The "Fast & Furious" movies have gotten away with more than just outrageous stunts and instances
of spectacle. From bizarre character developments to outdated plot devices,
here are questionable things in the Fast & Furious movies that we all just ignore.
"Fast & Furious 6" ends with a bang by revealing that Deckard Shaw, played by Jason Statham , was
the one responsible for killing Han, played by Sung Kang, in "Tokyo Drift."
With this action, the character's intimidating nature was solidified. From there, Shaw caused
all kinds of problems for Dominic Toretto and his surrogate "family," including blowing up Toretto's
home. By the end of "Furious 7," the gang's most ruthless adversary had finally been defeated,
seemingly putting an end to his influence on the lead characters of "Fast & Furious."
Except "The Fate of the Furious" decided to go in the direction of making him an ally to the team
as they took on a new villain, Cipher, played by Charlize Theron. By the film's end, Shaw wasn't
just a helpful colleague — he ended up being the one to save Toretto's kid from the evil henchman.
It was strange to see someone responsible for murdering Han getting chummy with Toretto's
"family," including for Fast & Furious 6 director Justin Lin. Via Cinema Blend, Lin shared,
"Somebody asked me about Han and [Deckard] Shaw. I was like, 'Wait,
what? Shaw is at the barbecue in 8? Really, I was so confused. One of the big reasons
to come back [to direct F9] was I felt like we needed to correct something."
If even one of the main directors of the "Fast & Furious" franchise is puzzled by this development,
then maybe Shaw shouldn't be a part of the family.
Though Brian O'Connor, played by Paul Walker, returned from "The Fast and the Furious" to
headline "2 Fast 2 Furious," Dominic Toretto did not. This meant the square-jawed law enforcement
officer needed an experienced rebel to bounce off of. Enter Roman Pearce, played by Tyrese Gibson,
who had a more friendly personality than Toretto from the start and was clearly around to help
maintain the buddy-buddy dynamic of the first movie. But while he delivers his share of comedic
lines throughout the film, Pearce is not at all supposed to inhabit the archetype of comic relief.
When "Tokyo Drift" opted to focus on entirely new characters, both O'Connor and Pearce were put on
the backburner. In fact, Pearce disappeared from the franchise before finally returning
nearly a decade after his first appearance in "Fast Five." This time around, though,
Toretto and O'Connor were firmly in the lead roles again, meaning Pearce wasn't needed to fulfill
his original job as O'Connor's new partner. But since he had to fill out a new niche,
Pearce has taken on the role of the franchise's comic relief, which has required the character
to act drastically different than when he first showed up in "2 Fast 2 Furious."
While this new personality does make Pearce’s character wildly inconsistent between his debut
appearance and his later escapades in the franchise, it has also allowed him to stick
around as a prominent fixture of the "Fast & Furious" universe. And for that, we’re thankful.
“See, now we’re talking.” When "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo
Drift" hit theaters in June 2006, it wasn't meant to be something significant in the franchise. It
was an attempt to try something new and see if the series could extend beyond Brian O'Connor.
The filmmakers certainly weren't thinking about it factoring into an insanely convoluted timeline in
one of the biggest action franchises ever made. As a result, the use of flip phones, the car models,
and even the presence of Bow Wow in the film's cast all pointed to "Tokyo Drift" being firmly
set in the year 2006. However, this would get extra complicated as the "Fast & Furious"
franchise eventually opted to retcon "Tokyo Drift" as happening far further in the future.
In 2013, Han's death in "Tokyo Drift" was established as having taken place right after the
events of "Fast & Furious 6." Meanwhile, "Furious 7" followed up on Toretto's brief cameo in the
third film by having it revealed that he wanted to talk to "Tokyo Drift" protagonist Sean Boswell
about Han. Suddenly, a movie previously supposed to take place in 2006 was now rooted in 2015,
nearly a whole decade after it was initially released. Trying to flip the timeline of the "Fast
& Furious" universe like this was almost audacious enough to be admirable. However, it definitely
made the mythos of a series about vehicles zooming by really fast even more difficult to follow.
In "Fast & Furious," Letty, played by Michelle Rodriguez, is murdered, which is a tragic
development for Dom and a puzzling one for the franchise. After all, Letty hadn't been a part
of the series since the original "The Fast and the Furious," and now she was suddenly dead. However,
the post-credits scene of "Fast Five" shows that Letty has taken a cue from Mark Twain in that the
rumors of her death are greatly exaggerated. In the next movie, "Fast & Furious 6," Letty
is not only confirmed to be alive, but she's also shown to be working for the movie's principal foe,
Owen Shaw, who apparently rescued her when she was nearly dead. Oh, and she's also got amnesia,
which means she has no remorse about working for Shaw or shooting at her boyfriend.
Letty's death and resurrection is a puzzling story turn for the series on a number of levels,
particularly in the awkward way the "Fast & Furious" movies refuse to give a more detailed
explanation for how exactly she survived. The fact that her amnesia is only sporadically
referenced in "Furious 7" and barely mentioned in "The Fate of the Furious" is also strange,
especially as it makes her heel turn in "Fast & Furious 6" feel extra unneeded. Audiences come
to these movies for the unbelievable, there's no question about that. But going this route with
handling the death and revival of a franchise fixture like Letty feels one degree too far.
Elena Neves, played by Elsa Pataky, isn't one of the most famous "Fast & Furious" characters,
but she has one of the strangest plotlines in the entire franchise.
First introduced in "Fast Five" as aligned with Luke Hobbs, played by Dwayne Johnson,
thus making her an adversary for the principal characters, she's eventually shown to be dating
Dominic Toretto at the start of "Fast & Furious 6." Her status as Toretto's new love interest
isn't long for this world, though, as Letty comes roaring back into the series with this same movie.
Afterwards, in "Furious 7," Elena is shown working alongside Luke Hobbs once again,
and there are even hints that a relationship could be forming between the two.
Their bond is reinforced by how she's tasked with taking care of his daughter.
All of those plotlines vanish in "The Fate of the Furious," when Elena is suddenly brought
back to the forefront of the continuity as the mother of Toretto's child. All
her progress as a character independent of Dom from "Furious 7" vanishes, and suddenly, she's
the mother of his newborn baby. There are a lot of questionable aspects about this plot detail,
including how the timeline doesn't quite add up. Toretto and Elena's kid should be
much older than a newborn considering when they last were intimate. Not to mention how
all of this feels totally out of character for Elena. And then, her quick death caps off one
of the most bafflingly executed plotlines in a series not short on strange narrative detours.
The "Fast & Furious" movies aren't famous for their post-credits scenes,
but "Fast Five" features a moment worth sticking through the credits for. Here,
Luke Hobbs is informed by "2 Fast 2 Furious" character Monica Fuentes, played by Eva Mendes,
that Letty is alive and well, despite dying in "Fast & Furious." Not only did this sequence
indicate that a franchise staple was getting resurrected, but it indicated that Fuentes
was due to reappear in the "Fast Saga" after previously only appearing in the second film.
Fuentes returning to this series opened the door for Mendes to play a more active character.
However, "Fast & Furious 6" failed to follow up on this tease of her returning.
And since then, there have been no further appearances by Fuentes.
This is likely partially due to Eva Mendes taking a self-imposed sabbatical from acting,
but it's still strange that "Fast Five" teed up a return for Monica Fuentes that's yet to
pay off. Perhaps a prospective female-led "Fast & Furious" spinoff can finally give
Fuentes a new adventure to embark on that's more substantive than a post-credit sequence.
Prior to the release of "The Fate of the Furious," rumors spread that the characters
of Luke Hobbs and Deckard Shaw were being primed for their own spinoff movie. This was set up
in "The Fate of the Furious," which saw the duo being incarcerated together at the same prison.
In this fantastic action sequence, they engaged in a scuffle during a prison breakout
before being forced to work together to take down Cipher. And over the course of the story,
Hobbs and Shaw did grow closer, to the point that they shared a laugh together
and were even depicted mingling at Dom's barbeque during the film's closing scene.
Once that spinoff got off the ground in the form of "Hobbs & Shaw," suddenly,
the two were no longer buddies. At the start of the movie, they were recruited by their
respective governments to save the world, and there was an immediate animosity between the duo.
“No f---ing way. No, I’m not working with this guy. Been there done that.”
Rather than being friendly, they were now inhabiting a classic buddy cop dynamic as
they aimed a slew of jokes at one another, taking shots at qualities they hated about one another.
It was like they automatically reverted to their dynamic from the start of "The
Fate of the Furious" without any consideration of how that rapport had evolved once they left
the slammer. "Hobbs & Shaw" featured many stunts that strained credulity,
but the awkward way the two leads reverted to an exclusively antagonist
dynamic was especially weird. When "The Fast and the Furious"
hit theaters in 2001, a big takeaway for general moviegoers was the presence of Vin Diesel.
With his gravelly voice and a believable sense of authority, Diesel wasn't your average movie star.
So it seemed like a no-brainer to bring him back for the inevitable sequels.
However, when "2 Fast 2 Furious" was released, Diesel was nowhere to be found,
even as fellow original lead Paul Walker was back in the driver's seat.
It was a puzzling move for the franchise, and in the sequel, the absence is chalked up to Toretto
being on the run from the law. In the context of the real world, though, it was due to Vin Diesel
both having qualms with the script for "2 Fast 2 Furious" and having a desire to break away from
the franchise to do "The Chronicles of Riddick" instead. This decision allowed Diesel to follow
his own creative pursuits, but it did result in the baffling sight of seeing a "Fast & Furious"
movie not headlined by the actor most associated with this franchise. This trait has only gotten
more puzzling as the years go by and Diesel remains more and more of a fixture of this saga.
Brixton Lore, played by Idris Elba, is the most advanced adversary to ever appear in a "Fast &
Furious" movie. He isn't just ruthlessly violent — he's also outfitted with cyborg enhancements.
The first explicitly sci-fi character in the "Fast & Furious" mythos isn't someone you can
take down with ease. So considering the leads of "Hobbs & Shaw" are just normal human beings,
you'd think it would take a super complicated tactic to defeat Lore and save the world.
Instead, the duo is able to take him down simply by learning the valuable lesson that
punching him separately isn't working. No, they have to punch him together.
It's a ridiculous plot turn meant to be the culminating teamwork of the two leads
who can't stand each other, and predictable to boot. Even for a "Fast & Furious" movie,
this tactic for bringing down the baddie is pretty questionable.
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