Fast X Does The Unforgivable And Forgets About The Family

The "Fast and Furious" saga did a transformation no other Hollywood franchise has, going from a series of small movies with simple premises to a franchise that almost went straight to DVD, all before finally churning out some of the biggest and most profitable movies in Hollywood.

It would be easy to credit the success of the franchise on the bigger budgets, the increasingly more ridiculous and impressive stunts, the plot becoming about international espionage, or maybe the arrival of Dwayne Johnson in "Fast Five." At the end of the day, however, the franchise survived its change in tone and its disregard for physics for one reason: family. 

Sure, the topic of family in "Fast and Furious" has become a bit of a meme, but when the crew went from stealing VHS players to dragging vaults across the streets of Rio, or when they jumped cars out of planes, each of the most ludicrous moments in the franchise worked because they were grounded in earnest care for the characters and the bond between them.

Indeed, when Tej and Roman went to space and Roman joked about being invincible, it was the years of friendship and brotherly bonding between the two that turned arguably the most ridiculous scene in the franchise into a rather sweet and emotional moment.

This brings us to "Fast X," the beginning of the end of the road for the franchise, its endgame. While there is plenty to like about the movie, including its best villain to date, an all-time great action sequence, and fantastic comedy by John Cena, the movie is ultimately a betrayal of what the "Fast and Furious" franchise represents. This is because "Fast X" commits the worst sin a "Fast and Furious" movie could do: it forgets about the family.

Heavy spoilers for "Fast X" to follow.

"Fast X" separates the family for most of the runtime. Now, on paper, that's not entirely the worst idea ever. It's part of what makes this the "Avengers: Infinity War" of the series, and it worked fine for Marvel. Plus, Dante is the ultimate villain for Dominic Toretto and the family, one whose sole purpose is to annihilate the family. In order to do that he isolates Dom, making the team wanted criminals and forcing them to stay apart so he can target them more easily and torture Dom before killing him.

This is fine in theory, and after "Fast and Furious 11" gets released, it is possible the plan will have worked. But as it stands, "Fast X" is a single chapter in the franchise, and it should be able to stand on its own. Therefore, as a single movie, having the family separated for most of the runtime, having the characters that have made this the franchise it is today separated, separated from each other, takes away from what makes these movies worth watching. This causes "Fast X" to diverge into way too many storylines, without a long enough runtime to be properly fleshed out.

More importantly, it isn't just the fact that the family is separated or that the characters don't get to do much, it is the fact that "Fast X" treats the characters as sidekicks rather than family that betrays its core theme.

Since "Fast Five" properly introduced the team as we know it, with some new additions in the sequels that followed, each member has always been as useful and integral to the team as anyone else, including Brian or Dom. Sure, those two were always the leaders, but the others still were essential — but not in this movie. 

In "Fast X," the characters aimlessly wander around, Han gets drugged by Pete Davidson for some stupid reason that never goes anywhere, and has his prophecized meeting with Deckard Shaw, where he does nothing. Because, in case you forgot, he doesn't need to, since Shaw didn't really kill him or even hurt him at all.  

The one that gets the most prominence in the plot is Roman, and even then he is mostly a one-note joke about how he messes up a lot, yet still has good leadership skills. The thing is, this is nothing new, as we have seen Roman contribute great ideas for years, as well as showing leadership and charisma, all while being the team's punching bag and joking around a lot.

"Fast X" shows that the team only works when they are together. Separate, they aren't really characters, they are archetypes. This is fine when working together, since the banter, and the emotions hide the superficiality of the characters, but when they're apart, the cracks start to show. The "Fast and Furious" movies are about a team, a family. Their strength together is a big part of why the action sequence in Rome early in "Fast X" is great, because it shows them working together. However, after they are separated from each other, the film loses steam.

Even if the next movie reveals the seemingly dead members of the family didn't actually die in "Fast X," a staple of the franchise, there is no going back from this movie. There is no putting the genie back in the bottle. "Fast X" did the unforgivable.