Paul Walker is the only connection between 2 Fast 2 Furious and its predecessor. This time, his character must use his racing skills to stop a drug dealer in Miami. Having become a fan of tricked out cars in the first film, Walker took it upon himself to influence some of the rods used in the sequel."I'd like to think I was influential in the cars driven in the movie," Walker said. "I told them, 'Look, I want to drive an R34 Nissan Skyline.' It's the first car I drive in the movie. I told them, 'Hey, Mitsubishi, they're planning this huge campaign. They're gonna launch the release of the Mitsubishi's Evolution 8 sometime early next year. I think we should talk to Mitsubishi and get them involved in the movie.' Their cars are in the movie. I don't know if it's just a coincidence or what, but I think that's a pretty gnarly coincidence. I'm like these kids. I make this movie, and I get it, because I'm into cars, and my background, and my interest in racing, and I'm putting together a race team right now and the whole bit. It was important to me that we did it justice. The first time around, the kids, they loved the movie, but their whole thing was, 'Man, why didn't you have more ridiculous cars. Why didn't you have a Skyline. Why didn't you have this? Why didn't you have that?' So, I had a little more muscle to flex this time, so I did, and we got some better stuff in there."
Now that he's an experienced driver, Walker was able to do many of his own stunts. "Over 120 miles an hour was the top speed, weaving in and out of traffic. That chase sequence on the freeway where basically we're racing for the job, I'd worked with the stunt coordinator and the 2nd unit director before. Universal, they let me do a lot of the driving in the first one, so they let me do a lot of the high speed stuff. Not all of it, you know. Most of the really intense stuff was shot 2nd unit. But when they wanted to see me behind the wheel with the aerial shots, the helicopters and stuff, a lot of that was shot, most of that was shot over, well over 120 miles an hour. I probably shouldn't even be talking about it to be honest with you. But not to like toot my own horn too much, but it's like, these guys, they go out and they do stunts. You've got to remember, stunt men are well versed in everything. My focus has been in driving for a long time now, and with exception of my double and a couple of other guys, I was a better driver, and that's the bottom line. My double is arguably the best driver in Hollywood, and we race together all the time. Like I said, just a couple of the other guys, but they knew it John [Singleton] knew it, and a lot of the other people knew it. When certain people weren't around, they were throwing me in behind the wheel."
Comparing Singleton to the first film's director, Rob Cohen, Walker said, "They're just so different. Rob's like a director and John's more of a movie fan. He directs with a lot of analogies. The guy loves movies, there's no question. The thing I like working about John is he comes in the tent, everyday he's like, 'You should have seen the shit we did yesterday.' And it feels so good working with somebody like that. It feels so good. That guy's a kid too, especially when he's behind the camera cutting together a movie. It's something that he's feeling, and you don't find that all the time."
Walker recalled some of the analogies Singleton used when making 2 Fast 2 Furious. "A lot of references to 'The Road Warrior', but a lot of his, not influence, but I guess a lot of extreme shots, a lot of hard breaking shots as opposed to being just straight away and more traditional. I think that feels good."
2 Fast 2 Furious opens June 6.
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