The Fast & Furious franchise has been extremely successful, and it seems as if the saga will never quite be finished, as the folks over at Universal Pictures continue to churn out new movies. Any one of the films definitely make for a great movie night, but it's even better if you watch them all sequentially. Many fans have done this, however, there's a key part of the story that some people don't realize exists: A short film called The Turbo Charged Prelude to 2 Fast 2 Furious.
Released back in 2003, the movie was written by Keith Dinielli and directed by Philip G. Atwell. It includes a short series of sequences that acted as a continuation of the first film, The Fast and the Furious. It's not as well known as you might think, but it follows former police officer Brian O'Conner (played by the late Paul Walker) as he bails from Los Angeles to avoid capture by police, and shows detail as to how he ends up in Miami for the next movie.
The film shows scenes of Brian packing his bags and leaving the city, since he knew the LAPD would be coming after him for letting Dominic Toretto escape. He casually takes a long road trip to the other side of the United States and finds out the FBI launched a national manhunt for him. Along the way, he stops in states such as Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, and he wins multiple street races in his modified Dodge Stealth to accumulate some money.
He is forced to ditch his car as the police get informed of his whereabouts. Luckily, he comes across a woman, who is unaware he's on the run, and hitches a ride to a used car dealership. She later finds out who he is, but doesn't seem to mind much about helping him as she drives off.
At the car lot, Brian purchases a Nissan Skyline GT-R R34 and drives off in his new ride. After making some money from street racing, he begins to modify the car, painting it a silver color, and installing some aftermarket wheels. He continues his journey into Miami, where he sees Slap Jack's Toyota Supra and Orange Julius' Mazda RX-7. Following that, the film ends with "2 be continued" displayed on the screen, setting the scene for 2 Fast 2 Furious.
The short film also features archive footage of Vin Diesel as Dom Toretto from the first Fast & Furious movie, and Rodney Neil and Peter Aylward star as police officers. Minka Kelly of Friday Night Lights fame plays the woman who gives Brian a ride to the car lot.
Sure, you don't necessarily need to watch The Turbo Charged Prelude to 2 Fast 2 Furious to get what's going on in the rest of the movies, but it crams in some pretty entertaining street racing scenes for your viewing enjoyment.
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This post was originally published on July 29, 2020.