Fast Five (2011): Cast, Plot and Ending Explained

Fast Five (2011) is about Dominic Toretto, Brian O'Conner and Mia Toretto fleeing to Rio de Janeiro after Dom is broken out of a prison bus, then being hunted by federal agent Luke Hobbs after a train heist goes wrong. In Rio, Brian and Mia join a heist on a moving train to steal cars, and the job goes wrong when they find the cars belong to the Rio crime boss Hernan Reyes. Reyes's men capture Dom and Brian, though both escape. The three are then framed for a killing, and Hobbs is sent to hunt them down.

Fast Five runs from a prison bus break to a beach race, with a vault robbery in Rio de Janeiro as its centerpiece. Brian O'Conner and Mia spring Dominic Toretto (Dom) from the bus, and the three hide out in Rio. There, Brian and Mia take a job stealing cars off a moving train, and it collapses once they learn the cars matter to the crime boss Hernan Reyes. His men grab Dom and Brian, who both break free, and the trio is blamed for a murder. DSS agent Luke Hobbs is assigned to bring them in. Mia tells Brian she is pregnant. Dom answers by calling in old friends for a plan to lift about $100 million of Reyes's money from a vault inside a police station.

Hobbs and his team track the crew down, but an ambush wipes out his team. Hobbs and local officer Elena Neves then side with the crew. On the night of the job, two cars haul the vault through the streets of Rio, and Hobbs kills Reyes. The crew swaps the vault's contents with a trash truck, so Hobbs opens an empty vault. The money is split, everyone goes their separate ways, and Hobbs gives Dom and Brian a head start. Dom and Brian race on a beach to close the film.

Fast Five was released in US theaters on April 29, 2011, after reported openings in Australia on April 20 and the UK on April 21. No premiere date, city or venue is confirmed, so the US theatrical release is the first confirmed date. The film was digitally remastered with IMAX DMR technology and opened on 245 IMAX screens in the US and Canada on its US release day. It carries a PG-13 rating in the US, a 12A in the UK and an M in Australia.

In the Fast Five ending, the crew drags the vault through Rio behind two cars, swaps its contents with a trash truck, and Luke Hobbs opens an empty vault while Dominic Toretto (Dom) and Brian O'Conner get away with the money. In other words, the crew escapes with the money, not the vault itself.

The trick works in steps. First, the vault is the only thing the authorities can see, so the chase locks onto it: two cars tow it through the streets of Rio, and everyone pursuing the crew follows the moving steel box. Second, the crew trades the vault's contents with a trash truck, so the cash leaves the chase while the box keeps rolling. Third, the vault is opened in front of Hobbs and turns out to be empty. In my opinion, that swap is the cleverest piece of misdirection in the saga, because everyone chasing the vault is chasing the wrong object.

The production context explains why the set piece looks the way it does. Brazilian press reported that the Rio-set scenes were filmed in Puerto Rico, with the production then moving on to Atlanta, Georgia, and Primera Hora reported that about 60 specially built cars were brought to the island for the shoot. Rio de Janeiro itself supplied aerial and location shots, so the streets the vault crosses are mostly Puerto Rico playing Brazil.

The human side of the ending is just as deliberate. Hobbs kills the crime boss Hernan Reyes, which removes the villain, and Hobbs then lets Dom and Brian go with a head start rather than arrest them. Everyone ends up wealthy and free. Brian and Mia leave Rio expecting a child, which pays off the pregnancy revealed earlier in the film.

Compared with the rest of the series, the finale shifts the weight of the saga. The earlier films in release order, such as Fast & Furious (2009), center on crews and street racing, while this one ends on a heist that depends on a plan rather than a race. The closing beach race is a small nod back to that starting point. It could be argued that this is where the series becomes a heist saga. The timeline adds a detail: Fast Five is fourth in chronological order, Fast & Furious 6 is fifth and Tokyo Drift is sixth, which is why Han is still alive here. The mid credits scene then points forward by showing that Letty may be alive. For where the story goes next, see Fast & Furious 6.

Yes, Fast Five has one mid credits scene and no post credits scene, set in Washington, D.C. In it, Monica Fuentes (Eva Mendes) hands Luke Hobbs a file about a military convoy hijacking in Berlin. The file includes a recent photo of Letty Ortiz (Michelle Rodriguez), the presumed dead girlfriend of Dominic Toretto, which reveals that she may be alive and points to Fast & Furious 6.

Fast Five was filmed mainly in Puerto Rico, where the San Juan area stood in for Rio de Janeiro. Universal chose Puerto Rico for the shoot, which was scheduled for July and August 2010. About 60 specially built cars were brought to the island. The production was scheduled to shoot in Puerto Rico in July and August 2010, then moved to Atlanta, Georgia, with aerial and location shots taken in Rio de Janeiro.

Fast Five had a production budget of $125 million and earned $644 million worldwide.

• About 60 specially built cars were brought to Puerto Rico for the shoot.
• The film was digitally remastered with IMAX DMR technology and opened on 245 IMAX screens in the US and Canada on April 29, 2011.
• It opened at number one in the UK, Australia, South Korea and New Zealand, earning $23.5 million across those four markets.