How Fast X fails Tyrese Gibson's Roman
Fast X spoilers follow.
Watching his hi-jinks in Fast X, it's hard to believe there was a time in the Fast and Furious franchise where Roman (Tyrese Gibson) was a serious character.
Sure, he always had plenty of funny lines, but the Roman in 2 Fast 2 Furious would be devastated to see what’s become of himself twenty years later. The Roman of that film was a co-lead, a badass, somebody who inspired respect from everyone else in the room. He starts off the movie angry at Brian for not helping him when he was facing three years in prison, and even though Brian isn’t really at fault, the movie takes Roman’s anger seriously.
Fast-forward five movies, and Roman’s carved himself a nice niche in Dominic Toretto’s family: he’s the clown. He rarely provides an essential role to the operation, but he’s always there to make a funny one-liner or two. Jump ahead another few movies, and his role within the family has subtly transitioned to something a little bit worse: the punching bag. He’s not really making the jokes himself any more – everyone’s just making jokes about him.
As sad as it is to watch what Roman’s been turned into, it’s hard to blame the series too much for the decision. When Roman returned to the series in Fast Five, he was now part of a large ensemble cast, competing for screen time not just with Brian but multiple major characters like Dom, Han, Mia, and the newcomer Hobbs. With the cast of so many separate movies coming together, somebody had to get the short end of the stick, and that person was Roman. And because so many characters kept getting introduced/resurrected, the opportunities for the script to make things up to Roman became fewer and further between.
That’s why the first half of Fast X felt so promising. Although Roman is still hardly the most important character in the film, he does get his own major subplot where the focus is on him, examining his often overlooked skills as a leader. Roman leads a mission in Rome, the mission turns out to be a trap, and Roman helps his section of the crew survive through his own peculiar brand of scrappy quick-thinking.
For the first half of the movie, Fast X seems genuinely interested in reckoning with Roman’s declining status throughout the series. Characters still make jokes at his expense, but this time the camera lingers on Roman’s reactions way longer than usual. He’s tired of being treated like a joke, it seems, and as things keep blowing up in his face (largely through little fault of his own) Roman starts worrying that the others might be right. Maybe he truly is the screw-up of the group, the man who everyone else is right to laugh at.
These feelings of inadequacy hit their low point in his goofy fist fight with Tej (Ludacris), who’s been criticising Roman’s every action throughout the film. The fight is played off almost entirely as a joke, with none of the dignity of Roman’s fist fight with Brian back in 2 Fast 2 Furious. It also doesn’t appear to resolve anything: Tej and Roman are still pissed at each other, and Roman is still insecure about his status as a leader.
Based on how character arcs generally work in these movies, the resolution to this storyline seems simple: in order for Roman to get over his insecurity, he’ll need to do something so cool, so undeniably impressive, that nobody else in the group will make jokes at his expense.
This would be the perfect resolution not just to Roman’s subplot, but to his five movies’ worth of character oversimplification. For a moment there, it really felt like Fast X was planning to seriously address the criticisms aimed at Roman’s treatment. It felt like they were going to prove, once and for all, that Roman is still a badass underneath all the jokes, just like everyone else on the team.
But the resolution Fast X goes for is far more mellow: Tej tells Roman he’s a good leader, and that’s pretty much it.
Why does Tej change his mind after nearly an entire movie of trashing on everything Roman does? It’s not clear, it just sort of happens. Roman never proves himself to Tej; the conflict resolves itself on its own. It’s a weird, anti-climactic conclusion to a promising storyline, one that only reinforces just how much of an afterthought Roman is for this franchise.
If you’re a Roman fan hoping this film would finally give him his due, Fast X dangles that possibility in front of you for two thirds of the run time, then quietly pulls it away.
Luckily, the franchise still has an opportunity to redeem itself here. Roman, Tej, Ramsay and Han’s final scene in this film is of their plane getting shot down, and at this point not a single person in the audience should believe the four of them are actually dead.
Maybe it’s with the opening of the eleventh film that Roman will get the big, triumphant moment Fast X should have given him. Maybe he’ll save his crew from the plane crash with the help of those leadership skills Tej says he has. It would make for some awkward plotting — considering it’d be resolving a storyline the previous movie technically already resolved — but it would finally give Roman his chance to shine. Lord knows he deserves it.
Fast X is out now in cinemas.
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