It’s been a long four years since the last proper Fast & Furious movie. As one of the first major releases to get substantially pushed back because of the pandemic, and coming off of a mainline entry and a spin-off movie that both proved divisive among the fan base, the ninth movie in the saga faces some towering expectations. Could F9 simultaneously course-correct the franchise after a couple of rough turns, and could it prove to be a satisfying return to theaters after, for a lot of people, over a year away?
If anyone could do it, it would be director Justin Lin. Returning to the director’s chair for the fifth time, Lin is practically an extended member of the family. As an integral player in the evolution of the franchise from grounded crime drama with cars to explosive globe-trotting espionage with fan-favorite Fast Five, having Lin on hand to reorient things was always going to be F9’s greatest asset. Here, his return isn’t to drastically revolutionize the series as before, but to help it refocus. Whereas Fate of the Furious floundered in the wake of the death of Paul Walker and found itself facing a severe identity crisis, F9 is able to flourish and once again find genuine connections between its characters amid the chaos of the plot.
Not that the plots of the Fast movies have ever been their true driving force, but this one here is notably disposable. Now living peacefully with their son Brian in retirement, Dom (Vin Diesel) and Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) are approached by the old gang when they receive an SOS signal from Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell). Long story short, it turns out Dom’s estranged brother Jakob (John Cena) is causing havoc in an attempt to acquire some high-tech equipment to take over the world — you get it. The basic conflict is practically the same as the past several of these movies, which this one doesn’t particularly attempt to sugarcoat.
But anyone who knows Fast & Furious knows that the plot isn’t why you show up to these, and F9 knows that better than anyone. Here, it’s a brazen conduit for all the wonderfully genuine and earnest characterizations the series is known for, and an excuse to watch your favorite family do impossibly ridiculous sequences of pristinely filmed action. F9 offers what you want from these movies in spades, and then some. Almost as a reward for waiting so long, this movie mines every ounce of dense franchise lore for nonstop fan service to the max, replete with callbacks, character resurrections, and MCU-style meetups (this a pro, not a con) that bring the franchise full circle to celebrate its legacy. The action is clean and exciting, and manages to take its absurdity to heights unseen thus far. Most importantly, the big, beating heart behind these movies is as loud as it’s ever been, continuing the Fast legacy of having the most sincere and genuine blockbusters being produced today.
The emotional core of this outing is also the result of an extremely solid flashback structure explaining the beginnings of where it all went wrong for Dom and Jakob. The arc of their characters across the runtime gives Dom an opportunity to wrestle with his past in a way he’s never quite been allowed to before, or at least not to this extent. At one point, when Dom takes a critical blow during a fight and falls into the water below, we see him suddenly living within his memories as he floats, looking for the moment where he lost his family. It’s a segment with imagery so melodramatic that may come off as silly, ties its characters and their reckonings of life and death to that of legend; turning them into myths that fight for what they love behind the wheels of muscle cars. This extends to the passing of Walker as well, his character Brian’s name taking on a mournful undertone whenever mentioned. These ruminations of who we’ve lost and how we remember them transcends past the movie screen and into real life and back again, like fact and fiction are speaking with one another. It’s far more beautifully elegiac than you may expect to find in the newest entry of a franchise where characters fly through the air in a car via grappling hook.
That being said, between the big thematics and continuously outrageous action, this entry can’t help from getting a little self-conscious. The script falters when it moves into the self-referential, as characters chew over just how they’ve been able to survive so many impossible stunts. The charm of these has always partially been its earnestness in conjunction with its absurdity. It doesn’t need to tell the audience that it’s aware of its preposterous nature. This is a small throughline that carries through to the finale and culminates in an emotional, and admittedly effective, climactic moment. Whether that makes it work is up for debate.
Still, even the most glaring issues can’t keep F9 from being a complete blast and a gleeful return to form. At this point in these movies’ lifespan, it’s down to the fact that either you get it, or you just don’t. It’s perfectly understandable to not be sold on these big, bloated soap operas about nearly invincible car junkie superheroes. But for firmly converted friends of the family, the ethos of F9 is one simple message: welcome home.
