It's been almost 14 years since The Fast and The Furious originally came out. Paul Walker, Vin Diesel and many other characters in the movie stole the hearts of many fans and created a huge fan base that would last through the years. The original movie had Dominic Toretto, Mia Toretto (Dom's sister), Letty, Jesse, Leon, and Vince and they had their little crew of street racers. Brian O'conner was an undercover cop trying to infiltrate their gang to get answers on a case. He ends up starting a love affair with Mia and a great friendship with Dom. At the end, he is found out to be a cop and everyone turns on him, Jesse dies, Leon, Vince, and Letty all flee and Brian ends up giving Dom his car keys to escape the police, questioning his commitment to his job. In the 2nd installment, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Tyrese was introduced as Roman Pearce, an old friend of Brian's who went to jail on account of some things the two of them got into years back. He seemed pretty pissed off at Brian about the past events but agreed to do a legit job with Brian to clear his record and get Brian back on good terms in the force after the LA incident. They completed their job and that was it. There was no sign of Toretto or any of his crew anywhere. The movie was strictly about Brian and that was fine. But there was a bit of confusion when Tokyo Drift came out. I mean, it didn't even have Paul in it and Paul is the main character or at least one of the most important ones. It had some guy with an accent. I forget his name. Oh, and Bow Wow was in it too. It was kind of a train wreck, in all honesty. It definitely didn't measure up to the awesome that the other 6 bring to the screen. However, Tokyo Drift brought an important character into the mix with Han and it also allowed for the writers to go back in time with future movies. When Fast and Furious (movie number 4) came out, it's time placement was supposedly way before Tokyo Drift even happened. Han was a part of Doms' new crew along with Tego and Rico and the one and only Letty. The timing was some unknown time after the LA incident. In the beginning of Fast and Furious, Dom and his crew create a lot of heat for themselves and Dom decides that they need to split up. Letty doesn't want to, but Dom flees in the night. Later, while Dom is away, he receives a call from Mia, telling him that Letty is dead. This brings him back to LA for one thing, revenge. This is an important factor that plays out through the rest of the series. Letty was an important character and the love story between her and Dom was always so epic. It was undeniably amazing. When we found out that she had died, there was a wave of sadness but a part of me never really felt like it was real. Dom and Brian are feuding in the beginning but eventually join forces to take down Braga, who is the guy they believe to have killed Letty. It is then that Dom finds out that Brian had Letty working for him and that she volunteered herself to clear Dom's record so that he could come home but that was unfortunately cut short when she was killed. Dom gets his revenge and is unfortunately still sentenced to prison for a very long time but his crew, including Brian and Mia, comes to break him out which is the opening for Fast Five. They succeed and they end up in Brazil. Instead of hiding out and laying low, they meet up with Vince, which was a nice surprise, to pull off a job. Unexpectedly, things go wrong. Yeah, unexpectedly... They end up getting on the bad side of this drug lord in Brazil. The one guy in Brazil that you probably do not want to piss off, they did. But they weren't backing down. Of course not. They pissed him off even more. They decided they were going to take him down so they called an entire crew out to help. This time their crew included some characters with small parts in previous movies like Ludacris, who played Tej, a mechanic and tech savvy friend of Brians' in 2 Fast 2 Furious and Gal Gabot, who played, Gisele, an employee of Braga's organization turned friend of Dom when she helps him find Braga at the end of Fast and Furious. The rest of the crew includes Tego, Don, Roman, and Han. It's just like any of Fast and Furious movies, except for the fact that they are all fugitives now and being hunted down by Dwayne Johnson, who plays Luke Hobbs, a huge ass federal agent extremely dedicated to finding them and throwing them in jail. Dom and his team plan this elaborate heist to steal all of Hernan Reyes, the Brazilian drug lords money and buy their freedom. Dom crosses paths with a beautiful federal agent named Elena, played by Elsa Pataky. They connect deeply because they both know what it's like to have lost the love of their lives. He lost Letty and her husband was killed. It isn't said in the movie whether or not they were interested in each other or were going to end up together because there was too much going on otherwise. Unfortunately for Doms' crew, eluding Hobbs doesn't last forever and right before they put their plan into motion, Hobbs finds them and arrests them. In route, Hobbs team is ambushed by some of Reyes minions and Hobbs entire team is killed, but Doms team comes to the rescue and kills the rest of the minions, saving Hobbs from death. Unfortunately Vince is killed during the shoot out. They all decide to go through with the mission and Hobbs joins them, wanting revenge for the death of his team. They succeed at killing Reyes and stealing the giant safe he put his all of his money in to keep hidden from them at the police station. But, unfortunately for Hobbs, they tricked him into thinking that the money was in that particular safe. They switched the safes and when Hobbs gives them a pardon for 24 hours, they disappear into the distance. That's 100 million dollars they now had to share between the 9 of them. At the end of this movie, Hobbs, still in search of them, is given a picture of Letty, still alive. In the opening of Fast and Furious 6, Brian and Dom are racing down some mountain like highway and their destination is to the birth of Brian and Mia's first child. Everything seems to be going great but then Hobbs shows up. He shows them a picture of Letty which sparks Dom's interest. He offers them all full pardons if they take down, Shaw, a mastermind who runs mercenary drivers across 12 countries, played by Luke Evans. He also runs Letty, which is the only reason Dom is all in. Mia stays behind while Brian and Dom head to London. This time the crew includes Brian, Dom, Hobbs, Elena, Gisele, Han, Roman, and Tej. Bye bye Tego and Rico. When the crew gets to London, they are immediately put to work. Dom spots Letty and Letty immediately..... shoots him. He recognizes her but she doesn't seem to recognize him but she does recognize that he knows her. That much she can tell. While Dom and the rest of the crew continue to try to track down Shaw, Brian goes to prison to find Braga and get information on Letty. Although highly unrealistic, Brian goes into prison with the intent on gaining information and then getting out. He finds Braga and is able to get the full story on what really happened to Letty. Once Letty was on one of Braga's teams, it was already set up for her to die because that's the way things work in their oganization. Letty was able to escape but only to have a member of Bragas organization crash her car. Although in Fast and Furious it shows her car getting crashed and her being shot, it is described by Braga to have been just the beginning.. Because apparently, she survived. Shaw is revealed to be one of Bragas connections. While Letty was in the hospital with amnesia, Shaw attempts to finish the job but he saw her loss of memory as an opportunity he could capitalize on. So, he made her a part of his team. After Brian finds this out, he leaves prison and makes it back to London to help out the team. Very realistic outcome. Once Brian realizes that Letty may be a different person now, he tries to explain that to Dom, but to no avail. Dom isn't ready to give up on the love of his life. After Dom challenges Letty to a race, they stop in some empty lot. He talks to her, gives her the necklace he had kept, tells her where she got certain scars and tries to jog her memory of him and of their epic love story although I'm not sure he does. Then, he has a pretty epic moment with Shaw. One of those manly, face to face momens that Vin is so good at. Later Tej tracks Shaws next attack to be in Spain so that's where they go. Shaw commandeers a tank and begins to destroy cars on the highway they are on while Letty rides by his side seeming a bit unsure. Roman and Brian flip the tank and while Letty is throw off of the tank, Dom leaps to save her, risking his own life. Shaw is captured along with his men but when it is revealed that he kidnapped Mia, they are forced to release them. Letty decides to stay with Dom. While Shaw and his crew are trying to escape, Doms crew assembles to begin the chase. Shaws team boards a large aircraft speeding down a runway. Dom, Hobbs, Letty, and Brian board the aircraft and begin fighting. Brian rescues Mia and they escape on a car that was on board the aircraft. The rest of the team is below in cars chasing the aircraft. Han and Gisele, Brian and Mia, and Tej and Roman are all in separate cars and they each tether their cars to the aircraft to stop it from taking off. When it tries to take off, it is weighed down by the weight of them and their cars. Unfortunately, Gisele sacrifices herself to save Han from one of Hobbs men. As she falls to her death, that moment alone is devastating. Before she even hits the ground, before we even know for sure that she has died, we are devastated. And at that moment, pieces fall together. It began to be a question of why and when Tokyo Drift even happened and why Han had to die in that movie. But, here we see why. The love of his life has just sacrificed herself to save him and subsequently he has nothing left to really live for. So, his death in Tokyo Drift comes together as him just following that love of his. Anyway, while in the aircraft, Dom is still fighting with Shaw. He continues to go after the computer chip they've been searching for while Letty escapes the aircraft with Hobbs. Shaw is thrown from the plane to his death as it crashes into the ground and Dom gets into a car and escapes the aircraft through the nose while the plane explodes. Dom walks away from the firey explosion and gives Hobbs the chip. It is revealed then to everyone that Gisele has died and there is a sad moment between them. What happens next is pretty heart warming but slightly unsatisfying in my opinion. For those who have watched the series from the very start remember that little house that started it all. Dom and Mia's house. The next scene shows them all at that very same house, living, and able to finally be free, in a place that they all call home. They are having a BBQ of course. Why not? It brought you back to the very beginning and that was a good feeling. Hobbs and Elena show up to confirm that the gang is all pardoned. Elena accepts that Dom has chosen Letty and she understands. Before it ends, Dom asks Letty if any of this felt familiar and she says "No, but it feels like home." That was kind of bittersweet. Because although she still didn't remember what the hell she was even doing there, she could at least acknowledge that she belonged. One can only hope that she will one day remember exactly why it felt like home in the first place. As a preview for the 7th movie, they show the scene from Tokyo Drift in which Han is racing and is hit by an oncoming car and then dies. The driver, an unknown character played by Jason Statham, gets out of the car and called Dom saying "You don't know me. You're about to." Quite the preview if you ask me. A little confusing because some of us thought that Fast and Furious 6 was the final and the way it ended was a pretty good ending. But nope! Still going and now this will be the final especially with the untimely death of Paul Walker. May he rest in peace. I know that Paul Walker is missed all over by his loving family, friends, and many many many fans. He seemed like a really amazing guy and he was taken from us too soon. It is said that most of the important scenes were already done by Paul, but that his brothers will be stepping in to help finish up some scenes and "fill in the gaps." I know that I will be there to see this movie to show my support no matter what, although I would have even if Paul had not died, and I know for sure that there will be many others who will do the same.
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