F9 (2021)
- Many of the practical effects used in the climax were achieved without any CGI.
- The incredible score for F9 was composed in just a few weeks after the original composer dropped out.
- The original script for F9 was written over a decade before production finally began in 2021.
F9 is a 2021 American action film directed by Justin Lin, the ninth mainline installment in the Fast and Furious franchise. Dominic Toretto is drawn back into action when his long-lost brother Jakob, played by John Cena, emerges as a master thief and assassin working with a tech terrorist to weaponize a device capable of hacking every computerized system on Earth. The revelation that Dom had a secret brother, never previously mentioned across eight films, was the franchise's boldest narrative retcon.
F9 completed the franchise's evolution from street racing to science fiction by literally sending Roman and Tej into space in a rocket-powered Pontiac Fiero, a sequence that was simultaneously the most absurd and most self-aware moment in the franchise's history. The film's theatrical release in June 2021 was a major test of post-pandemic moviegoing. F9 earned $726 million worldwide on a $200 million budget, the franchise's third billion-dollar-adjacent entry.
