National Film Vault

FILM NOTES

Universal Pictures released The Fast and the Furious in June 2001, directed by Rob Cohen and produced on a modest budget that few expected to generate a franchise. Drawing from a Vibe magazine article about street racing culture in New York, the film arrived at a moment when car culture and hip-hop aesthetics were converging in mainstream cinema. It launched one of the longest-running action series in Hollywood history and made household names of its leads.

This cell, titled Brian and Dom Race, captures Dominic Toretto and Brian O'Conner — played by Vin Diesel and Paul Walker — in the elevated aerial perspective of their climactic street race, two cars, one orange muscle car and one dark vehicle, running side by side through the night.