Film / Fast Five

Spoilers for all The Fast and the Furious movies preceding this one, including Fast & Furious will be left unmarked. You Have Been Warned!

"Money will come and go. We all know that. The most important thing in life will always be the people in this room. Right here, right now."

— Dominic Toretto

Fast Five (also known as The Fast and Furious Five: Rio Heist) is the fifth film in The Fast and the Furious franchise, proceeding immediately on from Fast & Furious. Released in April 2011, the film introduces Dwayne Johnson into the mix as a government agent, and star returners include Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster, Sun Kang, Tyrese Gibson, and Chris "Ludacris" Bridges.

Brian, Dom, and Mia are wanted criminals and have escaped to Rio de Janeiro. Complications have encouraged them to quit their dangerous lifestyle for good, and they agree to pull a big job — One Last Job — worth $100 million and then disappear forever. They bring many of their old crews on board, and struggle to outfox Hernan Reyes (Joaquim De Almeida), their corrupt yet incredibly powerful mark while avoiding the dogged pursuit of DSS Agent Luke Hobbs (Johnson).

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Fast Five contains examples of:

• Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene: The scene between Brian and Dom after they learn that Mia is pregnant. Brian asks about Dom's father, being scared about the notion due to his own's absence for most of his life.
• Affably Evil: Reyes is very polite and even-tempered.
• Arc Villain: Hernan Reyes, though Luke Hobbs is a Hero Antagonist hunting Dom's crew with an unprecedented degree of determination.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Vince gives a long one to Dom, pointing out on how Brian's involvement has completely destroyed their crew's lives: they all split up, Dom and Mia are hunted, and Vince is forced to lay low, all of them culminating in this sentence:
  Vince: Where's Letty, Dom? Where's Letty?
• Artistic License – History: Reyes claims that 500 years ago, the Spaniards tried to conquer Brazil by force and were wiped out by the natives, after which the Portuguese came and succeeded where their neighbors had failed because they gained control over the natives through commerce. However, this is pure, unadulterated fantasy. The real reason why Brazil ended up in Portuguese hands was the Treaty of Tordesillas, an accord between the kingdoms of Spain and Portugal that divided the world into two zones to conquer for each, with Brazil falling on the Portuguese side. Spain never tried to conquer Brazil, which would have broken the treaty, and even if they had actually tried, it's very unlikely the natives would have been able to mount any significant resistance, as most of them were small tribal populations with very underdeveloped ways (nothing remotely comparable to the Mexica or Inca empires).
• Artistic License – Physics: The climactic chase scene, where Brian and Dom tow a vault with $100 million inside with two Dodge Chargers and outmaneuver the poilce. The entire scene more or less ignores the weight of the vault:
  • While the two Chargers are theoretically powerful enough to tow the vault, it would be at an extremely low acceleration. Such a chase scene would end in a matter of seconds since any vehicle would be able to overtake them. Additionally, they should have lost speed every time the vault collided with something.
  • Cornering would be impossible. At the speeds they were going, either the chain or the tow points would have broken off.
  • Towards the end, Dom drags the ten-ton vault behind his car as though it weighs nothing (and just as effectively as if Brian's car was still connected), until he jumps out of the car and the vault starts pulling the car around as if it weighs nothing. The only way that makes sense is if Dom himself weighs significantly more than ten tons such that the mass of the vault is negligible compared to the combined mass of Dom and his car, but the mass of the car is negligible compared to the mass of the vault.
• Avengers Assemble: Dom and Brian bring together a dream team made up of characters from the past few films, describing what they will bring to the table in a montage. Aside from the above two and Mia, the team includes Vince from the first film, Roman and Tej from 2 Fast 2 Furious, Han from Tokyo Drift, and Giselle, Leo and Santos from Fast and Furious.
• Back for the Dead: Vince returns (for the first time in four films) to have a redemptive arc, but dies three-quarters of the way through during a rescue/escape scene in Rio.
• Back from the Dead:
  • Dom's 1970 Dodge Charger reappears only to get smashed up a fourth time.
  • Although she's only seen through a picture, Letty shows up at the end hijacking a military convoy. Nobody really minded, since she died off-screen and even what we saw was just somebody guessing what went down.
• Boom, Headshot!: Hobbs shoots Reyes in the head as revenge for his men, who were killed by Reyes' men in an ambush.
• The Bus Came Back: The film brings back quite a few characters from older installments, with Vince from the original film and Roman and Tej from 2 Fast 2 Furious having major roles. Agent Monica Fuentes from 2 Fast also cameos in The Stinger.
• Call-Back:
  • The entire Credits Montage is this, with Dom and Brian racing through the settings of the films in reverse order (Brazil, Mexico, Tokyo, Miami, Los Angeles) while scenes from previous films are played for the actors (reverse order as well.)
  • Vince sees Brian for the first time since the latter saved the former's life during the first film's truck heist; sizing up his former rival, Vince simply mutters, "Buster."
  • The incident that got Dom in trouble in the first place not only gets alluded to; he darn near does the exact same thing to Hobbs, socket wrench and all.
• The Cameo: Eva Mendes and Michelle Rodriguez in the credits.
• Caper Crew: Dom and Brian assemble various friends and associates into one of these.

• The Complainer Is Always Wrong:
  • Vince finally calls Dom out on this.
  • Roman shares this role, as well as being a semi-Butt-Monkey.
• Conveniently Empty Roads: Downplayed. During the final chase, there is some traffic, but not nearly as much as you'd expect.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Diogo loses his car in a race to Dom, and later helps repel Hobbs when the latter tries to arrest him and Brian at his hangout.
• Deliberately Jumping the Gun: The guys have an impromptu four-way drag race after "acquiring" some police cars. Roman takes off before the others...and still loses.
• Dirty Cop: It appears that Reyes has most of the Rio police force on his payroll, including the Rio Civil Police (Policia Civil), Rio Military Police (PMERJ), and Brazilian Federal Highway Police (PRF).
• Drives Like Crazy: Tej is shown to be unable to even drive a remote control toy car without getting into an accident.
• Driving into a Truck: They use two cars and a chain to slide a container into a truck.
• Dull Surprise: Brian reacts to the fact that Mia is pregnant with an expression of "meh, that's good too." A pity, because the acting of the cast all around improved somewhat by then (especially Vin Diesel, now able to show emotions!)
• Enemy Mine: Dom and Hobbs towards the end, due to Reyes wiping out Hobbs' team.
• Enhance Button: Used briefly by Hobbs' team to track down Toretto.
• Everyone Meets Everyone: The crew is comprised of people Brian and Dom have encountered in their various escapades across the previous movies.
• Fakin' MacGuffin: The ten ton vault the crew obtains turns out to be more than just for practice, and ends up being disguised as the real thing.
• Fanservice: Gisele gets a scene in which to show off her bikini body.
• Fatal Family Photo: Not so much a photo, but being introduced to Vince's child and significant other pretty much sealed his fate.
• A Father to His Men: Hobbs is rough around the edges but he does care for the people who work under him. So much so that he personally kills Reyes stating it was for his team that got wiped out in an ambush.
• Fingerprinting Air: A palm print is lifted from cloth in enough resolution to fool a palm reader.
• Flirtatious Smack on the Ass: Gisele encourages Reyes to do this, so she can lift his palm print from her bikini.
• Foregone Conclusion: Dom attempts a Self-Sacrifice Scheme in order to ensure Brian escapes with Mia, but as he is seen alive and free in Tokyo Drift which chronologically takes place afterwards, we already know he'll be saved at the last minute.
• Gatling Good: An SUV has a roof-mounted one.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: When everyone uses guns, Brian simply punches his way out.
• High-Heel–Face Turn: Zig-zagged with Officer Neves. It seems like she'll end up in this role throughout most of the film, but both her and Hobbs end up joining forces with Toretto. She doesn't assist them in actually stealing the money, but does meet up with Dom again after the fact.
• Immediate Sequel: Picks up instantly after Fast & Furious with Brian, Mia, and their friends going to save Dom from a prison transport.
• Impossible Mission Collapse: The team spends half the movie setting up to be able to rob Reyes' vault and skip town before he knows what's happened. Then Hobbs raiding their HQ and Reyes launching a blatant public assassination attempt wreck that, so they go for an overt smash-and-grab.
• Inspector Javert: Hobbs is characterized this way until he decides to help Dom because his team was killed and he wants revenge. After an Enemy Mine for a day or two, he gives Dom a mercy lead.
  Hobbs: All these guys are is names on a list. They come up, we take 'em down. Not a phone call more, not a bullet less.
• Killed Off for Real: Vince gets shot in the gut and apparently bleeds out offscreen. However, considering his sendoff in the garage and the posthumous nature of his payout, we doubt he's coming back.
• Leg Focus: Giselle emphasizes her legs in the bikini scene. Roman even comments on it.
• Made of Iron: Zizi survived a car crash and was about to kill Dom until Brian shoots him first.
• Mercy Lead: Hobbs gives Dom and Brian a 24 hour lead before chasing after them. This naturally leads to the following exchange:
  Hobbs: I'll see you again, Toretto.
  Dom: No, you won't.
• Mission Control: Mia's role in the caper.
• My Greatest Second Chance: When Dom fights Hobbs, he gains the upper hand and ends up with a wrench in his hand. This is a reference to how he nearly beat a guy to death with a wrench in his backstory.
• My Secret Pregnancy: Mia; though the audience and Vince's wife know this, Brian and Dom do not. She brings this up in the middle of the film to prevent Dom from splitting the trio once again.
• Neck Snap: Hobbs does this to one of Reyes' men.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: Tej is brought in to be the team's electrical technician and computer hacker. His only prior appearance was in 2 Fast 2 Furious, where he had no such role, nor displayed any of these abilities.
• Noodle Incident: Both Tej and Han handwave seemingly inexplicable feats (Tej's Gadgeteer Genius abilities and Han procuring a fake money safe out of seemingly nowhere) with a simple "I had a life before you knew me."
• Only in It for the Money: Roman's very reluctant to participate in the mission, thinking it's personal and won't be any good for business. It isn't until Dom mentions that the vault's full of millions of dollars in cash that Rome's willing to change his mind.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Reyes offers to provide amenities such as running water and schoolrooms because he understands that if he tries to control people with fear and brutality, they will eventually revolt because they have nothing to lose.
• Precision F-Strike: Hobbs gets one for his Establishing Character Moment at the end of his first scene, as a man certainly not to be trifled with.
  Chief of Police: What's the second thing [he could do to help the DDS]?
  Hobbs: (Beat) Stay the fuck out of my way.
• Pregnant Badass: Mia is shown suffering the effects of morning sickness, but that doesn't stop her from helping to ROB A GOD DAMN TRAIN!
• Product Placement: Subaru donated the Impreza WRX STIs for this movie, as they had for the previous movie.
• Racing the Train: Dom races alongside a train during the botched robbery to rescue Brian (who is stuck on one of the crashed transport vehicles) from being crushed as it goes through a covered bridge.
• Redemption Equals Death: After nearly getting Brain, Dom, and Mia killed by Reyes' gang (albeit unwittingly), Vince redeems himself by saving Mia. Shortly after, he is fatally wounded in a shootout between Reyes' men and Hobbs' team.

• Reusable Lighter Toss: Dom tosses one on some cash.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: One of the main reasons Hobbs sides with Toretto is because he wants to kill Reyes for murdering his team.
• Robbing the Mob Bank: Dom and Brian assemble a team to rob drug kingpin Reyes completely blind.
• Safecracking: A good part of act 2 is the team figuring out how to open Reyes' safe and how to get access to it. In the end they just steal the entire safe and crack it open after shaking police pursuit.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Reyes is a firm believer in this. He buys people with things they wanted and make sure that they'll need to work for him in order to continue receiving them, with him comparing his methods to that of the Portuguese winning the hearts of the native using gifts in the past that leads to all Brazilians speaking Portuguese in the modern day.
  Reyes: I go into the favelas and give them something to lose: electricity, running water, schoolrooms for their kids. And for that taste of a better life - I own them.
• Sequel Goes Foreign: The film is mostly set in Brazil.
• Sequel Hook: Agent Fuentes revealing that Letty, who was thought to be dead, was spotted in Berlin committing a robbery.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: Reyes favors tailored suits, as fits his image as a wealthy businessman.
• Shout-Out: The passports the crew used to enter Brazil are briefly seen onscreen. Han's reads "Han Seoul-Oh". Given that he's clearly a bit of a closet geek (note the Superman references and apparent enjoyment of Marvel comics in Tokyo Drift) it's very probably a Star Wars reference.
• Soft Water: Dom and Brian escape from exploding train by driving off a bridge and even jump out of the car in mid-air as they fall 100 feet into water. They survive and are captured by Reyes.
• Sole Survivor: Zizi often ended up as this.
  • The first time is when his squad of hitmen managed to corner Elena and Dom in the alley, Hobbs's squad showed up and killed all of them except him.
  • The second time is when he thought he was about to be a recipient of You Have Failed Me by Reyes because he let Dom and Brian escaped during the train job (itself also leaving him as the Sole Survivor) but the mook who was in charge of guarding one of Reyes's safehouse that Dom and co. robbed got killed instead.
  • The third time is when he and his mercenaries ambushed Hobbs's convoy. They killed most of Hobbs's team but before they can finish Hobbs himself off, Dom and co. rescued him and killed everyone but Zizi yet again. Of course, his luck finally runs out on the bridge during the climax because there's no one else but him left to kill.
• Steal the Surroundings: The crew takes this up a notch, stealing a massive vault by towing it with their cars, starting a lengthy Chase Scene where they drag it throughout the city.
• The Stinger: Agent Fuentes revealing that Letty, who was thought to be dead, was spotted in Berlin committing a robbery.
• Tempting Fate: Reyes' right-hand man remarks that with the amount of security at the police station that's housing his drug money, not even God could steal it.
• Took a Level in Badass: Mia's role is more action-heavy compared to the first and fourth, where she mostly does the talking and comfortably stays out of trouble.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Vince blames (or rather, misblames) Brian for screwing up the Toretto gang's operation despite the fact that Brian saved his life. He gets better but gets Killed Off for Real soon after.
• Unknown Rematch Conclusion: The epilogue has Brian challenging Dom to one final race to determine who is the better driver between the two of them. The film cuts to the end credits as Dom accepts Brian's challenge.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Reyes masquerades as a legitimate businessman, when in reality he's a powerful drug kingpin.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Dom gives one the Vince for putting Mia in danger during the train heist. Vince throws another right back at him in the same scene, reminding Dom that the former never listened to him despite them being close friends.
• Worthy Opponent: In The Stinger:
  Fuentes: You need to look at that. Berlin, 3:00 a.m. this morning. A team of drivers hijacked a military convoy.
  Hobbs: Toretto?
  Fuentes: Nope.
  Hobbs: Ain't interested.
  Fuentes: Yes, you are. Keep looking. You believe in ghosts?
• Wrestler in All of Us: Hobbs and Dom's fight scene involves assorted wrestling style slams and spinebusters, and even features Hobbs doing the kip-up he frequently did as The Rock in his wrestling days. Earlier in the film Hobbs delivered a double clothesline to a couple of mooks as well.
• You Have Failed Me: When Reyes hears that Dom's team raided one of his hideouts, he kills the man who reported it to him via a vase.

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