If you have ever watched or you are already a true fan of one of the most well-known movies that are none other than ‘Fast and Furious’ movie, you definitely know that one thing always holds true for Dom Torretto played by Vin Diesel does everything for his family. It is so obvious actually because he and also other characters keep on repeating the word ‘family’ in all of the ‘Fast and Furious’ movies.
There are actually a lot of times where the example of the importance of family got portrayed in all of the ‘Fast and Furious’ movies by many of the characters. These are actually 3 family values that all of you may benefit from the lessons of ‘Fast and Furious’ movies which are America’s preeminent family-friendly franchise.
1) Eating Chicken Together On A Beautiful Day
Dom speaks with reverence of the BBQs his father threw, “If you didn’t go to church, you didn’t get any barbecue”, he tells Brian in Fast Five. Routines and rituals provide structure for families; this is where commitment, communication, and camaraderie are honed. A family dinner, in the case of Dom’s extended family, is a ritual allowing a group of people to come together, after a long day of saving lives and making cars do impossible things, and reaffirm their commitment to each other. The communal meal, as introduced in the first Fast & Furious film, comes with its own set of rules: Whoever first reaches for the food must say, Grace. Corona is the only beverage of choice. Food must be consumed outside. Watch as Brian, the newcomer is seduced by the idea of just a little bit of love. Bearing witness to the intimacy of something as simple as eating chicken together on a beautiful day more or less put him on a path to being an international fugitive. Totally worth it.
Five films later, after avoiding countless bullets and somehow surviving dozens of explosions in multiple time zones and vanquishing increasingly powerful villains, there’s something singularly rejuvenating about sitting down in a backyard and stuffing your face with BBQ surrounded by the people you love most. Dom’s concerns may be global, but the values that inform his idea of the family are simple, humble. Family isn’t about throwing huge ostentatious declarations of strength. Family is breaking bread with the most important people in your life at dusk, and sipping any brew you want.
2) Absurdly Extreme Trust
A healthy amount of internal discord is always excellent kindling for drama, and there’s usually just a bit of that going around in the extended family of Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel). Though with the exception of Paul Walker’s Brian sneakily infiltrating the crew in the first film, Matt Schulze’s Vince generally being jealous and grumpy, and Michelle Rodriguez’s Letty’s weird, amnesia-induced heel-turn, these guys pretty much keep the discord levels to schoolyard banter. There’s a reason other than the screenplay that this family can drive cars off bridges, out-duel tanks on the freeway, and allow itself to parachute armored cars out of planes. That’s due to trust.
True “family” trust goes deeper than professional respect for a colleague’s abilities. In Dom’s crew, this absolute trust is frequently epitomized by the “take the wheel” postulate, in which one member of the family has a passenger take the wheel, literally putting their own life in someone else’s hands usually so they can do some insane, dangerous nonsense like jump onto a moving truck or onto an airplane that’s taking off.
3) Knowing Your Code
“Your code is about family. It makes you predictable. And in our line of work, predictable means vulnerable. And that means I can break you whenever I want”. With these words, Owen Shaw, the central antagonist of the franchise’s sixth film, indicates to both Dom and the audience that he believes all this family is actually good to talk to be sentimental nonsense. Shaw, who in this moment is working with Dom’s estranged, amnesiac endgame love Letty, is offering Dom one last chance to get out of the U.K. alive. He is also giving Dom some callous advice about his own code, which revolves around precision. Shaw is a bit like Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey, it’s all movable pieces and efficiency and cold, hard spreadsheets.
Dom is different because he cares. But Shaw is right that Dom is predictable and vulnerable as a result of having the audacity to love his family. Dom’s reply, unruffled and in control, is embarrassingly uplifting: “Well, when I go at least I know what it’s for.” It’s something in the midst of a bonkers film saga about racing cars and blowing things up that appeals to the better angels of our nature. Protecting your family is a principle that’s worth losing the battle to uphold, which is not something they tend to teach you when you are getting your MBA or starting your new job at the Pentagon, but of course, to Dom, this is what the French would call his raison d’etre, and having to explain family to Owen Shaw is beneath him.
Sources: The Ringer, Movieclips, Ovidiu Ispas, Allegra Mary
