Questionable Things In The Fast And Furious Movies We All Ignore

It's become a cliché at this point to say that the "Fast & Furious" movies feature stunts and instances of spectacle that strain credibility. In fact, it's safe to say that such moments have become part of the appeal of this series. Audiences around the world line up to see what over-the-top shenanigans Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and company will get into, resulting in stunts that inspire viewers to simultaneously go "What? How?" and "Woo-hoo!' in equal measure. The ludicrousness (no pun intended) is part of the package, not a defect. Still, there are parts of this sprawling saga that err on the wrong kind of questionable. It's one thing to stretch believability in the service of an exciting set piece. It's another to engage in clumsy storytelling just because it's the easier thing to do.

Some of the more puzzling moments of "Fast & Furious" include bizarre overhauls in the entire personalities of certain characters, as well as unsatisfying explanations for how major figures return from the dead. By and large, such issues have been ignored by the general public, who've found that the thrilling ends of these movies justify the sometimes ham-fisted means of getting there. But even after delivering all those cool car stunts, it's time to look back at the more questionable yet under-discussed parts of the "Fast & Furious" mythos.

Though Brian O'Connor (Paul Walker) returned from "The Fast and the Furious" to headline "2 Fast 2 Furious," Dominic Toretto did not. This meant the square-jawed law enforcement officer needed an experienced rebel to bounce off of. Enter Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson), who had a more jovial personality than Toretto from the start and was clearly around to help maintain the buddy-buddy dynamic of the first movie. But while he delivers his share of comedic lines throughout the film, Pearce is not at all supposed to inhabit the archetype of comic relief here. 

When "Tokyo Drift" opted to focus on entirely new characters, both O'Connor and Pearce were put on the backburner. In fact, Pearce disappeared from the franchise before finally returning nearly a decade after his first appearance in "Fast Five." This time around, though, Toretto and O'Connor were firmly in the lead roles again, meaning Pearce wasn't needed to fulfill his original job as O'Connor's new partner. But since he had to fill out a new niche, Pearce has taken on the role of the franchise's comic relief, which has required the character to act drastically different than when he first showed up in "2 Fast 2 Furious." While this new personality has allowed Pearce to stick around as a prominent fixture of the "Fast & Furious" universe, it does make the character wildly inconsistent between his debut appearance and his later escapades in the franchise..

In "Fast & Furious," Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) is murdered, which is a tragic development for Dom and a puzzling one for the franchise. After all, Letty hadn't been a part of the series since the original "Fast and the Furious," and now she was suddenly dead. However, the post-credits scene of "Fast Five" shows that Letty has taken a cue from Mark Twain in that the rumors of her death are greatly exaggerated. In the next movie, "Fast & Furious 6," Letty is not only confirmed to be alive, but she's also shown to be working for the movie's principal foe, Owen Shaw, who apparently rescued her when she was nearly dead. Oh, and she's also got amnesia, which means she has no remorse about working for Shaw or shooting at her boyfriend.

Letty's death and resurrection is a puzzling story turn for the series on a number of levels, particularly in the awkward way the "Fast & Furious" movies refuse to give a more detailed explanation for how exactly she survived. The fact that her amnesia is only sporadically referenced in "Furious 7" and barely mentioned in "The Fate of the Furious" is also strange, especially as it makes her heel turn in "Fast & Furious 6" feel extra superfluous. Audiences come to these movies for the ridiculous, there's no question about that. But going this route with handling the death and revival of a franchise fixture like Letty feels one degree too far from even this saga's level of believability.

The "Fast & Furious" movies aren't as famous as the Marvel Cinematic Universe films for their post-credits scene, but "Fast Five" features a moment worth sticking through the credits for. Here, Luke Hobbs is informed by "2 Fast 2 Furious" character Monica Fuentes (Eva Mendes) that Letty is alive and well, despite dying in "Fast & Furious." Not only did this sequence indicate that a franchise staple was getting resurrected, but it indicated that Fuentes was due to reappear in the "Fast Saga" after previously only appearing in the second film. In that earlier movie, Fuentes was a U.S. custom agents whose primary purpose in the plot was to fall in love with Brian O'Connor and to be a damsel-in-distress who could get rescued by the male protagonists during the climax.

Fuentes returning to this series opened the door for Mendes to play a more active character. However, "Fast & Furious 6" failed to follow up on this tease of her returning. And since then, there have been no further appearances by Fuentes. This is likely partially due to Eva Mendes taking a self-imposed sabbatical from acting, but it's still strange that "Fast Five" teed up a return for Monica Fuentes that's yet to pay off, all while bringing back other characters from early movies. Perhaps that prospective female-led "Fast & Furious" spinoff can finally give Fuentes a new adventure to embark on that's more substantive than a post-credit sequence.

When "The Fast and the Furious" hit theaters in 2001, a big takeaway for general moviegoers was the present of Vin Diesel. With his gravely voice and a believable sense of authority, Diesel wasn't your average movie star. So it seemed like a no-brainer to bring him back for the inevitable sequels. However, when "2 Fast 2 Furious" was released, Diesel was nowhere to be found, even as fellow original lead Paul Walker was back in the driver's seat.

It was a puzzling move for the franchise, and in the sequel, the absence is chalked up to Toretto being on the run from the law. In the context of the real world, though, it was due to Vin Diesel both having qualms with the script for "2 Fast 2 Furious" and having a desire to break away from the franchise to do "The Chronicles of Riddick" instead. This decision allowed Diesel to follow his own creative pursuits, but it did result in the baffling sight of seeing a "Fast & Furious" movie not headlined by the actor most associated with this franchise. This trait has only gotten more puzzling as the years go by and Diesel remains more and more of a fixture of this saga.

Brixton Lore (Idris Elba) is the most advanced adversary to ever appear in a "Fast & Furious" movie. He isn't just ruthlessly violent — he's also outfitted with cyborg enhancements. The first explicitly sci-fi character in the "Fast & Furious" mythos isn't someone you can take down with ease. So considering the leads of "Hobbs & Shaw" are just normal human beings (albeit ones played by Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham), you'd think it would take a super complicated tactic to defeat Lore and save the world.

So what's the kryptonite of this self-proclaimed Black Superman? Well, as "Hobbs & Shaw" reveals ... he can't fight two people when they attack him at the same time. Yeah, seriously. A maneuver the T-800 could pull off with ease in the first "Terminator" is way too advanced for the most high-tech cyborg to ever exist. It's a ridiculous plot turn meant to be the culmination of a movie where the two leads can't stand each other. Of course the resolution to defeating Lore would lie in cooperating with one another. Still, even for a "Fast & Furious" movie, this tactic for bringing down the baddie is pretty darn questionable.