Christopher Nolan’s Favorite ‘Fast & Furious’ Movie Drifts Back Onto Streaming Charts in America

Christopher Nolan isn’t the first name most people think of when it comes to Fast & Furious. The filmmaker behind Inception, Tenet, and Dunkirk usually deals in high-concept blockbusters, but he’s never hidden the fact that he’s also a fan of NOS-fueled street racing. In fact, one of Nolan’s favorites, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, has just slid back onto the U.S. streaming charts thanks to a surge of viewers on Hulu. Once dismissed as the franchise’s oddball third entry, it’s now enjoying a second life — and Nolan’s endorsement probably hasn’t hurt.

On The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Nolan was completely unapologetic about his fandom:

“I have no guilt about being a fan of the Fast & Furious franchise. A tremendous action franchise … You’ve never seen any of them? I watch those movies all the time. I love them. I’m amazed you’ve never seen one of them. It’s only the last few where a specific arc and mythology develop. I would start with Tokyo Drift and watch it as its own thing.”

That line about starting with Tokyo Drift raised eyebrows when he first said it, but Nolan has doubled down over the years. On Josh Horowitz’s Happy Sad Confused podcast, he explained that while he respects Rob Cohen’s 2001 original, it’s Tokyo Drift that really sticks with him:

“I’m sort of original recipe, the Rob Cohen original. But I’ve got a very soft spot for Tokyo Drift actually. And Justin Lin’s iterations, as they got crazier and bigger and crazier and bigger they became something else, but something else kinda fun.”

Why Does Christopher Nolan Like Fast and Furious?

For Nolan, part of the appeal is Lin’s direction and the way the franchise embraced its own over-the-top momentum. He’s not someone you’d expect to enjoy the cartoonish turns of later sequels, but his praise shows he gets the energy behind them. The conversation also turned toward sequels in general, and Nolan made a point that’s as true for Fast & Furious as it is for his own Dark Knight trilogy:

“The fun thing about those [Fast and Furious] movies is even as they’ve gotten bigger and bigger, as sequels have to do – everyone always complains that sequels get bigger, but we are the people making sequels get bigger. We do want them bigger. You don’t want them smaller. It’s the Alien 3 lesson, the Fincher one, you can do it but it’s not gonna make anybody happy even though personally I love that film – I love it more than he does, I think.”

Tokyo Drift is streaming now on Hulu.

Release Date

June 16, 2006

Runtime

104 minutes

Writers

Chris Morgan

Producers

Neal H. Moritz

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