Random reasons why Dominic Toretto Is Worst Part Of 'Fast And Furious' (11 items)

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  (#6) He Leaves His Girlfriend For His Ex As Soon As She's Available

  From 2009’s Fast & Furious to 2013’s Fast & Furious 6, Dom believes Letty, his former girlfriend, has died. In Fast Five, he strikes up a relationship with Elena Neves, a Rio police officer the series almost - but never really - takes seriously. 

  In FF6, Dom learns that Letty is still alive and immediately chases after her. The film largely ignores Elena until she pops up at the end to tell Dom everything’s cool and, hey, if her deceased husband came back to life, she’d kick Dom to the curb, too. 

  Elena is free to make her choices, but Dom is let completely off the hook with zero awkwardness from Elena or Letty. Maybe everyone in this series is just super mature about relationships.
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  (#5) He Is Responsible For The Demise Of Both His Girlfriends

  The plot of 2009’s Fast & Furious is efficiently simple: Someone has offed Letty, Dom’s girlfriend, and he wants revenge. When Dom learns that Letty was secretly working for Brian in order to get Dom’s record expunged, he doesn't take it well. In his eyes, this means Brian is responsible for Letty's demise, but any mature adult knows the opposite is true.

  The whole reason Dom has a record is because he and his crew were stealing DVD players out of the backs of trucks in The Fast and the Furious. Brian didn't make Dom do that. Then, in Fast & Furious, we see that Dom and Letty are living a content - if unlawful - life in the Dominican Republic, until Dom abandons her in the supposedly "noble" attempt to keep her safe. Had Dom just accepted Letty’s independent choice to stay with him, she never would have tried to clean his record. That makes Dom doubly responsible for her demise - at least until she's revealed to be alive at the end of Fast Five.

  Dom is also responsible for the passing of Elena Neves, the Brazilian cop he begins dating in Fast Five. Though the two end their relationship on good terms, Elena is abducted by Cipher in The Fate of the Furious and used as leverage against Dom, the father of her child. This leverage works until it doesn’t, and Elena is taken out in front of him.

  F8 may be the series’ worst entry, and ending Elena for the sake of drama is the most glaring example. Instead of being emotionally resonant, it just solidifies the fact that being associated with Dominic Toretto is a fast ticket to the grave.
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  (#4) There Is No Earthly Way He Could Beat Shaw In A Fight

  Let’s break down the combat stats of Deckard Shaw and Dominic Toretto:

  • Deckard Shaw: Member of the British military since age 20, major in the Special Air Service, recipient of the Victoria Cross Award, UK Special Forces assassin. In Mr. Nobody’s words, the man is a “legitimate English badass.”
  • Dominic Toretto: Races cars real good, lifts weights.

  At the end of Furious 7, Dom and Shaw engage in a head-to-head fight. As they run at each other, the film slows down and the music swells in a dramatic chorus. It’s very pretty, but even for the franchise, it’s absurd.

  The Fast & Furious movies take place in a universe where most problems can be solved by driving faster and furiouser. That’s why Dom can ramp his car off a collapsing parking garage and hook a bag of grenades on a helicopter. That follows his universe’s rules. But winning a hand-to-hand fight against a trained assassin? No.
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  (#8) His Emotions Disappear In The Later Films

  In the early 2000s, Vin Diesel appeared in three films that would define him for the rest of his career: Pitch Black (2000), The Fast and the Furious (2001), and xXx (2002). Riddick, Dominic Toretto, and Xander Cage are basically the same character: outlaws who abide by a personal code and will not hesitate to deliver a meaty curb stomp to those that cross them. Yet what separates Toretto from the other two is a surprisingly emotional performance in the original Fast & Furious.

  In 2001, Diesel’s star was on the rise, and he played Dom with the fiery spirit of a young, hungry actor. Dom’s ambition, joy, rage, and even fear are worn right on his cut-off sleeve. At the end of the film, Dom’s voice breaks when he tells Brian he has to find Jesse. After nearly getting Vince offed, he’s terrified of what will happen to the most vulnerable member of his crew - and even more terrified of what he will do in retaliation. As ever, Dom battles with the two halves of his personality: the cool, calculating outlaw, and the reckless, raging rider.

  After refusing to return for an FF sequel and agreeing to the mildest of cameos in FF3, Diesel officially returned to the franchise with Fast & Furious, but by that point all nuance to the character was gone. Diesel was at a very different stage of his career, and the Dom in FF4 is almost a completely different person: laconic, emotionless, and dull. While this can be explained by saying the character is dealing with the apparent passing of his lover, Dom’s stoicism only intensifies in later films - well past the point that Letty returns to the franchise.

  For the latter half of the Fast & Furious series, Dom is a caricature of toughness with little to no indication that he has any interior life at all. Maybe Diesel stopped caring, or maybe Dom's been constipated since 2009.
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  (#10) 2 Fast 2 Furious

  • Film

  Dominic Toretto is nowhere to be found in 2 Fast 2 Furious, which is arguably the series' most fun installment.

  Coincidence? Unlikely.
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  (#7) He Regularly Endangers Countless Bystanders

  This isn’t a shortcoming limited to Dom, but as the leader of his crew, he bears the greatest responsibility. Every installment of the Fast & Furious series features ridiculous levels of collateral damage to both property and people. Let’s tally up the most egregious examples:

  • In The Fast and the Furious, Dom’s poorly planned heist nearly results in Vince's end.
  • In Fast & Furious, he demolishes an oil tanker (and its driver’s livelihood) and causes accidents all along the route of his street race for Arturo Braga.
  • In Fast Five, he almost certainly harms and possibly kills countless civilians while dragging a massive safe through the streets of Rio - and finally manages to bring about Vince's demise.
  • In Fast & Furious 6, his antics on the bridge endanger several commuters (and break the laws of physics).
  • In Furious 7, his sister and nephew are nearly blown to smithereens due to his personal beef with Deckard Shaw.

  Finally, in The Fate of the Furious, there are few friends or civilians that are safe from Dom's wildly irresponsible driving and overall behavior. He commits international espionage, alienates his "family," lets his baby mama perish, then makes his wife raise their lovechild.

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