The Inside Story of the Real 'Fast & Furious' House
Toretto’s house, then and now (Photo: Universal Pictures)
Some symbols have endured through the Fast and Furious franchise: Dominic Toretto’s cross pendant. His Dodge Charger. And his house. The two-story craftsman bungalow was the spot where Dom (Vin Diesel) first shared a Corona with Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker). Fast & Furious 6 closes with the gang assembled around Dom’s picnic table, enjoying barbecue. And, if you’ve seen the trailers for Furious 7, you know Dom’s beloved bungalow blows up, setting off a chain reaction of vengeance that powers the film.
In the movies, the address is “1327.” But in real life, it’s 724 — 724 East Kensington Road, Los Angeles, to be exact. The home is situated in a hilly section of the city, just a few blocks east of Dodger Stadium and two miles north of downtown L.A.
The house blows up in ‘Furious 7’ (Photo: Universal Pictures)
Related: ‘Fast and Furious’ Cars and Crushes: Original Director Recalls Family Firsts
“A lot of the bonding took place at that house,” Rob Cohen, the director of the original installment, The Fast and the Furious (2001), tells Yahoo Movies. Cohen says that the sequences shot there were among the first filmed. “It’s rare to do a movie and actually return to the authentic and original location,” Diesel observes in a behind-the-scenes video for Furious 7. “So much of our careers started in this house.” Adds Jordana Brewster, “Every corner you turn in this house you remember another scene,” recalling a specific interaction she filmed with the late Paul Walker.
Watch ‘Furious 7’ Featurette: ‘Toretto Home’
The house was the perfect spot, explains Cohen, because it fulfilled three requirements: With 4,891 square feet, it provided enough room to shoot the party sequence; it has a back yard with a view of downtown; and there’s an old-fashioned free-standing garage. “It began to come alive as it often does when you find a location,” recalls Cohen. “It centers the location.”
One of the movie’s chase scenes near the house (Photo: From Universal Pictures)
The surrounding neighborhood provides inclines “to do fun jumps in the beginning chase with the motorcycles,” Cohen says. There were no sound stages for those interior scenes. “Everything was shot for real inside the house.” And it was hot. “It was a brutally hot summer night filming the party scene. They weren’t fake-sweating in the movie — that’s for real.”
Brewster and Walker in a scene inside the house’s kitchen, 2001 (Photo: Universal Pictures)
Located in L.A.’s ethnically diverse Echo Park neighborhood, the area is also a fitting reflection of the Fast movie characters and its fan base, with large populations of Latinos, Asians, and African Americans, and a smaller relative percentage of whites.
Fans regularly make pilgrimages to the home, driving by slowly to take photos and video.
Cohen had the owners paint it white for the original movie, to show of the color of the cars. It has since been renovated and repainted light green. When it’s not doubling as the Fast house, the home is sectioned off into four units for multiple renters who live there. According to Echo Park Realty broker Steve Stokes, it was built in 1906 and last sold in April 1999 for $223,000. With the gentrification of the neighborhood over the past two decades, the home is now worth more than $1 million. “I should have bought that house!” Cohen jokes.
The house location, indicated in red (Photo: Google Maps)
Coincidentally, the illegal activity cited near the house in the past six months consists mostly of car crimes — grand-theft auto and theft from a vehicle.
Too bad Toretto’s not there full-time to keep watch.