A more honest title for the 2019 spinoff movie ‘Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw‘ might have been ‘Fast Films and Furious Egos‘. While the original street-racing trilogy (2001–2006) remains scripture for gearheads, those films weren’t the billion-dollar blockbusters that came later. The series shift into high-stakes heist movies brought massive budgets and even bigger personalities. Naturally, the new heavy hitters like Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and Jason Statham, seemed to believe they were the engines driving the series forward.
The transition was bold. Johnson’s Luke Hobbs entered as a relentless antagonist in ‘Fast Five‘ while Statham’s character Deckard Shaw was introduced as a cold-blooded murderer in ‘Furious 7‘ and even revealed to be the man who killed Han Seoul-Oh four movies earlier. By the eighth film, both villains had become part of the fast family. But make no mistake, it’s still very much Dom Toretto’s family.
Post-production on ‘F8 of the Furious‘ was swamped with rumors of a rift between the series’ patriarch, Vin Diesel, and his equally big, bold and bald co-stars. As a producer who could exert control over the creative direction of the series, Diesel wasn’t about to step out of the spotlight, while A-listers like Johnson and Statham weren’t used to playing second fiddle in an ensemble. To keep the cash cow alive without a total meltdown, Universal effectively ‘divorced’ the family, granting Johnson and Statham their own film while Diesel kept the main franchise.
The plot of ‘Hobbs & Shaw‘ follows the modern F&F blueprint: a global threat, a deadly weapon, and heroes who shouldn’t get along. This time, they face Brixton Lore (Idris Elba) a cybernetically-enhanced terrorist with a plan to release a global virus to “cull” the weak and jumpstart human evolution. The action is predictably slick, moving from London to Moscow. Hobbs handles the American muscle while Shaw sticks to refined British engineering from McLaren. Yet, surprisingly, cars are mostly an afterthought; props to move the plot. The exception is bad guy Brixton and his cool articulating motorcycle that’s reminds many of the Bat-Pod from ‘Batman Begins‘.
The missed opportunity comes in the third act. Battered and bruised, Hobbs and Shaw realize they need “family” to win. It was the perfect setup for a franchise crossover. Imagine Dom and Letty roaring in with a black Charger to save the day, or Tej and Ramsey hacking Brixton’s tech. Instead, the finale retreats to Samoa to highlight Johnson’s heritage. While it provided a thematic parallel to Toretto’s fast family and some stunning scenery, the shift felt isolated. In the end, they defeat the high-tech villain with a monologue about ‘heart’ over technology, a sentiment that rings a bit hollow when you realize it was actually off-screen egos that prevented a fast family reunion.