Fast Five - Extended Analysis
Fast Five, also known as Fast and Furious 5, is a 2011 American action film directed by Justin Lin and written by Chris Morgan. The film stars Vin Diesel and Paul Walker. The film is a part of the Fast and Furious movie franchise and its plot is based upon the life of a close knit gang of street races.
The scene starts with a narration of one of the characters, Dominic Toretto being sentenced to prison. Dominic’s family members are present at his trial, Mia, his sister, and Brain, Mia’s husband. The lighting is bright and hard to show the intensity of the scene as Dominic keeps a straight face during the entire time showing no emotions. The camera cuts to and from Dom’s family members to all the inmates lining together. A slow solemn music starts playing as we move to the next scene.
The next scene begins with a prison bus travelling on a remote road with no other vehicle in sight suggesting. As it’s a natural setting the lighting still is bright the sunlight through the window as the camera slowly zooms into Dominic. more cars are seen as they cut into the camera (static shot). The background still plays natural sounds along with the sound of the cars’ engines.
The camera zooms into the bus (tracking shot) as we see the cars closing in. The camera then cuts to Brian and Mia. The smug smirks on their faces show that they are upto something but what? We don’t know yet. The lighting still is bright with only slight shadows falling on their faces. Intense upbeat music starts playing in the background again hinting the viewers of something about to happen. The camera then cuts to individual shots of the cars revving as the occupants of the bus start looking out of the windows at the cars.
This soon becomes a pretty intense scene as (high level shot) the camera zooms into the bus then cuts to Mia swerving hard in front of the bus. This makes the driver of the bus swerve to the opposite direction to avoid a collision (Ground level shot). Brain slams his brakes in front of the bus. A shot through the back of Brian’s car shows that the bus is about to crash in Brian’s car’s rear. The scene cuts to the bus after being crashed sliding across the road (trucking shot). A wide shot shows the viewers the background - that is barren and no one is there to aid the occupants of the crashed bus.
The crash cuts to the opening title of the film. The title of the film is written in the same bold font the Fast and Furious film franchise has been using for all their films. A glitch screen effect is used to show news reporters reporting about the crash and Dom being the only prisoner unaccounted for. The sound of sirens and people talking can be heard in the background. The lighting is more brighter now, maybe to show the affect of the crash as the smoke lingers around.
The next scene begins with a drone shot (panaroma curve) of Christ the Redeemer Statue and the slums around Rio de Janeiro as the camera cuts to the next scene which is Brian and Mia travelling in a car. Slow quirky music plays in the background, the lighting again is too bright to what seems like midday. A (low angle shot) of the car moving up the hill and then a wide shot of the background tell us that the setting of the scene is in the outskirts of the city in an underdeveloped area.
