This isn’t just a racing movie. It’s a redemption story dressed in fireproof suits. Pitt plays Sonny Hayes, a once-great Formula One driver pulled back into the sport clearly with unfinished business of his own. He’s older, bruised by the past, and just self-aware enough to know he’s being written off. And yet, he shows up. That quiet defiance is at the film’s core.
So I went straight in — to the line that stuck with me long after the credits rolled: “It’s not for the money.” That moment lands early in the film, but it says everything about the man behind the wheel. And, as I soon learned, it said a lot about the men behind the movie too.
“Yeah, no, I do this job because I love it,” said Kosinski who knows his way around scale and speed thanks to Top Gun: Maverick and Tron: Legacy, didn’t miss a beat.
“I make films about subjects that I’m interested in. Yeah, it’s all about passion… it took almost four years from the initial idea to where we are now. So, yeah, you have to love what you do. And it doesn’t feel like work, you know, at all. It’s great.”