With its characters’ quick-witted remarks and its action-packed scenes, the “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw” movie gives its audience both action and comedy as they have never seen before. In the film, an MI6 agent named Hattie Shaw (Vanessa Kirby) injects herself with a deadly virus called “The Snowflake” to prevent villain Brixton Lore (Idris Elba), a half-human and half-metal man, from acquiring it. The CIA recruits Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), Hattie’s older brother, who prove to be reluctant allies that spout remarks at each other throughout the length of the film. This tough trio forms a plan and work against the clock to retrieve a virus extraction device. If they do not obtain it on time, “The Snowflake” virus has the potential of wiping out half of the global population, Hattie included.
While the stakes are high in this film, comedy seems to present itself at every opportunity. The back and forth insults between Hobbs and Shaw are mostly quite humorous, however the airplane scene is one example of when the comedy could have been cut back short a few minutes. The remarks that Hobbs and Shaw throw at each other can be comedic, but stretching it too far makes it a bit tedious to watch. Although some jokes fall short in trying to amuse the audience, the two protagonists have an undeniable chemistry that is too entertaining not to watch.
Rafael Motamayor, a writer at Slash Film, asked Director David Leitch how he brought one of the final action scenes to life. In one scene, Shaw and the Hobbs family connect their cars to weigh down the helicopter to prevent Brixton from flying away with Hattie and the virus inside of her. Leitch states that to do this there was a mix of visual and practical effects. Both the chase scenes by the edge of the cliff and the helicopter flying were all practical stunts. Once the cars began to be pulled off of the ground and away from the cliff, visual effects had to be incorporated. Leitch explains that the cars were lifted by a rig with a hydraulic lift or a crane and at times, the cars were placed with CGI (computer-generated imagery). This stunt could not have been easy to shoot and while the film could have included more car scenes like in previous movies in the franchise, “Hobbs & Shaw” shows how action scenes like this one are fast and furious enough on their own.
In an interview by Fox 5 DC, Johnson shares that Director David Leitch has an interesting style and that he genuinely enjoys that the scenes in “Hobbs & Shaw” do not have “action for the sake of action,” but that the “… approach of having [the] characters inform the action created [their] own identity within the Fast & Furious world.” Statham also has a great appreciation for the hard work that goes into action scenes. He enjoys working with stuntmen, yet he also acknowledges the risks that they have to take and that they are often undervalued. In one scene where his character grabs multiple men and pushes their faces against a scanner repeatedly, he jokingly shares that he was told to “hit them harder.”
This film has been successful in the short time since it was released, so as summer comes to a close, be sure to watch Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Vanessa Kirby, Idris Elba, Ryan Reynolds, and Kevin Hart as they bring crazy action scenes and tons of laughter to this exciting summer movie.