WARNING: The following contains spoilers for F9, now in theaters
Fast and Furious has always been about family. From the days of low-stakes thefts on the roadways of California to the present-day pseudo superhero spy antics, the family has tied everything together. Over the years, Dom Toretto’s crew has grown, assimilating characters like Han, Roman and Tej seamlessly into the action and the direction the franchise was moving into. However, the franchise has also had a bad habit of turning villains into allies, and F9 is no exception as Jacob Toretto, who was hyped as a proper foe for Dom, seemingly joins the family in the end.
Fast and Furious 9 once again turns the main villain into an ally, continuing a trend that has been present in the franchise since its inception. In The Fast and the Furious, Dom is technically the villain of the movie. Brian O’Connor is tasked with infiltrating Dom’s crew and figure out who is performing a series of heists only street racers could pull off. Dom isn’t a real “bad guy,” of course, and the movie is more about the conflict that occurs when Brian develops a bond with the guy he is supposed to be taking down.
Fast Five might be the best and most effective version of this trope. Dwayne Johnson’s Luke Hobbs has a perfect introduction for a Fast antagonist turned friend. Hobbs is, first of all, a worthy antagonist, someone who actually feels like a threat to the family, and his rivalry with Dom is palpable. In the end, after tirelessly fighting and pursuing the Toretto family, Hobbs turns into a temporary ally after his team is massacred. After the success of the big heist at the end, Hobbs lets Dom and Brian go, solidifying the respect between both parties and ensuring Hobbs as a future member of the team.
This trend starts to go awry with the introduction of Deckard Shaw. Shaw is the main villain of Fast and Furious 7, a real deal ruthless bad guy, and treats his allies as disposable pieces, which conflicts with the way Dom treats his family, for who he would do anything. But while Deckard is defeated in the end, he’s fast-tracked to allyship in The Fate of the Furious, despite his killing of Han in the post-credits scene of Fast & Furious 6.
It’s believable that Hobbs would become an ally, but Shaw crossed a line that you shouldn’t be able to come back from. The movies are trying to correct this by bringing Han back, minimizing the impact of Shaw murdering him. But with his redemption, the franchise is running out of bad guys as it gears up for its massive final two installments.
Fast 9’s biggest problem is that it follows a predictable formula. Fans were hoping for Jacob Toretto to be a real villain, a sort of evil version of Dom, but he is so obviously going to be a part of the family from the jump that it hurts the character. Jacob is a highly skilled spy, and like Hobbs before him, is the perfect foil for Dom. But when there is no doubt about the resolution at the end, things start to get stale and lose their luster.
The stakes of the movies are getting bigger and more insane, and the franchise needs a really effective antagonist to end the main saga on a strong note. Charlize Theron’s Cipher is the closest thing to a purely evil villain in the series, but it wouldn’t be a shock if she somehow ended up sipping Coronas at Dom’s barbeque at the end of Fast 10.
The Toretto family already had a lot of heavy hitters, and adding a super spy like Jacob to an already rock-solid team seems unfair. If the franchise is to go to the heights it plants to in its next two movies, it needs to introduce villains that can go toe-to-toe with the most formidable family in the world before time runs out.
Directed by Justin Lin, F9 stars Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, John Cena, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jordana Brewster, Sung Kang, Helen Mirren, Kurt Russell and Charlize Theron. The film is in theaters now.