Like "John Wick," it is kind of baffling to think of how far the "Fast & Furious" franchise has come since its humble origins. We've gone from a simple story that sort of emulated "Point Break" but with car racers and a dude who steals VCRs, to a blockbuster juggernaut that is basically the only rival for "Mission: Impossible" in terms of cast, stunts, and globe-spanning locations.

Regardless of what you think of Vin Diesel, his comparison of "Fast and Furious" to J.R.R. Tolkien's legendarium is not that far-fetched. Sure, Tolkien did write thousands of years' worth of history, complex lore, religions, and entire languages, but Dominic Toretto's got family. Surprise character connections are becoming increasingly more important to these movies, which have long since abandoned conventional Hollywood blockbuster narratives in favor of doing a telenovela on the big screen. Everyone's got a secret sibling or relative that appears only to avenge their death,...