17 Crazy Facts You Just Have To Accept To Enjoy The Fast & Furious Franchise

17. The Original Is A Point Break Ripoff

The classic 1991 Kathryn Bigelow-directed action flick Point Break stars Keanu Reeves as a cop looking to infiltrate a gang of surfers, led by Patrick Swayze, who the FBI believes are bank robbers. Of course, Reeves' bond with the gang becomes strong enough that, at the end of the movie, he allows Swayze to escape the cops (albeit by surfing to his death), before throwing his badge in the ocean. The Fast and the Furious follows pretty much the same formula, except switching out surfers for street racers. At the end of the movie, Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker) allows Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) to speed off in his own car to evade the authorities, causing O'Conner to become a fugitive himself. Though the action beats are totally different, the core of the script is pretty much identical, and so, without Point Break, the Fast and Furious franchise likely wouldn't even exist in the first place...