Fast & Furious 6 (titled onscreen as Furious 6) is a 2013 American action film directed by Justin Lin and written by Chris Morgan. It is the sequel to Fast Five (2011) and the sixth installment in the Fast & Furious franchise. The film stars Vin Diesel as Dominic Toretto and Paul Walker as Brian O'Conner, alongside Dwayne Johnson, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Sung Kang, Luke Evans, Gina Carano, and John Ortiz. In the film, Dom, Brian and their team are offered pardons for their crimes in exchange for helping DSS agent Luke Hobbs apprehend Owen Shaw (Evans), an ex-British SAS Major, who runs a mercenary organization in which Dom's former lover Letty is also a member.
A sixth film was planned as early as February 2010, prior to the production of Fast Five; this was confirmed in April 2011, after Morgan began writing the screenplay, while the returns of Diesel, Lin, and producer Neal H. Moritz were confirmed that June. Discussions arose filming alongside a potential seventh installment; these were abandoned once principal photography began in July 2012, which lasted until that December, with filming locations including Los Angeles, London, Glasgow, and the Canary Islands. Similarly to its predecessor, Fast & Furious 6 featured mostly practical stuntwork, which required designed specialty vehicles in order to be completed. Brian Tyler, the composer of the previous three installments, did not return due to scheduling conflicts and was replaced with Lucas Vidal.
Fast & Furious 6 premiered at Empire, Leicester Square on May 7, 2013, and was then first released in the United Kingdom on May 17, and in the United States on May 24, by Universal Pictures. The film received generally positive reviews from critics with praise for its direction, cast performances and action sequences. It grossed $788.7 million, making it the sixth-highest-grossing film of 2013, the then-third highest-grossing film distributed by Universal, and the then-highest-grossing film in the franchise. It was followed by Furious 7 in 2015.
Fast and Furious 6 is the last film in the series to be released in Paul Walker's lifetime as he died in a car crash on November 30, 2013, six months after the release of the film.
Plot
Following their successful heist in Brazil, Dominic Toretto lives with Elena Neves; his sister Mia lives with Brian O'Conner and their son, Jack; Gisele Yashar and Han Lue are together; and Roman Pearce and Tej Parker live in luxury.
DSS agents Luke Hobbs and Riley Hicks investigate the destruction of a Russian military convoy by a crew of mercenaries led by former British SAS operative, Owen Shaw. Hobbs convinces Dom to help capture Owen by showing him a photo of his supposedly murdered girlfriend, Letty Ortiz, who is working with Owen. Owen is stealing parts to create an electromagnetic pulse weapon called "Nightshade", intending to sell it to the highest bidder. Dom and his crew accept the mission in exchange for pardons.
In London, Owen's crew performs a heist at an Interpol building. Owen flees in a custom car, with Dom's crew in pursuit. Letty helps Owen, shooting at Dom. She is revealed to be amnesiac from her accident. Dom's crew learns that Owen is connected to Arturo Braga, a drug lord they had imprisoned. Brian returns to Los Angeles as a prisoner to question Braga, who reveals that Owen helped him build his drug cartel. After Letty survived the explosion, Owen took her in when he learned she had amnesia.
With help from the FBI, Brian is released from prison and regroups with the team in London. Dom challenges Letty in a street racing competition; afterward, he returns her cross necklace, but she stays with Owen. Tej tracks Owen's next attack on a Spanish NATO base. Owen's crew assaults a highway military convoy carrying the computer chip to complete Nightshade. Dom's crew interferes; Brian and Roman flip Owen's tank, resulting in Letty being thrown from the vehicle; Dom saves her. Owen and his crew are captured. However, Mia has been kidnapped by Owen's henchmen. Hobbs is forced to release Owen, and Riley joins Owen after betraying Hobbs and Dom's crew. Letty stays with Dom.
Owen's crew boards a moving Antonov An-124, where Brian rescues Mia. The plane attempts to take off but is held down by excess weight as Dom's team tethers the plane to their vehicles. Gisele seemingly dies after saving Han, and Letty kills Riley. As the plane crashes, Owen is heavily injured; Dom saves himself by driving a Charger out of the flaming wreck. He gives the computer chip to Hobbs to secure their pardons, and he and the team return to his old family home in Los Angeles. Elena, now working with Hobbs, accepts that Dom loves Letty, and leaves.
In a mid-credits scene, Han is in a car chase in Tokyo when he is suddenly broadsided by an oncoming Mercedes-Benz W140. The driver leaves Letty's cross necklace by the crash and calls Dom, saying: "You don't know me, but you're about to", as Han's car explodes.
Cast
In addition, John Ortiz and Shea Whigham reprise their respective roles as Arturo Braga and Agent Michael Stasiak from Fast & Furious. Laz Alonso also makes an uncredited cameo in a flashback as Fenix Calderon, who was killed in Fast & Furious. Shaw's team members are played by Clara Paget as Vegh, Kim Kold as Klaus, Joe Taslim as Jah, David Ajala as Ivory, Samuel Stewart as Denlinger, Thure Lindhardt as Firuz, and Benjamin Davies as Adolfson. Jason Statham has an uncredited cameo as Deckard Shaw in the mid-credits scene ahead of Furious 7 (2015), as does singer Rita Ora playing a race starter in London.
Production Development In February 2010, Diesel confirmed that production of Fast Five (2011) was commencing and also announced that a sixth installment was being planned. In January 2011, producer Neal H. Moritz said more: In Vin's and my mind we already know what the sixth movie is, we've already been talking about it. Vin and I have had numerous conversations about what that might be. And we're starting to get serious about it right now. We just finished [Fast Five] like 4 or 5 weeks ago and we just needed a break, and now we're gonna start focusing on that. In April 2011 it was confirmed that Chris Morgan had already begun work on a script for a potential sixth film at the behest of Universal Studios. It was also confirmed that Universal intended to transform the series from street-racing action into a series of heist films with car chases in the vein of The Italian Job (1969) and The French Connection (1971), with Fast Five as the transitional movie. Universal chairman Adam Fogelson said: The question putting Fast Five and Fast Six together for us was: Can we take it out of being a pure car culture movie and into being a true action franchise in the spirit of those great heist films made 10 or 15 years ago? Fogelson said that the racing aspect had put a "ceiling" on the number of people willing to see films in the series, and that, by turning it into a series where car driving ability is just one aspect of the film, he hoped to increase the series' audience. On Johnson's character, Fogelson added "[Johnson] also wants to appear in and be integral to the action in Fast Six."
On June 24, 2011, Universal Pictures announced that the anticipated sequel was scheduled for release on May 24, 2013. Moritz and Diesel returned as producers and Lin returned to direct. In an interview with Boxoffice, Lin revealed that he had, after discussions with Diesel, storyboarded, previsualized and edited a twelve-minute finale for Fast Six before filming was completed on Fast Five. Lin said he shot the footage as he was unsure at the time if there would be a sequel or if he would be able to direct it, but he wanted to have input on how any sequel would end. On October 21, 2011, the Los Angeles Times reported that Universal was considering filming two sequels—Fast Six and Fast Seven—back to back with a single story running through both films; both written by Morgan and directed by Lin. On December 20, 2011, Diesel stated that Fast Six would be split into two parts, with writing for the two films occurring simultaneously. On the decision, Diesel said: We have to pay off this story, we have to service all of these character relationships, and when we started mapping all that out it just went beyond 110 pages ... The studio said, 'You can't fit all that story in one damn movie!' On April 23, 2012, it was announced that mixed martial arts fighter Gina Carano was in negotiations to play a member of Hobbs's team. On May 1, 2012, Michelle Rodriguez was confirmed to be reprising her role as Letty Ortiz, and it was announced that Welsh actor Luke Evans had been offered a role as a villain. Evans was confirmed to join the cast on May 9, 2012, portraying the leader of a heist gang. Jason Statham was offered a villain role in the film, but he declined as he felt it wasn't right for him. On July 27, 2012, Joe Taslim was confirmed to appear as a villain, Jah. On February 15, 2012, Johnson confirmed that Fast Six would begin filming in May 2012, with some of the production to take place in the United Kingdom and Germany. Johnson stated that the two intended sequels would no longer be filmed simultaneously because of weather issues in filming locations, and that production on Fast Seven would only begin after the completion of Fast Six. However, filming did not officially begin until July 30, 2012. In February 2013, it was confirmed that the film would be titled Fast & Furious 6.
Principal photography
Filming began on July 30, 2012, in London, England, and Shepperton Studios in Surrey. While Fast & Furious 6 became only the third production to be allowed to film in Piccadilly Circus (a scene involving Diesel and Rodriguez drag racing), Lin was unable to obtain permission to shoot an elaborate action sequence there involving an exploding oil tanker, and so a replica of the landmark was built at Shepperton. The production were given only two minutes every hour to shut down the area for filming. Stunt and car chase scenes began filming on location in Glasgow, Scotland on August 29, 2012, and were scheduled to conclude on September 16, 2012. The shoot took place entirely at night and involved approximately 250 crew, but none of the central cast. Sets were built on site for the scenes including a large car showroom. Filming was scheduled to take place at the former Royal Air Force base RAF Bentwaters in late August 2012 until early September 2012.
Shooting also occurred on Spain's Canary Islands including the island of Tenerife and Gran Canaria. Filming had been intended to take place in Marseille, France, but was relocated to the islands to take advantage of a larger tax rebate (38%) that was estimated to lower filming costs by $20 million.
On October 11, 2012, Walker suffered an ACL injury during a stunt, forcing the production to film around his scenes until he recovered. A scene involving a plane crash began filming at the former RAF station RAF Bovingdon, Hertfordshire, on October 30, 2012, and was scheduled to conclude on November 9. Filming for a car chase scene took place on Dale Street in Liverpool City Centre, and also the Queensway Tunnel over four days in November 2012. Two days of filming were spent at HM Treasury's Government Offices Great George Street, which served as a nightclub.