8 Lessons Fast 11 Can Learn From Fast & Furious’ Best Movie

Summary Fast 11 must avoid irrelevant flashbacks to past films and focus on a fresh storyline for maximum impact.

Introducing memorable new characters like Luke Hobbs is essential for the final installment's success.

The central theme of family in Fast Five should be carried forward in Fast 11 to ground the series in emotion.

The upcoming eleventh Fast & Furious movie could learn a lot from the greatest entry in the franchise, Fast Five. While the first four movies in the series were enjoyable action films, Fast Five acted as a turning point in the franchise, completely reinvented the series, and contributed to its incredible longevity. This was when this car racing series embraced its more ridiculous aspects, incorporated action-heist tropes, and introduced incredible new characters who have remained in the series and even branched out in spin-off movies.

Fast 11 has been planned as the main franchise's final entry; because of this, it must look back on Fast & Furious's greatest film and listen to the lessons it taught. Of course, Fast 11 should have a unique identity that finishes the series on a high, but viewers have so much nostalgia for this franchise that paying homage to the past and all that came before is essential. There were plenty of lessons Fast 11 should learn from Fast Five.

8 Callbacks To Early Movies Need To Be Relevant

Fast Five flashbacks should be avoided

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A big part of what went wrong with Fast X was that it felt like it was trying to cash in on the legacy of Fast Five without really earning it. For the eleventh installment, it’s important to strike the right balance between reminding viewers why they loved this franchise and only including relevant things that contributed to the story. One example was the flashback in Fast X, where Dante Reyes was shown to be in the epic climatic Fast Five car chase, which just reminded viewers how far the franchise had sunk since those days.

Instead, Fast 11 should try to capture the spirit of Fast Five without manipulative techniques that retconned previously established storylines. This can be done through the character of Dante Reyes, who has a significant connection to Fast Five, but those references should come from the present-day storyline and do not need to recontextualize the past. What worked so well in Fast Five was that viewers were focused on the here and now, not thinking about the glory days of earlier movies.

7 New Characters Need To Be Memorable (Like Luke Hobbs)

Fast Five introduced Luke Hobbs for the first time

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One of the most significant things that Fast Five got right was the introduction of Dwyane Johnson as Luke Hobbs, a character who has remained in the series ever since. Fast Five marked a turning point for the franchise as it became less realistic and leaned more toward grand narratives, almost starting to feel like a superhero series. Rather than fighting against this shift, Fast Five introduced Hobbs as an antagonist who could rival the insane determination of Dominic Toretto.

Disappointingly, Hobbs only made a cameo appearance in Fast X, so it would be great to see him show up in a more prominent role in Fast 11. However, the real lesson Fast 11 can learn from Fast Five was that new characters needed to be memorable and connect with audiences in a big way. If Fast 11 wants to succeed, it needs to ensure its new characters aren’t forgettable villains, lackluster allies, or secondary characters who were forgotten by viewers five minutes after the credits rolled.

6 It’s All About Family

Fast Five captured the central theme of the franchise

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At its core, the Fast & Furious franchise was about friends becoming as important as family and carving out a space for people who felt like they didn’t belong anywhere else. This was seen through the brother-like relationship between Dominic Toretto and Brian O’Connor, which continued to deepen in Fast Five. Sadly, Paul Walker’s no longer around to be in the series, but these core family values should be carried forward into the final installment, Fast 11.

While Vin Diesel has teased a “grand finale” for the final installment of the franchise (via Deadline), Fast 11 must do this with the thematic heart and family values that have been slowly eroded since Fast Five. Storylines like when Toretto went rogue in The Fate of the Furious should be avoided, and the crew should work together as a team as they did in Fast Five. This back-to-basics concept centered around familial love will help ground the series in emotion while the over-the-top action occurs.

5 Characters Should Develop And Evolve

Fast Five’s cast had real moments of growth

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When a series has been running as long as Fast & Furious, it's easy to get franchise fatigue and feel like the movies just continually repeat themselves. But part of what made Fast Five feel so fresh and appealing was that its characters were still developing, and audiences could still be surprised by how they would react. Fast 11 should ensure it does not just play it safe with audiences' expectations and give its cast some opportunity to really grow, learn, and develop. For any movie to be successful, it needs to have character evolution, and the Fast & Furious films were no different.

Throughout Fast Five, Toretto struggled to balance his loyalty to his family while he saved the day, O’Connor struggled to let go of his old life as a cop, and Mia was pregnant with Brian’s child. These storylines allowed the characters to change and grow outside of the over-the-top spectacle of the chase scenes. One lesson Fast 11 must learn from Fast Five was that viewers wanted to see epic action scenes, but they don't feel compelling unless there’s real character development at its core.

4 The Setting Should Not Be About Nostalgia Alone

Fast Five was set in Rio de Janeiro

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One aspect of Fast Five that Fast X tried to emulate was the setting of Rio de Janeiro, which unfortunately felt more like a parody than anything else. The main lesson that can be learned from this was that the setting should not be about nostalgia alone, and like in Fast Five, a new location can add something unique and differentiate the movie from the rest of the franchise. While Fast 11 should copy the fact that a great setting that worked so well in Fast Five, it does not need to go back to the same place literally.

One great example of a new setting injecting life into the Fast & Furious franchise was Tokyo Drift. While some harsh realities about Tokyo Drift must be faced, the entirely new location meant it had a unique identity and stood out among all the Fast & Furious movies to this day. Like Fast Five, the setting of the upcoming eleventh film should be an integral aspect of the story, but there’s no need to return to Rio, as nostalgia alone won't be enough to keep audiences engaged.

3 It’s Time To Dial Back The Running Time

Fast Five was just over two hours long

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One thing that has plagued the most recent Fast & Furious entries has been bloated runtimes, and an important lesson that should be learned is that less can often be more. Fast Five was the first installment in the franchise to go over two hours, and by the time it got to Fast X, things were clocking in at 141 minutes. If the Fast 11 decided to dial things back closer to the two-hour mark, it could make every second count and ensure that each chaotic car chase or spectacular set piece explosion was streamlined for maximum impact.

Longer running times have become more common in recent years, and it made sense to ensure audiences got their money’s worth during the cinema event that was a new Fast & Furious movie. However, it’s hard to beat a shorter action film that kept viewers on the edge of their seats for the entire runtime and felt like it wasted no time. If the eleventh Fast & Furious movie maintains its extended runtime, then it should make sure to get the most out of every minute.

2 It Doesn’t Need To Copy Everything

Fast Five tried something new

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Every time a new Fast & Furious was released, audiences debated about how it could have been better if it copied certain aspects of Fast Five and gave the viewers what they wanted. However, this failed to consider just what was so special about Fast Five in the first place, as part of its charm was that it was not copying a previous entry in the franchise. One lesson that Fast 11 could learn from the fifth film was that shaking up the formula can often do wonders for a long-running series.

The release of Fast Five completely reinvented the Fast & Furious franchise, changing it from a semi-grounded series about car racing into a high-stakes heist thriller that often ignored the laws of physics with its outrageous action. This massive risk paid off in spades and ensured the franchise's longevity to this day. One major lesson Fast 11 could learn from this was that it does not need to copy everything from Fast Five and can take a similar risk to shake up the formula once again.

1 Bigger Can Be Better

Fast Five upped the stakes to new levels

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Fast Five upped the stakes to extraordinary levels, and by the movie’s climactic car chase, Toretto and his crew dragged a massive vault throughout Rio. This scene brought the Fast & Furious franchise to another level of outrageousness and set a new standard for absurdity in action movies. While this may be an aspect of the franchise that detractors point to when claiming the ridiculousness of this series, it’s also the aspect that made the Fast & Furious movies so fun and exciting to watch.

One lesson Fast 11 could learn from this was that bigger could sometimes be better and that audiences' suspension of disbelief has grown incredibly large regarding Fast & Furious. For the final entry, the filmmakers can play with the series' legacy and raise the stakes even further to give viewers a climactic chase scene unlike anything previously seen. These are lofty expectations for the series to pull off, but after 11 movies, there’s nowhere else to go but bigger, faster, more extreme, and over-the-top.

Source: Deadline