To call the Fast & Furious series formulaic would be pointing out the obvious, as the franchise has always relied on tried and tested methods within each release. F9 has continued this practice of featuring tropes that are all too familiar, although it’s entirely possible the movie deliberately didn’t avoid them.
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The story saw Dominic Toretto and his team attempt to stop the Aries device from being activated, all the while being challenged by Dom’s estranged brother Jakob. It’s difficult for blockbuster releases not to fall prey to played-out tropes, in any case, and F9 has several of these that end up forming the entire Fast & Furious experience.
The Hero Is Unbeatable
![Dominic Toretto drives a car and looks to his side]()
Although F9 deserves credit for changing Dom’s character from before, the one thing that remained the same was his indulgence in the unbeatable protagonist trope. In all the movies, Dom has fought just about everyone from assassins to special ops soldiers, and now the rogue agent that was Jakob.
During their conflict, Jakob never threatened his brother and looked to escape Dom when he realized he couldn’t beat him. Dom was also unbeatable in driving sequences, having been shown defeating Jakob in the flashback and then using his car to destroy Cipher’s drone attack.
The Sympathetic Villain
This trope is also notably popular in the MCU, which has brought villains like Thanos and Loki for fans to sympathize with. Jakob was given a similar character arc where his role in Jack Toretto’s demise was detailed, showing how Jakob never intended for their father to die.
Jakob essentially wanted Dom’s acceptance and the movie made it out so that Dom came across as being in the wrong for making the wrong assumption about his brother. This trope has become so commonplace that it wasn’t altogether surprising to see Jakob reform by the film’s end.
Overarching Villain Escaping To Fight Another Day
The series indulged in this in The Fate of the Furious as well, where Cipher had escaped in the climax. Along the same lines, she made her exit in F9 when her plan to kill Dom didn’t work out, revealing that she’d been using a drone and was actually safe in a different location.
Rather than have Cipher apprehended or mysteriously disappear, however, F9 chose to invoke this trope. Of course, this was to set up what’s to come in Fast 10, as Cipher is expected to return once again in that movie.
Illogical Character Returns
Blockbuster franchises are always guilty of cashing in on this trope, as fans are expected not to question the logic behind certain things. Han was both in the original series and the reboot, but his chronological death in Tokyo Drift was retconned by the illogical return trope.
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Here, Han explained that Mr. Nobody was the one who set up his death to look like Deckard Shaw had killed him, yet the scene made no sense as Han somehow teleported from the crash to the top floor of a building next to Mr. Nobody.
Sequel Hooks
It wouldn’t be a Fast & Furious movie without a number of sequel hooks, which should be fairly obvious by now after the Hobbs & Shaw spin-off. F9 made no attempt to avoid this trope, as it featured the most plot hooks seen in the series.
Things like Jakob’s time on the run, Cipher’s imminent return, Mr. Nobody’s status, Han’s inevitable confrontation with Shaw, among others, are still on the line to be continued and F9 knew very well that throwing out sequel hooks will guarantee returning fans for Fast 10.
Characters Making Ridiculous Decisions To Fit The Plot
It would be too easy for the plot to end if characters behave rationally, which necessitates the use of this trope, even if it is tiring by now. F9 saw the teenage Dom exile his brother based on the belief that he had harmed their father, something that could have easily been avoided if he’s just talked to Jakob instead.
Similarly, Jakob could have revealed the truth about Jack Toretto’s accident to Dom and avoided living in resentment for the next two decades. In addition, he had partnerships with the likes of Otto, whom Jakob himself clearly saw to be a traitorous character but still decided to trust as the plot wouldn’t have progressed otherwise.
Butt-Monkey Characters
These are the characters who are always the butt of the film’s jokes, with Roman continuing invoking this trope and has done so since Fast & Furious 6. To F9’s credit, the movie did give Roman more to do with the action than before as his and Tej’s adventure in space avoided Aries from being activated.
Joining Roman in this department were Tej and Ramsey, to an extent, as the two also served as comic relief from their lack of prowess in the fighting department. Although their roles were predictable, F9 went with it due to this being the established status quo for the characters.
Protagonists’ Extreme Planning Proficiency
This trope is a favorite for action franchises like Mission: Impossible and Fast & Furious, involving a convoluted strategy where protagonists make it appear as if they’re trapped, only to reveal their own plan against the villains.
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F9 had Dom do this with Jakob by making him believe that the latter’s goons had apprehended him, but later revealed that Leysa and her gang were Dom’s allies all along. This happened in spite of Jakob’s meticulous planning against his brother, as Dom invoked this trope to stay a step ahead.
Stereotypical Happy Ending
It’s actually a trademark of the Fast & Furious series to make use of the stereotypical happy ending trope, as fans know very well that Dom and his crew will settle down for dinner by the film’s end. F9 continued this tradition by bringing the characters together once again.
This time around, the happy aspect came from Han’s reunion with Sean and the others, with the final shot completing the well-meant sentiment. The arrival of Brian confirmed that he still lives within the movie canon, giving F9 perhaps the most heartwarming ending of any movie in the series.
A MacGuffin Steering The Plot
This is a trope the Fast & Furious series has never wanted to avoid, as every movie has brought characters back due to the presence of a MacGuffin. In F9, it was the Aries device that steered the plot, as Jakob wanted to get his hands on it to control the weapon of the world.
The utilization of the MacGuffin trope usually comes about as a way to involve several characters at once without having to give them personal stakes to join the fight. Dom’s crew all got together in F9 with the common goal of stopping Aries, with only Dom himself being independent of the MacGuffin to remain relevant to the plot.
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