Fast & Furious 6 (2013) - The Things that Matter Most
Loyalty. Everyone jokes about Vin Diesel’s overuse of the word “family” in the Fast series, but there can be no family with commitment. The sixth movie opens with Brian (Paul Walker) and Dom (Vin Diesel) racing their cars down a twisting Spanish island highway to be at Mia’s (Jordana Brewster) side as she gives birth. And then Dom sends Brian in alone. Why were they racing? Because it’s a racing movie, duh! The point is, family comes together in good times and bad.
Since the series already dipped its toes into soap opera, we know Dom will never completely get over Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), who was killed in the fourth movie. However, Dom has found new love in the arms of Elena (Elsa Pataky). When her old boss, Hobbs (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson), shows up suggesting that Letty is still alive, Elena encourages him to go after her. If it really is her, Letty is clearly deep in a bad situation, and as Dom says later in the movie, after Letty shoots him, “You don’t turn your back on family, even when they do.” When he sends out the call to the team, they each drop whatever pleasant thing they’re doing to put themselves in danger for Dom’s sake. Some of these characters, if you’re keeping track, never even met Letty.
We’ve come a long way from the street kid stealing DVD players in east LA, yet Dom’s character remains consistent. He’s the leader who forges strong bonds between people.
This is the movie in the series that uses the mirror team trope. Our team is up against an evil team, and there’s a direct parallel for each member. It’s explicitly pointed out, because these movies are only selectively subtle, and when they’re obvious about something they’re going to be extremely obvious. Besides the good/bad designation, what makes the teams distinct is that while all the parts are basically the same, the man driving them is different.
In their parking lot showdown, Owen Shaw (Luke Evans), the anti-Toretto, says, “A team is nothing but pieces you switch out until you get the job done.” He talks about having a code, Precision, which is cold and analytical.
This is the second time in the series that a code to live by is mentioned. Here it’s tied to loyalty and family. In his mustache-twirling monolog, Shaw sneers, “You're loyal to a fault. Your code is about family. And that's great in the holidays, but it makes you predictable. And in our line of work, predictable means vulnerable. And that means I can reach out and break you whenever I want.”
“At least when I go,” Dom rumbles back, “I’ll know what it’s for.” Like every great leader, he’s willing to make a sacrifice to live up to his code. “Ride or die,” indeed.
Family is what’s talked about the most. Family is the group of people we see on the screen. Family is visual. But it’s the tryptic code of Family, Loyalty, and Sacrifice (and a fourth element that we’ll get into with the eighth installment) that gives the series its heart and why audiences keep coming back, just like Dom’s crew. In our social media society, where loneliness is at all time highs, we find a window into an ideal world where those things still exist.
Speaking of things that still exist in this fantasy land of flying men (when I dragged three of my buddies to see this in the theater on my birthday, my friend Joel literally cast his hands in the air when Dom caught Letty like a burly Superman), chivalry is not dead.
In 2013 women on screen were still allowed to be alluring, and their men were still allowed to rescue them. The women remain every bit as capable with vehicles and fists as ever, but they use their charms on men and fight the other women. And not in a sexy, exploitive way. You don’t match Gina Carano against Michelle Rodriguez for titallation, no matter how attractive they are. The subway fight is still talked about, and for good reason. The women can also make sacrifices every bit as great as their male counterparts without making it about themselves.
[Aside: Sorry Black Widow, but Wonder Woman has got you beat]
Often sequels struggle keep the characters active. Movies, especially action movies, tend to be about the heroes reaching their peak, and the sequel has to manufacture a reason to pull them down, or raise the stakes beyond reason. Or, worst of all, the screenwriters make the characters reactive. Chris Morgan, back again for more, doesn’t fall into that trap. Dom’s crew may have their rear differentials handed to them through most of the movie, but they never stop pushing. They never stop making the bad guys’ job more difficult. It’s our protagonists that are the villains’ antagonists, which makes every twist and reversal pay off.
All in all, Fast & Furious 6 remains my favorite so far. While most people focus on the aburdety of the climax, which would require a runway seven times longer than any airport runway in the world; or Letty’s asking, “How did you know that car would be there to break our fall?” with complete sincerity; or a tank that moves faster than a muscle car; I want to look past all that.
It’s probably high heresy to say this, but I will anyway. Like The Lord of the Rings, the Fast movies use fantasy and imagination to better show us the true virtues. Vehicular warfare, indestructible people, and NOS elixer, are no more out there than Olyphants, Elves, and Lembas bread. One series may express itself more intelligently, artistically, or with greater maturity. But strip away all the unreality, and we find that these stories resonate for the same reasons.
Family, Loyalty, and Sacrifice are real. They matter. And in this cruel old world they’re in short supply.
