MovieChat Forums > The Fast and the Furious (2001) Discussion > Ripping off Karate kid and Pocahontas?

Ripping off Karate kid and Pocahontas?

posted 10 years ago by askeland89
3 replies | jump to latest

Please bare in mind that english is not my first language, so please forgive my grammars.

Btw, this will contain a few spoilers!!

Before you start calling me a troll, please hear me out
I just bought the bluray box-set, containing all six movies.
Just had a semi-marathon, finishing the first three movies of the franchise.
Haven't seen them in a while, but now that I'm a little older and maybe a little wiser, it became obvious to me that the scripts are heavily inspired by The Karate Kid and Pocahontas. Allow me to explain why:

The Fast and the Furious (2001):
The story revolves around Brian O'Conner/John Smith ( or Jake Sully if you will :P ) An undercover cop/soldier who's assigned to spy on the enemy, and learn their ways in order to exploit their weaknesses.
Before you know it, he falls in love with their culture/cars.. Not to mention the girl ( Mia/Pocahontas). Then he eventually winds up abandoning his own people, teaming up with the enemy instead..
Simply put.. It's basically the same story, wrapped in a street racing skin.

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2005)
The story revolves around Sean Boswell/Daniel LaRusso. The new kid in town, who's desperately trying to find his place in the neighbourhood.. And to impress the girl that he kinda sorta has a crush on.. Only problem is, she's already taken.. By the coolest kid in town, which happens to be the king of drifting/karate.
So he decides to take a shot at the king, and he fails.. Miserably!
So he keeps on training until he becomes the best, beats the king and wins the girls heart.

I Suppose the big plot twist is that unlike Daniel, Sean didn't really have a mentor like Mr.Miyagi. I don't think that Han qualifies lol.

This may very well just be my opinion, and you are allowed to disagree with me.
Cheers

[–] Stenian 10 years ago

Lots of movies have the Pocahontas storyline, even way before Pocahontas.

[–] Chrisbc-1 10 years ago

Tokyo Drift is actually more similar to The Karate Kid Part II. The Fast and the Furious is very similar to Point Break and even shares the exact same location on one scene.

[–] slyle 10 years ago

Yeah, The Fast and the Furious may have the same plot archetype as Pocahontas (and many other movies), but it has almost the exact same plot as Point Break. Paul Walker even sounds like Keanu Reeves. I was genuinely surprised when Danny survived at the end of the movie.