How Many of 'The Fate of the Furious' Scenes Are Real?

When people talk about the ‘Fast and Furious’ series, they don’t only mention Dominic Toretto (Dom) and his crew, but they also have a really long chat about the crash scenes. Some believe that those wrecking scenes are virtual, but some insist that they are real and cost millions of U.S dollars in reality. However, what experts and the filmmakers say matters most. In this article, IndianAuto would like to introduce the most thrilling real crashes in the ‘Fast and Furious 8: The Fate of the Furious’. If you are interested in the movie-related cars, pay a visit to IndianAuto.

1st scene: Havana racing

In the opening of the movie, the filmmakers remind the audience of the place that Dom and his family began their driving journey. There lays on the streets of Havana, a drag race becomes a trial of acceleration. Interestingly, Dom decides to drive on a clunker which obviously cannot have a chance to beat his opponent. However, with the advantage of a protagonist, Dom turns on the Nitrous Oxide System, and ka-boom, the additional power is so overwhelming that it almost set the shabby car into flames. Because too much damage is caused to the engine, Toretto has to drive the chunker in reverse during the last moment of the race. At the finish line, the miracle which always happens to most of the protagonist helps Dom wins the match; however, he would risk his life if he didn’t jump out of the burning car in time, goes directly into the ocean, and explodes.

Jack Gill, the creator of ‘The Fate of the Furious’, stated that the whole scene must have been 100% real instead of 99% if the filming crew could find a way to make the fire real. To be clear, during the Havana race, the crew applied real flame onto the shabby car lid, but they couldn’t help the fire from entering the driver’s seat when the vehicle is at high speed. Indeed, no one can bare such heat, even the bravest stuntman. Therefore, the crew had to turn off the fire and find an alternative. Besides, all the rest stuff are real including sliding, grinding, and bumping.

3, 2, 1, and the battle begins!

Additionally, there is one more fascinating thing about the scene in which the trashy car jumps into the sky and falls into the ocean. To capture the expected scene, Jack Gill and his team made an attempt to combine two shots. Why did they have to do that? The answer may surprise most of us. In the shot where Dom jumps out of the car as it about to hit the coastline wall, the crew pulled the vehicle with too much force, which makes it bent in half and only reached the height of feet. In a normal situation, they had to film the shot again, but their time at that moment is running out. Therefore, they tried to shoot another car and record it in the same angle not in Havana beach but against a green screen. Theoretically, the shot was quite real as the car was real and the angles were real, the only thing that was not real is the green background.

Also read - Top 10 Reliable 'Fast and Furious' Cars - Acura Integra to Ferrari F355 Spider

2nd and 3rd scenes: Germany wrecking ball chase and NYC zombie cars

Everywhere the team of Dom goes, they always prove their ultimate strength, creating crashes, which frequently causes more damage than the bad guys. However, when it comes to the wrecking ball scene in Germany, Hobbs’ team does the smashing job better. Do you know why people call this the wrecking ball scene? The answer is very simple, the shot involved an extremely huge wrecking ball! But what surprises the audience is not just the giant ball itself, but how Hobbs uses it to steal an EMP device.

Wrecking Ball Chase Scene in The Fate of the Furious (2017)

To make it clear, after taking the device, the team starts to lure the security officials who are trying to catch them into a construction zone. Now, it’s the wrecking ball’s showtime. When the pursuers are following Hobbs in a straight line, suddenly, the approximately 35,000 Ib wrecking ball swings out and mercilessly smashes the security cars, which have the same tragedy as most of ‘The Fate of the Furious’ cars. This time, Gill once again stated that this scene was 70%. His crew actually built the wrecking ball and the actors were told to be ready for what was about to come or they may get heavy injuries. Additionally, he also said that everything was real except the debris. Wow! The guys participated in this scene must have been very brave.

Read more: Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw

From Germany to the fabulous New York City, there was also a shot almost real. That is when a bunch of cars keeps falling down from an abandoned building. To capture this scene, Gill’s crew had to find a parking lot that is suitable for their purpose. After having the place, they began to create ramps so that the cars could go straight towards the exit, hit the barriers, fall down and explode. The whole scene is super cool and thrilling as you can see below.

Zombie Cars Scene in The Fate of the Furious (2017)

4th scene: the Arctic chase

Last but not least, everyone watching this scene will always remember it as an epic shot of the franchise. In an area full of glaciers, Dominic Toretto and his team were chased by a giant submarine. And Dom has to escape a huge a heat-seeking torpedo launched by the submarine. What he does to get away from it may give first-time viewers goosebumps because he decides to jump over the warship with his car. Only did this ‘Arctic chase’ cost Gill’s crew 2 months to finish.

Note that the shots were captured in Iceland rather than Russia. And all of the stuff you can see on the screen is real except the huge submarine. Well, obviously, even with a lot of money you cannot easily find an enormous warship to let it explode in a couple of minutes scene. Although the sub are not real, all the blowing up shots are 100% physical. To catch all these thrilling moments, for the first time, the crew used a special camera, called Phantom Camera, that can capture 1000 frames a second. Many people think the scene in which the tyres are in flames when Dom’s car is hit and tumbles is CGI, but this is the effect made by the Phantom Camera, which lets you see from normal speed to 1000 frames in a second.

The final battle takes place on huge glaciers.

All in all, the franchise always surprise car fans with stunning and cool automobiles; and in this article, IndianAuto has introduced to you the most thrill real crash scenes in ‘The Fate of the Furious’. Additionally, in case you don’t know or forget, you must be ready as the Fast 9 is coming soon in 2020.