Dom (Vin Diesel) and his new wife Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) are in Havana Cuba celebrating their honeymoon but when Dom’s cousin Fernando (Janmarco Santiago) gets in trouble Dom has no choice than to bail him out. Hot cars, beautiful women and Cuban music are the backdrop to a race across the Cuban mile all for a car. Yet thanks to a Coca Cola tab, nice product placement, and a fiery exit later, Dom’s competitor learns a lesson that respect goes a long way.
One afternoon when Dom is walking home from the store he comes across a beautiful woman with car problems but what he finds out later is that this woman known as Cipher (Charlize Theron) is his biggest nightmare. Dom must rebel against his team including Letty to work with a terrorist group led by Cipher. If he doesn’t do what he’s told than a secret that was kept from him by Elena (Elsa Pataky) will be destroyed and even though this is new to him he cannot let that happen.
Back in the states Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) is playing a father and coaching his daughter’s soccer team the Red Dragons. That is until Hobbs and the rest of the team, Roman (Tyrese Gibson), Tej Parker (Ludacris), Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel), Letty and Dom are summoned by government officials to steal an EMP out of Berlin, Germany. Yet when they make their way out of the facility with the EMP not everything goes as planned, Dom goes rouge with the device and Hobbs gets arrested and ends up in jail where he meets up with an old rival, Deckard (Jason Statham). Sometime later though Hobbs and his team minus Dom but including Deckard are meeting with Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell) and his new sidekick Little Nobody (Scott Eastwood) and requested to find the EMP, Dom and who he is working with and why. They discover he is involved with Cipher, a digital active God aka the Boogeyman and her henchman Rhodes (Kristofer Hivju) who now have stolen God’s eye.
Next stop New York City where the team visits the toy shop to collect what else, toys, but not just little toys these are large mechanical toys needed to stop Dom since they now know he is in NYC. There is a motorcade traveling through the streets of Manhattan and inside the limo are two men and a silver case containing nuclear launch codes and Cipher wants them. Sometime later Dom is in pursuit but not before Cipher turns every car in the city into a group of metal zombies out to stop that motorcade and help Dom achieve his goal. I did notice at times though that the people walking in the city streets did not match the craziness going on in every scene so the CGI looked good but don’t look into the crowd! So Cipher has almost what she needs to be that crocodile at the watering hole yet one more stop in Vladovin, Russia and she will be complete but it seems Cipher took her foot off the tiger’s neck which might cost her the war. In the end when all the dust settles we get to meet Brian.
The film has a well written story line but of course it is the cars, the explosions, the fighting that win this race once again. There are some really funny lines and reactions during the story if you pay attention beyond all the chaos which is quite a bit from start to finish. Other than a few issues I had with the crowd scenes I thought the film was nicely directed keeping your attention to the rogue war from the very beginning. There are a few CGI moments that go astray but overall we all know what the furious is all about and that’s cars, battles, explosions, chase scenes and family. The team all do a great job with Diesel leading the way but it is Johnson that makes you laugh at times while he is using his super human strength and Gibson and Ludacris that bring on the banter. Rodriguez is level headed while Emmanuel is quite the silent one mostly, unlike Statham who has a lot to say. Russell adds authority while Eastwood levity but it is Theron that steals the film as soon as she shows her evil side like a praying mantis that is finished with you than bites your head off. Albeit this film I’m sure spent a load of money to make it but I’m also sure it will be a box office wonder for several weeks to come.
