No Surrender Cinema: Fast X
I’m back behind the wheel for another edition of No Surrender Cinema, so fasten your seatbelts and hold on tight! The Fast and the Furious franchise is approaching the end of the road, but if you’ve seen even one film in this series, you know that it’s not going to be a smooth ride for Dominic Toretto and his family. A new rival, old friends, souped up automobiles, and so many explosions that Michael Bay himself may say “enough already” are what Fast X is all about, and I’m about to break it all down for you!
WARNING: Some people like spoilers on their car, but not in a movie review. If you’re one of those who want to see everything unfold for themselves, stop here and come back for the rest of the review once you’ve seen the film!
Fast X opens with a flashback sequence of the Fast Five vault heist, arguably the point where the series shed its street-racing skin and morphed into Mission:Impossible with more nitrous oxide. For those who don’t recall, this is when Toretto and his band of merry men (including co-star Paul Walker’s character of Brian O’Conner, shown here as part of the flashback) stole the fortune made by Brazilian kingpin Hernan Reyes. Here in Fast X, Fast Five‘s climax is restructured as the origin story of this film’s antagonist. It turns out that Dante Reyes (Jason Momoa, making his debut in the Fast franchise by doing his best Seth “Freakin'” Rollins impersonation) holds a grudge for the death of dear old dad and the loss of all that money. While he was unable to stop Dom that day (in new footage interspersed with the original scenes), he’s about to put his master plan in motion, and it’s not going to be good for anyone that’s attended a Toretto family barbecue.
Since we know that impending doom is about to befall our heroes, we need to see them with their guard down. The crew in attendance for the latest Toretto fiesta includes all the faces you know and love; Roman, Tej, Han, Ramsey, Dom’s wife Letty, his son Brian aka Little B, his sister Mia, and even Dom’s grandmother (the legendary Rita Moreno doing a cameo) all crack wise and toast to the good life. It’s not until later that night that Cipher (Charlize Theron, reprising her role as the villain of the past two Fast entries) shows up bloodied and beaten to drop the old “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” speech on Dom and Letty. Dante Reyes is going scorched earth on everybody, including her, as part of his path of vengeance.
Just as Dom is beginning to put a counter to Reyes’ plans in motion, he finds out from Agency pal Little Nobody that his people are in trouble. It turns out that a mission in Italy that Roman took the lead on is a trap set by Reyes to attack the group. Dom, Letty, and Little Nobody arrive in Italy rather quickly (I’m assuming that’s one of the perks of working with a black ops government agency) and discover that this money heist is actually a plan to frame this car-racing, beer-drinking, barbecue-having batch of do-gooders as terrorists, thanks to the neutron bomb that’s been placed in the back of the bank truck. With Cipher’s stolen technology, Reyes gleefully toys with his foes as they try to prevent the bomb from reaching the Vatican. While they’re successful to that extent, the collateral damage and the ensuing detonation decimates Rome. Dom and his crew disappear underground, Letty is locked up by The Agency, and I myself was ready to jump into the film and take a few shots at Reyes myself for desecrating my homeland!
Everybody having to disappear for a while means that Dom’s son isn’t going to be safe for long. Auntie Mia fights off some of the Agency cronies who come to claim him, because now that Mr. Nobody and Little Nobody are both out of action, new self-appointed Agency lead Aimes is all Anti-Dom and co. Nobody’s daughter Tess (Brie Larson) sympathizes with the crew, but Aimes is a hardcase, so she, much like other authority figures that came before her in this series, decides to bend the rules to help our heroes out as best she can. While she heads to out attempt to free Letty from the blacksite prison she was sent to, The Agency goons ordered to take Mia and Little B in find themselves getting an attitude adjustment (literally) from Jakob Toretto (my big bro John Cena), who went from evil assassin in the last film to Fun Uncle Jake in this one.
For a team that has to stay underground since they’ve been pegged as international terrorists, our heroes sure do get around. We go from California, to Italy, back to California, over to Rio De Janiero, with a stop in London, then later in Portugal. No matter where Dom or his friends end up, Dante Reyes is taking his mission of revenge on a world tour, whether it be sending his personal kill squad after Jake and Little B, or flamboyantly taunting Dom himself as the two find themselves in the middle of a Mexican standoff in the middle of Rio’s street racing scene. No matter where the globetrotting takes us, no matter how many fiery car crashes and thunderous explosions there are, everyone’s escaping by the skin of their teeth just to cheat death again moments later.
Momoa is entertaining as a scenery-chewing, over the top pretty boy with an axe to grind. The character of Reyes is eccentric, to say the least, parading around in blousy silk shirts and painting the nails of two corpses as he talks to himself. Momoa certainly made a choice in portraying him this way, and honestly, it works perfectly as a counter to the stoic badassery that Vin Diesel tries to invoke as Dom. The rest of the cast all get moments to shine, and there’s a lot more humor in here than maybe any other Fast movie. Momoa might not be going for laughs, but his portrayal certainly earns them, for better or worse. Tyrese and Ludacris always play off each other well as the bickering besties Roman and Tej. Jason Statham shows up to Be Jason Statham, though his appearance was briefer than expected. Perhaps the oddest turn is that of Cena, who makes his entrance by almost singlehandedly destroying an Agency assault unit, then takes responsibility for his nephew as part of a plan that sees the two of them buying new clothes in a gas station and pretending to be on a fishing trip. Oh, and there’s also a cameo by comedian and modern pop culture icon (which just goes to show you how far the world has fallen) Pete Davidson that brings some levity to the proceedings.
So we’ve got twists, turns, action, explosions…what else do we need? How about death? Well, maybe we don’t need death, but it comes calling more than once here in Fast X. Because Reyes’ intention isn’t as simple as just offing Dom, others have to give their lives so that Dom may suffer. There appeared to be more than one casualty by the time the credits rolled on Fast X, although the end of the film also marked a surprise return, and no I’m not talking about the end credits scene that appears to be an open secret, either. I guess the “nobody stays dead for long” cliche not only applies to comic books, but to the Fast franchise.
Fast X was never boring, and let’s be real, the insanity of what they’re purported to be doing in these films is the draw in the first place. Logic and gravity be damned, these films are always a fun watch, and to me Fast X turned out to be the best of the past several entries. I’ve always remarked that the way the series isn’t afraid to go back to the past and tie things in to extend the universe out further is a net positive, and I think that the inclusion of Momoa’s character as a “previous” villain was a good choice instead of having him be a Villain of the Week with an axe to grind and little reason why. Perhaps the only negative about it is that he’s so over the top, and Dom so gruff and brooding, that you almost find yourself rooting for the bad guy.
The ensemble nature of these latter day Fast films usually means that everyone gets time to shine, but this one dealt a lot with the blood feud between Dom and Dante. Given that this is the first film in what was originally set for a two-part franchise closer but may now be the first in a finale trilogy, it put a lot of heat on Reyes and should make audiences excited for the comeback. With the players involved (both known and “TBA” until after the rest of the world gets to see this flick) I’ll bet my bottom dollar that the hype machine is going to be in full force for the next film (or two). I have no doubt in my mind that everybody who has been following the Fast films from the beginning will get their money’s worth in the form the most insane spectacle of a cinematic blockbuster that Vin Diesel could possibly dream up.
Fast X is now playing in theaters.
