Something occurred to me the other night.  I was surfing the TV channels, and stumbled upon one of my favourite movies of the 90s – Point Break.  Directed by the once talented (but where has she gone?) Kathryn Bigelow, this starred a pre-Speed Keanu Reeves, and a buffed out Patrick Swayze.  Now the reason I am writing this post, is to point out that this great action thriller bares an uncanny similarity to another more recent thriller from a few years back, The Fast & The Furious.

Now I know…how can a tale of surf dudes bare any comparison to a tale of illegal street racers?  Bare with me and I will explain.

The plot of Point Break:  Keanu Reeves is a rookie F.B.I. agent who infiltrates a gang of surfers in an attempt to crack a mystery gang of bank robbers, who may or may not be from the surf-community.  He befriends the leader of the surf-dudes, Patrick Swayze, and also ends up falling for Swayze’s ex-girlfriend along the way.  At first he doesn’t suspect these clean-cut surfers, and therefore thinks the bank robbers must be the other surf gang from the bad part of town who are always causing trouble.  Then when he realises that Swayze et-al are the ones he’s after, he is suddenly forced to turn against a friend in order to do his job.

The plot of The Fast & The Furious:  Paul Walker is a rookie F.B.I agent who infiltrates a gang of illegal street racers in an attempt to find a gang of hijackers who may or may not be linked to the street racing community.  He befriends the leader of the gang, Vin Diesel and also falls for Diesel’s sister along the way.  He soon grows fond of the new friends he’s made and therefore thinks the dangerous Chinese gang of street racers are the ones he’s after, until he eventually discovers its really Diesel’s gang all along, and he has to turn against his friend to get the job done. 

In both films, Keanu & Paul Walker report back to an F.B.I. mentor who they have secret meetings with behind the gangs backs.  Also, Keanu is treading dangerous ground to be going with Swayze’s ex-girlfriend in the same way Paul Walker creates tension falling for Diesel’s sister.  The more I think of it, The Fast & The Furious is an unofficial remake of Point Break, with surfing swapped for street racing, to bring things up to date with what is cool and trendy.

In almost every way the two films are alarmingly similar.  I’m probably not alone in noticing this.