The The Fast and the Furious (2001). The uncomplicated story about an undercover agent who has to infiltrate the world of street races served to introduce audiences to Paul Walker’s Brian and Vin Diesel’s Dominic Toretto in what would be the start of a 20-year franchise.
Curiously, neither Fast Five.
From then on, each movie presented Toretto’s crew with a big and bolder mission – to the point where the Fast and Furious franchise, is a dream from a comatose Dominic Toretto.
Early Fast & Furious Movies Were More Realistic
From the plot to the action sequences, The Fast and the Furious was as grounded in reality as a car heist movie could be. The story of an undercover agent investigating a group of thieves was simple enough to make sense, and even the truck chase scenes tried to follow some level of logic. 2 Fast 2 Furious had more stylized chasing scenes, but the colorful landscapes behind the cars’ windows and the video-game-like nitro boosts were more of an aesthetic decision in a movie that still tried to be realistic, especially with the story of Brian O’Conner once again infiltrating a criminal organization. Likewise, Tokyo Drift was sort of a coming-of-age story with highly stylized car sequences. The returns of Paul Walker and Vin Diesel in 2009's Fast & Furious shifted the focus of the franchise back to action, with Brian and Toretto having to infiltrate Braga’s organization. Still, in of scale, Fast & Furious was closer to The Fast and the Furious than to Fast Five.
Fast Five Completely Changed Fast & Furious Movies
Fast & Furious 4 proved that there was still an audience for the adventures of Dom and Brian, which led the studio to bet on an even bigger sequel. Not only did Paul Walker and Vin Diesel return for the fifth installment, but Fast Five also brought back 2 Fast 2 Furious’ Roman and Tej, Tokyo Drift’s Han, and Kurt Russell's Mr. Nobody.
Theory: Dom Is In A Coma After Fast & Furious 4
At the end of Fast & Furious 4, after finally avenging Letty's presumable death and getting Braga arrested, Dominic Toretto had no alternative but to turn himself in. Despite the collaboration, Toretto was sentenced to 25 years. However, Mia Toretto and all of Dom’s friends did not give up so easily and orchestrated a rescue mission while Dom was being transferred. In Fast Five, it was revealed that the crew caused a scarring accident with the prison bus, but that Toretto managed to walk out of it alive and that no one else was hurt. Curiously, it was exactly from that point onwards that Vin Diesel’s Dominic Toretto and all the other characters became indestructible heroes, which leads to the theory of Fast Five and all the following Fast and Furious movies being nothing but dreams of a comatose Toretto. The accident during the rescue mission would be enough to put Toretto in a coma, and Fast Five never showed how exactly Dom walked out of the bus.
Dom Coma Theory Explains Why Fast & Furious Has Changed So Much
A comatose Dom having to fight for his life while not being sure of what happened to the ones who tried to rescue him would have nothing to hold to but the thought of his family. That could be why Dom’s famous family speeches started to get so common after Fast Five. In fact, with the exception of Fast and Furious franchise changed so much after the fourth installment, as Dom could be trying to picture himself and his family as indestructible heroes always close to the cars that he always loved while in recovery. Obviously, as with any theory, Dom being in a comma after 2009's Fast & Furious is a creative way to try to explain a behind-the-scenes change in the Fast and Furious franchise that the filmmakers never managed to justify through the story.
