The film backs up the interpretation that both Deckard and Owen take family seriously. They're both loyal to their mother, and Deckard makes amends to Dom after he gives him the location of where Owen is being held.
Deckard beats a mook to death for shooting at a baby. This results in two interpretations of the character. Either he didn't know about Brian's son in the seventh movie when he sent a bomb to his house in an attempt to kill him and is true to his values, or he did know and is a complete and utter hypocrite. Most likely he didn't know and his target was Brian.
Ass Pull: The reveal of Cipher as the Greater-Scope Villain of the series from Fast & Furious onwards, and consequently us being expected to believe that the Shaws weren’t quite as bad as they seemed, which is especially hard to buy with Owen after he ran down innocent civilians in a tank for literally no reason at all. There were quite a few fans seriously wondering if the next film would reveal yet another even bigger threat behind Cipher that would reveal her to be good all along too, which ultimately (and fortunately) turned out to be not the case at all... although a bigger villain did overtake her in Fast X.
Little Nobody has been met with controversy, as his character does little for the plot and instead eats screentime that would be better used for other characters, especially his much better received superior Mr. Nobody.
Madgalene Shaw. Her appearance is either a hilarious and awesome addition to the Shaws (and the franchise, considering who plays the good mama) or the point in which the brothers' aura goes definitely out of the window.
Catharsis Factor: Admit it, once the Shaws save Dom's son, you were cheering when he finally wastes Cipher's Dragon, proceeds to smack talk her and then just utterly wreck her plans.
Complete Monster (includes F9): Cipher is a powerful cyber terrorist who holds Elena and her newborn son hostage to blackmail the infant's father, Dominic Toretto, into betraying his family and help her steal nuclear codes to bring the world under her control. Attacking Mr. Nobody's headquarters and stealing the God's Eye, Cipher uses it to take control of hundreds of remote-controlled cars in New York and have them crash everywhere, causing widespread chaos and panic. Having Dom retrieve the nuclear codes from the Russian minister, Cipher has Elena killed in front of Dom and his child when she learns Dom spared Letty, and attempts to crash her plane—with Dom's son still inside—before escaping when Deckard Shaw hijacks it. Getting captured by Otto and Dom's brother, Jakob, Cipher would manipulate Otto into betraying Jakob, before helping him activate Ares and use it to bring the world under their mercy while attempting to kill Dom and his crew herself.
Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Even more noticeable here than in previous installments of the franchise; while Fate took a sharp (albeit not disastrous) dive from Furious 7's box office (from $353 million to $226 million), it mostly held steady overseas (from $1.163 billion to $1.010 billion), meaning the film managed to become one of the highest-grossing films ever worldwide despite falling below Fast & Furious 6 domestically. It also has the sharpest domestic-overseas box office split ever for a film that topped $1 billion, with 81.7% of its money earned outside the North American market, as well as for the Fast and Furious franchise in general (Furious 7 made 76.7% of its money internationally).
As soon as the casting was announced, a lot of people called that Dame Helen Mirren was playing the Shaw brothers' mother.
While they managed to keep the exact reasons for it a surprise, fans immediately guessed that there was more to Dom supposedly turning evil than meets the eye.
Inferred Holocaust: A lot of the cars that Cipher hacks and uses as remote controlled battering rams in New York City had people in them.
Like You Would Really Do It: Dom turning evil. Given the number of times characters in the series have switched allegiances, or gone from being criminals to working with the government and back, it's natural to assume that there would be some explanation and that the status quo will be mostly kept so that more sequels could be made. This was actually recognized during production, and some scenes in the beginning were changed so that the driving question switched from if Dom was really going to switch sides, to why Dom is doing so and if he could minimize harm to his friends and family while still working with the enemy against his will.
If Cipher didn't cross this by threatening to kill Dom's son (though she did for the Shaw brothers of all people), she certainly crosses it by ordering Rhodes to kill Elena.
Several scenes are played like we're supposed to be just as shocked as the rest of the team by Dom's actions. It feels very much like the film started out with a genuine mystery about whether he'd done a Face–Heel Turn, but then late in production they figured no one would buy it and threw in the early scenes making clear from the start he's being coerced.
The awkward camera angles during the scene where Dom betrays Hobbs, due to Vin Diesel and The Rock's refusal to be in each other's presence so it's not actually Diesel in the scene and we never see Dom's face.
A limo containing a Russian diplomat speeds around a corner, followed by hundreds of remotely-controlled cars, clogging the streets of New York like a flood.
Cipher's monologue about her motivations to steal the Russian nuclear football, comparing herself to "the crocodile by the watering hole."
Shocking Moments: The first trailer. Notably Dom's (apparent)Face–Heel Turn, the team's Enemy Mine with Shaw, the submarine, and the finale of Cipher kissing Dom in front of Letty.
Strawman Has a Point: Little Nobody's by-the-book approach naturally gets him a lot of flak from the rest of the team, but a few of points he brings up do have some practical base to them, particularly in the "toy shop." He makes it clear to Tej that the prototype military vehicle does not go on public streets, which is an understandable restriction. He also stresses to Roman that a neon orange Lamborghini would attract too much attention. He is later proven quite right during the final drive in Russia where Roman in the aforementioned Lambo is taking much of the gunfire because his car was such a visible target and is poorly suited for artic environments.
Elena's death, and Dom's reaction to it, being Forced to Watch and helpless to save her as Cipher orders Rhodes to shoot Elena in the head as a consequence of Dom letting Letty go in New York. Elena's painful last pleas for Dom to save their baby son is just heartbreaking to watch.
Letty firmly vetoing any suggestion of bringing Brian in, followed by what's clearly the cast’s real life continued grief over Paul Walker’s death.
Unintentional Period Piece: The opening scenes in Cuba were made during the Cuban Thaw, a period of warming relations between the U.S. and Cuba during the later years of the Barack Obama presidency, and Dom’s positive comments on Cuba reflect some of the shift in attitudes during the period. By the time the film opened, Donald Trump (who strongly opposed Cuban relations) had taken office, and his administration began reversing the Cuban Thaw just months later. By the time the sequel was released, most pre-Thaw restrictions and sanctions were back in place and the U.S. had once again named Cuba a state sponsor of terrorism.
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