Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Vin Diesel And Jason Statham Are All Contractually Obligated To Not Lose Any Fights

The leading men of Fast and Furious franchise have contracts with the producers which states they cannot be bested in a fight!

The testosterone and one-up-manship are ridiculously high, and this story proves it the fragility of the leading men in Fast and Furious movies. According to WSJ, the lead actors in these movies fixed contractual obligation, which makes sure they never lose any fights.

By leading men we mean Dwayne Johnson who joined the franchise through 'Fast Five' and Jason Statham who first appeared in 'Tokyo Drift', which was connected to 'Fast and Furious six' via a post-credit scene, but Statham never appeared in Tokyo Drift (it is all very confusing, check out the comprehensive list here.) Since both the actors appeared alongside Vin Diesel in Furious 7 they started point contracts in place to make sure no one ever loses a fight.

It is not a new thing for a movie’s leading man to get the star treatment and Dwayne Johnson, Vin Diesel and Jason Statham are all solo action stars in their own rights. Being the leading man in movies mean they need to win fights and come out victorious at the end, but the ego was too big to handle in the Furious 7. During the finale of the movie, Jason and Vin are on top of a parking structure, and they fight, during filming the producer of the F&F franchise, Vin, started to feel like he was taking more hits than doling out, so he suggested a numerical system to count the punches and hits. The producers didn’t take to the idea and then it is said the three men put it in their contracts, they cannot be bested.

Watch: The fight between Dom and Shaw

The actors probably don’t have the same contracts during the filming of other movies but this was a special case for the F&F franchise. The word coming from the set is “according to producers and crew members on the films, Mr. Statham, 51 years old, negotiated an agreement with the studio that limits how badly he can be beaten up on screen. Mr. Diesel, 52, has his younger sister, a producer on the films, police the number of punches he takes. And Mr. Johnson, 47, enlists producers, editors and fight coordinators to help make sure he always gives as good as he gets.”

Vin Diesel's sister, who is a producer for the franchise allegedly said during one scene, “He’s falling down right here. Is he going to get his licks back in?” The whole contract thing stems from the fact no one wants to look weaker in front of the others, and it also makes sure the writers don’t make anyone seem less worthy during the fight scenes.

Watch: Hobbs vs Dom in Fast Five

The problem with the fast and the furious movies, except for how ridiculous they are getting, is the apparent lack of good guys losing during fights and now we know it is all by design.

If the beating wasn’t enough, the report also points out; Jason Statham signed a deal with the producers which states how badly he can get beaten up in the movie. Jason’s got a contract and Dwayne got producers and editors who make sure he is never bested on screen.

Watch: Hobbs vs Shaw in Furious 7

The level of narcissism on screen is just ridiculous; we know there needs to be a healthy amount of competition between actors, but having producers keep score so you can look good is just absurd. We want our heroes to be vulnerable, and not just the moping around after the first defeat of the movie where someone comes in and says “family” and the heroes feel rejuvenated. We want the vulnerability of an actor closer to death when going into a franchise; people need to uncertain if their favorite characters are going to make it out alive or not.

The reason Superman doesn’t work on the big screen anymore is people know, no matter what you throw at Superman, he is going to live. It was the same conundrum with the Marvel movie; heroes never die because they have six movies contract, but those expectations were subverted in Avengers: Endgame where the lead character was killed off.

There needs to be a sense of uncertainty going into a movie, even though the film itself is beyond ridiculous. Fast and Furious is walking a thin line right now, the same line Transformers movies were walking before they fell off. The desire for making the same old thing over and over again with extra ridiculous sequences is what killed the Transformers franchise. Fast and Furious is headed in the same direction with each movie feeling the same old thing with an added set piece.

Watch: The trailer for the new Fast and Furious spinoff

It is fun to see 'Dom' and 'Hobbs' and 'Shaw' come out of fights victorious but seeing them come out of battles victorious in 10 movies is something which will just make people not come back for more. The action set pieces are mostly green screen; it is not even like the 'Mission Impossible' franchise where you are scared every time they announce filming, Tom Cruise might die because most of the stunts are practical and he himself does them all.

The allure of stunts will die, and the family thing will just seem vain because the cast can’t even seem to film together. The only thing driving the movies will be characters, and if all of them are Supermen, then expect the box office numbers to keep declining.