F9: The Fast Saga is the dumbest, cheesiest, most incredible action movie that I’ve watched since—
I don’t have a comparison to finish that sentence. My hyperbole meter has been exhausted for the summer. I just watched a movie where a man in a matte black muscle car was chasing a man slowing traveling by zipline from building to building in Edinburgh, and the movie successfully made this suspenseful. I’d think “oh, he’ll catch him now!” and then the man would unearth another carefully hidden bag containing another zipline and grappling hook launcher, and the chase would resume.
This chase began, by the way, as the team said that they have the street exits covered from the site of a heist, and Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) confidently replied, “Jakob (John Cena) won’t use the streets.” My critic brain screamed, “why would Dom know that his estranged brother of three decades, who he last saw literally street racing, prefers zipline escapes?” I very calmly told my critic brain to stop talking during the movie. The brain also popped in to complain about logic in the flashback, about the herculean strength needed to collapse a roof just by pulling on a chain, and about how Roman (Tyrese) most definitely survived a truck dropped on his head. But my critic brain is missing the point: the Fast movies have very consciously and very obviously operated at a telenovela / soap opera level of realism and heightened emotion for the past six movies. This is a key to their massive success.
There is an early moment in F9 where Roman says “Dom, you mean you don’t want to go after ___? She murdered the mother of your child!” And I wasn’t yet vibing with the movie, so this line annoyed me. The line was clunky and heavy on exposition, the premise was ridiculous, and we all knew that Dominic Toretto wouldn’t be able to stay a retired superspy, so it was also perfunctory. Two hours and some genuine emotional moments later, Dom turned to his son Brian and said “everything I needed to know about life, I learned on this [race]track,” and I was 1,000% invested in the moment. Close to tears. If I have any criticism of what is otherwise kind of a flawless movie experience, it is that the film takes about 30 minutes to hit its high gear. (Also, an embarrassing dearth of Kurt Russell. –Ed.)
I really want to focus on the emotions, though, as you already know that you’re getting electromagnet crashes and exploding muscle cars and heel turns. F9 is pure soap opera, and that’s such a refreshing, great thing to be. There are no less than five characters who have melodramatic retcons to their backstories (fake deaths, real deaths, betrayals, etc.). Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) also references her infamous amnesia from Fast & Furious 6, and Cipher (Charlize Theron) spends three-quarters of the movie in Hannibal Lecter mode. But this movie also dedicates a large portion of its runtime to flashbacks of Jakob and Dom in the late 80s, and how they became estranged after tragedy struck la familia. I won’t spoil the surprises, but will say that Michael Rooker was a savvy addition for the flashback scenes, and the casting of young Dom and young Jakob were perfect. This movie series has always been willing to show emotions (happiness, dread, camaraderie, familial love, romantic love), but this is the first time in my memory that they’ve focused so much on regret.
It is genuinely difficult to talk too much about this movie without revealing too much, and while that normally doesn’t faze me, I think that this movie especially benefits from the element of surprise. So let’s just wrap up with some stuff that one would already know from the trailers.
The electromagnets. You saw them in the trailers for the film. You have some idea of what they do. Also, you have no idea how awesome those stunts look on the big screen, nor how much of an essential plot device they become. I cheered a dozen-odd times during the climactic chase scene, and most of it was tied to the use of the electromagnets. Much like how Cipher remotely hacked and then dropped cars from parking garages in The Fate of the Furious, this electromagnet stuff was something that I’d never seen in a movie. Being surprised by a film is a rare treat.
You also know that John Cena is in the movie as Dom’s brother, and I think he puts in a pretty good dramatic performance. He’s a welcome addition to the Fast franchise, although I wonder just how high those lifts are in Vin’s shoes to get him up to Cena’s eyeline. Han (Sung Kang) also returns and immediately regains his role as the most charming member of the gang, even though he has far less scenes in the movie than I’d hoped. Probably one-third of the movie is spent with the party split into various missions, which gives small moments for characters who don’t normally get them: the scenes in Tokyo featuring Letty and Han and Mia (Jordana Brewster) are the best, including a great fistfight in a small apartment.
I recommend this movie, 100%. I think that someone could go in cold without seeing the past eight movies, and one would still have a pretty good time, as the characters reference the events of the past far more than in other action franchises. This movie pulls in characters from every past movie, though, so the limits of one’s enjoyment are definitely contextual to how familiar one is with the earlier movies. Also, and this is coming from a Gen Xer with 30 followers on Twitter, there seem to be a handful of social media celebs in bit parts throughout the movie, but I didn’t recognize them so much as recognize that the movie was giving far too much screentime to random grill cooks and security guards.
At this point, the Fast and the Furious franchise is the great American action series. The billions that each movie makes may even support it being the planet’s great action series. And somehow, nine movies in, F9 feels fresh and inventive. I can’t wait for Fast10 Your Seatbelts.