3/20/2014 Need for Speed Delivers Fast-Paced Thrills

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Chuck Lewis

Film + Broadcast Student

TFA Chicago Critics Club

After graduating from Carthage Collegewith a degree in Graphic Design andStudio Art, Chuck Lewis decided tofurther explore Film + Broadcast atTribeca Flashpoint Academy. Focused

NEED FOR SPEED DELIVERS FAST-PACED THRILLS

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to screen Scott Waugh’s Need

for Speed in an audience of action movie aficionados and fans of fastcars. Even then, before weeks of TV spots hyped the practical stunts ofthe film set to hit theatres March 14th, the audience literally cheered withevery jump and explosion along the way.

Need for Speed, a somewhat loose adaptation of the popular videogame, follows the story of Tobey Marshall (Aaron Paul)—a street racerfrom the small town of Mt. Kisco, New York who spends his days trying tokeep the family auto repair shop afloat. Marshall has the opportunity tosave the shop when his old nemesis, Dino Brewster (Dominic Cooper),offers the team of mechanics the chance to rebuild a Shelby Mustang

3/20/2014 Need for Speed Delivers Fast-Paced Thrills

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on both screenwriting and post-production, Chuck is primarily interestedin working to shape and to tell the manystories he comes across from day to day.

rivaled only by Carroll Shelby’s original. The gang reluctantly takes thejob, succeeds, and then tragically loses their cut of the selling price in anall-or-nothing race between Brewster, Marshall, and Pete (HarrisonGilbertson)—a close friend of Tobey’s and the younger brother ofBrewster’s wife. In the last stretch of the race, Brewster flips Pete’s carover the rail of a bridge, for which the falsely accused Tobey spends twoyears behind bars.

Upon release from prison, Marshall decides to risk everything andembark on a 48-hour trek across the country in the very car that set thestory in motion. The car’s owner complies on the condition that hisassistant, Julia (Imogen Poots), ride along. In the two days that follow,Tobey, Julia, and the reunited mechanics from Marshall’s shop racethrough American car culture’s most iconic landmarks to make it toCalifornia. There they hope to discover the location of the elusive DeLeon street race where Marshall can avenge Pete by dethroning DinoBrewster.

The film’s campaign has primarily been centered around Waugh’schoice to rely entirely on practical stunts. He cited multiple sources of

inspiration, but always came back to Peter Yates’ Bullitt. “Why do we stillquote, today, a movie [from] fifty years ago as the best car movie of alltime? We really just wanted to make a movie that paid respects to thatworld.” Waugh’s search for a protagonist ultimately led him to Aaron Paul—an actor he thinks of as “the next Steve McQueen.”

Paul, who started filming Need for Speed the morning after production

on AMC’s Breaking Bad wrapped, was a natural fit for the role of TobeyMarshall. Audiences will undoubtedly draw comparisons to Breaking

Bad’s Jesse Pinkman, but the role seems like a pretty organic evolutionfor Paul. “I still consider myself very much of a character actor.” Waughchimed in and said, “I think that’s why he makes a great Tobey. Because,Tobey sure the hell doesn’t see himself as a lead man either.”

While many have been quick to write the film off as another The Fast andthe Furious, the movie is much more aligned with a different legacy ofaction-packed automotive stories. Whether it will meet its aspirationstoBullitt remains to be seen, but the cheering audience I sat withdefinitely seemed to enjoy the ride.

Need for Speed is now playing in theaters nationwide. Get tickets onFandango.