WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for F9, now in theaters.
The Fast & Furious franchise has Team Toretto driving cars at high speeds, causing massive explosions and bringing down everything from trucks to planes. In that regard, one of the most overlooked aspects of the franchise is the collateral damage. It’s incredulous to think there aren’t innocent lives lost in the high-speed mayhem, akin to when Superman and Zod fought in Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel. Now, come F9, the series doubles down on that with its biggest weapon, continuing an offensive disregard for the sanctity of human life.
Protagonists might not acknowledge this when they’re locked in the heat of battle, which the DC movies have addressed with Kal-El becoming more mature. But like it or not, the truth remains: if one’s not reducing the probability of casualties, they’re an anti-hero. However, make no mistake, F9 does not care what Dom’s crew is labeled as, as long as they get the job done.
The crew uses magnets to retrofit their cars to basically have telekinesis. It starts in London when Ramsey drives Otto’s truck with the super-magnets, pulling cars in and shoving them away due to the electromagnetic field in the midst of traffic. They’re used in the final act again through the streets of Tbilisi, essentially making the drivers vehicular Jedi.
They toss aside cars, pull in debris, smash up glass windows and use the shards as projectiles and suck in parked vehicles through buildings. But at no point do they express caution for civilians. Seriously, it’s overdoing it now, made even worse by smashing cop cars to bits after flinging them into the air to clear a path.
They’ve got government contacts so they could work with law enforcement or clear the streets. It’s ridiculous to see them endangering so many lives, especially when they flip Jakob’s truck in traffic. The Dark Knight used this same move, but the roads were clear. However, in F9, Team Toretto does it in broad daylight, ignoring nearby families and just not caring about things backfiring and harming the public.
In that sense, maybe they belong in the old DC Extended Universe as Roman wonders if they’re meant to be superhuman. But until they start respecting innocents a bit more and not causing mass destruction, they’ll be far from superheroes. It’s just a shame that the damage is so frequent, great in magnitude and never addressed by any drivers or their government handlers.
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.
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