THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
When a franchise goes on longer than it should, you are either in or out. I knew I was in with the Fast Saga when I chose to keep watching after Furious 7. And after The Fate of the Furious left a loose end, I couldn't help but wonder how it would be tied up.
PLOT
F9 follows Dominic Toretto trying to live peacefully with his wife Letty Ortiz and his illegitimate son 'Little Brian'. Their friends, Tej Parker, Roman Pearce & Ramsey visit their private home to inform them of urgent news: They received an SOS by Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell) who was attacked by an unidentified rogue agent as he was transferring Cipher, the cyber terrorist he captured. His plane has been traced to have crash landed Montequinto, Central America. Letty easily agrees to join the group to check it out since Cipher is responsible for murdering Little Brian’s mother Elena and manipulating Dom to betray them. Although he wants to avoid conflict, her husband joins them when recognizing that the rogue had a necklace matching his. So when they reach Montequinto, they don’t find Mr. Nobody, but they do find half of an unknown device named ‘Aries’. They are then ambushed by a private army and the device is taken by their leader that is Dom’s brother, Jakob, who is also the rogue. He does have a base of operations with fellow rogue operative Otto (Thue Ersted Rasmussen), son of an unnamed aristocrat, who hold Cipher there to help them find the second half. She does so and tells them it is in Edinburgh, Scotland. When the gang retreats, Letty does announce the others who he is since they’ve never heard of him before. Dom has chosen not to talk about him for good reason: In 1989, he was responsible for sabotaging the race car of their father Jack (JD Pardo) that resulted in his death during a race. When Dom originally blamed another racer and assaulted him with a socket ranch, he went to prison. And when he figured out what his brother did, he eventually got released and defeated him in a race that banned him from their home in Los Angeles. When the team reaches a stash house left behind by Mr. Nobody, Dom’s sister Mia joins him when discovering that they’re up against Jakob. Ramsey does more research for Project Aries, and it turns out that it is a weapons program that’ll allow the user to control all of the world’s computers and advanced weapons systems at once when both halves are together. Jakob wants it to attain such global power. It is also learned that Han Lue (Sung Kang) is the only other name connected to the device. Letty & Mia go to Tokyo to investigate Han’s death since that is where he presumably died. Roman and Tej meets Han’s friends (Sean [Lucas Black], Twinkie [Shad ‘Bow Wow’ Moss] and Earl [Jason Tobin]) in Germany to recruit them. Dom visits Los Angeles and reunites with Buddy (Michael Rooker), a former member of their pit crew who took Jakob in when Jack died. He only chose to visit in hopes to know of his whereabouts. He does admit that he is in London, but insists that he should make peace with him when he finds him. Upon arrival, Queenie Shaw (Helen Mirren) escorts him to a party he is hosting with Otto. When he confronts his brother, they hold each other at gunpoint, but Otto manipulates Dom to be arrested. This was beneficial for the protagonist because he gets apprehended by an old friend named Leysa (Cardi B) who was hired by Queenie to pose as an Interpol agents. Since she took Jakob’s gun, they can track him down with biometric imprints. Dom reaches Edinburgh along with Tej, Roman & Ramsey just when his brother does. He does try to steal the second half of Aries with an electromagnet. However, the gang is able to get a hold of it and use it to their advantage to capture Jakob and the device. Letty & Mia return from Tokyo with a young woman named Elle (Anna Sawai) and Han who has been alive and well this time. He explains that when he originally left to Tokyo, Mr. Nobody hired him to protect Elle because her DNA is the activation key to Aries. This is the case because her parents manufactured the device and used her DNA to avoid it being in the wrong hands before they were assassinated. When he got attacked by Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), he was able to stage his death with an advanced hologram. Otto does find the stash house to rescue Jakob since the latter ran missions there many times before Dom took shelter. His connection to Mr. Nobody is the reason he recruited his brother to retrieve God’s Eye. Just when he retrieves Aries’ second half, he admits why he sabotaged Jack’s car: The truth is that Jack requested for it to happen to lose on purpose in order to pay off debt. He picked Jakob to do it, unaware it would explode, because he knew Dom would never do it, promising not to tell him. When he and Otto escape with Elle, the gang defend themselves from the private army in order to briefly hide. Dom wipes them out by drowning them all. Luckily, Letty saves him from suffering the same fate. With Jakob having everything needed to get what he wants, all realize that the satellite needs to be tampered in order to prevent Aries to go into full effect. As the upload gets started while Otto & Jakob drive around Tbilisi in an armored 16 wheeler, Dom, Letty, Mia, Han & Ramsey race to stop the uplink. Han & Mia rescue Elle while Dom & Letty use electromagnets to be rid of the remaining private army. Jakob gets betrayed by Otto, who now aligns with Cipher to gain the global power for himself. He does get attacked by one of his goons and is almost thrown off the truck, but is saved by Dom & Mia. He then chooses to redeem himself by helping Ramsey and his brother board the truck. They choose to pull it off by using the electromagnets to flip the truck. Ramsey is then able to remove both halves while Roman & Tej destroy the satellite in orbit with a rocket car. The truck does crash downhill and Ramsey gets out quickly, but Dom barely gets out just when it gets hit by a rocket virtually summoned by Cipher. The destruction kills Otto, but the damaged truck ricochets and hits her plane. This leads to her leaving Jakob’s base, hoping to find another way to get even. Dom chooses to make amends with Jakob by allowing him to escape from authorities and allowing Mia to say goodbye. After Tej & Roman get rescued in space by Russian astronauts, the entire Toretto family, including Han’s friends and Brian O’Conner celebrate saving the world with a barbecue hosted by Leo (Don Omar) at the original childhood home of the Torettos that is slowly being rebuilt. The film ends in a mid credit cliffhanger showing Han confront his attacker Deckard for the first time, cutting to black before the entire confrontation is shown. THOUGHTS
When I got my COVID-19 vaccine, I definitely got comfortable to go to the theaters more often than I was intending once they reopened. I didn’t mind seeing this in the big screen because I missed going out that much. Over 20 years now, it’s crazy to see that this action series is finding new ways to be entertaining. It definitely lives up to being over the top with sequences I didn’t think would exist in this franchise’s continuity. I want to be mad at how Roman & Tej shouldn’t have a chance at surviving space with a rocket car, but you can’t help laughing at it’s ridiculousness in a good way and respect that it had the balls to go there. I even originally felt skeptic about the electromagnet, but I get impressed that it’s used to the best advantage. The only sequence that couldn’t convince me was the bridge jump because I know too well Dom should not be able to rely on momentum of a rope to get to the other side of the island, as well as pull it off without him & Letty having a scratch. That is the one of the many things I admit to have bothered me as I ended up rewatching it. For example, I want to be happy Han came back, but the explanation to it was retconning why he was on the run. I was lucky enough to rewatch Tokyo Drift and remember exactly what was going on with him before the prequels supposably tied it all together. Han got chased away by DK because he was stealing from him and Deckard was stalking him to murder him. There was no way he would know both of these people would go after him simultaneously to stage his death and be under radar for Elle’s sake. Going into the rest of the story, I don’t blame Dom & Letty going off grid for LB’s sake, but how come they didn’t have at least a satellite phone incase a friend like Roman were to reach out? The extended cut showed Dom use what looked like one when she called Mia to babysit, so they should’ve known Rome & company would reach out whatever the reason. I really thought I would ignore being bad at aiming once Roman pokes at it, but then I find it un-earning when I realize no one got hit. Seriously I don’t these guys to die, but it’s bullshit how no one gets grazed at least once. That pissed me off more than how they had unlimited luck when they survived a minefield. Now I’m sure Mr. Nobody was in the right direction to split Aries in half but wouldn’t it be safer to just destroy it if you know how dangerous it is? I do understand Elle’s family probably had good intentions in what they created, but someone as smart as Mr. Nobody should’ve known it’d be safer to not have it at all. Especially since Cipher stole God’s Eye, you’re saving yourself trouble to not having dangerous weapons. And the convenience was too damn high when it came to getting the second half of Aries because Jakob had the perfect route to zip line and Dom had nothing to block him from catching up. Both sides are lucky, but Jakob felt too lucky in this case because he just went straight and could’ve went into other directions. Yeah it was part of the plan, but even if he thought Dom wouldn’t be a problem, he should’ve had an alternative in the back of his pocket. Hell, he could’ve been picked up from a jet immediately like he did on the island. That would be more believable than seeing Dom catch up on foot. I did say the use of the electromagnet was awesome, especially when Ramsey used it to capture Jakob, but how did she and the guys get back undetected? It’s hard to say they would when they magnetized Jakob’s getaway car with the yellow truck. Please clarify they how that shit worked out since they still used it in the climax. I want to be happy Letty saves Dom from drowning, but how do they get back to the upper level they were hiding at? It didn’t look like there was a ladder intact. So was there another door closer for them to get out of that situation? I shouldn’t be selfish for wanting god damn clarification. And lastly I was surprised Otto betrayed Jakob over Cipher, but why didn’t he do it sooner? He kinda didn’t have to free him from Dom once he got the second half of Aries, so he was totally wasting time on him at that point. The only reason that appears to be strong enough to ignore these issues has to be how the recurring ensemble is still investing enough to express another important theme. In a way, this film is telling us to let go of the pain that troubles us in order to be better versions of ourselves. That is technically what we’re seeing through a sibling rivalry we never thought we’d see. Vin Diesel does remind us that Dom is the most humble of Torettos which was built of a tragedy that turned out to be half said. Ever since the sixth film, it’s been a given that Dom has been the most emotionally vulnerable due to being highly concerned of protecting whoever he identifies as part of his family no matter what. It’s no exception because now as a parent, that motive won’t be changing soon and it definitely troubles him that a new threat happens to be his brother. I don’t blame him for banishing Jakob because at the time it would’ve harder for him to digest the reasoning of his actions. After the race he had, every person that became part of his inner circle would fill the hole in his heart because even after all the anger, he still missed his brother. Once Dom remembered that Jack was really in debt, he realized he should’ve given Jakob a better chance. He chose to forgive him because he accepted from their dad that the people we admire aren’t perfect. But he chose to let him go because like Brian, he knew everyone deserves a second chance. Had Brian not done it first, Dom wouldn’t have done the same 20 years later. Within that the time span, there were signs he even had a brother which only makes the reveal of the character extra surprising and the performance from John Cena makes it all the more memorable. Throughout, Cena makes it clear how complicated of a figure Jakob is. At first you want to solely hear Dom’s word because you trust him but once things progress, you know there is something bigger the past left behind. It’s easy to look at him as a stingy man whose actions result from the lust for power but on the other end of the stick, he is someone who was seeking acceptance. After the tragedy he had the burden to live with, the neglect lead to him fending for himself his whole life and mingling with the wrong people to trust. Again had he been given the chance to give his side of the story, he would’ve not taken the route he would end up taking. It was odd for Otto’s betrayal to be the moment for both Toretto brothers to make amends, but I think that comes to show how forgiveness can come when least expected. It is safe to say the second chance was worth it because by Fast X, Jakob became a trustworthy ally and a brother to appreciate. Considering how intense of a rivalry it was between him and Dom, we all had to wonder how this affected their only sister. Jordana Brewster’s return as Mia was still able to shake things up because she proved herself to be a loving sister by choosing to act almost neutral of the debate. It bothers her that Jakob is responsible for Jack’s death yet looked past it because she knew there was more to it. But she never asked him to give his side because she knew it’d be too much to bare and Dom likely wouldn’t listen at the time. Once it was clear Jakob was the new threat, she knew this would be her chance to get him back and although he had to leave again, she is in relief her brothers are on the same page. With each entry, we get reminded of what a great wife Letty is thanks to Michelle Rodriguez always playing her as one always willing to fight without hesitation. The difference she has with Dom is that she’s more comfortable with fighting because she knows the threat doesn’t go away until confronting it. That furthermore defends her not hesitating to go after Cipher because she isn’t going to bare her husband going through any more trauma. It gave me a lot of warmth to see her save Dom (again) from drowning because it was another moment to show how strong their love is for each other. Since their relationship originates from their youth, it was a given for her to know about Jakob. And the fact she knew of their rivalry proves how close she is with the family she married into. She probably wasn’t sure how Don was gonna handle things, but I’m sure she’s just as relieved as Mia was upon realization that the rivalry ended with amends being made. Tyrese & Ludacris still make a great pair as Tej & Rome because their character’s bickering about reality was indeed played out in hilarious fashion. They may be here for the laughs apart from their skills, but it doesn’t change the hearts they’ve had from the get go. And to me, I think that shows how much of their spirits reflect Brian’s. Without their chemistry, I don’t think the space scene would be as tolerable as I believe it to be. I was surprised I was able to enjoy Ramsey more than before because Nathalie Emmanuel makes her more self assured than before and is more than comfortable than before in her surroundings. This was more visible thanks to gaining a belonging with Dom’s inner circle and doesn’t really fail to impress. While it was awkward for her to be the only one in the group not driven before, she didn’t let that stop her from doing her best as a helping hand. Because Jakob made such a grave mistake and was able to achieve controversial redemption, it became easy to forget who was the true villain. Cipher is still the main threat as Charlize Theron reminds us that she has no intention in changing at all and is only focused on getting even with Dom. She tricked Otto into betraying Jakob because she felt it would better her chances on doing so and since her drone failed, it only paved the way for her to continue her path as the remorseless villain she is known for. To wrap up, F9 was not an amazing film but did not have to be in order to become another entertaining one to see. If you still dig action films like past entries from the Fast Saga, then I am sure you’ll enjoy this too.
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