In its opening weekend ‘F1: The Movie‘ beat Hollywood expectations with $144 million in global ticket sales. The summer blockbuster movie took in $55.6 million domestically in the US and $88.4 million internationally, which is half of its (alleged) $300 million production budget, in 2 days. Astounding.
Does this indicate that ‘F1: The Movie‘ will take the title of greatest racing movie of all time?
It is certainly the most authentic racing flick of all time as ‘F1: The Movie‘ puts the viewer right behind the wheel, especially in IMAX. Racing sequences are hyper-realistic as we see the high-stakes action of Sonny Hayes and Joshua Pearce trying to score a victory for their backmarker team. The wheel-to-wheel action at Hungary, Italy and Abu Dhabi is amazing to watch, thrillingly choreographed multi-car battles, where anything can happen.
Sonny’s unorthodox “Plan C” strategies, such as bringing out the safety car three times to help his teammate’s strategy, or waiting in the pits to come out right in front of race leader Verstappen to back him up into the chasing Pearce, mean that you never really know what will happen next. The crashes big and violent; they remind the viewer of the danger the drivers are facing when they climb behind the wheel. If not actually based on real events, viewers would say the writers stretched the boundaries of reality. But the big crashed in the film visually reference famous accidents like Romain Grosjean’s fireball at Bahrain in 2020, or Formula 3 driver Alex Peroni’s spectacular airbourne accident at Monza in 2019.
For big racing fans, the integration of the film into the real world of Formula 1 is surreal to watch. During a post-race one interview scene, real life racer Fernando Alonso walks up to the Sonny Hayes character and gives him a pat on the back acknowledging Sonny’s antics on track. Fictional characters interact with real people from the Formula 1 paddock throughout the movie, blurring the line between fiction and reality. ‘F1: The Movie’ is actually quite similar to the 1966 masterpiece ‘Grand Prix‘ which was also filmed during a Formula 1 season. In the 60 years since, the sport has grown to a much grander scale. The greasy garages and cigarette-smoking drivers have long been replaced with wind tunnels and high-tech training regiments. ‘F1: The Movie‘ takes a crystal-clear snapshot of todays era of racing, just as ‘Grand Prix‘ did for Formula 1’s golden age.
After enough Fast Film Fridays, one begins to notice similarities in racing movies’ plots. Certain moments in ‘F1: The Movie’ bring to mind scenes from Stallone’s ‘Driven‘ and Tom Cruise’s ‘Days of Thunder‘ yet this film never feels hackneyed or cliché. The characters have inner desire propelling them toward their goals; the female Technical Director trying to prove her place, the team owner trying to keep his company afloat, the rookie who wants to be champion, and the grizzled veteran who’s chasing the feeling of that perfect lap. By the finale in Abu Dhabi, you can’t help but hope the APX GP drivers will manage to topple the leading Mercedes and Ferraris, and it’s never clear just who will come out on top.
Even animated racing movies like Pixar’s ‘Cars‘ trilogy definitely influenced ‘F1: The Movie’. In one of the final scenes, real-life Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolf stops character Joshua Pearce in pit lane and tells him there’s a seat for him at the Silver Arrows. But Pearce says he’ll stick with APX GP, the team that gave him his big break. That is the same scene from ‘Cars‘ where Tex Dinoco offers Lightning McQueen a ride at the top team, and gets turned down.
So… is ‘F1: The Movie‘ the greatest racing movie of all time? Tough to say. It contains the greatest ever motion-picture recordings of motor racing. The camera work is more immersive than any other film in a century of racing flicks. It is the most visually stunning film about racing that has ever existed. And new camera technology make all previous racing movies look worse by comparison.
Those who want to nit-pick will mention character arcs, and unresolved plot points; okay, it’s not ‘Citizen Cane‘. But this is the greatest movie about racing that’s ever been filmed.