Dominic Toretto’s 10 Dumbest Decisions, Ranked

Some would expect Dominic Toretto, as the leader of the team in the Fast & Furious franchise, to be one of its better decision-makers, but after nine franchise installments and Fast X coming soon, fans know that’s not the case. If anything, Dom’s place as the team leader has led him to make some astoundingly dumb decisions.

If Dom thinks that what he’s doing will be what’s best for his family, he has no problem carrying it out without discussion. His loyalty to the ones he loves is commendable but sometimes the decisions he makes come with a lot of risk as well collateral damage, sometimes to the people he’s trying to protect.

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Cutting Brian Loose

Since Dom is so loyal to his family, every time it even remotely looks like sacrificing himself could just buy them some time, that’s exactly what he will do. For instance, he didn’t need to cut Brian loose from the vault during the Rio heist in Fast 5. It was an unnecessary sacrifice he made to protect Brian at all costs.
Related: Every Fast & Furious Movie Climax, RankedHis decision almost cost him his life but thankfully, Brian returned to back him up. However, before Brian showed, Dom used the vault to take out Reyes’ and several police officers. He also caused extensive damage to the bridge where they faced off.

Opting For A Street Fight

Furious 7 villain Deckard Shaw hunted Dom and his team for the entirety of the movie, jumping from continent to continent, always seeming to be a step ahead. When Dom finally had the upper hand against Shaw, he decided not to shoot him and instead opted for a drawn out street fight.
This was one of those instances where the “hero” decided he wanted to win “fairly” but if they have the upper hand because they came prepared, that’s still technically fair. As a result of the unnecessary “street fight,” they leveled an entire parking garage and Shaw fell with it before Dom then decided to use the wreckage to vault his car into the air, so he could crash into a helicopter which seems like an equally bad if not worse decision.

Keeping His Brother A Secret

John Cena joined the Fast and Furious franchise in F9 as Dom’s younger brother Jakob. Having grown up together and being his wife, Letty already knew who Jakob was when he made his reappearance but since Dom decided to keep him a secret from everyone else, the rest of the team was more than a little surprised.
The team was completely blindsided by Jakob’s appearance and the revelation that Dom even had a brother. For someone so big on trust and family, not sharing that kind of information with his chosen family about the person that would come after them with the wrath of a brother scorned was not well-thought-out at all.

Crashing Car To Catch Letty

Many of Dom’s questionable decisions were made with at least a bit of forethought on his part. While he could sometimes be impulsive it helped him quickly come up with a plan B when necessary. Though very few of his decisions have been as illogical and spur of the moment the Fast & Furious 6 scene where he catches Letty midair by crashing his car into a railing to launch himself at her.
Related: Letty’s 10 Best Quotes From Fast & FuriousA person can only imagine the thought process it took him to get to that decision but thankfully in this situation, the only collateral damage was to the car they just happened to land on and more than likely, Dom’s back.

Robbing Reyes

The heist in Fast 5 was the franchises’ first big deviation from the street crimes that were the focus of the first four movies. However, Dom’s decision to rob Reyes for everything he had seemed more like a personal vendetta than a crusade for justice.
This decision of Dom’s looped in not only Brian and Mia but also brought the full team together to fight the mission. It got all of them put on an international watch list making them a target of Reyes, the most powerful man in Rio, and federal agent Luke Hobbs.

Driving Through Buildings

The Fast and Furious team is known for its drawn out plans that usually end up going wrong at some point. Furious 7 saw several of the team’s plans go wrong because of the villain Deckard Shaw’s interference. In one instance, Dom and Brian were stuck trying to find a way to get a car out of the penthouse of a building in Dubai.
Dom’s solution was to drive the supercar out the window of the building and into the window of the neighboring one, twice, proving (for the second time in that movie) that cars can sometimes fly. Dom’s decision wrecked havoc in three buildings while also putting Brian, who was in the passenger seat, in harms way.

Leaving Letty

Dom made the decision to leave Letty in Fast & Furious after they pulled a job in the Dominican Republic. The police were already looking for Dom after the events of the first movie so he decided that leaving Letty would keep her safe, even though they had vowed to stay together.
His decision made Letty desperate enough to put herself in harms way by acting as an FBI informant for Brian’s case on Braga in exchange for Dom’s pardon. That led to her assumed death. Dom’s decision appeared especially dense when it was revealed in Furious 7 that they exchanged wedding vows prior to him leaving.

Not Fighting Cipher

In Fate of the Furious Dom without a doubt had a good reason for joining Cipher, but it seemed like he was quick to give up on any possibility of getting help from his team to get Elena and his son out. He decided to let them think he abandoned them instead of looking for a way to let them know what was going on.
While Dom probably didn’t want to put more of the people he loved into harms way, it was unnecessarily self sacrificial to instead make them feel like he was committing the ultimate betrayal. He may have hatched a plan to eventually break free, but working with Cipher for as long as he did had Hobbs arrested, Letty betrayed, and a nuclear attack almost launched.

Going To Space

The recent Fast and Furious franchise installments have had fans asking themselves how the movies could possibly top themselves. Jokingly some suggested that the team would be going to space and in F9 they made that a reality. Dom may not have made it happen but the idea was his.
Related: Fast & Furious Supporting Characters’ 10 Best QuotesOf course Roman and Tej were the two guinea pigs decided for the strap a rocket to a car and go to space experiment. While it did give a solution to the satellite problem they were having, the decision to put two of his team members into orbit using a prototype “rocket” that never actually succeeded in testing was an aggressively risky choice that easily could’ve killed them both.

Trusting Brian

While Dom and Brian eventually developed an iconically strong brotherhood, trusting Brian and bringing him into his family so easily was a terrible decision on Dom’s part. He may not have known Brian was a cop at the time but he had a close friend (VInce) telling him not to trust the newcomer because something felt off.
Brian may be seen as one of the best Fast & Furious characters now but the collateral damage that came with trusting him was immense. That decision caused Dom to have to go on the run and split Dom’s family up completely. Just inviting Brian into his life opened him and his family up to endless pain and struggle. It paid off in the end, but a lot of people had to get hurt because of the decision that Dom made.
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