By Narayan Saimbi
I boarded a flight to Montreal recently and was absentmindedly flicking through the in-flight entertainment. It had your usual trash; benign cooking shows, romance flicks, Angry Birds etc. However, what caught my eye were a set of movies I had not laid eyes on since 2017. Lo and behold, the Fast and Furious franchise.
Now I understand that the series is absolutely ridiculous. Physics-defying car chases, logical plot holes; I’m pretty sure they even end up in space in the recent ones. All the movies focus around three things: cars, women and family. An odd combination for many, but for Fast and Furious, this is the Holy Trinity. In my humble opinion, there is very little cognitive thought required to watch these movies.
However, 50,000 feet in the sky, the Fast and Furious franchise is absolutely perfect. The lack of deep thinking makes them perfect for a long haul flight (especially one that required me to be at Heathrow for 5:30 AM). And I think that’s where the charm of these films lie. Easy watching, but with enough action to keep you thoroughly entertained.
Let me start with describing to you Fast Five; the fifth entry in the franchise, and the first movie I decided to watch on my flight. The reason why I decided to start here is because this is the first movie in the franchise where things started to go completely off the walls. Before this movie, the franchise was mainly racing films, known for their grittiness and mostly grounded in reality (with the exception of 2 Fast 2 Furious’ “stare and drive”). However, Fast Five is where that all changed.
The movie kicks off with the rescue of main character Dominic (Dom) Torretto from a prison transit bus, and introduces the watcher to Dom, Brian O’Connor and Mia Torretto; the tenacious trio for which the film primarily focuses on. After a brief train heist, Dom, Brian and Mia are hot on the trail of Brazilian criminal Reyes’ $100 million, after locating an SD card with the information of its whereabouts. At the same time, the trio is being tracked down by Special Agent Hobbs (a.k.a Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson), due to their role in the car theft. After holing up in Brazil, Brian and Dom recruit a team to get Reyes’ money. This includes tech wiz Tej, smart-mouth Roman, street racer Han, the deadly Giselle and the dynamite duo Santos and Tego Leo.
This all seems normal so far. Your typical run-of-the-mill action film build-up. However, when the team gets their plan fully underway, this is where things really start to head south as far as reality is concerned.
Brian, Dom, Hobbs and his police partner Elena head to the police station to rob the safe where the money is. A ten ton, reinforced steel safe. How do you think they attempt to take this? Heavy-duty military tanks? The most powerful tow truck in the world?
If you picked flashy sports cars, you got the right answer. A safe heavier than God himself easily gets towed through the city of Rio de Janeiro by Brian and Dom, even with their hairpin turns and plotpoint diversions. The safe manages to smash through an entire bank due to its density, but is perfectly capable of being driven around by Brian and Dom.
To make this even more ludicrous, the safe is switched out midway through the heist, in order to ensure Dom’s crew can keep the money over Hobbs (this is one of the many subplots this movie throws at you). So not only do they mock up a ten ton safe in the middle of Rio, they also manage to smoothly load and deload a massive amount of weight onto the sports car, without anything happening to them. No whiplash, no crashes. Absolute zilch. Move over Scarlet Witch. With Toretto and his family, it seems anything is possible.
However, having said all of this criticism, I honestly enjoyed the film. When the gang manages to beat Reyes, and come away from the money, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t beaming in my seat. And that’s what this franchise is good for. Action flicks, accompanied by feel-good endings.
Do all films need to have a complex story? The Fast and Furious franchise disagrees. And for these guys, it works. The same formula repeated will produce the intended reaction, even if the characters, dialogue and plot are all skin deep.
Nuance is needed in cinema, don’t get it twisted. But sometimes we need to switch off. The latest Nolan flick is not going to provide that state of blissful relaxation that a Fast and Furious film can. And in our ever- busy lives, that’s sometimes exactly what we need. This is my defence for the Fast and Furious films. As imperfect as they may be, they serve their purpose. We can’t ask for any more.
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