Dark Fast & Furious Theory Explains Why The Franchise Has Changed So Much

The Fast and Furious franchise took a significant turn after Fast & Furious 4, officially named Fast & Furious, and one dark theory helps explain why. Given the box office results and the cost of Fast and Furious’ most recent movies, it is easy to forget that the series started with a 38 million-dollar movie, The Fast and the Furious (2001). The uncomplicated story about an undercover agent who has to infiltrate the world of street races served to introduce audiences to Paul Walker’s Brian and Vin Diesel’s Dominic Toretto in what would be the start of a 20-year franchise.
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Curiously, neither 2 Fast 2 Furious nor The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift were able to reunite The Fast and the Furious original stars Paul Walker and Vin Diesel. The Dominic Toretto actor passed on returning to the 2003 sequel, which led to the addition of Tyrese’s Roman Pierce into the franchise. As 2 Fast 2 Furious failed to replicate the magic of the first movie, Tokyo Drift was then developed as a way to take the series in a different direction. While Vin Diesel agreed to cameo in Tokyo Drift in exchange for the theatrical rights to Riddick, the movie was very much a standalone entry focusing on new characters. Brian and Dom would both return in 2009’s Fast & Furious, followed by the team-up of most of the previously seen characters in 2011’s Fast Five.

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From then on, each movie presented Toretto’s crew with a big and bolder mission – to the point where The Fate of the Furious and F9 were dealing with world-ending events. As much as this escalation makes sense in terms of an always-growing movie franchise, there is almost no reasonable explanation in terms of the story as to how Dom and all the others evolved into something close to superheroes in Fast Five and onwards despite having no type of special training. To better explain that change, one dark theory (via Cinapse) believes that everything that happened after 2009’s Fast & Furious, the fourth movie in the Fast and Furious franchise, is a dream from a comatose Dominic Toretto.

Early Fast & Furious Movies Were More Realistic

From the plot to the action sequences, The Fast and the Furious was as grounded in reality as a car heist movie could be. The story of an undercover agent investigating a group of thieves was simple enough to make sense, and even the truck chase scenes tried to follow some level of logic. 2 Fast 2 Furious had more stylized chasing scenes, but the colorful landscapes behind the cars’ windows and the video-game-like nitro boosts were more of an aesthetic decision in a movie that still tried to be realistic, especially with the story of Brian O’Conner once again infiltrating a criminal organization. Likewise, Tokyo Drift was sort of a coming-of-age story with highly stylized car sequences. The returns of Paul Walker and Vin Diesel in 2009’s Fast & Furious shifted the focus of the franchise back to action, with Brian and Toretto having to infiltrate Braga’s organization. Still, in terms of scale, Fast & Furious was closer to The Fast and the Furious than to Fast Five.

Fast Five Completely Changed Fast & Furious Movies

Fast & Furious 4 proved that there was still an audience for the adventures of Dom and Brian, which led the studio to bet on an even bigger sequel. Not only did Paul Walker and Vin Diesel return for the fifth installment, but Fast Five also brought back 2 Fast 2 Furious’ Roman and Tej, Tokyo Drift’s Han, and Fast & Furious’ Gisele. The large cast was not the only way in which Fast Five differed from previous movies. Toretto and his family were once again up to a heist, but this time, the mission was driving a vault through the streets of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, instead of stealing DVDs from a truck. The action sequences now involved trained soldiers, military weaponry, and hand-to-hand combats, and the arrival of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as Hobbs cemented Fast and Furious’ transformation into an action-packed blockbuster franchise. After Fast Five, the Fast and Furious characters were no longer just pilots and mechanics but rather millionaire special agents whose help would constantly be requested by The Rock’s Hobbs and Kurt Russell’s Mr. Nobody.

Theory: Dom Is In A Coma After Fast & Furious 4

At the end of Fast & Furious 4, after finally avenging Letty’s presumable death and getting Braga arrested, Dominic Toretto had no alternative but to turn himself in. Despite the collaboration, Toretto was sentenced to 25 years. However, Mia Toretto and all of Dom’s friends did not give up so easily and orchestrated a rescue mission while Dom was being transferred. In Fast Five, it was revealed that the crew caused a scarring accident with the prison bus, but that Toretto managed to walk out of it alive and that no one else was hurt. Curiously, it was exactly from that point onwards that Vin Diesel’s Dominic Toretto and all the other characters became indestructible heroes, which leads to the theory of Fast Five and all the following Fast and Furious movies being nothing but dreams of a comatose Toretto. The accident during the rescue mission would be enough to put Toretto in a coma, and Fast Five never showed how exactly Dom walked out of the bus.

Related: The Real-Life Inspiration Behind The Fast & Furious Franchise

Dom Coma Theory Explains Why Fast & Furious Has Changed So Much

A comatose Dom having to fight for his life while not being sure of what happened to the ones who tried to rescue him would have nothing to hold to but the thought of his family. That could be why Dom’s famous family speeches started to get so common after Fast Five. In fact, with the exception of Furious 7, all other Fast and Furious movies after Fast Five ended with a Toretto family barbecue. Dom being in a coma would perfectly explain why the Fast and Furious franchise changed so much after the fourth installment, as Dom could be trying to picture himself and his family as indestructible heroes always close to the cars that he always loved while in recovery. Obviously, as with any theory, Dom being in a comma after 2009’s Fast & Furious is a creative way to try to explain a behind-the-scenes change in the Fast and Furious franchise that the filmmakers never managed to justify through the story.

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