Sources: Wikidata · OpenAlex. The record of the motion picture, not an assessment of this cell.
FILM NOTES
FILM NOTES
Universal Pictures released The Fast and the Furious in the summer of 2001, a modest studio production that became a sleeper hit and eventually the foundation of one of the highest-grossing franchises in film history. Built around the underground world of illegal street racing in Los Angeles, the film introduced audiences to a subculture of tuner cars, quarter-mile drag races, and a cast led by Paul Walker and Vin Diesel that would come to define action cinema for two decades. Its success reshaped Universal's slate for years and turned a B-movie premise into a global brand.
This 35mm cell, marked simply Street Racing, points to the beating heart of the picture rather than any single scene of dialogue or plot. The phrase names the film's central activity and organizing obsession, the races that draw its characters together and define their world. For collectors, a piece tied to this core concept rather than to a specific star or line of dialogue carries appeal as a distilled fragment of the movie's identity, a physical remnant of the racing culture the film helped popularize.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm Dolby Digital theatrical release print of The Fast and the Furious (2001).
Gauge
35mm, four perforations per frame on both edges; the strip holds three frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges; spacing appears even; punching appears clean with no torn edges visible.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track runs along one edge beside the picture, with what appears to be a second track adjacent, consistent with a dual bilateral or stereo variable-area arrangement; Dolby Digital pixel blocks are visible in the inter-perforation gaps on the same edge.
Base shows a light blue-cyan tint typical of modern safety stock; the dye image appears warm-amber with strong density, no visible fading or colour shift.
Projection history
Light horizontal abrasion lines are visible across the frame area, consistent with a print that has passed through a projector gate.
Picture
Positive colour image; all three frames appear to be consecutive frames from a single continuous shot; the warm-toned, high-contrast action imagery is consistent with a release print of The Fast and the Furious (2001).
Era check
The combination of Kodak 4K-designated stock, cyan-tinted safety base, dual variable-area optical track, and Dolby Digital inter-perforation data blocks is consistent with a theatrical release print from the early 2000s.
Read from the original intake capture shown below. Observations only — film is authenticated, not graded.
This original motion picture film element has been examined and authenticated by Crown Grading in partnership with National Film Vault, and encapsulated for archival preservation.
Why so little survivesRelease prints were leased to theaters, not sold. When the run ended they went back to the distributor to be destroyed, and most were. What collectors hold today came from the prints that escaped that order, and no new 35mm prints of these films are being struck.
CROWN SERIAL 000062893
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
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