The Fast and Furious franchise is an event. Each film elevates the action set-pieces in such a significant way that expectations are sky-high for the next instalment of the street-racers turned international superspies’ story. Expectations were compounded significantly thanks to COVID and the even longer wait for more adventures from Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) and the gang but now that time has come and Fast and Furious 9 was certainly worth the wait for fans of the series. As the ninth film in the series you know by now whether you’re a fan or not and Fast and Furious 9 doesn’t change up the formula in any significant way; offering a plot with more holes than a block of Swiss cheese, absolutely bonkers action that borders on the very limits of nonsense and more uses of the word “Family” than any human in existence has ever uttered in one lifetime. Let’s dive in.
Following the events of Fate of the Furious, which saw the gang take out the cyber-terrorist Cipher (Charlize Theron), Dom is now living in a remote farmhouse with Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) and young son Brian. Their seemingly peaceful life is uprooted by the arrival of Tej (Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges), Roman (Tyrese Gibson) and Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel), who bring news that team handler Mr. Nobody’s (Kurt Russell) plane, which was transferring Cipher, has been taken down. The culprit of this attack is none other than Dom’s estranged brother Jakob (John Cena), who has emerged from the shadows to gather together a device capable of controlling every computer system on Earth (which feels like the same plot as at least 3 of the other films), thus disrupting the world order to his favour. From here it is basic F&F fair, as the team travel the globe, searching for one MacGuffin after the next that will halt Jakob’s reign of terror and keep their family safe.
The last three films in the franchise have been fairly similar in their setup and execution. Each tries to heighten the action that has come before – which began with Fast Five’s mesmerising vault chase scene – and in order to justify these set-pieces the plot has gone to increasingly ludicrous places, often involving some world-ending stakes that only a street-race from Los Angeles and his team of near-superhuman friends can save the world from. While the films have become increasingly more self-aware as they go along, Fast and Furious 9 is by far the most in on its own joke. There is a whole sub-plot devoted to the team dissecting their own good fortune, surmising that it must be because they are invincible (a ridiculous notion that could only be delivered by Gibson’s cocky comedic voice). That self-awareness seems to allow returning veteran director Justin Lin to shoot for the stars (quite literally) with his set-pieces, with easily the most insane premises the franchise has ever seen.
We’re talking swinging cars like Tarzan, magnet powered cars and rocket powered space cars. Yes. If you like your action films believable, step away now. All the insanity is extremely well planned out and shot by Lin and co, but it’s hard to shake the feeling that this is just par for the course at this point in the franchise. It’s a strange thing to say, but once you’ve seen cars fighting tanks, submarines and fly out of planes, it is hard to get excited about them going to space or flying through the air propelled by magnets. It has been a long-running joke that the franchise would one day get so ridiculous it would head to space that now that it has the impact is simply gone.
Ever since Fast Five, each film has been delineated by its biggest stunt: – the tank one, the plane one or the submarine one – and the detriment of that generalisation to the franchise is now becoming apparent. There is at least one more film in the main series, probably many more, and the general audience, myself included, no longer comes for the plot. We have been conditioned to only respond to the bigger set-pieces and that makes it hard to maintain interest over 2 hours when these set-pieces account for all of 15 minutes. It also creates a bizarre response to a franchise 10 films deep in its run. Ask most people what their favourite film in the franchise is and they’ll like respond with something before the sixth instalment or the latest entry. Ask them to explain the plot of the last film and very few will be able to do it. The Fast & Furious franchise is the big-budget film equivalent of the mobile phone industry. A few older heads will swear by their old brick Nokia but the large majority lean towards whatever is the latest and greatest. F9 is the craziest film in the franchise for now but it’s hard to marvel at that when you know in a few years time it will be reduced to “the space one”.
The only other explanation for the franchise’s staying power is the characters at the heart of it. Each film introduces and reintroduces a myriad of characters to the point that the sheer amount of people and backstory should be impassable for a casual viewer. But Fast and Furious has an advantage over other backstory-heavy franchises like the MCU in that it places having fun with the characters at the forefront of the film rather than the deeply complex lore. The central relationship here between Dom and Jakob is universally understood: brothers who have fallen out and are at odds with each other. It is a simple framing device but a powerful one that allows for for Lin to pull on the familial heartstrings whilst all the craziness is taking place.
The fist-pumping, crowd-cheering moments hit as hard as they do because we care about Dom, Letty and everyone else. As usual Tyrese Gibson is a standout here, delivering more of his witty, seemingly improvised, off-the-cuff banter to perfect effect; always there to cut through anytime a scene becomes too serious. Minor spoiler if you haven’t seen the trailer ahead: an old member of the crew, who everyone believed dead, makes his grand re-entry in the 9th instalment. Is there a satisfying, well thought out explanation for his return. Absolutely not, but the power of the series is that we love the character so we don’t really care or dig too deep as long as they are back. Name another franchise of this size that has the power to disregard basic storytelling rules without the audience giving a damn.
Fast and Furious 9 is exactly what you’d expect: a big, bombastic adventure that doesn’t make a lick of sense but never fails to entertain with its sensory overload of destruction and chaotic action that shoots so far beyond the realms of believability that, like its cast, it is in space. While each subsequent film becomes less memorable due to the insistence on one-upping the previous entry – often at the expense of memorability – it’s difficult to not fall for the charm of the cast and go along for the ride in the moment, even if you won’t be able to differentiate it from the previous four. Few could have imagined that the humble little 2001 film about street-racing has led to one of the most profitable action franchises of all time, but under the steady hand of Justin Lin, Dom Toretto and company’s adventures keep getting faster and more furious.
Fast and Furious 9 stars Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, John Cena, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges, Nathalie Emmanuel, Finn Cole, Sung Kang, Anna Sawai, Lucas Black, Shad Moss, Thue Ersted Rasmussen, Helen Mirren, Kurt Russell & Charlize Theron – In cinemas now.
