I was unprepared for the electric pulse that was “The Fate of the Furious.”

I must warn that this film will mess you up, and that’s the only way to describe it lightly. F. Gary Gray “Straight Outta Compton” stepped in as the director of the mega-million blockbuster franchise and managed to raise the bar in not only action films but all films in general. I would be very brave by some to place “Fate” in the same status as “The Empire Strikes Back” as one of the best sequels ever for a franchise.

As many fans know, the unthinkable happened; Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) has gone rogue, teaming up with a cyberterrorist (Charlize Theron) who is hell bent on destroying the world. The film reunites us with familiar faces like Deckard and Owen Shaw (Jason Statham and Luke Evans), who join the Toretto crew to take down their common enemy. New characters like Magdalene Shaw (Helen Mirren) the mother of Deckard and Owen are introduced to the audience throughout the film.

“The Fate of the Furious” takes basically everything you thought you knew about the series and uses it to test your senses and build some of the biggest sequences ever filmed. From cars raining down on the streets of New York to a self-driving military submarine in Russia, these scenes provide it all. Much of the camerawork seen in the previous “Fast and Furious” movies return to give you the ultimate adrenaline rush a film can give.

The film also developed the relationships among the characters we grew to love and allowed us to watch them grow even without Dom’s presence. We especially watch the newly enlisted Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel) grow from a computer hacker to a brilliant and important asset, matching wits with Tej (Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges) to keep Theron at bay. “The Fate of the Furious” also surpassed “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” as the biggest opening weekend ever for a film, making $532 million worldwide.

It’s truly a wonderful thing to enjoy a smash hit franchise like “Fast and Furious” that’s still going strong after 15 years.

Gus Gigous is a freshman film production major. This review reflects the views of the author only.