After a troubled start to production which saw veteran director Justin Lin resign days into filming, Fast 10 is now back on track with director Louis Leterrier behind the wheel, and racing towards the finish line. The first trailer for Fast 10 – the tenth and penultimate chapter in the mainline ‘Fast Saga’ – is proof of that, promising the full-throttle series’ most explosive entry to date.
The headline news? Jason Momoa is about to bring some serious chaos energy to the series as a villain who Dom and the Family unwittingly did dirty in Fast Five, John Cena has rocket launchers mounted to the side of his car now (naturally) and, somehow, that is a real, one tonne metal ball rolling around the streets of Rome. If you thought there was nowhere to go after sending a car into space in F9, this trailer proves there’s still ample horsepower under the hood.
Total Film sat down with director Louis Leterrier to ask everything you’d want to know after watching the Fast 10 trailer, including the nature of Brie Larson’s Tess, whether we’ll finally see #JusticeForHan, his thoughts on bringing back Paul Walker’s Brian, and plenty more besides. So buckle up, it’s going to a be a wild ride.
You joined Fast 10 under extraordinary circumstances, a week into production. What was that like?
You know in movies, when a character’s ears start ringing? It was that. It was insane. Like beeeeep. You’re watching nothing but Fast & Furious – beeeeep – and then you arrive. You literally walk from the airport to the set. The guy that you’ve been watching for 22 years welcomes you with big, open arms – Vin Diesel. He gives you the strongest hug, and says, 'Welcome to the family.’ And then you get to actually start shooting.
It was daunting. The first take was weird. And then you get your sea legs. Take two. Take three. And by take four, you’re the director. You’re in control. The challenge was that I had zero prep. I spent my first week completely rewriting the script. I had to make it my own. I had to put it on schedule. Vin and I spent three to four hours every night – after a full day – working on the next day’s pages; the next week’s plot; whatever.
It was an amazing, professional experience. And the crew that Justin had assembled – it’s the best of the best on these movies. Everybody is at the top of their profession. I just stepped into a Ferrari.
The trailer draws a direct connection to the safe heist in Fast Five through Jason Momoa’s Dante. What are we seeing in those moments, and why choose to continue the story of that film here?
See, that’s the problem with giving the greatest fan the franchise the wheel. I looked at my favourite of all the Fast & Furious movies – Fast Five – and I was like, ‘What if, what if, what if?'
Thematically – I’m about to get all serious – the idea is there’s a price to justice. There’s a price to Dom’s life choices, in order to take that darkness from the world. There’s a domino effect.
We know that’s the price that Dom, and the family, is going to pay. And Fast Five, for me, represented this the most. Fast Five was the last [Fast] movie that truly dealt with human stakes – the oppression of the poor. Reyes was oppressing the favelas and stealing from them. Dom and the family, they Robin Hood the money, and give it back.
But when you think they’re doing the right thing, there’s always somebody who thinks you’re doing the wrong thing. So what we tried to do was to Rashomon the Fast Five safe heist, which is my favourite of all time. We were like, ‘What if we filmed it through the eyes of the bad guys? Where the bad guys, in that vision, are Dom and Brian, and they’re stealing this family safe?’
So we play with time. We play with perspective. That felt like a very strong thematic direction to start the movie. The movie then takes off. There’s craziness that ensues. But thematically, it’s very relatable.
Is Dante related to Reyes, or someone who worked for him?
He’s very much a family member. He’s family. Family, family, family!
Jason Momoa seems like the perfect addition to this series. What does Dante bring to the film?
Chaos! Pure chaos. Off-screen and on-screen, Jason brings so much chaos to a set. It’s incredible. The man is like a 6ft-tall toddler. We fell in love on this movie.
He brings what this franchise needs. He puts Dom on his back-foot. Dom is about control, and about reactivity. It’s easy to react and fight off somebody who’s cold, calculated, and everything. But when someone is crazy and nihilistic and basically doesn’t give a fuck about anything and is also completely obsessed with Dom… like, he’s obsessed with him. He’s like a crazed fan. These are the most dangerous enemies.
Another major addition to the cast is Brie Larson as Tess. The trailer implies that she’s an ally for the Family, how does she fit in?
Dom, in this time of chaos and uncertainty, needs a light at the end of the tunnel. He needs a guardian angel to guide him towards the light. There’s a reason why Dante is called Dante. He’s going to drag Dom down to Hell, and he’ll drag everyone with him. [Tess is] the light. She’s connected to the franchise in a very strong way. But she also brings so much life, and something that we’ve never experienced before in this franchise.
Also, just like many times before, Dom is guided by the women in his life. He’s very much guided by his family, his friends, his brother, everything. But Letty, Rita Morena as his abuelita, his grandmother, they are the guiding forces of his life. They’re the salt of the earth. He will need their helping hand. And Tess is that helping hand.
The trailer for F9 promised #JusticeForHan, but most would agree the film didn’t deliver. Was that something you were conscious of addressing here?
That was a big thing. I love Sung [Kang]. Sung was the first one to welcome me. Nathalie Emmanuel, who I’d worked with before, sent my number to everyone, and then suddenly I was getting messages from my favourite actors! I think what we’ve done in this movie, and what Sung and Jason [Statham] have done in this movie – that is Justice For Han. That is the moment that people are going to get on their feet, and go, ‘Yes, that’s it! We’re on!’
What I tried to do is take all these characters that I’ve loved for so many years, and create moments for them that would completely fulfil me as a fan. I was like, ‘I want to see this scene between Han and Dom, and I want to see this scene between Han and Shaw.’ We wrote that script. That’s the script that you’re going to see.
A simple question: are those rocket launchers mounted on the side of Jakob’s car?
Yeah, come on: it’s John Cena! I love John Cena. I love Peacemaker. I loved seeing him in Fast 9. But I wanted him to pop more. I wanted him to just go full ‘Cena’, you know? You’re going to fall in love with Jakob. He’s really Uncle Jakob. He’s the cool uncle that has mounted four cannons on his car, and they work! They work for real. They’re practical. Everything was practical. We went crazy on this one. We were like, ‘OK, let’s build everything for real.’
There’s that quick moment near the end of the trailer where a bike hops over some debris that gave me as much of a thrill as two helicopters crashing together, because I could see that a real person had done that.
There’s are some stunts that you’ll be like, ‘Oh, wow, it’s real.’ You see Michelle and Charlize fighting at the end of the trailer: that’s real. These ladies threw it down. Obviously there’s some crazy stuff that we had stunt doubles for, but this was the real deal. Everybody went to fight school and driving school. Jason rides his own motorcycle, no helmet. Michelle does the same. It’s insane. These people are properly trained. And you also throw them alt lines and jokes as they do their stuff, and they’re going to run with it.
Safe to say that huge metal ball rolling down the street wasn’t real though?
It’s practical! A practical metal ball in real Rome. 100%. It’s a one-tonne, metal ball, rolling through the real streets of Rome, with real fire.
Incredible. Is it your Raiders Of The Lost Ark homage?
Very much. It’s two things. It’s Raiders, but it’s also a soccer reference. They’re playing soccer with the ball and the cars. It’s kind of like them dribbling the ball around Rome. It’s fun, because the stakes are also really high. I think if you bring practicality, if you bring real speed and real stakes and real fire and all that stuff, you feel it more. Sure, we didn’t go to space in this one, but there’s something a little more Fast & Furious about bringing it down to Earth: seeing the cars and the tyres chafing; grinding on the pavement. There’s something real.
You’ll see: I paid, in my own way, true homage to the Fast of the old. I love inventing shots and technology that we’ve never used before in all my movies. And there’s stuff I’ve always wanted to do. But now we have the technology and, frankly, the money on this one – I was like, ‘Let’s do this. I’ve always dreamed of this.’ There’s one shot that flies through all the cars with the actors. That’s a real shot. It’s never been done before. That’s a real camera going through all these cars. It’s a piece of technology that we’ve invented that no one has created before. And there’s like 15 of those in the movie.
We see Brian in the footage from Fast Five. He’s a character who is still alive in the world of the Fast films. What are your thoughts on bringing the Brian character back through modern technology?
Well, Brian is very much alive in the world of Fast & Furious, and they’ve teased him a lot in the previous movies. In 9, we see the car coming. It’s something that is planned. This movie jumps back and forth between the past and the present. You will see Brian in the past, you won’t see Brian in the present. It’s something that everybody has to be on board with. The Walker family is still very much a part of this franchise, you’ll see how in this movie. It just has to be the right moment, the right tone. I think what James Wan did at the end of 7 was perfect. The tone was perfect. Brian has to re-enter the franchise as perfectly as he left it.
This is planned as the penultimate chapter in this mainline Fast Saga. Was part of your responsibility here to move the pieces into place for the final entry?
Yeah, very much so, and you’ll see the stakes. It’s really heading towards the end. The audience will have to say goodbye to characters that they’ve loved, and that goes back to the idea of the price you pay for justice. You cannot go down this road to change the world, go home, and have a barbecue. We start this movie with a barbecue! But then it goes downhill from there. The road Dom is on is doomed. You cannot be so altruistic. It’s going to come back to haunt you. That’s what this franchise is heading towards.
Fast 10 is racing into cinemas on May 19. Before we hit the end of the road, catch up on the Fast Saga so far with our guide on how to watch the Fast and the Furious movies in order.