10 Dumbest Decisions In The Fast And Furious Saga
3. Dom Joins Cipher
As the counterpart decision to the gang teaming up with Shaw in F8 (and the primary reason for it), Dom gets together with new cyberterrorist villain Cipher (Charlize Theron), without telling anyone, and without even attempting to outsmart her.
After revealing her wily plans to Dom early on in the film, Cipher shows him a video on her phone - presumably of his old flame Elena Neves (Elsa Pataky) and her/his son being kidnapped - and he signs on to her campaign of terror, no questions asked. From hereon until his big turncoat moment (involving giant swinging balls, would you believe), Dom has plenty of time alone with his team - time that could have been used to hatch a plan, or even just slip a note to have someone know what is really going down.
The idea that Dom is too afraid of Cipher to reveal the blackmail scheme to anyone might be plausible if he didn't wind up going through an absurdly laborious scheme involving bonnets and trucks and camera angles further into the film to contact the Fast gang and set a counter movement in motion. And this winds up in Elena's execution anyway!
Yep, it is not until, many acts of terrorism and violence later, Dom hatches a plan with his team to double-cross Cipher and, with the help of the Shaw brothers, finally saves the day. But at what cost?