YMMV / Fast Five

• Common Knowledge: A persistent popular belief states that this film actually started out as The Brazilian Job, the proposed sequel to The Italian Job, whose script was bought and rewritten for the Fast and Furious series when it went through Development Hell. While the film does take a lot of inspirations from Italian Job, this particular WCHB has been disproven.
• Designated Hero: First, the crew break Dom out of the prison bus in the most dangerous way possible that most likely injured some/all of the prisoners and guards on the bus. Then in the climax, they rob the local drug lord by stealing and towing a 10 ton vault through the streets of Rio in the middle of the day, causing huge amounts of property and vehicle damage. And while it's entirely self serving, the drug dealer actually builds schools and helps the people in the poor neighborhoods.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Gisele and Vince aren't the most prominent crew members in this film, but their performances here are praised more-so than their respective debuts.
• Growing the Beard: The first four movies had their fans, but it was generally a niche audience and they received mixed-to-negative reviews. Here, however, the series' reception rose dramatically, both from critics and the public, a trend that continued to the next movies.
• He's Just Hiding: There are a minority of fans who hold a little hope for Vince due to his succumbing to his wounds being off-screen, no one directly stating that he's dead afterwards, and how the franchise in general is well known for characters being Not Quite Dead.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • This being the entry which saw the franchise undergo a Genre Shift from street racing to heist movie, when you remember that The Brazillian Job, the sequel to the The Italian Job (2003) that was stuck in Development Hell for years, was going to be set in Brazil. Further compounded by the fact The Italian Job had a Market Based subtitle of "L.A. Heist" & Fast 5 had the Market-Based Title "Rio Heist" which led people to believe that the screenplay used for Fast 5 was in fact the same script for The Brazillian Job reworked to fit the franchise.
  • The Italian Job connections became even funnier when F. Gary Gray, the director of the remake, was announced to be the director of Fast 8, which would also reunite two of that film's stars, Jason Statham and Charlize Theron.
  • The Fast And The Furious: Drift (released around the same time as Tokyo Drift) arcade game allows you to customize numerous cars with various parts including neon lights. Among the cars that can be customized are the Ford GT and '67 Mustang Fastback. Five years later came Fast Five. Hobbs' crew recovers a Ford GT40 (a contemporary of the Mustang Fastback and the inspiration for the Ford GT) with an aftermarket stereo system. He mocks the stereo in the classic car saying "Might as well put neons on it."
  • In-universe example. In the ending montage, Roman and Tej got a hold of two Koenigsegg CCXRs, very rare sports cars with only four units built. Roman said that he got his from making a deal with a sheikh in Abu Dhabi. Comes Furious 7, the crew actually got to visit Abu Dhabi and infiltrated an Arabian prince's party and ended up stealing a Lykan Hypersport, itself also a very rare sports car with only 7 units produced.
• Homegrown Hero: The film is set entirely in Brazil, is almost exclusively a clash of American gangsters and American cops - both sides have exactly one important non-American character in their midst.
• Ho Yay: Tej remarks that he always thought Han was more of a thong man.
• Tear Jerker:
  • Vince's death.
  • The death of Hobbs' team, the defenseless Hobbs can only watch as they are massacred.

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