Fast X: A family reunion on steroids
Harry Khachatrian
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It was 2001 when the first Fast and Furious film was released. It was a simpler movie for a simpler time. In a gritty street racing underworld awash in fast cars and bikini-clad models, Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) was a cavalier racer with a sleek, souped-up Dodge Challenger and an affinity for the occasional armed robbery.
A staggering nine films and 22 years later, Fast X finds this franchise metamorphosed into a borderline superhero saga tantamount to Marvel. Toretto and his “familia” have left their drag race roots in the rearview mirror, transcending not only the streets but also Earth’s atmosphere — a literal stunt executed in Fast and Furious 9 when the government recruited this crew as an elite squad fit for international espionage. The less you think about it, the more it makes sense.
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Ten films in, the franchise has not only outlived one of its stars — Paul Walker, who died tragically in 2013 — but also the Dodge Challenger, which the auto company announced it was discontinuing in 2023. Virtually everyone else who has appeared in the franchise returns in Fast X, though the film struggles to balance such a large ensemble, leaving some characters underused.
Despite its expansive cast, there isn’t much of a concrete plot to the film. The narrative revolves around its villain’s dogged revenge schemes as they splinter the Familia and he attempts to weaken them through division. Under duress, Toretto’s crew disperses across continents, setting the stage for over-the-top action sequences from Rome to London to Rio de Janeiro to Antarctica.
For all the preening about diversity and representation in Hollywood, Fast and Furious has rarely received recognition for what is among the most diverse casts of heroes in film. The Familia boasts Latin Americans, African Americans, an Israeli, and a Korean; it’s like a model United Nations of street racers. Fast X expands this further with Jason Momoa playing a flamboyantly gay supervillain, Dante.
Dante is the bereaved son of a Brazilian drug lord Toretto’s Familia took down in Fast Five — arguably the pinnacle of the franchise. He has ostensibly been watching the subsequent Fast and Furious films since his father’s demise, studying Toretto, and planning his revenge. He’s finally found the common theme that Toretto holds most dear: family. The Fast and Furious franchise’s unwavering dedication to underscoring the importance of family and fatherhood is a refreshing beacon of wholesome conservative values amid an otherwise deeply unserious action series. Now, Dante has returned, thirsting for revenge. Festooned with flashy outfits and manicured nails, his character is a cross between Nathan Lane in The Birdcage and the Joker.
Momoa visibly relishes the role. In one scene he’s pedicuring corpses, carrying delusional conversations with them while hacking into Toretto’s bank accounts on his laptop. His enigmatic portrayal of a charismatic sociopath suits the character, although at times it borders on the excessive — for instance, when he hops into a hot pink car, cheekily declaring, “I know what you’re thinking, and yes, the carpet matches the drapes.”
Fast X is unapologetically audacious, turbo-charged, and entirely self-aware. In the opening scene, Toretto and his squad are barreling down Rome’s narrow roads to prevent a gigantic rolling bomb from hitting the Vatican. After a series of daring maneuvers, Toretto catapults his Dodge off a bridge, knocking into a crane along the way, and uses its trajectory to redirect the colossal bomb into the Tiber. Much to the chagrin of physics teachers across the country, Toretto lands and drives off without a scratch. Remarkably, this spectacle doesn’t even make the top five list of ridiculous stunts in the movie.
Fast X is like a family reunion barbecue, amped up to 11, hosted on the surface of the sun. Setting up what is intended to be a trilogy of films closing out the entire Fast and Furious franchise, it shows no signs of running out of gas anytime soon.
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Harry Khachatrian (@Harry1T6) is a film critic for the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog and a computer engineer in Toronto, pursuing his MBA.