Fast And Furious: How Every Villain Is Connected
Family may be Dominic Toretto's greatest strength, but it's also usually his biggest headache. Though the musclebound hero of the "Fast and Furious" franchise (played by Vin Diesel) has emerged victorious over some of the world's most cartoonishly evil mercenaries, terrorists, and drug lords, the upcoming film "Fast X" may see him finally meet his match in Jason Momoa's Dante Reyes, the son of corrupt politician Hernan Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida) from "Fast Five."
The first part in a recently announced final trilogy of The Fast Saga, "Fast X" lightly retcons the events of "Fast Five" by revealing that Dante had been present during the dramatic safe heist that robbed him of his fortune and took his father's life. This is far from the first time the series had revealed a hidden relationship between characters, as has been a standard and expected plot point in every film since 2009's soft reboot "Fast and Furious."
"Fast X" stands apart, however, as Dom and his crew will seemingly be forced to face many ghosts from the series' past installments simultaneously, all connected through the complex (and admittedly vague) criminal underworld of the "Fast" universe.
The Shaw Family
Though the Torettos may be the first family of The Fast Saga, not even their clan can eclipse the brooding presence of the Shaws. Like their benevolent counterparts, the Shaws are a family of two brothers and one sister, who were primarily raised by their mother, Magdalene (Helen Mirren), in London, England. All three Shaw children enlisted in the military when they came of age, though their paths dramatically diverged from that point on.
The middle child, Owen (Luke Evans), was the first Shaw sibling to find themselves on the wrong side of the law. For unknown reasons, Owen was dishonorably discharged from the British Special Air Service, shortly after which he began pulling off escalating heists in the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, the eldest, Deckard (Jason Statham), and the youngest, Hattie (Vaness Kirby), continued to dedicate themselves to the service of their country and were eventually both recruited by MI6 (the British Secret Intelligence Service).
Both siblings excelled at covert intelligence gathering, but Deckard proved himself to be truly unmatched when violent solutions were necessary. Though it made him indispensable to his superiors, he would ultimately pave the way for his own demise.
MI6, Taskforce Black, and Eteon
Effective as he was, Deckard was recruited into a covert operations squad within MI6 known only as "Taskforce Black." It was here he would meet another killer cut from almost the exact same cloth as he: Brixton Lore (Idris Elba).
The two fought side by side and became brothers for a time until they were both approached by the terrorist organization Eteon, who promised to grant them unparalleled power in exchange for their services. Though Deckard refused their offer, Brixton accepted and turned on his former friend. When Brixton attempted to assassinate Deckard, however, he was overpowered and presumably killed — of course, Brixton's body would merely be recovered by Eteon and transformed into the superhuman cyborg seen in "Hobbs and Shaw."
Before that happened, Eteon needed a way to silence Deckard. Seeing as their most skilled recruit was sent home with a bullet in his head, Eteon opted to frame Deckard instead for the assassination of his own team, thus alienating him from the British government. Their plan was so successful it fooled even Hattie, who turned her back on the Shaws entirely and continued to work for MI6. Deckard, meanwhile, was forced to go underground like his brother, Owen, and turned to a life of crime.
The Cipher Syndicate
While Owen was robbing banks across Europe., Deckard began contracting his unique skills as a mercenary to the highest bidder. As Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) explains in "Furious 7," Deckard's exploits were so in demand, he would find employment with multiple different governments worldwide — who would all firmly deny ever working with him. Despite this, his activities made him privy to many state secrets (apparently from several different nations), and he was excommunicated by the international underworld and forced to go off the grid.
The only person skilled enough to find him during this time was the genius hacker and cyber-terrorist Cipher (Charlize Theron), who attempted to contract Deckard's services in stealing the powerful EMP known as "Nightshade." He refused, causing her to retaliate by recruiting his brother Owen.
Throughout the series, Cipher's primary goal has to been to amass various powerful pieces of technology to control the world's superpowers through the threat of annihilation. In addition to hiring Owen Shaw to steal Nightshade, she also hired mercenary Mose Jakande (Djimon Hounsou) to steal the omnipresent surveillance device called "God's Eye."
The Braga Cartel
While working under Cipher and trying to strengthen his own grip on the world, Owen Shaw comes into contact with regional drug lord Arturo Braga (John Ortiz). Though Braga had a solid foothold in South America, Owen urged and seemingly helped him to expand his operations globally, ultimately allowing Braga to set up a base in Los Angeles, California.
Owen and Braga developed a close working relationship, with Braga using his newfound dark trading network to traffick drugs and women at Owen's behest, while Owen would provide muscle and tech as necessary. When Braga realized that his crew had not actually killed Letty Ortiz (Michelle Rodriguez), Owen was sent to finish the job — only to discover that she had no memory of who she was.
Eventually, Toretto's crew managed to stop Braga and Owen, the former winding up with a hefty sentence in a supermax prison and the latter being sent to the hospital in critical condition. Furious that Owen had been left for dead by Toretto and Cipher, Deckard sought vengeance against both of them by attacking Toretto's crew (injuring Hobbs and "killing" Sung Kang's Han Lue in the process) and — sometime later — teaming up with that very crew to take down Cipher.
Project Aries and the return of Jakob Toretto
Though Deckard managed to save Dom's long-lost son, little Brian, from Cipher (thus freeing Dom to turn against her), neither he nor his brother were able to apprehend her. She disappeared for a while until she was captured by Otto (Thue Ersted Rasmussen), a wealthy European oligarch with dreams of acquiring a powerful weapon known as "Project Aries."
Otto employed both Cipher's technological prowess and Jakob Toretto's (John Cena) talent for strength and strategy to steal the device, only for Otto to cut Jakob out of the deal at the last minute. Jakob — who criminally abandoned his former position at The Agency and had been exiled from the Toretto clan by his older brother Dom after a dire misunderstanding — subsequently went into hiding.
Despite some shrewd scheming, neither Otto nor Cipher nor the viewing audience could have predicted that Tej Parker (Ludacris) and Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson) would be able to thwart them by launching a car into space and crashing it into a satellite. Otto was killed shortly thereafter, while Cipher escaped once again. She is set to return as some part of Dante Reyes' master plan in "Fast X," premiering May 19th, 2023.