(Warning: Spoilers below for Fast X.)
Featuring just about every Fast & Furious alum and then some (hi, random Saturday Night Live vet!), Fast X is a nostalgic cameo-fest designed to help wrap up the franchise in the-gang’s-all-here fashion. Thus, it’s little surprise that its post-credits scene also boasts a bombshell blast from the past—although in this case, that particular individual’s participation is legitimately stunning, given the bad blood of the last few years.
As has been widely spoiled by now, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson returns to the Fast & Furious fold for the first time since 2017’s The Fate of the Furious (not counting his 2019 spin-off, Fast & Furious: Hobbs and Shaw) in Fast X, thereby squashing the feud with headliner Vin Diesel that spilled into the public arena and brought a supposed end to their partnership. With his cameo setting up a major role in the series’ forthcoming 11th entry, it seems that all is well between the two Hollywood titans—even if Johnson’s homecoming carries a strong scent of desperation.
To briefly recap what led us to this point: things got testy toward the completion of production on The Fate of the Furious, when Johnson posted a video in which he called out certain male co-stars as unprofessional “chicken shit” “candy asses.”
It was widely assumed that he was referring to Diesel, and in the ensuing months, the two traded passive-aggressive alpha-male barbs in the press. Diesel eventually referred to Johnson as “Uncle Dwayne” and himself as Johnson’s “big brother,” and pleaded on social media with the former WWE icon to rejoin him for the franchise’s 10th installment. That didn’t ostensibly work, however, as Johnson admitted that he’d privately told Diesel (whom he dubbed “really manipulative”) that he would have nothing to do with Fast & Furious’ closing chapters.
Nonetheless, time evidently heals all wounds, as Johnson reneges on those statements by showing up in Fast X as unstoppable U.S. Diplomatic Security Service agent Luke Hobbs.
Following the pre-credits appearance of another familiar (wondrous) face, Louis Leterrier’s sequel delivers its stinger, with a squadron of secret agents—all of them dressed from head-to-toe in black tactical gear and outfitted with heavily artillery—entering an opulent, largely empty mansion. Making their way with flashlights through this underlit abode, one of them finds a room where an old television set is playing a clip of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans singing “Happy Trails to You.” Beside the tube sits a ringing cellphone, and when the agent answers it, the voice on the line is the film’s nefarious villain, Dante Reyes (Jason Momoa).
Dante explains that, though Dominic Toretto (Diesel) may have cataclysmically injured his father Hernan Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida) in the dragging-a-vault car chase that concluded Fast Five, it was this agent who pulled the trigger that ended his dad’s life—at which point we see a flashback to that act, as portrayed in Justin Lin’s 2011 film. For fans of the franchise, this comment effectively gives away the agent’s identity. Fast X quickly follows it up by having Dante state, “The devil’s coming for you,” at which point the agent removes his mask to reveal himself to be Johnson’s Hobbs, who snarls, “I ain’t hard to find, you sumbitch!” and crushes the cellphone in his fist.
Cue applause, roll credits, and leave everyone hungry for Fast 11. Johnson’s decision to re-up with Diesel and company is sure to be a net positive for the saga, which rose to its current stratospheric heights thanks to his involvement. Still, there’s something a bit sad about this shocker, considering that Johnson’s backtracking comes at precisely the moment at which his box-office-champ reputation has taken a few bumps and bruises.
With Jungle Cruise coming and going without much impact, and Black Adam falling far short of expectations—Johnson proclaimed the latter would change “the hierarchy of power in the DC universe,” only to see it fizzle out and the character get sidelined in the upcoming, revamped DC movie universe—the actor’s Fast X cameo feels less like a triumphant mending-fences gesture than an eating-crow capitulation that gets him temporarily back on steady blockbuster-series ground.
Will Johnson happily co-exist with Diesel, or—as he did on The Fate of the Furious—will he refuse to shoot any scenes with the Fast & Furious star? Only time (and eagerly awaited set reports) will tell. What’s difficult to shake, however, is the impression that this reunion is less a case of “family” superseding all other concerns, and more an example of rocky marriages being maintained for the greater franchise (and personal) good.
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