The Fate of the Furious (2017)

The Fate of the Furious is a 2017 American action film directed by F. Gary Gray, the eighth installment in the Fast and Furious franchise. The film follows Dominic Toretto, who shocks his crew by apparently betraying his family and working with Cipher, a cyberterrorist played by Charlize Theron, who blackmails Dom by threatening someone close to him.

The rest of the team — led by Hobbs played by Dwayne Johnson and reluctantly aided by the franchise's former villain Deckard Shaw played by Jason Statham — must stop Cipher's plan involving nuclear weapons and a submarine. The Fate of the Furious featured some of the franchise's most outlandish action sequences, including a "zombie car" scene where Cipher remotely hacks thousands of autonomous vehicles in New York City, causing them to rain from parking garages and swarm through streets. Charlize Theron's Cipher was the franchise's most formidable villain, a physical and intellectual threat who manipulated events from a mobile command plane rather than engaging in direct combat.

Jason Statham's comedic airplane fight while protecting a baby was a franchise highlight that demonstrated the series' full embrace of its absurdist tone. The film earned $1.24 billion worldwide, the franchise's second billion-dollar entry.