Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw

Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (also known as Hobbs & Shaw) is a 2019 American action film that is a spin-off of The Fast and the Furious franchise. The plot follows the unlikely team-up of the titular Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), characters introduced in the main series, as they are forced to team up with Shaw's sister (Vanessa Kirby) when a genetically-enhanced terrorist (Idris Elba) and his organization threaten the world with a deadly virus. The film is directed by David Leitch and written by Chris Morgan and Drew Pearce, from a story by Morgan. Series star and producer Vin Diesel first said in 2015 that possible spin-offs were in early development, and Hobbs & Shaw was officially announced in October 2017. Leitch signed on to direct in April 2018, and Kirby and Elba both joined the cast that July. Filming began in September and lasted through January 2019, mostly taking place in London and Glasgow. Hobbs & Shaw premiered at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on July 13, 2019, and was theatrically released in the United States on August 2, 2019. The film has grossed $687 million worldwide and received praise for the performances of Johnson, Statham, and Kirby, as well as its visual style and action choreography finesse, although the runtime and messy plot were criticized.

Plot
In London, Hattie Shaw and her team of MI6 agents attempt to retrieve a programmable supervirus named 'Snowflake' from terrorist organization Eteon. Brixton Lore, an Eteon operative with cybernetic implants that allow him to perform superhuman feats, arrives and kills all the agents except Hattie, who injects Snowflake into herself before escaping. Brixton frames Hattie for killing her team and stealing Snowflake, forcing her to go on the run.

Luke Hobbs and Deckard Shaw, Hattie's brother, are both informed of the missing virus and are reluctantly assigned to work together to track it down. After a brief meeting at a CIA black site at the Cheesegrater, Deckard goes to Hattie's house for information, while Hobbs manages to find Hattie; after a brief scuffle, he brings her to the CIA office, as Deckard then returns. The office is attacked and Hattie is taken by Brixton, whom Deckard recognizes as an old colleague-turned-enemy he'd previously shot and supposedly killed. Hobbs and Deckard pursue and rescue Hattie during an ensuing car chase, managing to escape from Brixton who falls off his motorcycle and crashes through the second level of a double decker bus. However, Brixton frames all three as traitors via Eteon's control of global news media.

The trio locate Professor Andreiko, Snowflake's creator, who informs them that to prevent Snowflake from eradicating humanity, Hattie has to, while the virus is still dormant, either be killed or have the virus removed with a specialized extraction device, located within Eteon's headquarters in Ukraine. After flying undercover to Moscow and rendezvousing with Deckard's girlfriend Madame M to rearm, the trio infiltrate the facility. They manage to retrieve the extraction device before escaping and destroying the facility; however, Andreiko is killed and the device damaged during their escape.

Hobbs decides to bring the trio to his childhood home in Samoa to visit his estranged brother Jonah, a talented mechanic, to repair the device and lay low before confronting Brixton again. Hobbs has a tense reunion with his family, but Jonah is eventually persuaded to help them by their mother. The makeshift battalion prepare for Eteon's arrival, setting up a variety of traps around the island. Jonah successfully repairs the device and starts the virus extraction, just as Brixton and his army arrive at daybreak. In the ensuing battle, all of Brixton's soldiers are killed. Brixton takes Hattie again via helicopter; however, Hobbs, Deckard and the Samoans bring the helicopter down. Working together, Hobbs and Deckard defeat Brixton, who is remotely terminated afterwards by Eteon's director. Hobbs and Deckard send a message to the director, promising to find him. The group celebrates their victory.

In a series of mid- and post-credits scenes, Hobbs brings his daughter to meet their extended family in Samoa; Deckard and Hattie are implied to bust their mother out of prison; and Hobbs receives a call from his partner, Locke, who had broken into a facility and discovered another virus worse than the Snowflake virus. Hobbs also has the police set on Deckard in London under the alias “Hugh Janus”.

Cast
A DSS agent assigned by the CIA to work with Deckard in stopping Snowflake, in spite of their disdain for each other. A mercenary formerly with British Special Forces and MI6 and Hattie's brother, who remains at odds with, but joins forces with Hobbs in order to help the former's sister, Hattie. A cyber-genetically enhanced terrorist working for Eteon and former MI6 field agent who has a history with Deckard. An MI6 field agent and sister of Deckard, who is being hunted by Lore. A criminal mastermind and the mother of Deckard, Hattie and Owen. A high-profile thief, friend and former love interest to Deckard. A two-time Nobel Prize-winning scientist, who created the Snowflake virus.
 * Dwayne Johnson as Luke Hobbs:
 * Jason Statham as Deckard Shaw:
 * Idris Elba as Brixton Lore:
 * Vanessa Kirby as Hattie Shaw:
 * Helen Mirren as Magdalene "Queenie" Shaw:
 * Eiza González as Madam M:
 * Eddie Marsan as Professor Andreiko:

Additionally, Cliff Curtis, Roman Reigns, Josh Mauga and John Tui portray Jonah, Mateo, Timo and Kal Hobbs, Luke's brothers, with Lori Pelenise Tuisano as Sefina Hobbs, Luke's mother. Lyon Beckwith, Westley LeClay and Pingi Moli portray Luke's cousins. Eliana Su'a portrays Luke's daughter Sam Hobbs, replacing Eden Estrella from the previous two films. Rob Delaney appears as CIA agent Loeb, while director David Leitch makes a cameo appearance as an Eteon helicopter pilot, and Nathan Jones portrays a Russian fighter pilot.

Ryan Reynolds and Kevin Hart make uncredited appearances as CIA agent Locke and air marshal Dinkley, respectively. The Eteon, a role that Keanu Reeves was in negotiations for, does not physically appear in the film and is voiced by a credited Champagne Nightingale. The character will be physically cast in a future film.

Development
In November 2015, Vin Diesel announced in an interview with Variety that potential spin-offs for The Fast and the Furious series were in the early stages of development. In October 2017, Universal Pictures announced a spin-off film centered around characters Luke Hobbs and Deckard Shaw, and set a release date of July 26, 2019, with Chris Morgan returning to write the script. Variety reported that Shane Black was being considered to direct the film. The announcement of the spin-off provoked a response on Instagram by Tyrese Gibson, criticizing Johnson for causing the ninth Fast & Furious film to be delayed for another year. In February 2018, Deadpool 2 director David Leitch entered talks to direct the film. In April 2018, Leitch was confirmed as the director for the film and added David Scheunemann as a production designer.

Casting
In July 2018, Vanessa Kirby was cast in the film to play an MI6 agent and Shaw's sister, along with Idris Elba as the main villain in the film. In October 2018, Eddie Marsan joined the cast of the film, and in November 2018, Eiza Gonzalez was added as well. In January 2019, Johnson revealed that his cousin and professional wrestler Roman Reigns would appear in the film as Hobbs' brother. Additionally, he announced that Cliff Curtis, Josh Mauga, and John Tui would portray other brothers of Hobbs. Helen Mirren was also confirmed to be reprising her role from The Fate of the Furious.

Filming
Principal photography began on September 10, 2018, in London, England. Dwayne Johnson joined the production two weeks later, on September 24, 2018, after he wrapped filming Jungle Cruise. Most filming was done at Shepperton Studios. In October, filming moved to Glasgow, Scotland, to recreate London. Filming also took place in late 2018 at Eggborough Power Station in North Yorkshire, and in Aldershot, Hampshire. The Hawaiian island of Kaua'i was used as a stand-in for Samoa for the film's third act. Cinematographer Jonathan Sela shot the film with Arri Alexa XT and Alexa Mini digital cameras and Hawk Class-X anamorphic lenses. Production officially wrapped on January 27, 2019.

Post-production
The visual effects were provided by DNEG and Framestore, supervised by Mike Brazelton and Kyle McCulloch, and produced by Dan Glass.

Music
In May 2019, Film Music Reporter announced that Tyler Bates would compose the film's score. The first single of the soundtrack is "Getting Started" written by Kyle Williams aka producer Willyecho (Songland), and performed by American singer-songwriter Aloe Blacc and rapper J.I.D.

Marketing
The first poster was released on January 31, 2019. The first trailer was released on February 1, 2019, and a TV spot was aired during Super Bowl LIII, on February 3, 2019. A second trailer was released on April 18, 2019. The final trailer was released on June 28, 2019.

Release
The film had its premiere at the Dolby Theatre in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California on July 13, 2019. The film was theatrically released in the United States on August 2, 2019, after being moved from its previous date of July 26, 2019. The film began international rollout on July 31, 2019, and will be released in China on August 23. The release is in 2D, Dolby Cinema, and IMAX.

Lawsuit
In October 2018, Fast & Furious producer Neal H. Moritz filed a lawsuit against Universal Pictures for breach of oral contract and committing promissory fraud, after the distributor removed him as lead producer on Hobbs & Shaw. Furthermore, in May 2019, it was revealed that Universal had dropped Moritz from all future Fast & Furious installments.

Box office
As of September 2, 2019, Hobbs & Shaw has grossed $159.2 million in the United States and Canada, and $528.7 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $687.9 million. In the United States and Canada, the film was projected to gross $60–65 million from 4,253 theaters in its opening weekend, while some insiders predicted it could exceed $70 million. The film made $23.7 million on its first day, including $5.8 million from Thursday night previews, the highest amount for both Johnson and Statham outside the main Fast & Furious series. It went on to debut to $60 million over the weekend, finishing first at the box office. Similar to the main Fast & Furious films, Hobbs & Shaw had a diverse audience, with audience demographics being 40% Caucasian, 27% Hispanic, 20% African American and 13% Asian. The film dropped 58% in its second weekend to $25.3 million, remaining in first, before being dethroned by newcomer Good Boys in its third.

In other territories, the film was projected to open to around $125 million from 54 countries, for a worldwide debut of $195 million. The film made $24.9 million from its first two days of international release. In its Chinese opening weekend, the film made $102 million, the second highest-grossing weekend of 2019 behind Avengers: Endgame.

Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 67% based on 302 reviews, with an average rating of 6.09/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Hobbs & Shaw doesn't rev as high as the franchise's best installments, but gets decent mileage out of its well-matched stars and over-the-top action sequences." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 60 out of 100, based on 54 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it an average four out of five stars.

Writing for Variety, Peter Debruge gave the film a positive review, with the summary, "Fan favorites Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham milk the friction between their characters while teaming up to save the world in this gratuitously over-the-top spinoff." Eric Kohn of IndieWire gave the film a "B–" and stated, "Strip away the meandering exposition and Hobbs & Shaw is an old-school screwball comedy that just happens to feature two major action stars."

Conversely, the Chicago Sun-Times ' s Richard Roeper gave the film 1.5 out of 4 stars, writing, "In case of bad-movie emergency, break glass. Over the two hour-plus running time of the painfully long, exceedingly tedious, consistently unimaginative and quite dopey Hobbs & Shaw, I counted some 13 instances in which humans and/or vehicles went crashing through panes of glass."

Potential sequel
On August 13, 2019, Ryan Reynolds confirmed that he will return for Hobbs & Shaw 2.