Twenty-five years after Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) looked Brian O’Connor (Paul Walker) in the eye in the low-budget The Fast & The Furious (a Point Break rip-off) and declared, “Ask any racer. Any real racer. It don’t matter if you win by an inch or a mile. Winning’s winning.” the franchise Diesel helped launch has become one of the highest-grossing in film history and a global phenomenon. With 11 films, including spin-offs, the original is now back in theaters, making it the perfect time to look back at how central Latinos and Latino culture have been to building the franchise’s legacy that includes Christopher Nolan among its fans.
The success of the Fast franchise may be owed to the fact that it did not succumb to stereotypical racial tropes. It allowed a multiracial cast to take center stage as full-fledged people. In the process, they created one of the biggest movie franchises of all time.
Looking closer at the film, Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) and Mia (Jordana Brewster) never evoked the fiery-Latina-who-spouts-off-in-Spanish-when-tensions-run-high. It’s Walker’s Caucasian character who loves foreign cars and Diesel’s Toretto, whose character has been confirmed to have Latin American heritage in F9, is the one obsessed with “American muscle.” Han (Sung Kang) is sexy and ends up with (arguably) the hottest girl in the franchise—something rarely seen in Hollywood Blockbusters. And the intelligent tech whiz Tej Parker (Ludacris) and Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel) are flashy, cool and Black.
That diversity isn’t just reflected in who gets to drive the cars or save the day. It also shapes the franchise’s central idea: that family is above all else, the most important thing. It’s a value deeply embedded among Latinos and one Diesel admits to borrowing from Latino culture to shape Toretto. It is bigger than blood relations, rooted in loyalty, sacrifice and showing up for one another. The concept of family is as synonymous with the films as much as cars and over-the-top stunts are. The franchise succeeded because it normalized racial diversity and leaned into a concept over 68 million Latin Americans understood: family above all else.
“Money will come and go,” said Dom Toretto, Diesel’s character in Fast Five, 10 years later. “We know that. But the most important thing in life will always be the people in this room, right here, right now. Salute, mi familia.”
Over the course of the last quarter century, the idea of family and how it’s used in the Fast and Furious franchise has become a joke. Dozens of memes and reddit threads are dedicated to making fun of the phrase that’s largely associated with the ridiculous stunts the casts pull off as the movies seek to one-up each other.
But these jokes miss the point. Because hidden beneath the internet laughs is a broader cultural argument: it’s cool to care, forgive and follow through. Non-chalance is swept aside in favor of building real and lasting connections with people you go through life with. The Fast & Furious turned love, loyalty and dedication to its chosen family into the emotional currency of the mega-blockbuster—a concept that leaked off screen and into real life following Walker’s untimely death.
The Fast & Furious movies are outrageous and won’t be remembered as high-brow art, but their success and popularity is undeniable. The franchise has given us so much over the years, including a steady stream of reggaeton beats and cameos from Tego Calderón and Don Omar to Cardi B and Romeo Santos. In the process, the Fast & Furious made the reggaeton genre the franchise’s unofficial soundtrack and helped bring Caribbean beats to the mainstream long before Bad Bunny’s global takeover.
However, the music, fast cars, and the gravity defying stunts weren’t the real reason why people were pulled in. It’s the idea of belonging that got people to stay and makes it so we’re still locked in 25 years later. The Fast franchise made the importance of community and taking care of each other cool. And in the age of the loneliness epidemic and threats on our neighbors, looking out for one another as family is something worth celebrating, especially when it feels like the world is doing the opposite.
Because like Toretto says “I don’t have friends. I got family.”
