And now, we take a look at what you WON’T see in FASTER. First, watch this trailer.
Spoiler warning – the article below will inherently spoil certain aspects of the film, though much of it regards scenes that are not included in the final print. Read at your own discretion, but please don’t get angry with us if something in here spoils a part of the movie you didn’t want to know about.
These days there’s an ongoing problem with movie trailers, in that more often than not these trailers are showing us scenes that don’t end up in the final print. Sometimes it’s very subtle, like a half-second shot of a character doing something in a scene that was cut from the final print for time purposes. But other times there are major and memorable shots in trailers that seem mysteriously absent from the finished film, leaving us to wonder why the studio would tease us with something we’re never going to see on the big screen. In the case of FASTER, there are some really major trailer moments missing entirely from the movie, making me wonder what exactly happened in the editing room, and more importantly why did it happen. I’ve pulled screen grabs which you can see below, and provided what I believe to be a possible reason these scenes are not in the final print. If you’ve seen any trailers of TV spots for FASTER, you’ve undoubtedly seen snippets of a spectacular car crash scene, which is the result of a game of chicken between Dwayne Johnson’s 1970’s Chevelle and Oliver Jackson-Cohen’s silver Ferrari 360. If we analyze these trailers and clips, we can see the two cars head toward one another, with the Chevelle launching into the air surrounded by sparks. That scene, ladies and gentlemen, is nowhere in the movie. This is particularly hard to understand, not just because it’s so prominently features in the advertising campaign, but because it was undoubtedly an expensive sequence to shoot, and most likely a pivotal moment in the film’s finale. So what happened? I have a theory at the bottom of this article, which again I must warn you contains spoilers. In the meantime here are some screengrabs from the trailers and/or TV spots, and what I think is going on in them.
In this scene, which appears to be the beginning of the “chicken” standoff, you can see the fresh bullet hole in the back of Johnson’s head from when he was shot by the film’s secret bad guy. This implies this scene played in order after the Evangelist scene.
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Johnson is driving toward the Ferrari as shots are being fired back and forth by both men.
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You see Johnson firing his gun at Oliver Jackson-Cohen…
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…and Oliver Jackson-Cohen firing his gun back at Johnson.
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Then the big moment, as Johnson’s Chevelle launches into the sky upon hitting the Ferrari.
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Another shot of the launch.
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The Chevelle from an undercarriage view.
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The Ferrari skids out…
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…and crashes into a pole.
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Johnson gets out for a standoff.
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He faces off with Oliver Jackson-Cohen.
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And clearly (this was in the trailer folks) kills him.
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There’s also a shot in the trailer of Maggie Grace’s character Lily getting out of a yellow car.
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The camera closes in on her, and she’s holding a gun (not visible in this shot). Is it possible she’s the one who shoots Oliver Jackson-Cohen?!? Would be surprising, as they’re very much in love in the movie.
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Then there’s these last few shots that showed up in the trailers, where several cop cars are following Johnson in the Chevelle.
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The cop cars close in on him.
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Close-up shot of Johnson with cops in the background. He looks tired. Can we assume they catch him and send him back to jail?
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So there you go, all of those screenshots you see above are NOT in the final print of the film. There is no game of chicken, no spectacular crash, just a quiet and somewhat anti-climatic ending. If you’ve seen the film, then read on, otherwise I’m about to discuss what happens in the end of the movie, and how I think this was an original ending.
Last chance to avoid spoilers…
Okay, here we go. In the final print of the film, Oliver Jackson-Cohen’s character gets the drop on Johnson after Johnson deals with the Evangelist. Rather than shoot him, the Cop (Thornton) shows up and shoots Johnson in the back of the head. It’s established early on in the film that Johnson’s character had a metal plate put in his head. Oliver’s character leaves the tent, and basically eludes to getting out of the business, leading the audience to believe he’s heading back to Lily and the promise of a normal life. It’s a happy ending of sorts for that character, and he lives to see another day. As Cop makes a phone call to his ex saying he’s finished the job, Johnson shoots him from behind, has a few last words with him, then kills him. He then dumps his brother’s ashes in the lake, and shortly thereafter the movie ends. So here’s my theory. I think in the original cut, after Driver disposes of Cop, he meets up with Killer on the road. As you can see in the first screencap, Driver has the bullet from Cop in the back of his head. So Driver and Killer do the chicken thing, Driver’s car goes airborn and lands hundreds of feet away. Each of them get out of their cars, and clearly Killer dies, probably by Driver’s gun. Then there’s the shot of Maggie Grace getting out of the yellow car, which could be just about anywhere in the film, but I’m guessing it comes either right around the death scene of Killer, or shortly after, as she looks like she’s starting to get emotional in that shot. As for the cop cars, I think the movie originally ended with the cops catching up to Driver, and him going back to jail, now that his job is finished. My guess is they screened this with that original ending, and audiences wanted Johnson to get away, and Oliver Jackson-Cohen to live… so they reshot an ending with no chicken (or just cut the chicken scene out altogether), and left out the cops catching up to Driver. Sound plausible? I can only hope the alternate ending, or at the very least the chicken scene, will make it to the home video version of FASTER. It definitely would have made it seem more like an “action” film, but I can also understand how changing those certain aspects would make audiences happier. Bottom line is this… Hollywood, please stop putting scenes in trailers that aren’t in the finished print. It’s aggravating, and in this case downright upsetting. I waited that whole movie to see that spectacular crash, and it never came. You think I’m the only one who is going to feel that way? Seriously? Seriously. Share your thoughts in the comments below.
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As two final bits of evidence, check out the first little bit of this B-roll footage, which clearly shows the filming of the crash scene.
And this publicity photo of Maggie Grace holding a gun in front of the yellow car. Again, this scene is never in the movie, but was clearly shot for the film.
Click on image to see it full-size
FASTER opens November 24, 2010
Born and raised in Dallas, Mark has been a movie critic since 1994, with reviews featured in print, radio and National TV. In 2001 he started the Entertainment section of the Herorealm website, where he contributed film reviews and celebrity interviews until 2004. After three years of service there, he started Bigfanboy.com, which has become one of the Dallas film community's leading information websites. Bigfanboy hosts several movie screenings in the Texas area, and works closely with film and TV studios and promotional partners to host exciting events and contests. The site also features a variety of rare celebrity and filmmaker interviews, and Bigfanboy.com regularly covers the film festival circuit as well. In addition to Hollywood reporting, Mark has worked for many years as an advertising and sci-fi/comic book artist. Clients have included Lucasfilm Ltd., Topps Trading Cards, The Dallas Mavericks and The Dallas Stars. From 2002 until 2015 he managed the Dallas Comic Con, Sci-Fi Expo and Fan Days events in the DFW area. He currently catalogs rare comic books and movie memorabilia for Heritage Auctions, and runs the Dallas Comic Show conventions, but remains an avid moviegoer and cinema buff. 
I was so annoyed about this words can’t describe. Hopefully it will be in the dvd but they should have put it in the theater release! By the way, the Killer drives a Ferrari 360, not a Lambo.
Thanks for the note Chris, I will correct the car description in the article.
In the screenplay after Driver kills Cop, Killer overhears and returns to happily finish what he started. There’s a standoff and Driver ultimately gets the better of Killer, although there’s a kind of mutual respect between them. It was a great moment, and clearly the director shot it, but opted not to include it in the movie. The movie’s great as is, albeit anti-climactic, but could have been CLASSIC had they kept the original ending. It’s truly baffling why they would cut it.
The car-crash ending would have been needlessly cartoonish. The sober finale in the film is far more appropriate. And think about the plot: Driver’s conflict was with Cop, Killer was no more important to this basic premise than any other weapon employed by the characters. To have some big shootout after the death of Cop would be totally inappropriate to the tone of the film.
That being said, they still shouldn’t have used the scenes in the trailer…
I agree. I tend to latch on to things more now durring the movie trailers but this is a clear lie in my book. On BTW, the yellow car Looks to be a Lotus Elise (prolly a 2009-2011). I hated that in Iron Man 2 the scene where Pepper threw out the helmet and then you hear, “You complete me!” was cut from the movie (at least when we saw it it was). I was watching the WHOLE movie trying to see when this part would be put in and when it got to the end I was like, AH HAH! I see, but it NEVER happened. SO, I waited for the credits to even pass, Hey since John Favre (SP) did this movie didn’t he also have something to do with Iron man? I recall there being movies AFTER the credits so we stuck around and watched. STILL nothing.
BOTTOM LINE, STOP DOING THIS CRAP BECAUSE IT IS PISSING PEOPLE OFF. If I am gonna pay $6.00 (I know that is cheap but I had to get out there in the AM to get that price) per ticket to see that movie and I am expecting to see a crash that ALL of the trailers have showed then I BETTER SEE A DAMN CRASH! Jerks… >:
I just got back from seeing Faster and frantically Googled to find out what the hell happened to those scenes. Thankfully found your post sharing my frustrations. The ending was kind of abrupt which is why they probably through in “The End” on it. I think the showdown with Killer could have stayed in the movie. Killer seem to have this chip on his shoulder with Driver as if Driver was his Mobey Dick. There was a scene when Killer was talking to his therapist and basically said things were too easy. Driver presented the challenge he was looking for. So they decide to wrap him up by him crying and running off to his wife? Wow, way to turn a contract killer into a puppy.
I guess with this ending they can leave it more open to a sequel. If it makes enough money I suppose.
I think by not having the final faceoff between Killer and Driver that Killer was a needlessly overcomplicated character that never contributes to the movie.
Sure we get that he was a thrill seeker and looking for a challenge to test himself, but they play up his martial arts abilities in the one kickboxing picture he always looks at and they flesh out this character… only to have him accomplish nothing. It’s not even like Killer came to any realization to quit playing the game, he just didn’t have the challenge in Driver anymore because he thought he was done.
It would have been great since Driver was not one to go after anyone else on the list if the end scene after the mystery bad guy was killed went like this:
Killer called up Lily and asked her to meet him, they meet up at some lookout or something and he talks about how he’s done. Then Driver happens to drive by them while they are talking and Killer recognizes Drivers distinctive car and has to make a choice to go after him (seeking that ultimate challenge) or not. Of course he goes after Driver and the scene unfolds where Driver beats out Killer and Lily just lets Driver walk away since he wasn’t the one looking for the fight.
Follow up for sequel:
Lily has some tragedy and needs to take out revenge. She takes on the nickname Lady Killer and tracks down Driver who she needs to get the revenge she deserves. Lady Killer (Lily) and Driver team up for some awesome action and the second movie kicks ass.
That’s how I think it should have went down.
I’m very glad you posted this. I also noticed many scenes were missing from the movie.
One explanation as to where the missing parts went: I use to do market research for movies, and many times these commercials come out years before the movies do. The shoot a few scenes, throw together a commercial and send it to us to get a reaction from the public, see if it’s worth finishing the movie. I know that sounds crazy, but went you’re talking 10+ million dollars to make a movie (Faster cost $24 million) it’s a lot cheaper to spend a few hundred grand shooting a few scenes for a few different commercials and sending it out to see how it does.
Anyway, there were several movies we tested commercials for that NEVER came out. Great looking movies too IMHO, but I guess it just didn’t get the reaction they wanted.
So what probably happened is they made a few different commercials using scenes they shot and this commercial did the best in market testing. So they use this commercial and the scenes in this commercial never made it past the cutting room floor. That’s just how it goes, but don’t worry, I’m sure the DVD extended version NEVER BEFORE SEEN FOOTAGE will have it all in there 😉
Even though I’m 99% sure I know what happened i still feel cheated though….
Hey MARK
Great Article.
Very Informative.
Thanks for taking the time and doing this.
Not much else to add, but I would’ve liked to see that Multiple police Car Chase. Almost the Half the Trailer didn’t make the cut. And to be honest, the trailer was one of the best I’ve ever seen. Great Music, All the tire squealing in the entire movie. So it was sorta expected that the movie was going to be a bit of let down.
I did enjoy the movie though, especially those 2 second pauses between the pointing of the gun and the pulling of the trigger, when they show Rock’s Face.
I just literally talking to the screen and was like “Waste him Rock” or “Nah just scare the shit out him” and it was like he heard me, gave an unconscious nod and did it. VERY VERY Satisfying.
I also liked that Samoan bit, considering how Dwayne is actually Samoan Royalty.
the movie was about redemption in the end.
the man who redeemed was spared. Dwayne realises after hearing the boy say he was going to kill driver, he was no better, so he became a force of redemption.
in the end, the killer isn’t the bad guy, and he seems to give up killing to start a family.
I thought the movie should have ended with him driving into the sunset with the cops chasing him though. a cliffhanger.
Thank you for writing this article. I was so confused (& VERY ANNOYED) at the fact that there were so many scenes missing. I have an old dvd player so I was even wondering if maybe the dvd had skipped & I somehow missed some of the scenes!
Maggie Grace is pointing a gun in BOTH shots of her with the yellow sports car behind her. Only difference is that in one of the pics you only see from her neck up so you can’t see the gun. And in the other pic you see her full torso & the gun.
I believe that maybe she was trying to avenge her man’s death because it appeared that Driver finished off Killer. I don’t think Driver would have killed her because audiences never react well to female characters being killed in movies.
Film was made and ended the way it should have …end of.