Fast and Furious 9

Could the brainstorm for FS9 have gone something like this: ‘Consider a jungle setting with a car streaming across a rope bridge and people sling shooting over to the other side. Then a man crossing Edinburgh on wires while being chased down by car through the streets, with giant super powerful magnets. We could lob in a military operation scattered around the globe with multiple car chases in major as well launching a souped-up supercar into space. I like that. Let’s go with the lot.’

It does seem as if nothing was considered too daft to be left of Fast and Furious 9 hence the two and half hour running time which, credit where credit is due, is for the most part very enjoyable.

The film opens with Dom (Vin Diesel) and Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) having family time in the wilderness with Dom’s son when the rest of the team turn up. Clearly spooked they are initially met with weapons aimed and loaded. There’s a mission after a message from Mr Nobody (Kurt Russell) to locate a downed aircraft in Mexico and find a device. Initially wary Dom joins the team and with land-cruisers and motorbikes find the wreck, the device and are attacked leading to a massive chase through the jungle and an incredible series of stunts and effects.

From that there’s family reunions and feuds, backstory and history and a sub-Bond supervillain looking to take over the world called Otto (Thue Ersted Rasmussen) who has also called on the skills of team nemesis Cipher (Charlize Theron).

The team and villains jump from city to city causing various levels of havoc and destruction. Interspersed with the action there are flashbacks to Dom’s father’s racing days and his estrangement from his brother Jacob (John Cena), as well as reflections on what the team are about and their family.

There are few surprises in Fast and Furious 9. The action sequences are huge and over-blown and on a par anything that has gone before. Believability is not a factor here this is pure entertainment and the plot’s device is very much secondary and not much more than a MacGuffin.

What is slightly more interesting away from the action is the development of the team as a family. That has been established over a number of films and now starting to gel with the revelations in this film and the interactions between the characters.

There’s also a meta element when Roman (Tyrese Gibson) and Tej (Ludacris) ponder their (and our) thoughts about how they have managed to stay alive for so long considering the situations they get themselves into. It’s shrewd self-aware writing and a bit of fun rapport for the actors.

The film’s structure is episodic as it races around the globe and there are sections when you start to feel fatigued and think enough is enough but director Justin Lin (co-written with Daniel Casey) pulls up at just the right moment.

The question is where these types of films go next. There are new Bond and Mission Impossible films due and there will be another F&F. All are likely to be pushing forward to ever more demented heights. Possibly with the expectation that not many questions are going to be posed by audiences as they deliver nothing more or less than pure escapist entertainment.