Furious 6 (dir. Justin Lin, 2013)
Another interesting detail. The character of Han (Sung Kang) was actually a character (and actor) ported over from Justin Lin’s amazing 2002 debut feature Better Luck Tomorrow, a drama about OC Asian high schoolers slowly turning to crime. Yes, that means an excellent soulful indie drama is in the same continuity as the Fast series. Han was kind of a criminal then, so it makes sense that he should become a hustler and gambler in the Fast series. Han is pretty dang cool here, though, whereas in Better Luck Tomorrow, he was kind of threatening.
The story of Furious 6 is largely the same as Fast Five. Dom and his team – now pretty much cemented – are enlisted once again by Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) to track down another supercriminal who is smuggling illegal stuff around Europe with his own super cars. In exchange, all the characters will be pardoned for their past crimes. The bad guy is played by Luke Evans. More casting twists: in a post-credit stinger on Fast Five, we learned that Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) was not actually dead, and has been working for the bad guys this whole time. Is she undercover again? No! Dig this: she has amnesia! She lost her memory in that off-screen car wreck in part 4! And the bad guys convinced her she was their friend! If you don’t love the series yet, you may start in that wonderfully ridiculous moment. Also in the movie is John Ortiz, who was the secret bad guy in Part 4, but who is now helping the good guys. Maybe.
And while the introduction of amnesia usually predicts a later moment where the character is bonked on the head and gets their memories back, Letty is allowed to keep her amnesia in this film. Dom (Vin Diesel) tries to convince her that they once were deeply in love, and she does eventually come around to love Dom and O’Connor (Walker) and all the rest, but she still doesn’t remember the other movies. An observation: Dom Toretto is so charming and good-hearted, that he tends to seduce wicked people into a life of virtuous crime. Walker ended up being his friend, and other people so respect him that they join him team on faith (and promise of a hefty payout). The word “family” is used a lot in this series, and Dom’s little “family” is a warm and respectful place.
Highlights of Furious 6: Michelle Rodriguez and former American Gladiator Gina Carano have a fistfight in a subway, and it’s cool. Dwayne Johnson throws a guy through a ceiling (!). There is a freeway chase involving a tank, and Dom surfs on the hood of a car, leaping off when it crashes into a wall, flying through the air to catch a falling Letty, landing on the hood of a car. How were they not injured? “How did you know there was going to be a car there to break out fall?” Letty? Cars don’t break falls. They break bones. Turns out these people are invincible, so long as they are touching cars.
The climax of the film takes place on the world’s longest runway as our heroes use cable guns and cars to tether a giant plane to the ground. A car bursts out of the flaming nose of an exploding plane. This is the kind of stuff James Bond couldn’t handle.
A bit sloppy, Furious 6, but good.
