WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, in theaters now.
Hobbs & Shaw is the ninth film in the Fast and the Furious franchise. It's also arguably the biggest in terms of spectacle, taking the bombast of the previous installments, and amplifying it to an occasionally shocking degree.
The action sequences in Hobbs & Shaw are some of the grandest moments not only in that series, but possibly of any film of the past five years. Here are the most ludicrous.
Much of the early action establishes the juxtaposition between Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), and the similarities between Shaw and his sister, Hattie (Vanessa Kirby). While the Shaw siblings are crafty brawlers, Hobbs typically employs his massive size and strength to outlast his opponents.
All of that is on display early in the film, when Hobbs tracks down Hattie. At the same time, Shaw investigates her apartment, and is confronted by three men working for the villain who framed her, Brixton (Idris Elba). Both Shaw siblings use their surroundings to their advantage, improvising weaponry out of whatever is handy (including garbage, plates and a showerhead.)
It gives them a frantic and cutthroat ability to bring down their opponents that makes them entertaining to follow in a brawl. But while Shaw improvises his way around the three men attacking, there's nothing Hattie can throw at Hobbs to slow him down. Literally! At one point she heaves a car battery at him, and he casually catches it like a football.
The film goes full-out once Brixton comes to kidnap Hattie. Brixton and two of his men use ropes to descend down the side of a skyscraper, Brixton carrying Hattie the whole way. Both Hobbs and Shaw get to showcase their particular skillsets in the ensuing chase, with Hobbs leading the way by jumping off a building. He leaps from person to person as if he were in a Mario Bros. game, catching up to Brixton and tackling him through plate glass. Hattie, to her credit, also gets in on the action by slashing herself free of Brixton.
Shaw (who took an elevator instead) catches up to the pair and gets a getaway car for the three. He leads Brixton and his men on a massive chase through London. Shaw turns out to be a potentially better driver than anyone so far seen in the series, maneuvering around traffic and using other vehicles to take out his opponents. Eventually, it's only Brixton and his transforming motorcycle that is left after them.
To get around him, Shaw ends up using his own car as a makeshift surprise ramp when Brixton gets too close, sending the villain crashing into a double-decker bus. While this doesn't kill him, it does slow Brixton down long enough for them to escape.
After the heroes learn more about the smart virus that Hattie has hidden inside her body, they realize the only way to save her life -- and the world -- is to use a particular device that's being held in Brixton's base. To that end, the group has to sneak into a laboratory hidden underneath the ruins of the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Russia.
To get through the final door, both Hobbs and Shaw have to fight through two respective hallways. Hobbs finds himself staring down a man who somehow even dwarfs him. A quick punch from Hobbs knocks the man out, however. This leaves Shaw to deal with ten men, leading to an extended and creative scrap between Shaw and the group.
He uses them as bullet shields, steals their weapons and slowly makes his way through all the men. Finally getting through, the two men are then confronted by roughly one hundred soldiers carrying machine guns, and are forced to give up.
After an extended sequence where Brixton has Hobbs and Shaw tortured by way of electrocution, Hattie facilitates their escape. Soon, Deckard and Hattie are driving in a jeep, while Hobbs commandeers a truck. All three blast out of the lab, which is set to explode. Unfortunately, they don't manage to escape before everything starts blowing up.
Soon, all three of them are trying to not only avoid Brixton but the collapsing ruins of the Chernobyl power plant. Fittingly enough, both Hobbs and Shaw drive much the same way they fight. Shaw is a clever and quick-thinking driver, moving around the collapsing building and driving across falling walls to make jumps he'd otherwise fail to survive.
Meanwhile, Hobbs drives the same way he fights: blasting through everything in his way towards getting to survival. Both methods end up working, although the device is broken in the chaos.
Trying to avoid Brixton, Hobbs and Shaw head towards Hobbs' home of Samoa. Reuniting with his family, Hobbs and Shaw devise one of the most ridiculous plans to fight back against Brixton's group possible. Hacking into the gear used by Brixton's forces, Hattie is able to defuse their guns. This gives Hobbs' family time to rally with ancient weaponry, and they can charge the enemies wielding historical weaponry.
The best part? It works! Hobbs is able to lead his family to victory against the mercenary army, who are not prepared to go into battle without their guns. Most of Brixton's forces are taken out, leaving just Brixton and his helicopter crew to try and escape with a captured Hattie.
Perhaps the most over the top scene in the film -- which is really saying something -- arrives when Hobbs and Shaw get onto a truck and chase after Brixton. Hobbs and Shaw manage to attach a chain from the truck onto the helicopter. Every time Brixton tries to get further airborne, another member of Hobbs' family arrives in another truck, chaining down the car that came before them.
This leads to a daisy chain of four cars weighing down the helicopter, all blasting off with nitrous to bring the helicopter down. Even when the chain snaps under the pressure of it all, Hobbs manages to grab the chain and hold the helicopter at bay with his bare hands. It's a pure Captain America moment.
While the rest of the climax features plenty of other big moments (notably Hobbs and Shaw figuring out some combo moves against Brixton), nothing beats that helicopter scene in sheer scale.
Directed by David Leitch (Deadpool 2) from a script by longtime Fast & Furious narrative architect Chris Morgan, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw stars Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Idris Elba and Vanessa Kirby. The film arrives Aug. 2.
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