The series may be hurtling toward the finish line, but Fast X still sets aside some time
to nod towards its roots.
From mixing up the formula to some very familiar quotes, here are some of the best callbacks
in Fast X.
“Fast X” spends a lot of time calling back to the events of “Fast Five.”
Chief among them is Dante Reyes is the son of Hernan Reyes.
Appropriately, the movie opens with a redux of the “Fast Five” climax, in which Dom
and Brian steal the Reyes’ safe.
This time, though, Dante is there.
If you haven’t seen the fifth film in a while, you might not notice just how close
“Fast X” slots him into the action.
The car he drives during the bridge battle — the one with the minigun that pops out
of the top — is pulled straight from the original scene.
This creates a fun time loop moment for anyone who goes back to “Fast Five” in the future.
The later parts of “Fast X” also make reference to Dante’s retconned “Fast Five” cameo.
He has a base of operations in the abandoned police station where Dom and Brian stole the
safe, and he ambushes Dom on the very same bridge, thus reversing his previous defeat there.
Typically, “Fast and Furious” movies end with a family barbecue scene.
“Fast X” changes things up by starting with one instead.
This is an early clue that things aren’t going to go well in the third act.
Because the movie ends on a huge cliffhanger, with the lives of multiple major characters
hanging in the balance, there’s no room for a feel-good finale.
The opening cookout is still full of fun little details, though.
The whole gang can be seen sipping on Coronas, which have been the unofficial official beer
of “Fast and Furious” since the beginning.
"You can have any brew you want.
As long as it's a corona."
And Roman once again tries to sneak some food before the blessing has been said, just as
he has many times before.
There’s also a cute moment between Little Brian and Letty.
When Dom walks into the barbecue with his son after their driving lesson, Brian gives
Letty a hug and calls her “Mom.”
Letty may not actually be Brian’s blood mother, but she’s raised him as her own
since he was incredibly young.
It’s nice to see how their relationship has blossomed, and the little glimpse of tenderness
from Letty is a perfect character moment.
During the cookout scene at the beginning of “Fast X” Dom and Han share a moment
of reflection on their thieving origins.
As Han says, “We’ve come a long way from flipping fuel trucks in the D.R.”
This is a direct reference to the beginning of “Fast & Furious,” the fourth film in
the franchise, in which Dom, Han, Letty, Leo and Santos pulled various small-time heists
in the Dominican Republic to make ends meet.
Their stint there culminated in a fuel truck robbery gone horribly wrong -- the first big
action set piece of “Fast & Furious.”
As they reminisce, Han offers a toast, saying, “Los Bandoleros for life.”
“Los Bandoleros” is the name of the short film prequel to “Fast & Furious,” which
details how the D.R.
crew was first assembled.
The Dominican Republic stories are technically Han’s earliest entry in the “Fast and
Furious” timeline, not counting Justin Lin’s film “Better Luck Tomorrow,” which serves
as an unofficial prequel of sorts.
And of course, Vin Diesel himself actually directed “Los Bandoleros,” making the
reference extra special for Dom as well.
Right after his “Los Bandoleros” reminiscing with Han, Dom takes a moment to glance around
his garage and take note of the many family photos he’s tacked up on the walls.
The camera lingers on several of him and Brian together, and as it does, the piano refrain
of “See You Again” blends in with the original score.
The Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth anthem was written to commemorate the late Paul Walker,
and it became a massive hit in its own right after debuting at the emotional end of “Furious 7.”
The “Fast” franchise has always handled Walker’s legacy with tact and respect, choosing
to leave him out of the story rather than recast the role or bring him back with CGI.
Even in a movie like “Fast X,” where Brian’s absence doesn’t really affect the story,
it’s nice to see Diesel and the crew still take a moment to pay homage to his life and career.
After the opening barbecue, Dom gets vulnerable about his fears.
He admits being scared of losing Brian or Letty, and she tells him that won’t happen “again.”
This is a two-for-one reference, calling back to both Letty’s (almost) death in “Fast
& Furious” and the time Brian was kidnapped by Cipher in “The Fate of the Furious.”
In Letty’s case, she lost her memory and was out of the picture for two whole movies,
only getting brought back into the fold by a persistent Dom in “Fast & Furious 6.”
Brian was likely too young during his captivity to remember much of it in detail, but we see
later in “Fast X” how the trauma of the experience still affects him.
Later on in the movie, we get another nod to Letty’s brief time working for Owen Shaw.
When Tess visits her in prison, she points out a scar on Letty’s arm that she got the
night she first met Dom, thereby proving that he sent her.
This is the exact same scar and story that Dom uses to convince Letty of their history
in “Fast & Furious 6.”
In any “Fast and Furious” movie there are going to be some standout cars.
Sometimes the vehicles driven by the crew are simply chosen because they look neat,
but sometimes they have a deeper meaning.
To start, Cipher enters the film behind the wheel of a Delorean Alpha 5 -- a yet-to-be-released
limited edition homage to the Delorean Motor Company’s heyday with the iconic DMC-12.
The back-to-the-futuristic look of the car is fitting for Cipher’s techno-terrorist
aesthetic, and since the car isn’t out yet, it’s safe to assume that she stole one.
During the big action sequence in Rome, Han drives a boxy Alpha Romeo with an orange and
black color scheme.
It’s the exact same coloring that his Mazda RX-7 has in “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.”
And of course, Jakob gets to drive his old blue 5.0 “Fox Body” Mustang, which was
first seen during the flashback scenes in “F9: The Fast Saga.”
Jakob references his drag race with Dom while talking to Little Brian, and he also mentions
how cool it was to have a 5.0 back in the day.
Clearly, Brian isn’t all that impressed by Mustangs, as his project car shown earlier
in the movie is actually a Chevy SS.
Given that his dad loves Dodge and his uncle loves Ford, it feels right that the kid goes
with a third major American car manufacturer.
The first big action set piece in “Fast X” takes place in Rome, during a mission
led by, appropriately, Roman.
He, Han, Tej, and Ramsey are tricked by Dante into stealing a bomb, believing that the operation
has been commissioned by the Agency.
Through it all, Roman constantly asserts his own abilities as a leader and takes offense
every time the others doubt his chops.
While not necessarily an intentional reference, this little arc for Roman is interesting given
his history in the saga.
He first appeared in “2 Fast 2 Furious” as the replacement for Vin Diesel, who opted
to film “The Chronicles of Riddick” instead.
In another timeline, that could have led to Tyrese Gibson being one of the two leading
co-stars for the series and Roman quite literally being the leader of the crew.
But instead, the character became comic relief under Dom’s shadow.
For fans of the “2 Fast” era, it’s fun to see Roman getting a bit of development
on the leadership end.
Gibson is still more than capable of stealing scenes on his own, and he gets some solid
material in “Fast X.”
There is a more specific “2 Fast” reference later when Roman reveals that he keeps cash
strapped to himself under his clothes.
He pulls the exact same move at the end of the second film.
The Rome sequence of “Fast X” is action-packed, but it also includes a number of smaller references
to the earlier “Fast and Furious” films.
As part of the caper, Ramsey winds up behind the wheel of a big truck carrying a piece
of dangerous tech -- in this case, a giant bomb.
This seems like a clear nod to the Edinburgh sequence in “F9: The Fast Saga,” in which
she was forced to drive a truck carrying a super-magnet.
Letty also chooses to gear up on a motorcycle instead of in a regular car, which is another
nod to “F9.”
During the minefield sequence of that film, she’s shown to be a master both behind the
wheel and behind the handlebars.
And as is only right when putting Han inside an orange and black sports car, he does a
bit of drifting for the camera, harkening back to his time in Tokyo.
More than any other piece of the “Fast and Furious” story, “Fast X” seems fixated
on the vault heist from the end of “Fast Five.”
It opens by reliving the chase through Dante’s eyes, it returns to the very same police station
and bridge later on, and it pays homage to the scene on several other occasions.
The bomb chase in Rome is an obvious nod to the safe robbery.
Dante himself acknowledges this, claiming to have set it up as an homage to his family’s downfall.
What he doesn’t mention is that Dom drives a Dodge Charger Hellcat during the Rome sequence
— a variation of the exact same cars that he and Brian use to pull the vault in “Fast
Five.”
In the wake of the bomb’s explosion, Tess also alludes to the vault heist after Dom
chastises her for carrying God’s Eye on her person.
She says, “People pull vaults out of walls, so I think it’s safer with me.”
As if that weren’t enough, “Fast X” drops one more vault chase reference during
its own fiery climax.
As he chases down Dante and Little Brian, Dom is attacked by two helicopters that fire
grappling hooks into his car and try to lift him off the road.
His car gets out just enough horsepower to yank both choppers down in flames, and he
uses them both as makeshift melee weapons just like he once did with the vault.
If there’s one thing “Fast and Furious” movies love to do, it’s quote the original.
And a little ways into the second act of “Fast X,” Little Brian does just that.
After he beats his aunt Mia in a round of “Hot Wheels Unleashed,” she jokingly chastises him.
Brian responds with his own version of this famous quote:
“It don't matter if you win by an inch or a mile.
Winning’s winning.”
It isn’t even the first time Brian references that particular scene from the first movie.
After his “driving lesson” with Dom at the beginning of the film, the little guy
is frustrated that he can’t quite get things right.
“You almost had it,” his dad says, but Brian responds “I didn’t have it.”
This is yet another part of that famous scene between Brian O’Conner and Dom.
After losing their first street race against each other, Brian tells Dom,
"Dude, I almost had you.”
“Almost had me?
You never had me.
You never had your car.”
Even when the Vatican is being bombed and armies of cyber-commandos are at the door,
“Fast and Furious” still makes time for some good ol’ street racing.
"Let's race."
In “Fast X,” Dom travels back to Rio to confront Dante Reyes, and they end up meeting
at a racing event very similar to the one seen in “Fast Five.”
In fact, one of the local characters in that film, Diogo, returns and backs Dom up when
Dante appears, mirroring the face-off between Hobbs and Dom in “Fast Five.”
We get another little callback during the race itself.
Diogo gets a bit too antsy and pops his nos early, making him a target in Dante’s twisted game.
The “too soon” nitrous moment is a classic of the franchise, going all the way back to
Dom and Brian’s first drag.
This time, though, the mistake is extra deadly.
A cop and a street racer
As it turns out, Isabel is actually the sister of Elena Neves, the late mother of Little
Brian who was killed by Cipher in “The Fate of the Furious.”
Dom saves her from Dante’s bomb and takes her back to Elena’s old apartment, where
Isabel now lives.
She confesses to him how much guilt she used to feel over Elena dying instead of her, since
her sister was always the “good” one and Isabel saw herself as “bad.”
In response, Dom explains how much common ground there can be between “a cop and a
street racer” when they go down “the same road” long enough.
Clearly, this is a reference to his relationship with Brian, which began when the latter was
investigating him for DVD player robberies while undercover.
Over time, Brian abandoned his law enforcement career to become a full-time crook and brother
to Dom.
One of the best storylines in “Fast X” is the uncle-nephew road trip that Jakob goes
on with Little Brian.
It’s a fun, lighthearted distraction from the heavy action of the film, and it yields
one particularly poignant moment between the two characters.
"Holy shi-" "Cannon cars."
No, not that one.
While on the trip, Brian admits that he doesn’t like planes, prompting his uncle to share
how he was once terrified of cars after the accident that killed his father.
Of course, the reason Little B is so frightened of planes is he was imprisoned on one as a baby.
In a movie where Cipher becomes a begrudging ally, this little moment reminds us of just
how vile she truly is.
She forever changed the course of Brian’s life by taking his mother’s in “The Fate
of the Furious,” and though she and Letty have set a temporary truce, she’ll have
to answer for her crimes eventually.
The climax chase sequence of “Fast X” has a few notable nods to the series past.
For instance, when Dom enters the fray, he air-drops out of the back of a cargo plan.
Although the “Fast X” drop is much lower, it might remind viewers of the multi-car air-drop
in “Furious 7,” which actually involved parachutes.
At this point, Dominic Toretto is a true veteran of driving muscle cars out of airplanes.
Later, during the standoff atop the dam, Dom is forced to drive straight down the face
of the structure in order to save Brian, who’s riding in the passenger seat.
He barely outruns the explosion caused by Dante, thanks in large part to him hitting
the nitrous at the exact right moment.
This triggers a CGI nos-infusion shot that harkens back to the series’ roots.
“Fast X” ends with two big twists.
First, Giselle appears in the nuclear submarine from “The Fate of The Furious” to rescue
Letty and Cipher from Antarctica.
After that, there’s a mid-credits scene in which Dwayne Johnson’s Luke Hobbs makes
his triumphant return to the “Fast” saga.
Both reveals are shocking, but for different reasons.
Hobbs’ appearance is surprising because of behind-the-scenes issues, while Giselle’s
is surprising because, well, she died.
Even so, her return is foreshadowed by a couple different moments throughout the film.
During the opening cookout, Tej and Roman help Han make a dating profile, but his heart
clearly isn’t in it.
Later, while speaking with Tess, Aimes mentions that the Toretto crew was involved in the
heist of a nuclear submarine.
Letting the audience know that the vessel was never recovered paves the way for it to
pop back up at the end of the movie.