Now, let’s get something straight, when we watch Fast and Furious movies we are not seeking them out for scientific accuracy. We are watching them for fast cars, fantastical action and family…duh. However, it’s hard not to wonder if the wild stunts and missions in these movies could actually happen in real life. I know I certainly have pondered that, especially when I watched F9 and saw Tyrese Gibson and Ludacris’ characters go to space, yes space. Well, now a real astronaut has broken down the scene, and while it’s “fun,” as expected, it’s not accurate, and he roasted one specific aspect of Tej and Roman’s mission.
While any viewer can understand that the space mission in F9 is totally unrealistic, retired astronaut Chris Hadfield, the first Canadian to walk in space, broke down exactly why this wouldn’t work in an interview with Vanity Fair. He explained that while the movies are “fun,” they’re also almost like a “cartoon” with how outlandish they can be. He pointed out a specific example of why the space mission was unrealistic by comparing the amount of time it took him to get to space vs. Tej and Roman in the ninth Fast and Furious movie. He said:
Like a billion other people on Earth, I really like the Fast and Furious series. It’s just almost purely a cartoon, but unavoidably fun to follow and watch it. They launch off the back of that airplane, it’s like a C-141 with two engines. Their engines fire and now they’re rocketing into space, and like 30 seconds later they’re in orbit. It took me eight and a half minutes, so they really went fast. They were getting crushed.
Talk about a roast! While Hadfield gave “kudos” to Top Gun: Maverick for its accuracy, he couldn’t really do the same for F9.
However, he does love the movie, and he found one element of Tyrese Gibson and Ludacris’ trip off Earth that actually is accurate. After he commented on how driving a Pontiac Fiero in space is nothing like flying a spaceship, he noted there was one moment in F9 that looked like something he’d experienced. He said:
But I love the scene when those two guys, and you see it reflected in their visors, are suddenly, actually, seeing Earth from space. The beauty of that, and the wonder of it they’re emoting there, it feels just like that. Suddenly, all the blue is below you, you’re out in the eternal blackness and all of life is laid out there in this beautiful curving arc of the world under them. I’m really pleased that they put that into the movie, and then portrayed it so well.
Along with his little comparative roast, I love that Hadfield noted one of the accurate pieces of this overall outlandish sequence.
In the end, the Fast movies are not here to show us what cars are realistically capable of. The fun action flicks are meant to make impossible scenarios look possible through movie magic. Seeing beloved characters like the two Ludacris and Tyrese Gibson play go to space was incredibly fun, and something Fast fans loved, Hadfield included.
Tej and Roman’s space mission may not be accurate, but it’s a real big highlight on the Fast and Furious timeline. To watch F9 and this iconic space-based sequence, you can stream the movie on Freevee through an Amazon Prime subscription.
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Khushi Patel is a science fiction author who lives in Austin, Texas. She has published three novels, and her work has been praised for its originality and imagination. Khushi is a graduate of Rice University, and she has worked as a software engineer. She is a member of the Science Fiction Writers of America, and her books have been nominated for several awards.
