The Fate of the Furious (2017): Cast, Plot and Ending Explained

The Fate of the Furious follows Dominic Toretto after a honeymoon in Havana ends with him working for a cyberterrorist against his own family. Dominic Toretto and Letty Ortiz are newly married when Dom's cousin Fernando falls into debt to a local loan shark, and Dom settles the matter by winning a street race against the man. Soon after, Cipher shows Dom a secret that leaves him no choice but to work for her.

The full plot of The Fate of the Furious runs from a Havana street race to a nuclear submarine on a frozen sea, and it hinges on one piece of leverage. Cipher blackmails Dominic Toretto (Dom) with Elena Neves, his former partner and an agent, and their baby son. That is why Dom goes rogue.

Here is the job broken into steps. Dom betrays his team and helps Cipher steal an EMP device in Berlin, then takes the God's Eye surveillance program as well. Hobbs is arrested and jailed after the Berlin job. The intelligence operative Mr. Nobody frees Hobbs and Deckard Shaw from prison so they can track down Dom and Cipher.

Dom then steals a nuclear launch case in New York, and Cipher's enforcer Rhodes kills Elena in front of him. Cipher uses the EMP device to seize a Russian nuclear submarine and tries to start a nuclear war. The team stops the sub's weapons and blocks its way out across a frozen sea. Deckard, who faked his death with help from his mother Magdalene, teams up with his brother Owen to rescue Dom's son from Cipher's plane.

Dom turns on Cipher during the fight on her plane and kills Rhodes. Cipher then fires a homing missile at Dom's Charger, and Dom lures it into the submarine, which is destroyed. Cipher escapes by parachute. Deckard hands over Dom's son and is welcomed into the family, and Dom names the boy Brian.

The Fate of the Furious premiered in Berlin on April 4, 2017, ten days before its US theatrical opening on April 14, 2017. The venue is not publicly confirmed.

The film opened in Australia on April 12, 2017, then in the UK and US on April 14, 2017.

In the ending of The Fate of the Furious, Dom turns on Cipher, destroys the submarine by turning her homing missile against it, and rejoins his crew once Deckard Shaw returns his son. The turn happens during the fight on her plane, where Dom kills her enforcer Rhodes. Cipher escapes by parachute, so she remains a threat.

Here is the finale broken into its steps, the way a mechanic would read a job. First, the team stops the sub's weapons and blocks its way out across the frozen sea. Second, Deckard and his brother Owen reach Cipher's plane to get Dom's son out. Third, Dom switches sides mid fight and kills Rhodes, the same enforcer who killed Elena Neves in front of him in New York. Fourth, Cipher fires a homing missile at Dom's Charger. Dom does not try to outrun it. He lures it into the submarine, and the submarine is destroyed. The missile Cipher built to finish him becomes the tool that ends her plan.

The frozen sea has its own production story. Screen Global Production reports that the lake finale was shot in northern Iceland, standing in for the Barents Sea, and that the ice had to be thick enough to hold nearly 20 vehicles at speed. That points to real vehicles on a real frozen surface, though no production account separates the practical shots from the digital ones. The same report says Alaska, northern Canada and Argentina were considered first, but El Niño conditions in 2016 made North American lakes unsuitable.

The film's earlier set pieces set up this payoff. The Havana street race that opens the story is a one on one contest, and the New York chase past the Flatiron Building and through Times Square is a heist on wheels. The submarine finale is the first time in the film that the whole crew, plus Hobbs and both Shaw brothers, works toward one goal at one place. Opinion: that structure makes the last act feel like a reunion before the film says so out loud.

The series context helps here. The Fate of the Furious is eighth in both release order and chronological order, unlike Tokyo Drift, which was third in release order but sixth in chronological order. It follows Furious 7, and its ending carries that film's thread forward: Deckard Shaw, an antagonist before, is accepted into the crew after handing Dom's baby son back. The next release, Hobbs and Shaw, builds a spin-off on the pairing of Hobbs and Deckard, who share the prison break scene here.

The closing beats are quieter. Hobbs turns down a government job to spend time with his daughter. Dom names the boy Brian, and the group shares a rooftop dinner that closes the film on the team being whole again. There is no post credit scene, per TheWrap, so the dinner is the last image.

The Fast and Furious timeline maps how this film leads into the later entries, and the upcoming film is covered at Fast Forever.

The Fate of the Furious was filmed in Havana, northern Iceland, Atlanta, Cleveland and New York City. Each location did a specific job.

Havana supplied Dom's burning car scene and the street races, with roughly 300 crew working about three weeks. Northern Iceland stood in for the Barents Sea in the frozen lake finale. Atlanta was the production base, using warehouses. Cleveland stood in for New York because stunt work was not permitted in the city itself, while the car chase past the Flatiron Building and through Times Square was shot in New York City.

The Fate of the Furious was the first big budget US feature to shoot in Cuba, according to Screen Global Production.

• The production was allowed to close roughly 40 city blocks in Havana.
• The frozen lake finale was shot in northern Iceland, where the ice had to be thick enough to hold nearly 20 vehicles at speed.
• Alaska, northern Canada and Argentina were considered for the snow scenes, but El Niño conditions in 2016 made North American lakes unsuitable.
• The Atlanta base used warehouses owned by OFS Optics rather than a purpose built studio.