Ever since the first commercial for Fast 6 aired during the Super Bowl, I have been so excited that my body has been emitting an audible hum. The subsequent trailers have just made it louder, to the point people around me keep thinking their phones are vibrating. And now, a full two months before this film comes out, I am already getting all fired up for Fast 7, because according to Ain’t It Cool, that film will take us back to Tokyo and feature Jason Statham as the villain. STATHAM. DIESEL. THE ROCK. PAUL WALKER. DRIFTING. What more could you possibly want? The whole thing is one Jerry Lewis cameo away from turning into It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, and I love it dearly.
Ain’t It Cool has more details about Statham’s role, but they are riddled with spoilers, so if you are the type of person who is very, very concerned about having Fast & Furious movies spoiled for you, maybe you should stop here.
We begin at the end of Fast 6:
We then see a pair of hands on a steering wheel, with Japanese suddenly coming across a police scanner in the car. In addition, looking around the car, we see that the inside of this particular S-Class has been reinforced for some reason. The scanner puts out the call for all units to respond to a high-speed chase taking place between an orange and black Mazda RX-7 and a grey Nissan 350Z, and this suped-up Mercedes floors it, taking off from its parked position.
This mysterious driver monitors the chase from a parallel road before geting ahead of the pursuit. At this point, he heads down a street on his left at an incredibly high rate of speed. Upon seeing the RX-7 approaching the coming intersection, the driver floors it, timing his entry into the intersection to slam right into the side of the Mazda, sending it rolling over upside-down, as the S-Class appears only minimally damaged.
This mystery driver then steps out of the vehicle, and it is now that we finally learn who is behind the wheel…
Are you ready for it…?
JASON STATHAM!!
And then…
We now see that we are right smack in the middle of THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS: TOKYO DRIFT.
Statham tosses his brother’s SAS dog tags into the car, next to the trapped and helpless Han, and, as he walks away, he pulls out his cell and makes a call, calling Dom. Very briefly, as Han’s car explodes in the background, much as it did in TOKYO DRIFT, Statham’s Shaw warns Dom that he doesn’t know him, but he’s about to… and, as he walks into the gathering crowd unnoticed, FAST & FURIOUS 6 ends, and we’re right on the doorstep to where FAST & FURIOUS 7 will take off.
The timeline of the Fast & Furious films has always been a little goofy, with the fourth and fifth taking place chronologically before the third, but the series has covered for this well through subtle film-making techniques like BOOM VROOM KABOOM F-CK YOU. Still, I give them credit for at least trying to tie everything back together. And if their plan to do so involves Jason Statham driftng all over Japan in a jet-powered neon Honda while Vin Diesel and The Rock chase after him in a NOS-fueled tank, I am 100% on board.