There’s a new trailer for The Fate of the Furious, the eighth (!) movie in the Fast and Furious series. If you’ve seen previous Fate of the Furious trailers, there’s not much new here. Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) has betrayed his pseudo-family of vehicular mercenaries to team up with Cipher (Charlize Theron), a super hacker who launches nuclear subs and all sorts of other dirty tricks against Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) and the rest of Toretto’s old crew. But Trailer 2 for Fate of the Furious does give us a moment from one new scene, and it’s proof that Fast and the Furious 8 knows exactly what type of action movie it’s presenting. Think Point Break.
In Edgar Wright’s comedy deconstruction of the action movie genre, Hot Fuzz, Nick Frost dissects a crucial emotional moment in the genre’s storytelling toolbox: firing your gun in the air instead of shooting a friend. It’s emotional catharsis of the most visual sort, combining gunshots and the climax of a relationship that’s developed across opposite ends of the battle. The moment can be found at its purest in Point Break, when undercover FBI agent Johnny Utah (Keanu Reeves) refuses to shoot Bodhi (Patrick Swayze) the bank robber who Utah befriended, originally just to arrest him. But bromance get complicated.
Here it is in Hot Fuzz and Point Break:
Keep an eye out at 2:37 of the new Fate of the Furious trailer, right after Dwayne Johnson kicks a torpedo at a Humvee loaded with missiles.
It kinda works, doesn’t it? Toretto, having gone over to the enemy, still can’t bring himself to shoot the love of his life, Letty. And Letty knows it. If only Vin Diesel would give us an agonized scream or something. Oh well, can’t have it all.
Fate of the Furious is out in theaters April 14.
