Spoilers for all The Fast and the Furious movies preceding this one, including The Fate of the Furious will be left unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
"No matter how fast you are, no one outruns their past. And mine just caught up to me."
— Dominic Toretto
F9 (also known as F9: The Fast Saga and Fast & Furious 9) is the tenth film in The Fast and the Furious series (coming after Hobbs & Shaw), though ninth chronologically.
Some time after the events of The Fate of the Furious, Mr. Nobody managed to capture Cipher, but his plane was shot down en route to transfer her to prison. The Family rides to his aid, with Dom specifically coming out of retirement when he learns that his younger brother, Jakob (John Cena) is involved. Jakob and his associates are going after a device called the Ares that has been split up and can cause catastrophic consequences if it falls into the wrong hands.
What follows is a personal feud between the Toretto brothers as the Family tries to get the pieces of the Ares before he does, but of course things aren't so cut and dry.
The movie was due to release April 2020 but was pushed back due to the COVID-19 Pandemic going into full swing across the globe at that point. The film was later released internationally in April 2021 and in the U.S. on June 25, 2021. A tenth film was released on May 19, 2023.
Previews: Trailer 1
, Super Bowl TV spot, Trailer 2.
F9 contains examples of:
- All Your Base Are Belong to Us: The team's hideout is later raided by Otto and his men, who free Jakob and kidnap Elle.
- Ambiguous Situation: Cipher asks whether Jakob and Otto plan to use the Ares device themselves, or if they're working on behalf of someone else. This is never answered.
- Anachronism Stew: The prologue takes place in 1989, but the race cars Jack Toretto and his competition are driving are modern late model stock cars with shells that resemble mid-2000's cars.
- Artistic License – Geography: The film's opening chase scene takes place in Montequito, a fictitious Central American country which features high cliffs among karst rock formations. This kind of landscape exists in Southeast Asia, (somewhat justified, as the sequence was shot in
Thailand). - Artistic License – Physics: Artistic license, the movie could be an alternate title, with a number of wild stunts in the movie. Whether this is good or bad is up to you. Some examples:
- In Central America, a car rolling on the ground keeps up with a (fast) car under engine power, and rolls quite a distance instead of just a few rolls and stopping.
- Driving up a collapsing rope bridge is almost certainly impossible as the movie shows.
- As is Dom's swing across the canyon.
- The electromagnets work absolutely nothing like reality. Besides the issues of Selective Magnetism, they can also be used to repel metal. Magnets only repel other magnets.
- the rockets are almost certainly too small to lift the car to orbit.
- The space car uses NOS as a boost. Nitrous oxide boosts a car engine mainly by decomposing and giving a higher fraction on oxygen in the air, allowing more fuel to be burned. The space car's rocket uses liquid oxygen as an oxidizer, which is a higher performing oxidizer than nitrous oxide due to not carrying extra nitrogen around, so adding nitrous would reduce the effectiveness of the rocket.
- Flipping the armored truck has a couple problems: The truck is probably heavy and would just compress instead of launching up when slowed, and the cars are pretty light to slow such a truck anyway.
- The truck slides upside down for a long distance, somehow maintaining its speed after being flipped.
- Bait-and-Switch: It looks like Cipher is piloting a plane against Dom in the finale. When it's destroyed, it turns out she was just running a drone.
- Back from the Dead: The trailer didn't even bother to hide that Han is alive after his supposed death in Tokyo Drift (heck he's even in the poster for the movie as shown in the image there). In the film it's stated he faked his death at the request of Mr. Nobody so as to protect Ellie more discreetly.
- Back in the Saddle: Dom and Letty have retired to a simple life in the countryside for the past two years but rejoin the crew for this job.
- Batman Gambit: A lot of Jakob's plans throughout rely on this. He knew Dom would find his way to the estate and manipulates things to get Dom arrested by Interpol and out of his way. Jakob also already had a plan to get the key needed for the Ares Device that would culminate in them taking him back to their base of operations, which he knew they would find and use. This allowed him to take over the base, escape from where he was being held, and leaving with the key.
- Big Badass Rig: The Armadillo, a custom-built armoured truck used by Otto and his team during the final chase scene of the film.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Jakob and his employer, Otto, are the main threats of the movie. With Cipher only joining in later when Otto releases her from prison to help against the protagonists. He reveals later he's working for her when he decides to turn on Jakob.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: Jakob's introduction cements the Toretto family as this, invoked by the other characters.
- Broken Pedestal: A minor but important example; Jakob reveals that their father intended to throw the race to receive compensation for the Torrettos' recent debts, never telling Dom because he didn't want it to affect his son's image of him. Dom denies this idea at first, but recalls a certain phone call he overheard as a child during a near-death experience, and accepts that their father did the best he could.
- Brutal Honesty: After tiring of hearing Dom disparage him, Jakob reveals that their father dying in an accident was the result of promising to throw a race in exchange for a payout. He adds that he kept this a secret for so long because their father didn't want to ruin Dom's view of him and he would never agree to it.
- The Bus Came Back:
- Mia comes out of retirement after having not been seen since Furious 7. Justified as the film deals with her and Dom's long-lost brother Jakob.
- Not only is Han back, but the film also sees the return of Sean, Twinkie and Earl, likewise from Tokyo Drift.
- Agent Stasiak returns for the first time since Fast & Furious 6.
- Cain and Abel and Seth: The film reveals that Dom and Mia have a third sibling, Jakob, and the film's conflict is driven by the bad blood between him and Dom. This stems from the death of their father which Jakob had accidentally caused.
- Call-Back: When in Tokyo, Letty and Mia are able to find Han's old home, which is adorned with a Mexican flag. During this scene, Letty directly quotes Han's speech from Tokyo Drift about referring to himself as an outlaw running for the border and calling Tokyo "his Mexico".
- The Cameo:
- Cardi B appears as an acquaintance of Dom's who gets him out of a tight spot.
- Mr. Nobody also makes a few short appearances over video and flashback.
- Queenie Shaw also appears for a scene, after appearing in Fate of the Furious and Hobbs and Shaw.
- Brian O'Conner's car appears driving up to the Toretto residence as the final shot of the film proper. The screen cuts to black before the driver, possibly Brian, can open a car door, though.
- Deckard Shaw appears in The Stinger, being confronted by Han.
- Chekhov's Gun: The cast takes and tests out a giant electromagnet back to base, which was used by Jakob as a scrambler against surveillance in Edinburgh. It would be later used for escape from Otto's army when they raided the base and installed in their cars in the final act.
- When Roman worries about his rocket car exploding, the ground crew mentions that the car is covered by a fireproof ceramic shell. This is what allows them to survive ramming the satellite later.
- Close on Title: The title appears at the end of the movie, making this the first Fast & Furious movie to not feature the title at the beginning or any opening credits.
- Consulting a Convicted Killer: Jakob and Otto break Cipher out of her current prison to get her aid in carrying out a vital digital search, but take care to provide her with only the resources she needs to do her initial hack as they don't trust her with larger-scale access.
- Continuity Nod:
- The Toretto house in Los Angeles is still being rebuilt since it was blown up by Deckard in Furious 7.
- In the ending, Sean, Twinkie, and Earl share a heartfelt reunion with Han. After all, they were the first people the audience saw interact with him back in Tokyo Drift, with Sean being a witness to his supposed death.
- Conveniently Empty Roads: Played straight in the climax, where Dom manages to successfully steer an upside-down armored truck onto a cliffside road just outside Tbilisi. Upon re-righting it, he drives it along the highway. There are no other cars using this road, which is a good thing because Dom next jack-knifes the truck and spins it around in order to use it like a whip to bring down an attacking remote-control drone plane with a UAV.
- The Corrupter: Potentially; Cipher is able to talk Otto (who considered himself the 'good guy' with his current plan for Project Ares) into betraying Jakob and working with her as his new partner instead, while confined to a large plastic box.
- Cutting the Knot: Unable to hack into the satellite transmitter conventionally, Roman gets the idea to simply ram the thing, even though doing so would at best strand them in space with no fuel and at worst blow them up on impact. Fortunately, they survive and get picked up by the space station.
- Dismantled MacGuffin: Project Ares is capable of granting its user complete control of all computer networks within its activation range, and could theoretically allow someone to control global networks if it was uploaded to a satellite. It was dismantled into two parts and hidden in separate locations around the world, as well as the unknown 'third component' of a key that is actually the daughter of the scientists who created it, as the device is encoded to her parents' DNA.
- Disney Death: Early on, Roman very briefly appears to be killed by a falling car. It turns out it was just the angle Tej and Ramsey were standing at, as the car actually landed just in front of Roman.
- Dramatic Irony: The tragedy about the Toretto brothers is further highlighted near the end of the film, which shows the immediate aftermath of the car crash that claimed their father's life. Dom approached a grieving Jakob and promised him that they would carry on, because they are family and family sticks together. This contrasts with Dom's treatment of Jakob after he found out about his role in the car crash, as he basically urged Jakob to get lost. Evidently, Jakob became vengeful against Dom because to him, he didn't keep his promise.
- Everyone Went to School Together: It turns out that Mister Nobody worked with Gisele before she met the team; he contacted Han for help with Project Ares because he reasoned that if Gisele trusted Han, he could do the same.
- Foreshadowing: The race driver who pitted Jack complains that Jack's reaction to the maneuver was entirely wrong for the situation and made the wreck worse than it should have been. Jack was looking for an excuse to throw the race, so he allowed the wreck to happen.
- Everything Is Racist: Played for laughs. In the flashbacks, Leo asserted that he and Santos weren't arrested because they blew up a bank, but because they were driving while black and were connected to the crime after the fact.
- Forgotten Fallen Friend
- Averted. Despite years having passed since the last film, Roman explicitly brings up Elena's death to make Dom reconsider about joining the operation to rescue Mr. Nobody. Meanwhile, not only Han still carries a torch for Gisele, he faked his death and became a secret agent for Mr. Nobody because the latter trusted Gisele, and she trusted Han.
- On a meta level, Han's miraculous recovery in this film is likely a response to the apparent usage of this trope in regards to the previous film's rehabilitation of Deckard Shaw, despite the latter being responsible for his death.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: While Letty plays a prominent role in the flashbacks of Dom and Jakob's youth, Vince and Jesse are also present as seen in this clip.
- Genre Savvy: Roman notices that, no matter what crazy stuff happens to the family, they always emerge unscathed and begins wondering if they're invincible. When the electromagnets meant to destroy the Ares satellite fail, he decides to just ram the satellite with their car and hope for the best, since they've always made it out before. He's proven right; they happen to drift in range of a space station that picks them up.
- Gotta Catch 'Em All: The pieces of the Ares.
- Happily Adopted:
- Brian Jr. is clearly happy to live under Letty. Her decision to return back to action is because she wants her stepson to be able to live without having to fear for his life all the time.
- Han has been the father figure to Ellie, a girl whose parents were killed by intruders while he was stealing their work on behalf of Mister Nobody, and the two are clearly attached to each other.
- Happy Ending Override: Since the previous film's ending, Dom and Letty have been living in a quiet countryside with no access to telephone or internet. They have to be alert at all times because Cipher is still gunning for them. They are also somewhat estranged from the rest of the team, as Dom no longer wants to take part in their missions, at least at first. Letty is rather miserable about living a peaceful life, as she misses being in on the action.
- He Who Must Not Be Seen: Brian is mentioned as looking after the children while Dom, Letty and Mia deal with Jakob, and a car drives up to the post-mission barbeque that is all but explicitly stated to be driven by Brian, but he is never shown in person.
- Heel–Face Turn: Jakob at the end when Otto betrays and almost kills him. After Dom saves him, he comes to aid in stopping Otto on the transport truck.
- Heroic Sacrifice:
- After Jakob and Otto attack the base, Dom locks Letty out to take down the mooks with him so she can escape, even gesturing a farewell to his son. She rescues him.
- Tej and Roman decide to use the last of their fuel to destroy the satellite instead of using it for their return trip. It works out though, with them getting rescued by the International Space Station.
- Hijacked by Ganon: At first it seems like Otto is the Big Bad, until he releases Cipher, the previous film's villain, from her box. She then fully takes over in the climax.
- Hollywood Genetics: Lampshaded as many openly discuss how odd it is that Dom can have a brother looking so different. Cipher notes she's heard the Torettos had "mixed blood" and "I didn't expect some Nordic in there."note Magdalene notes how Jakob reminded her of Dom and "don't tell me he's a cousin." When Dom says he's his brother, she reacts in amazement.
- I Have No Son!: A sibling variety. Dom disowned Jakob after learning that he caused their father's death, explaining why Jakob has never been seen or mentioned before this point.
- Informed Attribute: Although she is ultimately amazed that Dom and Jakob are brothers instead of cousing or something, Magdalene Shaw still claims Jakob looks a lot like Dom. To say such thing of Vin Diesel and John Cena, however, needs some suspension of disbelief.
- Karma Houdini: Cipher once again leaves the film unscathed after Dom shoots down and destroys her fighter jet, as he just shoots down a large drone she was controlling by remote.
- Lampshade Hanging: After surviving an outnumbered and outgunned fight against military soldiers, Roman later wonders how the group has done so many crazy things throughout the series and somehow manage to walk/drive away alive, if not unscathed. Far too often to be attributed to just luck.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: After Dom manages to capture Jakob alive, we cut to a frustrated Otto, with Cipher telling him that "if this was a movie right now, This Is the Part Where... the villain suffers a minor setback".
- Logo Joke: The film opens with the 1990-97 Universal logo graphics set to the 1997 fanfare with the current Comcast byline, as the film proper begins with a flashback to 1989.
- MacGuffin-Person Reveal: the key to activating Ares turns out to be Han's adoptive daughter, Elle, since her parents locked their invention with their DNA. Like most bearers of this trope, this is a girl, who is kidnapped and used by the villains.
- Motive Misidentification: Dom assumes Jakob caused their father's crash out of jealousy of being in his shadow. Jacob reveals that his dad had asked him to sabotage the engine because he was going to throw the race for a big payday. What neither man realized was the alterations would cause an explosion.
- Never Found the Body: Mr. Nobody's body is nowhere to be found at the crash site. The main cast decide that he's dead, but the franchise is no stranger to people turning out to be Not Quite Dead even when it's highly implausible.
- Never Trust a Trailer:
- When Roman and Tej approach the farm where Dom and Letty are hiding out, Roman tells them "We thought you could use some love" in the trailer and "We come in peace" in the film.
- The trailer shows Roman and Tej in the Fiero screaming in terror as it rockets down the runway. The car is actually unoccupied and remote controlled when it rockets down the runway. Roman and Tej don't actually get inside until they use it to go into space.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
- Otto decides at the last minute to double cross Jakob and attempt to kill him. This results in Jakob pulling a Heel–Face Turn.
- Cipher hacks a jet drone and attempts to use it to kill the Toretto brothers, but hits Otto instead.
- Once More, with Clarity: While nearly drowning, Dom thinks back to the day of his father's crash. He now realizes his words to Jakob to "do it" was him telling Jakob to fix the engine to fail so his father had an excuse for throwing the race.
- Plot Armor: Discussed by Roman after he takes on 14 soldiers by himself without a scratch and survives the minefield. He can't help but seriously consider if they are invincible.
- Put on a Bus: Deckard and Hobbs aren't involved in this film, apparently still recovering from the events in Hobbs and Shaw. Though Deckard makes an appearance in The Stinger.
- Retcon: In Furious 7, Mr. Nobody enlists Dom and his team to take down Deckard Shaw because of the latter's personal revenge mission against them. In F9, it's revealed that Jakob, one of Nobody's former agents, went rogue around this time, and Shaw's rampage was a convenient excuse for Nobody to pit Dom against his brother. Shaw's vendetta against Dom also provided an opportunity for Mr. Nobody to fake Han's death.
- Riddle for the Ages: Otto claims that he and Jakob intend to use Project Ares for a cause that leads him to consider them "the good guys", but their exact plan is left undisclosed before Cipher takes it over to fulfil her own agenda.
- Selective Magnetism: The truck with the electromagnet. Particularly when Ramsey puts it at maximum and it pulls Jakob's car through a building, and absolutely nothing else.
- Sequel Hook: Like in the last movie, Cipher is still at large. Also, Mr. Nobody's whereabouts are unknown.
- Shout-Out: Otto makes multiple references to Star Wars, even comparing himself to Luke and Han. Cipher says he is actually Yoda ("a puppet with someone else's hand up his ass").
- Spotting the Thread: It's Roman who's able to tell a couple of "workers" are actually thugs because they have cauliflower ears, indicating long histories of fighting.
- The Stinger: Han arriving at Deckard's current hideout to show him he's still alive.
- Stock Scream: A Wilhelm Scream is heard during the final battle.
- Throwing the Fight: Jack Torreto was planning to throw what wound up being his fatal final race for a payday to get out of debt.
- Timeshifted Actor: The flashbacks feature young versions of Dom (played by Vinnie Bennett), Jakob (Finn Cole), Letty (Azia Dinea Hale), Mia (Siena Agudong), Leo (Cered), Santos (Ozuna), Vince (Karson Kern), and Jesse (Igby Rigney).
- Time Skip: Takes place several years after The Fate of the Furious, as Brian Jr. is a young boy instead of a baby.
- Tired of Running: Letty admits to Mia that she hates living in hiding and that going on the offensive again is a relief. At the end of the film she and Dom have moved from their isolated country home to their old residence in Los Angeles.
- Two Lines, No Waiting: The film bounces back and forth between the present-day plot and Dom and Jacob's childhood together.
- Traintop Battle: During the climactic action scene, Jakob and Sue fight each-other on top of the Armadillo (a custom-made armoured truck).
- Uncertain Doom: The plot is kickstarted when Mr. Nobody's plane is taken down in Jakob's attack, and the team go to find him. Mr. Nobody's whereabouts, or if he's alive or dead, is never revealed.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Leo and Santos in the flashbacks. Their conversation about faulty engine caused Dom to realize that Jakob deliberately sabotaged their father's car.
- Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Cipher once again escapes at the end of the movie.
- Wrestler in All of Us: Dom busts out several moves in the tunnel fight, including a backbreaker. The Clothes-line is also a go-to move for all the heroes.
♫ Movin' on, speedin' through the fast lane
They say I know magic how my whips change
They don't see what I see
Love is the game, you know it's past me. ♫
They say I know magic how my whips change
They don't see what I see
Love is the game, you know it's past me. ♫
