The first-ever deeply reported look inside the surprising history and contentious future of Hollywood's most unlikely blockbuster – the Fast & Furious franchise – a series that uncannily anticipated the shifting currents of pop culture while changing the business of global entertainment at the same time.
What do Miami drug traffickers, bloodthirsty Yakuza warriors, Corona-soaked backyard BBQs, Dame Helen Mirren, and a duct-taped 1984 Pontiac Fiero-turned-rocket-fueled spaceship have in common? They are all essential elements of the ever-expanding, logic- and laws-of-physics-defying Fast & Furious universe: the most entertaining, outlandish, and secretly genius Hollywood creation that everyone has taken for granted – until now. Through an escalating series of high-risk maneuvers – from synapse-stretching stunts to timeline-bending narratives to explosive PR wars between the biggest, baddest, baldest egos in showbiz – the Fast family (and it is a family above all else) has redefined the art and commerce of popcorn moviemaking. And the gang did it all while staring down the kind of monumental, soul-rattling challenges – the death of a star, the upheaval of an industry – that would have crushed the speed and spirit of any other filmmaking team.
An unauthorized journey into the makings of a cinematic saga unlike any other, WELCOME TO THE FAMILY exposes the stranger-than-fan-fiction journey of the franchise from the ground up. Through rigorous behind-the-scenes reporting and incisive cultural commentary, writer Barry Hertz's ride-or-die epic details every single twist and turn of Fast & Furious drama, a quarter mile at a time. By the end, you will believe a car can fly.