The Fast & Furious franchise may look like little more than a mess of crashes, shootouts, and ridiculous stunts pulled off with the help of CGI, but there is occasionally a story mixed in. The tale of superhumans capable of any feat as long as they enter and leave the scene in a car continues to amaze with bigger explosions and bigger twists.
Over nine films, the Fast saga has grown from a film about a cop infiltrating the local street racing scene to a gigantic worldwide spy thriller. Since Fast Five, the franchise has introduced more intrigue, larger stakes, and a never-ending new cast of characters to explore.
What happens in F9?
F9 follows the family as they attempt to get their hands on a device called Project Aries, which will give the user the ability to hack into any computer system. After the events of The Fate of the Furious, Dominic Toretto and his wife Letty have retired to raise Dom's son Brian. They're dragged out of retirement by Roman, Tej, and Ramsay to deal with a new threat. Dom's estranged brother Jakob has an interest in Project Aries, so he leads a private army to steal part of the machine. The film explores Dom's history with his brother, working fast to build up Jakob as an antagonist. As always, most of the film's story is delivered around or between bombastic action set pieces and the main events are new developments for beloved characters.
Perhaps the biggest reveal of F9 comes around the halfway point when Han comes back. Han joins the family in the battle against Jakob and dangerous scientist Otto for the fate of Project Aries. Otto unshockingly betrays Jakob, tossing him from a moving vehicle and leaving Dom and their sister Mia to rescue him. Cipher, the villain of Fate of the Furious, joins forces with Otto for about 90 seconds. She uses a drone to bomb Dom, misses her target, and kills Otto in the process. Dom takes out Cipher's drone, but she escapes the scene. With one villain in the wind and the other one dead, Jakob is the only one left to deal with. Dom and Mia decide to forgive Jakob, but he's still wanted for countless massive crimes. They give Jakob Dom's car so that he can go on the run, leaving him a possible place in the future of the franchise.
The last scene of F9 is a family barbecue to celebrate their success in the mission. Characters discuss the absurd events of the story and their plans for the future. This is pretty common to the franchise, most of the films end with relaxed debriefing sessions. The strangest moment comes in the final shot before the credits. Dom is just about to give his thousandth speech about the importance of family when a familiar blue Nissan Skyline pulls into the driveway. That classic tuner is Brian's car, marking the character's continued involvement in the franchise. There's a mid-credit scene that depicts Han encountering Shaw, the man who almost killed him. Han's back in the game, Cipher's still around, and Brian never left. That's a strange place to be for Fast X.
What does F9 mean for the franchise?
The family is, once again, peacefully retired. They will almost certainly be dragged back into the game with whatever threat appears in the next installment. Jakob now floats outside both the good and bad sides of the conflict. He could be a great new addition to the team, but he could also disappear immediately. He'd be far from the first cast member to abandon the franchise after a single entry, but John Cena could be fun to keep around. Han's back, and he's after Shaw, which will inherently create some conflict among the family. They've been known to forgive the unforgivable from time to time, so the winner will be determined by which actor won't be appearing. Cipher remains the main possible antagonist for the next entry, but she could end up playing second fiddle again. The weird part is still Brian.
Brian was portrayed by Paul Walker, who tragically passed away in a car accident in 2013. Bizarrely, the character wasn't killed off. His touching send-off sees him driving off into the distance in the final moments of Furious 7. He hasn't been seen since for obvious reasons, but the appearance of his car suggests that Brian is still somewhere out there. The franchise simply can't bring Brian back. It would be needlessly disrespectful and largely pointless. Brian stopped being the protagonist of the franchise long before Walker's death. His continued presence suggests that the franchise still has an unusual relationship with its characters and threatens a deeply troubling reunion.
F9 simultaneously moved the franchise forward and left its characters in the same status quo it began with. This franchise is a bit of a mess, but the story isn't particularly hard to follow. Fast X is speeding toward the audience, but its plot could still take a thousand interesting handbrake turns.