Abstract
The Fast and Furious franchise has earned more than $5 billion worldwide with its revved-up formula of Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson pulling off cartoonishly improbable car stunts. But last year's eighth installment, The Fate of the Furious, preyed upon a real-world fear: In one sequence, the superhacker villain Cipher, played by Charlize Theron, intercepts a motorcade by commandeering a fleet of New York City cars, using them as her army.