42 Fun Facts About The Fate of the Furious

Who directed The Fate of the Furious?

F. Gary Gray had car-chase form: his 2003 remake of The Italian Job, remembered for its Mini Cooper getaway, starred two of the actors he directs again here.

In The Fate of the Furious, where are Dom and Letty honeymooning when the story opens?

Havana needed sign-off from both governments, because this was the first big-studio Hollywood film to shoot in Cuba since the embargo began in the 1960s.

In The Fate of the Furious, what does Dom do with the car he wins in the opening race?

Lets the loser keep it: "Your respect is good enough for me," Dom tells him, then tosses his cousin the keys to his own Impala to make up for the car he raced.

Who plays the cyberterrorist Cipher in The Fate of the Furious?

Charlize Theron plays a villain who wages war from a keyboard: she turns Dom against his own crew by holding hostage a baby son he never knew he had.

Who plays the crew's tech expert Tej Parker in The Fate of the Furious?

Ludacris owes the part to another rapper: Ja Rule turned down half a million dollars to return for the second film, so its director phoned him instead and a new character was written.

In The Fate of the Furious, where does Hobbs land after the botched EMP job?

In the same prison as Deckard Shaw, the man he put there: the two trade insults from facing cells until the doors spring open, then punch their way out through a full-scale riot.

In The Fate of the Furious, what is God's Eye, which Cipher steals?

A mass surveillance program written by Ramsey, it can find anyone through any camera, and this film reveals that Cipher was secretly behind the earlier plot to snatch it.

Who plays Elena Neves, the mother of Dom's son, in The Fate of the Furious?

Elsa Pataky first played her as a Rio police officer in Fast Five; here the pregnancy she kept from Dom becomes the leverage that turns him against his crew.

In The Fate of the Furious, what must Dom steal for Cipher in New York?

The Russian defence minister's nuclear football is snatched from his motorcade after Cipher hacks more than a thousand cars and sends them driverless through Manhattan: "It's zombie time."

In The Fate of the Furious, what question from Ramsey silences the two crewmates competing for her?

"What's my last name?" she asks, and neither man can answer; she tells them to let her know when they have worked it out and walks off, leaving them bickering.

Which actress makes her Fast & Furious debut as the Shaw brothers' mother in The Fate of the Furious?

Helen Mirren asked for the job: by Vin Diesel's account she came up to him at a party and said she wanted to be in one of these films with him, and a week later she was written in.

Which Game of Thrones actor plays Cipher's enforcer Connor Rhodes in The Fate of the Furious?

Kristofer Hivju, the series' wildling Tormund, plays the henchman who kills Elena on Cipher's order, a score Dom settles personally the moment he hears his son is safe.

In The Fate of the Furious, how does Dom cross the finish line of the opening street race?

In reverse and on fire: driving the slowest car on the island, he overcooks a makeshift nitrous boost, the engine bursts into flames, and he spins round to win backwards by a nose.

In The Fate of the Furious, how does Dom beat Cipher's heat-seeking missile?

Lures it into the pursuing submarine: he breaks away from his crew so the missile strikes the vessel instead, and they ring him with their cars to shield him from the blast.

In The Fate of the Furious, who ranks eleventh on Interpol's most-wanted list?

Roman learns that the others all made Interpol's top ten while he just missed the cut, and what really stings is that Ramsey, the newest recruit, came in at number ten.

In The Fate of the Furious, how does Cipher get away at the end?

By parachuting from her plane: cornered by an intruder, she points out that only one of them has a parachute and jumps, which left the villain free to return in later films.

In The Fate of the Furious, what does Dom name his baby son?

Brian is announced over the closing rooftop barbecue, in honour of Dom's absent best friend Brian O'Conner, the role Paul Walker played until his death during the previous film's shoot.

In The Fate of the Furious, why does Hobbs refuse his old job?

To spend more time with his daughter: handed full reinstatement, he glances at her, says that after 16 years it is time for a little break, and adds, "Daddy's staying home."

Who plays Little Nobody, Mr. Nobody's rule-bound young trainee, in The Fate of the Furious?

Scott Eastwood, son of Clint, plays a character invented for this film, a by-the-book agent who snaps "Don't call me that" when the crew saddle him with the nickname.

In The Fate of the Furious, what does the agency call its garage of seized supercars?

The Toy Shop holds every vehicle seized from East Coast drug dealers, and the crew is turned loose to choose, one of them making straight for a bright orange supercar that could hardly be less discreet.

Which director passed on The Fate of the Furious to make a Conjuring sequel instead?

James Wan chose to return to horror, the genre that made his name, and with the series' longtime director busy too, the studio had a release date set and nobody to direct.

Which 2016 film did Justin Lin choose to direct rather than make an eighth Fast & Furious film?

Star Trek Beyond lured him away after he had directed four Fast films in a row, though not for good: he came back to the franchise to direct its ninth instalment.

What working title did Vin Diesel give The Fate of the Furious at the 2015 Teen Choice Awards?

Fast 8 closed his speech, a tribute to Paul Walker that ended "until Fast 8", and the real title only arrived sixteen months later, in a teaser for the first trailer.

Where did filming on The Fate of the Furious begin in March 2016?

Mývatn, Iceland is a lake in the country's north, and the cars-on-ice chase that the story sets in Russia was really driven across its frozen surface.

Which U.S. city stood in for Manhattan in The Fate of the Furious?

Cleveland had doubled for New York before, in Spider-Man 3, and this time its downtown hosted the stunt in which cars were dropped out of a building's windows onto the street.

Which composer, who later wrote Formula 1's official theme, scored The Fate of the Furious?

Brian Tyler had already scored four earlier instalments, and a year later the sport itself hired him; he went to a race to hear the engines up close before recording his theme with a London orchestra.

In which European capital, where Dom first betrays his crew, did The Fate of the Furious hold its world premiere?

Berlin hosted the premiere ten days before the American release; in the story it is where Dom rams Hobbs off the road and makes off with the stolen EMP device.

The Fate of the Furious was the first series entry since which film not to feature Paul Walker?

Tokyo Drift, back in 2006, was the last one made without him; after the actor's death his character was written out alive rather than killed off, and the producer said simply that he "has moved on".

By The Fate of the Furious, critics said the franchise had moved from street racing and heists into which genre?

Spy films: Variety's review fretted about the crew becoming "a pack of world-saving James Bonds", while another cheered a gang of low-rent gearheads turned government-funded super spies.

Which Fast film hit $1 billion before The Fate of the Furious?

Furious 7 got there in 2015, lifted in part by audiences saying goodbye to Paul Walker, and its successor followed two years later with about $1.24 billion worldwide.

The Fate of the Furious took the record for biggest worldwide debut from which 2015 film?

Star Wars: The Force Awakens had held the mark for sixteen months, and it fell to audiences abroad, who supplied more than four-fifths of that record weekend's takings.

Which film broke the worldwide opening record set by The Fate of the Furious?

Avengers: Infinity War took the record in April 2018 and kept it for exactly a year, until its own sequel arrived and opened to almost twice as much.

Which country outside the United States was the biggest market for The Fate of the Furious?

China out-earned even the film's home market: almost $200 million in three days was about double the American opening, and its final total beat the whole North American run.

Over which holiday weekend did The Fate of the Furious open in American cinemas?

Easter had also launched its predecessor two years earlier, but the repeat paid off less well at home, where the opening of just under $100 million was about a third down.

The Fate of the Furious broke its director's own Straight Outta Compton record for the biggest what by a Black filmmaker?

Opening weekend, and the old record is why he was there at all: the N.W.A biopic's success had made him the studio's pick to take over the series within two months of its release.

Which Marvel film knocked The Fate of the Furious off the top of the international chart?

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 meant Vin Diesel knocked himself off the top after two weekends: he voices Baby Groot in it, while Kurt Russell, this film's Mr. Nobody, plays the hero's father.

In which country did Beauty and the Beast keep The Fate of the Furious from opening at number one?

Japan, the last major market to get the film, was one of the few where it failed to open on top, yet it was still the franchise's best start there, and the local chart even put a Detective Conan anime above it.

In The Fate of the Furious, Tej crosses the ice in what?

Tank, and one built to need no driver: soldiers were meant to steer it from a mile away, but Tej takes the back-up seat and drives it across the ice himself.

Who plays the hacker Ramsey in The Fate of the Furious?

Nathalie Emmanuel, Missandei in Game of Thrones, plays the crew's hacker, who meets her match here: when she wrests back control of a hijacked submarine, Cipher greets her with a breezy "Hi Ramsey" and locks her out.

Who plays Owen Shaw in The Fate of the Furious?

Luke Evans, the sixth film's villain, comes back on the other side: his mother springs him from prison on a tip from Dom, and he joins his brother to storm Cipher's plane and rescue Dom's baby son.

Which two reggaeton stars return in The Fate of the Furious as Leo and Santos, former members of Dom's crew?

Tego Calderón and Don Omar, unseen since Fast Five, are the bickering pair who cart away the man Dom appears to shoot dead, a staged killing that lets him strike back at Cipher in secret.

Who wrote The Fate of the Furious, his sixth Fast & Furious script?

Chris Morgan had written every instalment since the third, but the run ended here: he moved over to the 2019 spin-off, and the ninth film went to a new writer for the first time in over a decade.