Vin Diesel teased that Fast & Furious 11 will return to the franchise’s street-level roots to complete the circle, but it’s too late. The Fast and the Furious began as a grounded action drama in 2001. It told the Point Break-like narrative of an FBI agent who fell in love with an illegal street racing operation’s charming ringleader and didn’t want to turn him up. The first two sequels maintained this semi-grounded approach.
A tank tearing across a highway and cars pulling a stolen vault through the streets were far from realistic in Fast Five and Fast & Furious 6. Furious 7 begins with skydiving automobiles. The Rock redirects a missile with his bare hands in Fate of the Furious. Diesel wants Fast & Furious 11 to return to the franchise’s roots, even though it may not be the final film. The Fast Saga is too far gone.
Fast & Furious 11 Can’t Be “Street Level” Previously, the Fast Saga was more than just “street level”
Fast & Furious 11 could return the franchise back to its street-level roots with a street-level story, but this franchise is much beyond that. Once a series has cars jumping between skyscrapers, swinging across the jungle, and even going into space, reality is gone. Fast 11 can’t ignore previous sequels’ reasoning leaps and start over.
Although several later Fast & Furious films incorporate street racing sequences as a throwback, that’s not the main idea anymore. Dom Toretto and his crew aren’t just street racers anymore; they’re black-ops mercenaries recruited by the government to carry out secret missions. There’s no way to tell a grounded story with that premise. The very idea that the government would recruit a bunch of carjackers and mechanics as some kind of Suicide Squad is, by its very nature, un-grounded. The Fast Saga has developed into a far-fetched fantasy.
Fast X’s Cliffhanger Puts Fast & Furious 11 in a Hard Place.
Fast & Furious 11 Depends on Fast X’s End
Fast & Furious 11 can’t be a street-level story since it must follow that cliffhanger. No street-level movie starts with two characters driving down an exploding dam and surviving. With those setups, a grounded movie can only start with six main protagonists, including Dom, dying in the first few minutes. Since most of them will survive those cliffhanger battles, it will be another unlikely Fast & Furious movie.
Fast and Furious 11 Will Struggle With So Many Characters & Stories
Fast X left several characters and plotlines unresolved.
Fast & Furious 11 is supposed to be the finale, but it will struggle to conclude. In Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, the first part’s cliffhanger united everyone. The Avengers were driven to defeat Thanos in Endgame. Not everything in the Fast & Furious franchise has a clear finale. The personalities and storylines are all over the place.
It’s little wonder the filmmakers are battling to put together a cohesive story for Fast & Furious 11 – it’s juggling a lot of plates.
At the end of Fast X, everyone is doing their own thing. Dom and his son are driving down an erupting dam, Luke Hobbs is urging Dante to pursue him, and Gisele freed Letty and Cipher. It’s little wonder the filmmakers are battling to put together a cohesive story for Fast & Furious 11 – it’s juggling a lot of plates. Fast & Furious 11 has too many storylines to abandon for a street racing adventure.