Directed by: David Leitch
Written by: Chris Morgan, Drew Pearce
Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Idris Elba, Vanessa Kirby
Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw is the first indirect sequel in the phenomenally successful Fast and the Furious franchise. Hobbs & Shaw stars Dwayne Johnson as Luke Hobbs and Jason Statham as Deckard Shaw who are forced to work together to retrieve a deadly virus from inside Shaw’s sister Hattie (Vanessa Kirby), while protecting her from Brixton Lore (Idris Elba) who wants the virus for nefarious reasons.
Luke Hobbs was first introduced in Fast Five as a U.S. Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) agent tasked with capturing our original heroes, Dominic and Mia Toretto and Brian O’Conner (Vin Diesel, Jordana Brewster, and Paul Walker), none of whom appear or are even mentioned in this movie.
Deckard Shaw first appeared in an uncredited cameo in Fast & Furious 6 during the end credits, but we are really introduced to him in Furious 7 as a rogue special forces assassin looking to get revenge on our original heroes, now including Luke Hobbs.
As a side note, it’s OK if you haven’t seen any of the previous Fast and the Furious movies prior to Hobbs & Shaw, because this one stands alone. I’m just giving a bit of background before I get to the juicy part: these two guys don’t get along. Wait…that’s an understatement.
They HATE each other!
So you can guess that making them work together results in hilarious complications.
When the movie starts, an MI-6 team, led by Hattie Shaw, is attempting to steal a deadly virus called Snowflake from a terrorist organization called Eteon.
Snowflake is especially catastrophic, because it’s programmable, and in the wrong hands it can lead to the deaths of millions of people very quickly.
Their mission is interrupted by Brixton Lore, who kills all the agents except for Hattie. Brixton is cyberneticly-enhanced, which enables him to perform superhuman feats. Rather than let the Snowflake virus get into Brixton’s hands, Hattie injects it into herself, which basically turns her into a ticking time bomb for two reasons: one, the virus will be active soon; and two, Brixton has framed her for her team’s murder.
Who else but Hobbs & Shaw to the rescue!
Hobbs and Shaw track down the creator of the Snowflake virus, Professor Andreiko (Eddie Marsan), who warns them that time is running out: either they have to get the virus out of Hattie fast, or she has to be killed.
In order to extract the virus from Hattie, they need to use an extraction device which is in an Eteon facility in the Ukraine. So the team goes to Moscow to get supplies, then retrieves the device but it gets damaged, so they have to find someplace off the grid to hide and someone who can fix the device.
Then we go to Hobbs’s home in Samoa where we get backstory about his estrangement from his family. Turns out that Hobbs’ brother is a master mechanic and Hobbs thinks he can fix the extraction device.
Unfortunately, Brixton Lore is able to track them down, and he and his team head to Samoa to retrieve Hattie and the Snowflake virus.
So Hobbs, along with the Shaws and Hobbs’ now reunited family prepare for battle.
Unfortunately, the family matriarch got rid of all the guns. At this point, I remember thinking “OK is this going to be like the battle on the forest moon of Endor in Return of the Jedi? Are they going to be like the Ewoks and use rocks and logs to fight against Brixton Lore’s army?”.
That’s pretty much what happened (except not as primitive). Keep in mind that this is a Fast and Furious movie. So anything goes. You must suspend all disbelief and realize that the impossible is possible . . . which includes insane stunts, crazy situations, and plenty of “what the heck just happened?” moments.
Should you go see this movie? Ask yourself these questions:
- Do you want to see awesome action sequences?
- Do you want to see two grown men bantering like children, pulling pranks, and constantly trying to one-up each other?
- Do you want to see The Rock walking, shirtless, in slow motion, towards you?
- Do you like fun secret cameos? (NO spoilers)
- Do you like movies about family, no matter what kind of family it is?
- Did I mention The Rock?
- Do you like suspending all disbelief and enjoying totally unrealistic and amazingly ridiculous stunts?
If you said yes to one of more of the above, then this is the movie for you!
Make sure to stay all the way through the credits till the very end. Also watch out for some enjoyable Deadpool 2 connections.
