While many turned to the support of family, friends, or newfound hobbies to endure the long lockdowns of 2020, it was the prospect of the newest installment in the Fast & Furious franchise that provided the nitrous oxide boost to keep one man going through the hardships of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“2020 was the most difficult year of my life, but when I didn’t know if I could handle the quarantine any longer, I thought of mi familia, and knew that if I could just get through this year I’d be reunited with Dom, Letty, Tej, Roman, Mia, Han, and Brian,” said Green Lake resident Matt Harvey, gently rubbing the silver crucifix necklace laid over his black cut-off shirt. “I knew that soon we’d be sitting around a barbecue, Coronas in hand, with the rhythmic bounce of Pitbull drifting into the night once again. During my lowest moments, there was a bible verse that I always took solace in. ‘During your times of trial and suffering, when you only saw one set of tire tracks on the road, it was then that Dominic Torretto picked you up in his 1970 Dodge Charger and carried you a quarter mile over the finish line.’”
In times of the most tribulation, Harvey said he sought out the lessons that the over-the-top car heist movies could teach him about platonic ideals of kinship, the importance of a moral code, and forgiveness of one’s enemies in the pursuit of common goals and 10-second cars.
“There were days when I lost hope in our divided nation, but then I thought about how Dom set aside his differences and reached across the aisle to work with that DSA pig Luke Hobbs in Fast Five, or how he gathered the strength to forgive Deckard Shaw even though he blew up Han in the post-credit sequence of Fast & Furious 6,” said Harvey, queueing up one of Dom’s motivational speeches on YouTube. “I thought about how much I had to look forward to learning about life—like would Brian and Mia’s son choose the Skyline or the Charger? Would they ever drive cars in space? And how did Han come back to life after I watched him blow up in like three separate movies? I needed to get through this pandemic just to find out.”
Harvey says the plot of the tenth Fast & Furious film would see the elite street racing team face their most difficult challenge yet: Driving from Seattle to Olympia during rush hour.
“Now the thought of rewatching this new one in theaters this weekend is the only thing getting me through Summergeddon. Bless Fast & Furious forever and ever, amen.
