What to remember about the Fast and Furious movies before Fast X

Fast and Furious 7 is the latest film in this franchise. Fast XThere are quick reviews and summaries of each movie. There are so many callbacks and follow-ups in this movie that it sometimes gets dizzying: Fans are meant to be quoting the MCU’s Captain America every three minutes with a jaunty “I understood that reference!” But if you haven’t revisited every Fast movie recently, you missed a few of them along the way, or you’re reserving all your brain cells to keep track of everything that’s happened in the MCU instead, you may want a primer going in so you can follow the action. Here’s a non-spoilery rundown of things to be aware of from past Fast movies before watching Fast X.

Hernan reyes?

Universal Pictures

Fast X The opening scene is a brief flashback of some action from Fast FiveDom Toretto, along with his crew, stole the vault of Hernan (Joaquim de Almeida). They hate Reyes because… Because he’s a notorious drug kingpin in the Fast and Furious universe, someone the Fast family ran afoul of in Brazil. After Dom and company unwittingly steal one of Reyes’ cars, which happens to have a chip with information on all Reyes’ financial crimes on it, Reyes captures and interrogates them.

Dom and the others decide Reyes may not be such a nice guy. They steal his money to create a better life for themselves. To send a clear message, they burn their first amount of stolen money. This leads Reyes to consolidate the remainder of his wealth in the police station vault.

Who’s Mr. Nobody?

The Agency is a shadowy government agency headed by Mr. No-one. Kurt Russell played Mr. Nobody in the first appearance of this film. Furious 7. His second-in-command, codenamed Little Nobody (and played by Scott Eastwood), is the current Agency handler for Dom’s crew. He was last seen in 2017’s The Fate of the Furious.

Today, who is the employer of the family?

The Agency seems to be a sort of behind-the-scenes shadow op for the entire world, and a responsibility that big means they need a crew as incredible as Dom’s to get stuff done, which means sending them on missions to find and secure valuable tech, shooting their cars into space, and having them stop a nuclear submarine. Since Mr. Nobody isn’t around for Fast X, Little Nobody is in charge, but Mr. Nobody’s daughter Tess (Brie Larson) also steps in for the first time, along with acting Agency head Aimes (Alan Ritchson, who plays Jack Reacher on Amazon’s Jack Reacher series).

Who’s Cipher, and where did we leave her?

Universal Pictures

Cipher, played by Charlize theron is an expert programmer, hacker and criminal. She first appeared on the Fast family’s radar in Fate of the Furious, where she kidnapped Dom’s son and his former girlfriend, Elena (Elsa Pataky), all in the process of using him to help her hijack a nuclear submarine. Then, in she appeared again. F9This time she was trying to murder Dom. She had figured out a way to escape by the movie’s end.

What happened to Elena?

Elena and Dom were briefly involved while Dom was living in Rio. It happened shortly after Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) appeared to have died. They eventually stopped seeing each other, but she’d already become pregnant with Dom’s child. Cipher had killed Elena before Dom. Fate of the Furious.

What’s the bad blood between Deckard Shaw or Han?

Currently, the reasons behind their conflict are extremely complex. On the one hand, Han (Sung Kang) helped Dom and the rest of the crew thwart Owen Shaw (Luke Evans), Deckard’s little brother. That eventually led to Owen’s incapacitation. Deckard’s (Jason Stathams) revenge is to murder Han. Except (in the Fast and Furious movies’ most infamous retcon) Han didn’t actually die. So Han’s mad that Shaw tried to kill him, and Shaw’s mad that Han still (kind of? maybe?) The brother who killed him

What’s up with Dom’s brother Jakob?

Universal Pictures

Jakob Cena (John Cena), the antagonist of F9, but at this point, he’s Fast Family. If you know his past, some of the small choices in dialogue make sense. Dom, after believing that Jakob had killed their father in an argument, challenges Jakob for a race, which more or less banishes Jakob. That gives Jakob about 30 years of downtime before he reenters his brother’s life in F9Looking for revenge.

What’s the God’s Eye?

God’s Eye is a device created by Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel) that first appears in Furious 7. The software uses every microphone and camera on earth to find someone no matter what their location is. You can use their voice or facial expression to detect someone. Given the franchise’s globe-hopping setting, God’s Eye comes in handy to conveniently let the team know the location of any good guy or bad guy they may need to find.

What’s up with that crucifix necklace?

Universal Pictures

Dom’s cross necklace has been handed back and forth a Lottery Tickets in the Fast and Furious movies, usually to symbolize Dom’s commitment to his family. It’s a heavily featured element of his character, and he frequently hands it to Letty or others before a significant parting, implying that it’s both a totem of symbolic protection, and a promise that he’ll see them again, to retrieve it before the next handoff.