Content Warning: This article contains references to kidnapping.
The Fast & Furious movies have always been about Dominic Toretto and his crew, with their exploits in both conducting heists and defeating global threats detailed in the series. Villains like Cipher, Mose Jakande, the Shaw brothers, among others, have forced the characters to come up with strategies to come away with the win.
Sometimes, they have been mighty successful when certain plans have gone as expected. However, there have also been moments where Dom and his crew have also made some blunders in planning that have had negative consequences - some of which have affected the characters in a major way.
10 Best: Switching The Vaults To Fool Hobbs
The bait-and-switch was best seen in Fast Five. The crew’s plan here was to break into the police station and steal the vault that was filled with Reyes' money. They hooked the vault onto their cars and drag it through the streets, with the police high on their tails.
However, it turned out the vault was empty as they had vacated the money earlier. They had been dragging an empty vault around in order to lead Hobbs and the police away from the rest of their crew so they could escape. With this plan successfully pulled off, Hobbs was under the impression that he managed to procure the stolen money, only to learn he’d been duped and Dom’s crew had made off with all of the $90 million.
9 Worst: Stealing The Cars On The Train
In the opening of Fast Five, Dom, Mia, and Brian went ahead with the plan of stealing three cars on a train in Rio de Janeiro. However, there were too many things they didn’t account for and the plan went up in flames, forcing Dom to improvise. As it happened, the leader of Dom’s accomplices, Zizi, had his eyes on just one car, leading Dom to realize it was important and a fight broke out between them.
Simultaneously, DEA agents were on the train due to the cars being seized property, leading to an all-out fiasco where Dom and Brian ended up being apprehended by Zizi’s boss, Hernan Reyes. On this occasion, their plan was too simple and easily went awry.
8 Best: Burning Fake Money To Force Reyes To Consolidate His Money To One Location
Realizing that Hernan Reyes had his money distributed between different banks, Dom’s crew had the smart idea to force him into piling it all in one place. To do so, they targeted one location, stole $10 million, and burned fake money in front of the staff to make Reyes fear they would come for the rest.
Due to this, he consolidated the cash in one vault, meaning Dom’s crew only needed to steal this vault and get the remaining $90 million. It was a pretty ingenious plan since it negated the need to rob multiple locations while also making Reyes fear their threat.
7 Worst: Attacking Owen Shaw's Plane Separately
In the climax of Fast & Furious 6, Dom’s crew gave chase to Owen Shaw’s team who boarded a plane and kidnapped Mia. Rather than all of them heading into the plane together, the crew went with the plan of doing their own things, with some boarding the plane while others tethered it to their cars.
It would have made sense for all of them to stop the plan at the same time, as separating the group led to Giselle sacrificing herself to save Han when they were cornered. It was also a poor strategy to try and destroy the plane while they were also inside of it. Luckily, the stunts in Fast & Furious 9 were better.
6 Best: Using "Flying" Cars To Drop In Unannounced
There were some cheesy and entertaining scenes in F9. However, they were still no match for the ones found throughout Furious 7, as particularly seen in the 'flying car' sequences. Knowing there would be too much security around Mose Jakande’s base, the crew came up with the plan to drop in from the sky instead.
To this end, they use cars strapped to parachutes, which allowed the crew to get into the mountains to retrieve Ramsey without alerting any security detail. It was an absolutely outrageous plan, yet this reaped the rewards since Dom’s crew had the element of surprise and didn’t need to waste time-fighting Jakande’s security forces.
5 Worst: The Crew Assaulting Dom's Bus
At the ending of the fourth movie, Dom was being sent to prison when the bus carrying him was intercepted by his crew. The beginning of the fifth movie saw the successful execution of the plan, yet this had the consequence of making all of Dom’s crew into fugitives.
This wasn’t exactly the best way to go, seeing as everyone was now being hunted by Interpol. A better plan would have been to break Dom out of prison without drawing the media's attention as it would’ve protected the other members of the crew. It also meant that they were all barred from returning to their hometowns, which was only accomplished after they had to cut a deal with Luke Hobbs in the sixth movie.
4 Best: Brian Turning Himself In To Question Braga From Prison
In the sixth movie, Brian found out that the imprisoned Arturo Braga had information about how Letty survived the explosion in the fourth film. To this end, he returned to L.A. and turned himself in as a way to get to Braga in prison and question him personally.
This was a very smart strategy since Brian had a deal with the FBI in place, meaning he was going to get released with the information he wanted. The team essentially made it appear as if Brian was apprehended but he was never in any danger.
3 Worst: The Crew's Plan On Appealing To Dom With Their Family Motto
There was hardly any plan in place during The Fate of the Furious as Dom was seen to be working with Cipher after she blackmailed him. Rather than come up with a strategy to force him into submission, the plan was basically to get close enough to Dom to appeal to his respect for family.
This was shown when Letty claimed Dom wouldn’t hurt her because he loved her, but she didn’t realize Cipher’s goons were in tow and didn’t care if she was killed. It went to show that the crew wasn’t nearly as effective without Dom as their leader as they resorted to relying on their usual motto instead of thinking clearly.
2 Best: Faking Shaw's Death To Save Dom's Son
Dom was unable to do anything about Cipher’s control over him due to her kidnapping of his son. To overcome this, a discreet plan was put in motion where Dom seemingly shot Deckard Shaw. Truth was, this was done in order to have Shaw enter Cipher’s plane and save Dom’s son undetected.
In the end, this was pulled off perfectly as Dom turned on Cipher the moment he found out about his son’s safety. By faking Shaw’s demise, Dom was able to put on the act of working for Cipher long enough to foil her plans from the inside and ensure his family was safe.
1 Worst: Dom Confronting Deckard Shaw Himself Without The Crew
Back when Deckard Shaw was still a Fast & Furious villain, he constantly interfered with the crew’s attempts to stop Mose Jakande from using the God’s Eye device. Despite knowing the threat Shaw posed, the plan was for Dom to face him alone while the crew dealt with Jakande.
While this got Shaw out of their hair for a while, during which Ramsey hacked God’s Eye, it was still a ridiculous plan since Dom had no guarantees he would survive Shaw. Moreover, Jakande later rallied and arrived to try and kill Dom and Shaw himself, meaning the crew failed to protect Dom who had to then put both villains down on his own.
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July 18, 2021 at 12:00AM
