The Fast and Furious franchise talks a big game about family but doesn’t seem to care about much besides the action sequences. They just get too chaotic for my taste, but the new film Sixty Minutes is more ordered in its approach to having a frenetic action film that has a genuine familial core. There are a few issues as to how it uses a father-daughter relationship, but ultimately it is a well-crafted action thriller that might feel like Run Lola Run meets Falling Down sans the insane Michael Douglas and the time travel stuff.
Spoilers Ahead
Plot Synopsis: What Happens In The Film?
Octavio is gearing up to compete in an MMA fight, but what he doesn’t know is that he won’t be able to do that peacefully. There was no peace in his life because he had a daughter with whom he had constantly failed, and even she had started to lose hope. Leonie, his daughter, was waiting for Octavio to come home, and he had promised her that he would, but little did she know that he was going to come only after his fight. Octavio was a 29-year-old who had his daughter at the tender age of 19 and was realizing just how out of control everything is. He ran an MMA training center, which was managed by Paul and his mutual friend Cosima. The time of the match drew closer, and Octavio’s ex-wife, Mina, asked him to make a choice between the match and attending Leonie’s birthday. She gave him a deadline that, if he failed to meet, would ensure that he would lose custody of Leonie.
Why Did Octavio Get Arrested?
You can understand Octavio’s frustration here. He needed the money from the fight to keep his MMA training center afloat, and now there was this deadline. He must have known that Mina meant business with it, and she wasn’t joking around. Leonie hadn’t eaten since the morning, as he had promised he would arrive with the special birthday cake. Now Octavio had to make a bold choice, and his fatherly instincts took over, and he ran away from the match, leaving Paul in a spot of bother. Octavio was chased by the organizers of the fight, who had vested interests in the result of the match as they were essentially bookies that had taken money from a third party and placed bets. The fight was fixed, and Octavio’s opponent, Robert Benko, had to lose the fight in the third round. So perhaps if Octavio had just fought the fight, it would have ended much sooner than he expected. But now that he was on the run, Cosi and his brother Chino began chasing him. They had everything to lose if he didn’t fight, and so they tried to catch him, but Octavio, being a ferocious MMA fighter, knocked everyone out. Cosi and Chino came at him even harder, and later Octavio tried getting help from the police, but he ended up getting arrested himself because of his potty mouth.
Why Was Octavio Kidnapped?
Thanks to Cosi’s attack on the police van itself, Octavio got a chance to get out. He thought the police van would get him to Mini’s place faster, never minding the getting arrested part. But now he was on foot again. He had under an hour now to reach his destination, and he was kidnapped by a woman named Danica. She was the one Cosi and Chino had taken the money from and fixed the fight. She needed her money, but it was too late. The fight was forfeited because of the delay. Now she wanted to kill Chino, as he had failed to make Octavio fight the match. Octavio understood that she was using him as bait to find Cosi and Chino, and once she did, she was going to kill them all.
Ending Explained: Why Did Paul Betray Octavio? How Did Octavio Get To Meet Leonie?
Octavio had a smartphone with him and a Bluetooth earphone, through which he was able to pass all the information to Paul. He didn’t know where he was exactly, but he thought Paul would be able to come to rescue him. Well, Paul did know where Octavio was because he was the one tracking Octavio’s GPS. He was a coward and was helping Cosi and Chino locate Octavio, which is why they always showed up exactly where he was. When the fight was forfeited, Paul was let go as bait to get Octavio out in the open. Octavio figured out that Paul was giving away his location after Benko found him out of the blue, and Paul showed up just minutes later. Octavio was furious but was seriously injured in this race against time. He gave Paul one last chance himself and he ran away before Octavio beat him to a pulp. There was no time for that, and Paul was his best friend, so he wouldn’t have gone through with the threat, but he was disappointed. Nothing had gone right, and if he didn’t think of something fast, Chino would find and kill him. If not Chino, then it would be Dancia’s men who would end him.
Octavio called Rico, the man working for Danica, to meet at an animal rescue center, telling him that he would find Chino there. Chino was using Paul to find Octavio’s location, and he gave it to him. The plan was to call the cops at the exact time Danica’s men and Chino’s gang were present near the rescue center. There was a cat named ‘Onion,’ which was Leonie’s pet, which he had promised to bring back on her birthday. There was a lot he was praying to get done, and he succeeded. Chino came first, and then came Danica’s men, and the bullets started to fly. In the midst of it all, Octavio tried to escape, and the cops did the rest. Chino almost killed him, but Paul and Cosima came to help Octavio at the most crucial time. Octavio had failed to get Leonie the special birthday cake, but he managed to get Onion. The deadline of 6 p.m. wasn’t met, but when he came, wounded and almost out of life, not even Mina stopped Leonie from meeting him. Octavio could have very well chosen the match over Leonie’s birthday and never paid any attention to Mina’s threat, but he set his priorities straight and, for the first time, put his daughter first. According to Octavio’s father, Ovtavio was afraid to be a bad father, and this was the first instance that he had made a choice to fight that fear head-on. Generally, that is a step to overcoming it too, and Octavio seemed to be on the path to becoming the father he had always hoped to be. He forgave Paul, who had given away his location because his own life was threatened. Paul had absolved himself (kind of) when he put his life in danger fighting Chino. So, all in all, Octavio had managed to put an end to two dangerous gangs and retain his friends and family. This was all done in an hour, and perhaps these were the sixty minutes he had been avoiding all his life!
