After 22 years, $6 billion at the box office, and approximately 3000 mentions of ‘family’, the Fast & Furious franchise is finally wheel-spinning off into the sunset. But in keeping with its commitment to never underdoing anything, it’s bowing out with a multi-part finale. The next installment is going to have its work cut out topping this for both scale and unfettered batshittery.
If you’re a long-standing fan, Fast X is about the greatest F&F movie you could hope for – a big, absurd pick-n-mix of popular characters (many raised from the dead), callbacks to favourite action sequences, and some new, silly ways to smash cars together. If you’re new to the series, one might ask why you’re starting here, then suggest you bring earplugs.
It begins with a flashback to Fast 5, the point at which these films happily left logic in the rearview mirror. In Rio, Dom (Vin Diesel) and his team steal a bank vault, drag it through the streets and, after much car-chasing, use it to squash a baddie. Now we learn that the baddie had a son, Dante (Jason Momoa), who is now out for revenge. He doesn’t want Dom dead. He wants him to suffer endlessly. And making him suffer endlessly means drawing him into a series of elaborate setpieces and threatening everyone he loves. Your usual F&F deal.
The next movie is going to have its work cut out topping this unfettered batshittery
Momoa brings an unhinged energy to proceedings. There has always been a tonal disparity in this franchise’s performances, which is part of its chaotic charm – Vin Diesel eternally seems under the impression people come for the dialogue – but Momoa takes it to a bizarre new level. Dressed like a Primark sale rail and flirting with whoever’s nearest, he brings a camp energy that makes little sense for his character (a man who simultaneously cares about nothing and will endure the logistics of arranging a multi-vehicle attack on a dam), but provides a wildly entertaining contrast to the beefy machismo of most of the cast.
There’s little point digging at the plot holes or criticising the dreadful dialogue, because that’s not what these films are for. They’re not aiming for exceptionalism on those fronts. Where they are brilliant is in delivering massive, expensive entertainment and creating slick action sequences that no other series would have the budget or balls to mount (this time directed by safe hands Louis Leterrier). Using a crane to pinball a giant bomb off the streets of Rome so it doesn’t hit the Vatican? No other film would dare. Fast & Furious is cinema’s most ludicrous franchise and one day soon, it will be missed.
In cinemas worldwide May 19.