How Fast And Furious Director Justin Lin's Son Helped Create One Wild Fast 9 Stunt

The "Fast and Furious" movies may be all about family, but they're also about pulling off the most logic-defying, ridiculous car stunts imaginable. This is a franchise that has had ejector seats, a train heist, a submarine, a race through mines, a gigantic wrecking ball, sick jumps over boats, Jason Statham chasing baddies while babysitting an infant, a wrench fight, Charlize Theron digitally controlling every car in New York City, and even sent Ludacris and Tyrese Gibson to space. I'd say "the sky is the limit," but when it comes to the "Fast" franchise, the limit does not exist.

In fact, there's no such thing as an idea that's too ridiculous in the minds of the "Fast" creatives, as "Fast 9" director Justin Lin incorporated an idea that came from his (at the time) eight-or-nine-year-old son, Oqwe. According to an interview with Empire Magazine, it was Oqwe that came up with the memorable magnet plane scene. "Fast 9" is widely accepted as one of the most bananas absurd entries in the series, and the magnet plane is a huge part of that.

In case you've forgotten how the scene plays out, Jakob Toretto (John Cena) is being chased by his brother Dom (Vin Diesel) and Letty Ortiz (Michelle Rodriguez). With nowhere to go, Jakob drives his Ford Mustang GT350R off of a cliff, only to be scooped up by Cipher (Charlize Theron), who is flying a high-tech superplane with a massive magnet that pulls up the car and prevents Jakob from crashing. Yes, it is as preposterous and wonderfully fun as it sounds.

According to the Empire interview, Justin Lin said the idea came about during pre-production while the team was coming up with big set pieces, including the use of magnets. "We were in London for a week, and I had my son Oqwe with me, and the only way we could hang out was that he would come [to] the meetings with me," said Lin. The meetings often included an array of toy cars to help get the creative juices flowing, but when the team was struggling to figure out how to get Jakob out of the chase scene, Oqwe piped up with the answer: magnet plane. Lin said:

"We were talking about the ravine [set-piece] and I said, 'Alright, so here's Roman and Tej. Jakob needs to get to the other side — how does he get there?' And Oqwe just picked it up and pitched the idea of the plane and everything. After us spending hundreds of hours on planning, I guess he was paying attention, and he understood the characters."

Sometimes the unrestrained creativity of a child is exactly the kind of inventive energy a movie needs. It's a baffling idea that plays perfectly into the brand of nonsense the "Fast" films are known for and certainly earned some of the biggest cheers in the theater at the time of release.