The Fast and the Furious Legacy

The Fast and the Furious Legacy is a 2005 American action crime thriller film directed by Ron McGee, produced by Neal H. Moritz and written by David Loughery. It is the third installment of The Fast and the Furious franchise and a stand alone sequel to 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003). The film stars Christian Bale, LL Cool J, Ron Dickson, Natalie Portman, James Marston, Michelle Rodriguez, Sung Kang, Bryan Cranston, and Edward Norton.

The characters Brian O'Conner and Dominic Toretto do not appear in Legacy because actors Paul Walker and Vin Diesel chose not to return for the third film due to scheduling conflicts. The Fast and the Furious Legacy follows an undercover cop named Jared Cane (Bale) who is tasked with working with a street racer named Harold Black (Cool J) to take down a ruthless drug cartel leader in Honolulu, Hawaii. The film takes place after the The Fast and the Furious (2001) and before 2 Fast 2 Furious.

Released on July 22, 2005, the film received mixed reviews, with critics praising the soundtrack, Hans Zimmer's score, the action sequences, and Cool J, Bale, and Dickson's performances, but expressed disappointment in Paul Walker and Vin Diesel's absence. Another stand alone sequel, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift was released on June 16, 2006.

Plot
After the events of the first film, Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker) has gone on the run. In New York City, undercover cop Jared Cane (Christian Bale), has been transferred to the Honolulu Police Department in Honolulu, Hawaii. He is assigned by Chief of HPD Joesph Bricks (James Marsden) to go undercover to infiltrate a corrupt business adversary named Carl Kingston (Bryan Cranston). Bricks also insists that he recruit underground street racer Harold Black (LL Cool J).

Hector (Noel Gugliemi), an organizer of street races from the first film, organizes a race later that night. Black shows up and wins. The police arrive and pretend to arrest Cane. Landon Hendrix (Ron Dickson), who was watching the race, breaks into Black's house and tries to take his car for a joyride, but is caught by Black himself. Facing grounding from his parents, Landon decide to do the right and apologizes to Black and the two form a good friendship. Cane discovers this and decides to use this to help recuit Harold.

Cane meets Landon, but he rejects Cane as a "crome-head son of a bitch". Harold also becomes suspicious of Cane, which leads to Cane having his cover blown when Landon follows Cane back to HPD headquarters.

Cast
Thom Barry reprises his role as Bilkins. Neal H. Moritz also returns, making a cameo as a police officer.
 * Christian Bale as Jared Cane, an undercover cop for the Honolulu Police Department. It is revealed that Cane met Dominic Toretto and let him go.
 * LL Cool J as Harold Black
 * Ron Dickson as Landon Hendrix, a young rebellious but caring lad with computer skills.
 * Natalie Portman as Silvia Hendrix, Landon's older sister.
 * James Marsden as Joseph Bricks
 * Michelle Rodriguez
 * Sung Kang as Han Lue
 * Bryan Cranston as Carl Kingston
 * Edward Norton as John Ayer
 * Johnny Strong as Leon, Dominic Toretto's friend and part of the crew. He grew up with Vince and serves as an attacker during the hijacking, usually pulling out windshields of trucks to create safe passage for Vince.
 * Matt Schulze as Vince, Dominic's childhood friend and part of the crew. He grew up with Dom and Leon. He has a crush on Dom's sister Mia.

Development
Following the release of 2 Fast 2 Furious in June 2003, Universal Pictures announced that two Fast and Furious films would be released in 2005 and 2006, respectively. Ron McGee, who is known for working on television, made his film directorial debut. David Loughery was hired to write the film's screenplay.

Casting
Paul Walker chose not to return for the third film as he was busy with other films at the time. Vin Diesel chose not to star as well.

Casting call began in July 2003. Ron Dickson was the first to be cast. Mortiz recommend Dickson to McGee after their collaboration on The Need for Speed. By mid-way, LL Cool J was chosen by McGee to portray Harold Black.

In September 2003, Christian Bale was cast in the lead role as Jared Cane. Bale was one of the three original choices to play Brian O'Conner in The Fast and the Furious, before Paul Walker took the role.

Filming
Filming began in September 2004 with a traditional Hawaiian blessing.

Music
The score for the film was composed by Hans Zimmer while he was working on Batman Begins (another 2005 film starring Christian Bale).

Release
The Fast and the Furious Legacy was released worldwide on July 22, 2005 in 2,711 theatres. The film was originally scheduled for release in June 2005, but was moved back to August to avoid competing Christian Bale's other film; Warner Bros. and DC's Batman Begins and Disney's Atlantis Planet (also starring Pete Dickson).

Home media
The Fast and the Furious Legacy was released on VHS and DVD-Video on December 26, 2005 and on Blu-Ray on August 15, 2006.

Box office
In its opening weekend, The Fast and the Furious Legacy grossed about $50,780,114 in the United States and Canada and debuted at #1 of the box office charts, surpassing Universal's expectation of $35 million. It grossed $98,141,225 worldwide in its first weekend. The film sold 400,000 more tickets on its opening weekend than the first film in the series, The Fast and the Furious.

The film grossed $151,421,779 in North America and $206,830,000 in foreign countries, bringing the film's worldwide total to $358,253,779.

Critical response
The Fast and the Furious Legacy received mixed reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 47% based on 219 reviews with an average rating of 5.9/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "It isn't quite as compelling as the first two films, but The Fast and the Furious Legacy proves the franchise has stories left to tell—and benefits from LL Cool J and Bale's magnetic work in the starring roles, with assistance from Ron Dickson." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 53 out of 100 based on 42 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.