Fast X Your Seatbelts! The Familia Is Gearing Up For An Epic Finish

Let me make one thing clear, at this point in time, the Transformers movies are more realistic than the Fast & Furious franchise. That being said, I thought I was absolutely sick and tired of Vin Diesel and his family’s hijinks. It’s been 10 movies! Then the post-credits rolled (Yes, stick around till the end), and I realized I needed more Fast & Furious in my life. 

Fast X, directed by Louis Leterrier, starts off with a flashback, a storytelling technique they often do to make you feel that everything has been planned from the very first movie. It’s the F and F universe and we’re just living in it. Personally, the very first scene was literally a dizzying spin of the camera, “a prelude for things to come,” I thought to myself. But I digress.

The scene is from 2011, from Fast Five. We are witnessing the quiet moments before Dom (Vin Diesel) and Brian (Paul Walker) steal drug lord Hernan Reyes’s (Joaquim de Almeida) vault. Note: if you haven’t seen Fast Five yet, it’s a VAULT. Not a small safe. Not even an ATM. A VAULT dragged by two cars! Well, if you’re reading a review about Fast X, you’re probably well acquainted with the cartoon logic of this franchise. Anyways, the notable part of this flashback is that we are introduced to the main villain of the latest film, Reyes’ son, Dante Reyes (Jason Momoa). 

Several explosions later, dozens of cars have been destroyed. Hernan Reyes is dead. The vault has been stolen. Dante Reyes is presumed dead but you know how it goes.

Now, the main story begins. Motion blurring into the present, Dom is teaching his and Letty’s (Michelle Rodriguez) young son how to drift. The familia holds an outdoor barbecue gathering and plans for a new mission that Roman (Tyrese Gibson) is gonna lead in Rome. Almost everyone is here, armed with quips and unscripted one-liners. Dom looks at Brian’s picture several times, reminding us of Wiz Khalifa’s best song. You know that song. 

And as Dom looks at the Los Angeles skyline, spewing out cliche after cliche while the Wiz song softly plays, a thought popped into my head. They finally lost it. Sorry, Vin. This is too cheesy. Fast and Furious? More like Slow and Content! 

Then we head to Rome and a giant bomb (the size of which would make Indiana Jones run fast and furiously) starts rolling from the back of a truck to the city streets. Dom and Letty need to find a way to stop it before Dante can detonate it in the Vatican.

Truth be told, it’s an incredibly long action sequence. Unnecessary is an understatement. But as the bomb is rolling downhill towards the Pope and Dom is doing everything to stop it, basically playing pinball with it using his car, one comes to the realization that Fast X is the true essence of watching movies in the cinema in 2023. The explosions, the spectacle, the bombast, the action. This is why humanity loves and needs to watch movies in the cinema.

Sure, I could just spoil everything here and write down the entire movie, but I would still not be able to capture the existential fury that is Fast X. You will still want to watch this in IMAX or 4DX if you have the budget for it.

Bombs, trucks, homemade missiles, helicopters, submarines, satellites, even John Cena, Fast X just piles on everything we’ve come to expect from the franchise. Almost all the big stars from past movies have fun scenes too! *Cue See You Again (Again)*

And yet, by the last frame, it is not enough. IT IS NEVER ENOUGH. I wouldn’t be surprised if you literally feel pangs of hunger after the real credits roll. You will need more. We can never have enough Fast & Furious.

And though the very first F and F movie premiered in 2001, they can still somehow pull off surprising and new action sequences in 2023 that don’t make much sense when logic is applied but it sure is damn fun to watch. Now, when’s the next one?

Fast X also features cast members Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris Ludacris Bridges, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jordana Brewster, Sung Kang, Jason Statham, John Cena, Scott Eastwood, Oscar® winner Helen Mirren, Oscar® winner Charlize Theron, Oscar® winner Brie Larson, Alan Ritchson, Daniela Melchior, and legendary Oscar® winner Rita Moreno.

A Universal Pictures International presentation, Fast X is now shown in local cinemas nationwide.

Photos courtesy of Universal Pictures International