THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
The Fast & Furious franchise could’ve had a subtle finale. But the fifth entry had such a shocking cliffhanger that we needed to see how it would unfold.
PLOT
The final prequel Fast & Furious 6 takes place months after Dominic Toretto led a team to rob a crime lord in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. While Dom has settled in a relationship with Elena Neves, Mia and Brian O’Conner have begun to raise their firstborn Jack, named their Dom & Mia's late father. DSS agent Luke Hobbs is hunting down former British Special Forces Agent Owen Shaw, who attacked a military convoy in Russia with a team of his own. He requests Dom to help him because his wife Leticia ‘Letty’ Ortiz, presumed dead, is part of the team. Aside from Brian, the returning teammates are: Roman Pearce, Tej Parker, Han Seoul-Oh and Gisele (Gal Gadot). Leo and Santos are absent after losing their money due to gambling at Monte Carlo casinos. When all meet up at London, the deal is made that all will be pardoned after Shaw is stopped from building a tech bomb that can block an entire military communication grid for 24 hours. If an entire country were to be blinded, millions of lives would be lost. At night, one of Shaw's henchmen Oakes (Matthew Stirling) leads the crew to a hideout, but this proves to be a trap as the rest of his group rob Interpol Headquarters and the hideout explodes. Dom and Hobbs chase Shaw while Brian, Rome & Tej get taken down by the opposing group that included: Vegh (Clara Paget), Klaus (Kim Kold), Jah (Joe Taslim), Adolfson (Benjamin Davies), Denlinger (Samuel M. Steward) and Ivory (David Ajala). Dom gets carried away encountering Letty, which results in Hobbs losing Shaw. When he finds her, she shoots him at his shoulder. She did this because she suffered from amnesia after her accident, not remembering her life with him at all. Shaw's group doubts her trust when discovering her relationship with him, but their leader chooses to trust her completely. Once Dom's team regroups, they agree to find the person responsible for building their custom cars. Tej buys cars without computer chips so they won't be taken down as they were before. Hobbs' fellow agent Riley Hicks (Gina Carano) goes with Han, Rome & Gisele to find their supplier Firuz (Thure Lindhart) but he warns Shaw via text. Letty, Jah & Ivory show up to attack them. Firuz gets shot in the crossfire but gives Gisele her phone before whispering 'Braga' before death. She then shoots down Ivory while the others fail to capture Letty and Jah. Dom & Brian go to a pawn shop to get information on Letty, who bought a gun there. The only thing they get is that she street races. Knowing that, Han gives Dom the address to the next one so he can get to her again. When going through Firuz's phone, Gisele shares the discovery that Shaw works with Arturo Braga (John Ortiz). Brian turns himself in to America so he can confront Braga in prison. He is able to get out afterwards with help of former FBI co worker Stasiak (Shea Wingham). When confronting his rival, Braga reveals that Owen considered killing her when discovering she survived her accident. He chose to recruit her instead when discovering her amnesia. He also shares that the only way to get to Shaw is if he wants you there. When Dom races Letty, she takes him off course to hear him out. He shares his memories of her and gives her back her necklace, hoping to get her to remember her past. When Shaw appears, he demands him and his team to leave but Dom refuses to leave without her. Both sides walk away when threatening each other with snipers. Letty chooses to lend her necklace to Owen, to prove her loyalty. When Hobbs and Riley go to Lusitania, Spain, they believe that Shaw will attack a NATO base to get the last item needed for his tech bomb. When they discover that the component is being relocated with a convoy, they realize that this'll Shaw's chance to retrieve it. When Dom discover this as well, he and his team make their way to stop them. Shaw and Letty attempt to escape with a tank. When Rome's car get attacked, he attaches a cable to the tank. As Brian crashes it off the bridge to stop the tank like an anchor, Shaw orders Letty to unhook the cable. He does his only knowing that they would crash and when they do, she is flung into the air but Dom catches her from across. Once they return to the NATO base, Shaw demands to be released with the chip when revealing that Mia is held captive by his team. Riley leaves with him, revealing to be his girlfriend the whole time. Dom and company follow him to a plane, where he intends to leave. After Brian boards to rescue Mia, he crashes Vegh off course. Letty kills Riley while Dom & Hobbs square off against Owen and Klaus. Han, Gisele, Tej & Roman attempt to bring the plane down with harpoons. But the weight of the aircraft forces their cars off ground. Tej gets rid of Jah and Denlinger by ramming them into the plane's crosswind. Gisele sacrifices herself to shoot at Adolfson, which saves Han. Once she falls to her death, he throws him through one of the engines. When he does that, Brian shoots the last harpoon that also helps brining the plane down. Klaus gets concussed by Hobbs, but Owen gets thrown from the plane by Dom. Hobbs & Letty board Tej before the plane crashes. But as for Dom, he drives through the front of the plane after being blocked from behind. While Letty is relieved to see him alive, Mia comforts Han after the loss of Gisele. With Hobbs retrieving the chip, he keeps his promise by giving pardons to the whole team. They celebrate by returning to the Torettos' home in Los Angeles with a barbecue. The film ends in a post credit scene that finally connects the dot to Tokyo Drift: It is revealed that in Tokyo, Han was crashed intentionally by Owen's brother, Deckard (Jason Statham).
THOUGHTS
I recall getting the chance to watch this sometime in the summer of 2013 and I gotta say, this one is a blast. Director Justin Lin is able to conclude such an exciting arc on such a high note while keeping the adrenaline intact. He flips the genre once again by now turning it into a spy film, which also pays off so well that this becomes a mainstay for the rest of the series. From the second you hear the song 'We Own It' by 2 Chainz and Wiz Khalifa, you knew were in for a treat. Every fight/chase sequence lives up to the expectation of being thrilling to see. From the Tank Heist to the Runway Chase, it’s hard not to get a kick out of the insanity that ensues. As before, the core aspect that made this as watchable as the rest in between is the character driven ensemble. Vin Diesel gives another good performance as Dom who is vulnerable because his head ain’t in the right place. With the love of his life back from the dead, he is determined and hopeful to get her back. Because of this issue, it does become a struggle for him to keep his guard up and focus on stopping the bad guys that took advantage of her. While it was a gamble for him to take a leap of faith for her because he obviously could’ve died, you gotta admire how far he went to get her back. With that goal succeeding, it makes you happy that his family is finally all together again. His quote to "Never turn on your back on family" definitely defines the general theme here because it's true that you can't give up on the people you care about when you know there is a chance to fix scrubbles with them. Going into the rest of the cast, we got another interesting outing for Paul Walker as Brian. While he enjoys his new life as a father, he still had regret deep down when it came to Letty. Thankfully for him, this mission was his answer to be redeemed. And because of this, he is at his most selfless that he was willing to get arrested to get information he needed. It's hard not to love someone that has put himself before others like that. Dwayne Johnson makes a bigger mark as Luke Hobbs. This time around, he may be reluctant to trust a criminal like Dom, but chooses to because he knows he is best resource. The one thing that remains the same when looking back at his first appearance is that he doesn't treat anyone expendable. He could've let Dom pursue Letty alone, but he knew it would've backfired every chance he had if he didn't track him. Knowing that, you gotta respect how he looks out for everyone. It was exciting to see Michelle Rodriguez return as Letty, but I never expected it to be as impactful as this. Due to her amnesia, she is struggling with an identity crisis and is frightened of not remembering those who love her. She chooses to give Dom a chance to talk because she's not sure who to trust. It does appear sudden that she goes back to him. But I think the reason would be that she fell for him all over again because she admired his will for her. The one thing I respected the most from her here is that she doesn't blame Brian for what happened to her, taking away his emotional weight. Jordana Brewster ain't here much as Mia, but she still keeps her mark as a loving matriarch to her family. I respect her allowing herself to be kidnapped, because she trusted Elena to protect Jack and knew Brian would come for him. Looking back at that, it really grows to be one of the smartest moments in the entire franchise. I still can't get enough of Tyrese and Ludacris because their bickering as Rome and Tej is always worthwhile as depicted here. Seeing Gisele die was a bummer because in Han's perspective, you feel that things were just getting started for them. Seeing Sung Kang depict his strike of grief, you can argue that this explains/defends his actions in Tokyo Drift. Elsa Pataky wasn't there much, but she still spoke volumes for Elena. She accepted Dom resuming his relationship with Letty and encouraged her to pursue her because she knew she would've done the same. With that in mind, you respect her for not taking the breakup personal. Even though she wasn't his true love, she definitely earned her place in his family when protecting baby Jack. For our new cast member here, I truly believe that Luke Evans began the era of memorable villains in this franchise. He lays a better impression because he becomes cynical through being pragmatic. Once he sees his followers fall, he accepts them to be nothing but expendable. He is easily a manipulative figure for using Letty this whole time. With Riley as his resource, he always succeeded at being ahead of his foes. When it came to Dom though, that didn't last long and he paid the price. This film holds up more than I thought but that doesn’t mean there were no flaws. First off, why did Shaw’s mole Oakes get the wire on right outside the building where Shaw was? I know Shaw figured it out way ahead that he would be betrayed, but he could’ve saw that if he took a glimpse from any window if he wanted to. The first chase sequence is cool and all, but how did Brian’s chip know to get rid of the left side of the car? He didn't see it so he couldn't have known. It was pretty weird how Hobbs got the first set of cars recovered mainly because it appears that he did it in a short period of time. He may be resourceful but he can't be that resourceful. If we’re supposed to believe he’s a smart guy, why can’t we see how he gets his knowledge? It shouldn’t be hard to ask. Also, how did Gisele not notice Firuz pull out his phone to warn Shaw? I get that Riley says nothing because she’s in cahoots with the bad guys, but Gisele ain’t, she was right behind him. She should’ve known that he ain’t scratching his leg. Since they got his phone afterwards, how come they didn’t anymore information from that? If they did, Brian wouldn’t have to see Braga. I guess it’s a neat scene where Stasiak comes back too, but how come Hobbs pull some strings and have someone outside the group to talk to Braga? I know he’s in a time crunch but that is way better than putting Brian at risk. I can’t be the only one confused that there was only one cop car trying to stop Dom and Letty’s race. I know this bends reality a whole lot but if you want to raise suspense, should’ve had a couple more on their trail so that the two could do something elaborate to avoid them. I get that the tank needs to be impeded so that Dom could catch Letty, but I don’t think it would be done by a Mustang. They said it was 70 tons so explain how that should be possible. I gotta admit that it was lazy having Riley be with Shaw the whole time because there was no hints at all. These twists are supposed to work when the crumbs are laid down, but this one had none. So when she revealed her true intentions, I just rolled my eyes because it was undeserving of a moment. Even her own death scene was cringeworthy to see because she doesn’t try to avoid the harpoon while Hobbs tosses it to Letty and the latter chooses to have a one liner. This moments has a lot of cheesy moments like this, which I can be fine with, but this one I couldn’t stand. And yes it badass seeing Dom drive through the front of the plane but how does he not have a major injury? His shirt is dirty and has a minor cut on his head like the very first film. Just please be slightly realistic and give him a broken arm so I don’t confuse him with Superman. Ignore all of this and you’ll still be having as much of a ball as you’ve had with the past films. To wrap up, Fast & Furious 6 is another fun action film that gets creative when flipping the switch once again. If you’ve made it this far, you’re bound to enjoy this film as well.
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