Fast & Furious 9

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Not suitable under 13; parental guidance to 15 (violence, language, themes)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Fast & Furious 9
  • a review of Fast & Furious 9 completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 21 June 2021.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 13 Not suitable due to language, violence and themes.
Children aged 13–15 Parental guidance recommended due to language, violence and themes.
Children aged 16 and over Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Fast & Furious 9
Classification: M
Consumer advice lines: Action Violence
Length: 143 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Attempting to live life off the grid with his girlfriend Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) and young son, Dominic “Dom” Torreto (Vin Diesel) is approached by his former associates Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel), Roman (Tyrese Gibson) and Tej (Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges), who were all sent a message with footage of a plane being attacked by rogue agents. They ask for help to investigate the crash site and, while Letty agrees, Dom refuses. However, Dom changes his mind after glimpsing a clue in the footage that leads him to suspect that his estranged brother, Jakob (John Cena), might have something to do with the hijacking. Dom and his team soon learn that the plane was carrying half of the Aries system, a specialized device that can hack into any computer weapons system and give the user total control from anywhere in the world. When the first piece is stolen from them, Dom and his team set off to try to stop Jakob, his associate Otto (Thue Ersted Rasmussen) and the rogue army they have enlisted to help them steal the second half of Aries. The group splits up in order to follow different leads. Letty and Dom’s sister Mia (Jordana Brewster) track down their old pal Han (Sung Kang) in Tokyo, where, after faking his death, he has been protecting Elle (Anna Sawei), who is the key to Aries. At the same time, the others head to Scotland to try to get the second piece before Jakob does, while the evil villain, Cipher (Charlize Theron), teams up with Otto and plans are set in motion to hijack a satellite using the Aries system. With everything against them, Dom and his team race against the clock, to places they have never been, and risk everything to disarm Aries and bring relative safety back to the world.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Death of a parent; Grief; Family breakdown and estrangement; Crime; Sibling rivalry.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is a lot of violence in this movie, including:

  • A reference is made to Dom about how he should want revenge on the woman who killed the mother of his little boy.
  • Black clad soldiers shoot at Dom and his team. One of the guys is trapped in a pit while soldiers shoot down at him. He shoots back with a machine gun, taking out all of the men.
  • Army tanks and cars race through the jungle while shooting at each other. Vehicles flip and explode; some are blown up when driving over landmines. One tank is on fire when it blasts through the air and gets wedged between two rocks. Dom’s guys watch in horror as the tank slips closer and closer to a landmine right below. Their friend is able to jump free, narrowly missing the landmine when he falls to the ground. The tank crashes behind him and flips over, looking as though it has crushed the man, but he turns out to be fine.
  • Dom attacks the guy that he believes was responsible for killing his father and it looks as though he beats him to death, Dom is imprisoned as a result.
  • Letty, after being attacked, flies off her bike and lands on the hood of Dom’s car.
  • A car is hit and smashes into a suspension bridge. It tries to race over the wooden planks as the bridge disappears into the ravine below.
  • Rockets are fired at another car which swings around on one of the suspension cables and lands on an opposite cliff.
  • Letty and Mia are attacked in Tokyo. There is smacking, kicking, hitting, punching, and fighting with knives and swords. Someone is hit with a large metal spoon and another is hit with a heavy pot. One character is hit in the groin, another is thrown into a wall and a third is pushed out a window. When Letty and Mia step outside, they are shot at and held at gun point before a sniper kills all of the attackers.
  • A delivery truck is stolen, a door is smashed off a car and people are thrown into chaos as a large magnet creates havoc on the streets.
  • Ramsey has issues driving and smashes numerous cars and property while trying to manoeuvre a truck through English streets.
  • A man is punched, kicked and thrown out of a moving truck.
  • Dom and Jakob punch each other through walls and windows. Both are bleeding from the head as they leap off buildings and onto moving vehicles.
  • People are shot at while walking on a sidewalk.
  • A bomb is attached to a parachute that blows a guy up.
  • Soldiers grab Elle, punch Han and hold a gun on him.
  • Men appear to be choking on some sort of smoke that is being released from their vests.
  • Dom gets Letty and his sister to safety before turning around to face an army or soldiers. He attacks them ruthlessly, throwing them over the railing, hanging them in chains, breaking their backs on metal bars, etcetera, until he is overwhelmed by them and thrown off a platform into the water below. It looks like he is drowning but Letty saves him at the last moment.
  • Guys fight on the roof of a tank and one’s head blasts through a billboard.
  • Guns are being fired, cars crash over each other and Jakob is blasted off the top of a tank.
  • A man is hit and killed by a car.
  • Elle is shooting a machine gun at the tank, police are joining in the fray, cars are smashing and flipping over and fallen wires entangle and trap the police cars.
  • Tej and Roman drive their car into a satellite to explode it in a last-ditch effort to stop Aries from being uploaded.
  • A truck explodes as it falls off a cliff. An aircraft is blown up and Cipher appears to have been killed until it shows her coming out of a simulation.
  • A man is being beaten up while trapped inside a punching bag.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

  • Many young children are likely to be frightened by the loud, intensive shooting and or racing scenes contained throughout the film.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

  • Dom and Jakob’s dad is about to finish a race when another car purposefully slams him into the wall and his car flips over in the air before bursting into flames as fiery pieces of metal fall across the racetrack. Dom screams and runs toward the car, trying to get to his dad, but is kept back by another crew member. His father perishes in the fiery inferno while his two sons and thousands of spectators watch on.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged eight to thirteen, including the following:

  • Eleven-year-old Elle watches as the car her parents are waiting in explodes right before her eyes. She hides in their house as armed gunmen hunt for her. She is terrified and confused and the graphic violence of the scene could be distressing for many children.

Thirteen and overinfo

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

  • Nothing further of concern.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

  • Pontiac cars
  • Corona Beers
  • Duct tape
  • Snickers, Twix and Tootsie Rolls are all mentioned.

Sexual references

  • None noted.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:

  • Some characters wear tight, revealing and skimpy clothes.
  • There is some sexy dancing as girls move provocatively at a street party to welcome Jakob.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

  • Dom and his team all drink beers at a barbeque.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • Ass
  • Bitches
  • Shit
  • Hell
  • Jackass
  • Dumbass
  • Frickin
  • God damn it.

In a nutshell

Fast & Furious 9 is a fast-paced action film, the 9th in the Fast & Furious Franchise. The film features lots of stunts and special effects but a fairly predictable plot. Due to the violent content and coarse language, this is not a family film but rather one that will best be enjoyed by mature audiences and fans of the Fast and Furious series.

The main messages from this movie are that you need to make peace with the past if you want to have hope for the future; that family is priceless; and that it is not about being stronger or faster, it is about being the bigger or better person.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Loyalty
  • Compassion
  • Forgiveness
  • Teamwork
  • Determination
  • Courage
  • Ingenuity.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

  • Dangerous driving.
  • Using violence as a means to solve conflict.
  • Attempting to avenge someone.
  • Using others for personal gain.
  • Putting money and your personal interests before the lives of others.