2014. On the screens of cinemas, the movie Need for Speed appears: a thirst for speed, fans go to the cinema halls in order to see the film adaptation of their favorite game and … it seems that they get not quite what they expected. As a result: the film seems to pay off, but both the audience and critics have not accepted it too warmly. 57% and 22%, respectively, for Rotten Tomatoes and 6.9 of the first and 39 points from the second on Metacritic. Enough average indicators that indicate a transmitter. But is it so?
As I said in my last blog about Far Cry 2, I like this movie. But I still have double feelings and emotions from him, and I can hardly pass them in full. But still let’s try to speculate and decide: “Does this film really deserve attention, or to him the very place in the backyard of the story?".
Name
To warm up, let’s talk about the name, about which everyone who is not laziness was joking. Need for Speed: Thirst for speed is an example of how you do not need to call your movie. The name of the picture sounds at least strange, but it seems like distributors do not study on their mistakes. It seems that this particular film launched a trend for double names. Yes, yes, I’m talking about you Uncharted: "The cards are not listed". And who just thought of that? It’s the same as choosing between tea and coffee and prefer not to choose at all, mix everything and drink. Separately, it can be tasty, but together … in general it sounds not very good.
A little about the creation process
The film was directed by Scott in.
Need for Speed was for Scott the first solo experience as a director. Before Need for Speed, he shot two paintings, but the directorial chair shared with Mike McCoire. Why Dreamworks entrusted the shooting of an expensive blockbuster with the name of one of the most popular racing games to an inexperienced director? I don’t know. The first reason I see is that in was a stuntman, and perhaps the company believed that he could put beautiful races and tricks. Whether they were mistaken? Let’s talk about this a little later. And the second – he loves cars and everything connected with them. However, like the scriptwriters of the film, Brothers John and George Gaitins.
They just adore cars. In their free time, they even engage in the restoration of classic cars in their garage in the city of Van-Nais.
NFS film crew visited a variety of US corners. They drove almost across America from Macon in Georgia to San Francisco and Mendosino in California. We visited Detroit-a landmark city for automotive industry, where the headquarters of such automobile companies as General Motors and Ford are still located on one of the most famous lakes of Bonneville, where automobile speed records will be set
Cars and tricks
Cars are indeed the heroes of the film, just as they are the heroes of the games themselves. Unlike the Furious, where the film is built on action, and cars are only a tool for its creation, Need for Speed is built around cars and simple, not overloaded, but for some reason memorable history.
Where the main events of the film are launched? From the moment Dino offers Toby to assemble the Ford Mustang car. What was the reason for the quarrel between Dino and Toby? The fact that Marshall took without demand a car belonging to Dino. The characters almost the entire film do not get out of cars and most of the picture are on the road. Toby is participating in street races, then he winds circles along Detroit, trying to scare Julia, then leaves the cops and killers.
A lot of work was done on each machine. They removed something, added something to make them easier to shoot, but I would like to separately highlight the sound. He is beautiful. DreamWorks signed a contract with Magnaflow (manufacturer of exhaust systems for cars) to create a high -quality sound for the film. Magnaflow worked on each car of the picture and made their work damn cool. Each car in the film has its own characteristic sound that differs from any other. You can always distinguish Salin from Koenigzegg, and he from Lamborgin even with his eyes closed.
One of the main characters of the film, Ford Mustang, was specially designed for filming the picture. Ford specialists created a car based on Shelby GT500. The homeland of the car became the Techno Sports factory in Detroit. Mustang was significantly lightweight so that it was easier to perform tricks, and in a compartment with an improved engine, this also allowed to develop higher speed, also installed cameras in the side mirrors and improved shock absorbers, suspension and some other details. In total, the film used seven Ford Mustang cars for different purposes and objectives.
Ford Mustang from the movie
Ford Mustang from the movie
Ford Mustang from the movie
In addition to the Mustang in the film, you can see the Ford Gran Torino 1969, Pontiac GTO 1968, Chevrolet Camaro 1968, Koenigsegg Agera R, Lamborghini Sesto Elemento, GTA SPANO, Saleen S7, Bugatti Veyron, McLaren P1, Mercedes-Benz Slr McLaren and many others.
From the very beginning, we decided that we would not harm these machines, because for us they are real works of art, and this would be disrespectful to their creators. We built the exact copies of cars that were supposed to break through the scenario, and used these "understudies" in scenes of accidents, – Scott in.
For the most part, real cars acted as participants in the filming, but still the creators could not allow sportsmen worth a cost of more than a million dollars, and therefore their duplicates were used in scenes with accidents and tricks. Created an exact copy of the body, which was put on a frame of pipes with a motor, and then broke.
There are no incredible scenes with cars in the film. They do not fly into space, do not leave the submarine and do not jump from the roof of the skyscraper. But it’s not bad. Why do we have another outsider, if we already have them 9 and a half. There are almost no chromakes and computer graphics in the film. Almost everything you see on your screens, the actors could see on the set. Yes, without explosions and deaths, but still.
If in the film https://bubblesbetcasino.uk/mobile-app/ Mustang flies into the air and flies a few meters. Then on the set of Ford will go to the springboard, fly through the air several tens of meters and land on the lawn.
We wanted to recreate one of the greatest car tricks in the history of the cinema, as in the film "Smokey and Bandit" when the car "jumps" across the bridge, Scott in.
Koenigsgg soars into the air (1:35), Ford jumps from the springboard (4:45), the helicopter flies at the minimum height above the city (5:17)
If in the picture a protagonist’s car moves off the cliff and a helicopter picks it up, then in real life Ford moved off the cliff and raised a helicopter, though without actors inside.
Almost all actors were taught extreme driving. And Imojen Putes before the filming in the film did not drive a car at all, so the British actress had to not only learn to drive a car, but also get used to the right -sided movement unusual for her.
The actors were most of the time driving the cars, and they even performed some tricks themselves. For example, a scene with a form of Ford right on the go. Imojen Putes actually got out of the car window at a speed of more than 100 km/h and helped to season Mustang.
But still, during complex tricks, the management was transferred to specially trained people. Famous racers and stuntmen took part in the filming: Tanner Faust, Paul Dallenbakh, Rice Millen and others.
There were remote control cars on the set, which were the archers of the originals, and while the actor played the dialogs calmly sitting inside the car, professionals controlled by machines. Stuntmen were located in special cells fixed by car above the actor.
Everything was shot as realistic as possible, with a minimum number of computer graphics.
And perhaps that is why I like scenes with cars in this film. I am tired of endless action and computer effects in the frying and not only. I began to notice that the races and chases are like those that are in the Need for Speed or, for example, in Ford against Ferrari, I like more. Yes, there is no that inhabitation in them, there is no drive music, but all this is not necessary. You do not go to such films because of the metal or endless discussions about the family. In such films, cars are not just part of the decor, the race is not just a way to reduce the characters, and the roar of motors is not just an addition to music, it is music.
Everything that you see in the film actually happened. Without chromakes or computer graphics, – Aaron Paul.
Operator work
When the director Scott V and my brother George thought about a couple of tricks, they decided that the main emphasis should not be fought on computer graphics, but on operator work, John Gaitins.
Films about cars, and even more so films where there are simply trips and chases, just an exorbitant number, and it seems that everything that can be invented has already come up with and put interesting angles and frames very difficult. From what other corners you can remove the driver or car? What angles can you take to surprise the viewer?
I’m afraid that something new, something that we have not yet seen, the Need for Speed will not be able to show. But she improves what has already been.
During the races, the camera is constantly in motion by transmitting dynamism and tension, she always tries to make us participants in those events, then showing the first -person race, sitting on the wheel of a car, then creating the feeling that we were sitting next to the driver, then starting to slide along the road, making us a race participant, which also competes with characters. And if the camera sets the task of showing a close -up of the hero’s face and his emotions, then it is still in dynamics, transmitting every bump, which the character of the character overcomes. In only one case, the camera becomes smooth or static – if the viewer turns into an invisible external observer, when the camera goes into general or distant plans, demonstrating the area, for example.
It would seem that nothing unique. We could observe all this in one form or another in other films, but captivates the level of performance. I have not yet believed in any film before NFS that the car really rides along the road, and not on a perfectly smooth surface, where there is not a single pothole or bump. Need for Speed was the first film where I really got a high from the races, even if they were in the picture and a little.
But they are still present, and to remove them, they need appropriate cars. The assistants of operators were: Ford Mustang, Porsche Cayenne, Ferrari, Audi A6, Mercedes and several others.
Plot and characters
Brief Prescription of the plot:
After the recent death of his father, Toby receives a garage from him, where a protagonist with his team is engaged in car tuning. But, in addition to the garage, Toby is inherited by the debt to the bank, and now he must either pay a loan or lose the garage. After participating in the local race, his old acquaintance Dino Broster comes to Toby with a proposal to finalize the unique Ford Mustang.
The team performs the task and comes to the presentation of a new car, where Toby and Pete meet Julia.
Two years pass, and Toby leaves prison for the unintentional murder of Pyu with the thought of revenge. He calls the millionaire, who bought Mustang and asks him a car to participate in de Leo, in exchange for half the cars that he will win. But having come to the meeting place, the protagonist sees that in addition to the car, the millionaire sent Julia to look after the grief. And now they should get to San Francisco in 45 hours.
On the way, they go to Detroit, where they take the Finn (one of the team members) and show off in front of the cops to record the video for the monarch and attract his attention that they manage. Soon after this, Toby receives an invitation to the race from the monarch (the monarch is the organizer of the race).
Dino does not want to meet Toby on the highway, and therefore hires the killers to remove the protagonist.
Toby and Julia are in the gas station, where they have a skirmish with a police officer, looking up from whom, Toby gives way to the driver, and Julia is getting behind the wheel, and the protagonist falls asleep.
In the morning, Dino people attack them, but the heroes still manage to escape, and they come safely to San Francisco. Where, after successful registration of Toby on the race, a truck crashes into a mustang at full speed. Julia gets to the hospital, and our racer receives a car thanks to his former. This car turned out to be the same Kenigsegg on which Dino rammed Pete.
On de Leone Toby saves Dino from a burning car and comes to the finish line first, but he is again planted for violations, though this time only six months only for six months.
Revenge happened. Dino-Bambino goes to prison for the murder of Pete, and Toby proves that he was not guilty.
When the protagonist left prison, he meets Julia in the new Mustang, after which they leave for a sunset to a long and happy life with a debt before a millionaire of $ 4 million.
Agree, write a high -quality plot in the game, at the forefront of which the races stood primarily, is quite difficult. Until 2014, as far as I remember, there were only 2 games in the series, which more or less pressed on the plot: The Run and Undercover. But in the first, the plot still left much to be desired, but the second, although it was better to deal with history, but make a film on it, everyone would immediately reproach the adaptation of the Fast and the Furious plagiarism (which is in the first outsour, that in Undercover the story tells about a police officer who has been introduced into the gang to the riders.) Therefore, I had to invent something of my own, and it turned out that it turned out.
The story is not intricate and even clicked. We have Toby – he is a racer from God, and therefore he has no equal ones on the highway. We have a dino – an antagonist, a longtime opponent of a protagonist who is inferior to the main character in everything, but in every possible way tries not to show this. They have a conflict in which the protagonist loses something/someone, and therefore, throughout the film, the Glavgada will take revenge. We have Julia – a girl who first does not get along with Toby very much, but after a couple of scenes they already have love to the coffin. And of course the hero overcomes all the obstacles, wins the race, bypassing one opponent after another, saves the antagonist, because the main character is not the same as he proves his rightness to everyone. End.
In addition, the film does not give intelligible answers to some questions. Why did Ingram still decide to give a car toi? Yes, he could get $ 4 million in supercars, but at the same time losing a unique mustang. In addition, Toby saw at the wheel only once and immediately believed that he could win de Leon, where the best of the best would compete? Why did Dino destroy Koeniggg for two whole years, because this is direct evidence, the storage of which, by the way, rises in a tidy sum? And the most important thing that Toby had the plan initially? Prove your innocence? How? Winning de Leon? After all, he could not know that his Ford would break and Anita could fit him the same Koeniggg, the front bumper of which was involved in the death of Pete, and which actually had to fall the victim of the press for a long time. Take revenge? And again, how? Having overtaken Dino, shake his pride? The weak punishment for the death of a friend whom you almost considered a brother. Yes, if de Leon had not won, he would have lost his business, since this was one of the conditions of the chief investor, but Toby did not know that. In short, if you start to think about it, then the story just begins to pour. But the fact is that while watching, you simply do not notice this because of the two unconditional pluses of the picture:
Firstly, because of the excellent action of action, which keeps in suspense and from which you are not drawn to yawn.
Secondly, because of the actors who were able to force the viewer in clicked, at first glance, characters, and as for me, castes are one of the main advantages of this film.
Nice to see the faces of racers. Not the stone face of Dominic Toretto, which remains calm even if a burning gas carrier rushes on him. And the really tense faces of people who drive very fast cars at prohibitive speeds and participate in dangerous races, where any mistake can cost life.
Brenton Twes, Luke Breishi, Taylor Kitch, Liam Hemsworth claimed the role of Toby Marshall, but ultimately the protagonist was played by Aaron Paul, and this is just a hundred percent hit. Aaron really makes the impression of a street racer, he is not pumped, does not shine with bald head, he is simply … ordinary, but at the same time memorable. Aaron Paul is an ideal actor for the role of the protagonist for NFS.
We have been looking for our main character for quite some time. He should have been a simple guy, but courageous and charming. Even when he is silent. And we saw him in Aaron Field. This is an amazing actor. You believe everything that he does is John Gateins.
Toby himself, like a character, is simple, like a plot in this film. He is a simple guy from a simple city with a simple mundane goal: to pay father’s debt. Toby is a born racer whose talent was traced as a child. He is restrained, silent and often besieges the young and impudent Put, whom he considers his younger brother.