The Fast and the Furious is a 2001 American action thriller film directed by Rob Cohen, produced by Neal H. Moritz and written by Gary Scott Thompson and David Ayer. The film stars Paul Walker, Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Rick Yune, Chad Lindberg, Johnny Strong and Ted Levine. The film follows an undercover cop named Brian O'Conner (Walker) who must stop semi-truck hijackers led by Dominic Toretto (Diesel) from stealing expensive electronic equipment. The film's concept was inspired by "Racer X", a Vibe magazine article by journalist Ken Li about street racing in New York City.
Filming locations include Los Angeles and parts of southern California. The Fast and the Furious was released on June 22, 2001 to financial success. The film's budget was an estimated $38 million, grossing $207,283,925 worldwide. Despite its commercial success, the film received generally mixed reviews from film critics and according to review aggregators Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic, though both Diesel and Walker were praised in their roles and became household names both in the U.S. and internationally. Also, many critics praised the action sequences, storyline and the soundtrack but criticized the writing and the direction.
