One of the Fast & Furious franchise's most memorable (and infamous) moments is the 26-mile runway finale in Fast 6. Long-time franchise scribe Chris Morgan talks about the idea and science behind the much-talked-about scene.
In the Fast 6 finale, Owen Shaw and his group are aboard an aircraft with a valuable computer chip and Mia, while Dom and his crew race down an airport runway after the aircraft. Eventually, Dom, Letty and Brian board the craft and able to rescue Mia and recover the chip.
Morgan, who wrote the film, explained the idea behind the scene, saying, “I always put myself where I started my journey with Fast, which is as a fan in the theater watching the movies. What gets me excited and makes me want to cheer? How do we use vehicles in a way we haven’t thought about before? There is a caveat to this, which is the old physics debate. We’ll bend physics, in fact, we’ll bend it a lot, but we won’t outright break it."
"My dad was a science teacher and I definitely respect physics, but my rule is a little bit more flexible," he continued. "I’d cite the runway at the end of Fast 6 as an example. Technically for the plane to be in the air for the duration of that set piece, the runway would have to be 26 miles long. True, but when you’re watching it, is your brain doing that calculation, or are you enjoying and locked into the movie and worried about what’s happening with Han and Gisele [Gal Gadot] and the other characters? If it doesn’t take you out of the movie, then it’s good for us, we’ll do it. People will always ask me, ‘Would you ever do this type of sequence or this type of sequence?’ And my answer is always, is the audience going to love it, cheer it, and enjoy it? If so, yes.”
Fast & Furious 6 is available in physical and digital copy. Franchise spinoff Hobbs & Shaw is in theaters now, with Fast & Furious 9 set for release May 22, 2020.