of the big surprises of the Fate of the Furious was the return of Owen Shaw, this time as an ally instead of a villain. While working with his brother Deckard to save Dom’s baby, Own has to use the cargo holder of Cipher’s plane to make his sneak attack. We see the normally badass Owen being visibly nervous in the plane, while his brother cautions him to be careful. This is a reference to the last time Owen appeared in the franchise when he fell from a plane to his apparent death.
