(The Fast and the Furious, Vin Diesel and Paul Walker: BagoGames, Flickr)
Ancient Los Angeles, 2013, near the Los Angeles Memorial
Coliseum.
As Rick Yune stands next to his Suzuki Hayabusa motorcycle,
he contemplates if it was the right move for him to destroy Vin Diesel’s green
Toyota Supra considering Paul Walker, who now owes Vin Diesel a five second
car, is coming after him. Paul Walker zooms in driving Vin Diesel’s dad’s 1970
Dodge Charger with one thing on his mind: REVENGE. He gets out of the car,
removes his sunglasses, and looks Rick Yune right in the eyes. Rick Yune
realizes his grave mistake, hops on his motorcycle, and pops a wheelie as he
speeds away. Paul Walker, unconcerned, gets back into his car and spins his
tires as he enters hot pursuit. The chase continues, but Rick Yune’s motorcycle
runs out of fuel. By the grace of god, his crew rolls up and give him one of their
street bikes. After a seemingly endless amount of laps around the Los Angeles
Memorial Coliseum, Rick Yune becomes delirious from exhaustion and thinks his crew
has come back to support him. He stops the motorcycle and faces Paul Walker.
“Paul, can’t we work this out? You're a reasonable man right? I’ll give the pink slips to
all my motorcycles and we can call it even” Rick Yune says to Paul Walker
trying to negotiate his way out of certain death.
Paul, unwavering in his thirst for vengeance says nothing
but pulls out his Colt .45 and aims it at Rick Yune's face, “Any last words?” Paul
Walker says.
“The treasure is buried…” but before Rick Yune can finish
his sentence, Paul Walker unloads a round of the most powerful handgun known to Californians right between his eyes. Paul Walker blows the smoke from the
barrel of his gun, walks towards Rick Yune’s body, and says, “Almost had me?” (Thompson, Bergquist, and Ayer)
Bibliography: Homer's Iliad: The Slaying of Hector (Retold by A. J. Church); The Fast and the Furious written by Gary Scott Thompson, Eric Bergquist, and David Ayer. Dirty Harry
Author's Note: Homer's Iliad: The Slaying of Hector tells the story of how the Greek demi-god Achilles avenges the death of his friend Patroclus by killing Hector the prince of Troy during the Trojan War. Hector is basically regretting facing Achilles and when Achilles shows up Hector runs away. Achilles chases Hector around Troy and the god Apollo helps Hector while the goddess Athene ultimately cause Hector to stop because she favors Achilles. Hector tries to plead with Achilles and offers him everything Troy has to offer, but Achilles does not accept. They battle and Achilles comes out victorious. Achilles then takes Hector's body, ties it to his chariot, and drags him away. My retelling changes the characters and setting of the story. I incorporated characters from "The Fast and the Furious" but kept the actors' real names. I also changed the setting to Los Angeles instead of Troy. Furthermore, instead of a chase on foot, they do their chase in vehicles. Ultimately, I made these decisions because I was inspired by a YouTube video of two guys trying to get a Paul Walker memorial statue in their city. I gave the story a much cheesier and funny feel to it as opposed to the original story which was tense and dramatic. The line "the most powerful handgun know to Californians..." was accidentally inspired by the movie "Dirty Harry".
David, this is an interesting mash up of the Fast and Furious series. I got a chuckle out of the last scene when Paul pulled out the Colt .45 "the most powerful handgun known to man". It almost seemed like a climax scene from one of the Dirty Harry movies that are also based in California so maybe that's what you were going for. Good job!
ReplyDeleteHi David!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great spin on Homer's Iliad! I would have never imagined reading a story based on one of Homer's poem, but have it told with the cast members of The Fast & Furious. Your story had a very comedic taste to it which kept me very engaged, waiting to read the next sentence. I particularly loved the part where Paul Walker gets out the car with only revenge on his mind, takes off his glasses, and looks him right in the eye. It's like an intense and dramatic scene right out of a movie.