Finally, after one side movie that was only a sequel for one character and one side movie that was basically its own thing (and for no apparent reason), The Fast and the Furious has a true sequel with all of the original characters involved[1]! It is, how you say, about time.
The wildly original title, Fast & Furious, conceals a halfway decent plot. Paul Walker has been reinstated to law enforcement, as part of the FBI. (Or maybe he was in the FBI in the first place? Impossible to know.) He is honestly still no better of an FBI guy than he is an actor, even though five years have passed in the story world and eight I suppose in the real world. But that’s okay, because he can still drive. Vin Diesel is still on the run from the law and still using fast cars to jack trucks. So nothing much has changed, despite the two prior movies that would pretend a lot has happened. I’m not saying they are eminently skippable, but… oh, wait, no, I totally am saying that. It’s the central thesis of this paragraph, in fact.
“Halfway decent plot,” I said. So, after being on the run for all these years, Diesel’s Dominic is back in LA investigating the murder of a close friend. Meanwhile, Walker’s Brian is investigating a Mexican drug lord who is trafficking a lot of heroin across the border, somehow. They are suddenly thrown together when Dom’s murder and Brian’s infiltration end up at the same street race audition to be one of the drivers for the drug lord’s smuggling operation.
Can they get hired so their investigations can continue? Can they get over the sins of the past and learn to work together again? Can they stop destroying so very many fast cars? Can Brian finally seal the deal with Dom’s sister? Can Dom seal the deal with Gal Godot[2]? Oh, right, and can they solve their cases?
The answers to these questions might surprise you, but, well, I bet they don’t. That’s okay, though, as they are mostly not the point. The point is car stunts and an incremental progression in the lives and relationships of these characters. And, the movie finally delivers on that second thing, in a way that episodes 2 and 3 decidedly did not. Hooray!
[1] Okay, that was 2009, which is as of this writing a pretty long time ago. But it is “finally” in my personal chronology. So.
[2] In what is essentially her first role. Who knew?