Fast X's Cliffhanger Ending Leaves The Entire Family Up In The Air

This post contains spoilers for "Fast X."

In Chuck Jones' 1950 animated Looney Tunes short "The Scarlet Pumpernickel," Daffy Duck (Mel Blanc) is pitching his idea for a French Revolution-era adventure picture to an excitable, off-screen studio exec (also Blanc). Daffy has managed to keep the exec enthralled through a story of heroism, swordfights, and high-stakes derring-do, but the exec's attention begins to flag as he approaches the climax. Daffy begins throwing in just about anything he can think of to keep the stakes high. Then the storm broke in all its fury! And the dam burst! The volcano erupted! The price of foodstuffs skyrocketed! 

One can almost hear Daffy's voice pitching Louis Leterrier's "Fast X," the 11th film in the "Fast & Furious" series, and, well, a good old-fashioned afternoon at the movies. The content of "Fast X" wouldn't feel out-of-place in a 1940s adventure serial. The only difference is the budget, the special effects, and the fact that we're seeing an entire serial all at once. 

Well, maybe not all at once. "Fast X" ends, like all good serial chapters, on a cliffhanger. An evil, foppish, revenge-minded villain named Dante (Jason Momoa) has managed to lure Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his young son to the top of a narrow dam in Portugal. This occurs after Dom's relative has just sacrificed their life, he sees several of his compatriots likely die, and other friends and/or allies are located several continents away. Just when it looks like the film's ultra-climax is going to kick in, "Fast X" ends, leaving audiences hanging. 

Some may be thrilled by the old-world serial, cliffhanger aspect of the ending. Others may be disappointed that "Fast X" just ... ends. Both parties will have to wait for "Fast 11" for closure.

The climax has arranged all the players as follows: 

Dante surrounded Dom's car on either side with two remote-controlled tanker trucks full of gasoline and plans to ram them both into our hero at the same time. Dom, being an expert driver, escapes the peril by driving straight down the dam toward the river below, effectively outrunning the explosion while somehow sticking to a 91-degree surface. Arriving at the bottom, Dom's car sinks into a river. He and his son are defenseless and alone, as they just witnessed an errant missile strike the airplane being flown by his compatriots. The plane flies behind a hill and explodes. It sure looks like Roman (Tyrese Gibson), Tej (Ludacris), Han (Sung Kang), and Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel) have all died. This all happens after Dom witnessed his brother, Jakob (John Cena), seemingly sacrifice his life so that Dom might escape.

The general rule for the "Fast" movies is that no one is dead unless the audience is shown a corpse. If someone dies off-screen, there's every reason to believe they survived somehow. This was true of Han, of Letty, and of many, many other characters. Audiences saw the plane vanish, and then an explosion coming from where it may have landed. In a different film series, these would be clear indicators of the plane's total destruction. With "Fast X," it will merely be a matter of a daring escape to be filled in later. 

And then, as Daffy might say, the dam burst! Dante has lined the dam with bombs and the film ends with his finger poised to push the button. 

There is no doubt that Dom will escape this predicament, of course — the character is essentially immortal — but it will take some time before we see how he manages to escape. But, with the fates of the other characters all up in the air, it's going to be difficult. I trust the writers have a solution in mind, otherwise, they're facing quite a writing challenge.

Where is everyone else? 

The vicious killer Shaw (Jason Statham) is off on a revenge quest on his own. It seems his mother (Helen Mirren) has been put in peril by Dante's many thugs, and he is off on a single-minded adventure to rescue her. While he may charge to Dom's rescue, it's unlikely, given the nature of the character.

Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) and Cipher (Charlize Theron), meanwhile, have been kidnapped. Cipher, being a villain, hates Letty and the feeling is mutual. The pair, while fighting viciously in a remote underground medical lab, manage to knock out all the doctors looking in on them. When Letty knocks out Cipher and escapes through a hatch, she finds that she is in Antarctica (!). Letty may not have been killed in a plane crash, but she and Cipher are quite far from Dom. Even if Letty is at the Villa Las Estrellas compound, the northernmost point of the continent, there is still most of the Atlantic Ocean between her and her husband. She is in no position to help. If only she had a nuclear submarine ...

Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) is still out there somewhere, but his location is not addressed in the central body of "Fast X." He doesn't seem to be in a position of being able to rescue Dom. Mia (Jordana Brewster) has been sidelined for most of the "Fast" series, typically driving into danger far less often than her brother or his friends. She's family, but she is hiding out, not behind the wheel of a rescue hydrofoil. Abuelita (Rita Moreno) is 91, and will not be driving a fast car (however fun it would be to see Moreno cutting donuts in a Lamborghini). She's at home, resting. 

Tess (Brie Larson), the daughter of Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell), has already shown signs that she'd like to help Dom and his team but was injured by one of Dante's bullets and taken to a hospital for an unknown amount of time. She's already, thanks to her loyalty, kind of a part of Dom's family, but her whereabouts are unknown at the time of the rescue. She's certainly not in Portugal, however. Aimes (Alan Ritchson) cannot be trusted, as he was the one who fired the missile that might have killed Roman and co. 

The only character who "Fast X" seems to have lost total track of was Little Nobody (Scott Eastwood), a character who vanished during one of the film's earlier action sequences, and whose whereabouts after were never solidly established. It's entirely likely that he might come to Dom's rescue. 

But that's a lot to pin on a single random supporting character. There doesn't seem to be a way out of Dom's predicament. It seems that, gosh darn it, we'll just have to wait for the conclusion.