Fast Five

Inciting Event: Dom, Brian, Mia, and Vince pull a job, stealing three cars from a train in Rio. The job goes south when one of the cars proves to be more than just a car. Their associates kill two DEA agents—and Dom and Brian are blamed for it. They’re also briefly captured by the crime lord Reyes, who threatens them. This is their introduction to the main conflict with the main antagonist, Reyes.

First Plot Point: Special Agent Hobbs, tasked with finding and arresting Dom and Brian, attacks their hideout—but so does Reyes’s men. This is the Key Event. This is where the conflict gets personal, and they have to move out of the Normal World altogether. But the full impact of the First Plot Point doesn’t hit until Mia reveals she is pregnant. This is what solidifies Dom and Brian’s decisions and actions moving forward. This is where they enter the adventure world, in which they actually are family.

First Pinch Point: This First Pinch Point is relatively mild. It’s also two-sided: first, Hobbs discovers the missing computer chip from the car Mia stole from Reyes during the Inciting Event. This gives him important information that allows him to move forward against Dom and Brian and their crew. Then, Reyes moves all his money—which Dom and Brian are planning to steal—to a vault in the police station. The latter is obviously the turning point, since it’s what forces Dom and Brian to readjust their plans.

Midpoint: Dom and Brian and their crew take action by infiltrating the police station and figuring out what they’ll have to do to break in and steal the vault. Up to this point, it isn’t so much that they weren’t taking action. But now those actions become more refined as they gain clearer knowledge of what they’re up against.

Second Pinch Point: Just as they’re about to launch their mission to steal the money, Hobbs infiltrates their base of operations. He and Dom fight—but Mia stops Dom from killing him. Hobbs then arrests all of them.

Third Plot Point: Reyes’s men attack Hobbs’s convoy, killing all of Hobbs’s men. Vince is also shot and killed. All the deaths here make this the obvious low point—and its turning point is Hobbs’s temporary shift of allegiance as he decides to help Dom and Brian in order to avenge his men. Otherwise, this is a pretty lackluster Third Plot Point. It does its job of strengthening the characters’ resolve. But, with the exception of Hobbs, it really doesn’t push anybody to a soul-crunching low moment (which, admittedly, is a hard thing to do over and over again in a series).

Climax: Dom and Brian enact a new plan and steal the entire vault right out of the police station. They haul it down the street behind their cars, with the cops and Reyes in pursuit.

Climactic Moment: After Reyes’s car wrecks (and Hobbs shoots him just for good measure), Hobbs agrees to let Dom and Brian have twenty-four hours’ head start before he starts chasing them again. Then he realizes they switched out safes on him and made off with all the money as well.

Resolution: The crew members scatter to spend their money. Dom, Mia, Brian, and Dom’s new girlfriend meet up. Brian challenges Dom to another race.

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