Dante Reyes is one of the two main antagonists (alongside Cipher) of the Fast & Furious franchise.

He is the leader of a terrorist group in Rio de Janeiro which formerly served in a gangland organization led by his late father Hernan Reyes; initially running alongside his father in their illict family business, Dante's life changed completely when the Toretto crew and Luke Hobbs brought down the Reyes' criminal empire and killed Hernan in the process.

Since then Dante sought revenge against the Toretto crew and Luke Hobbs in order to avenge his father's death and the loss of their family fortune, going as far as to gather intel on their biggest adversary Cipher and her terrorist syndicate in order to usurp control of it - ousting Cipher in the process. Thereafter Dante apparently succeeded with his quest for vengeance after possibly wiping out Toretto's crew with the help from his friend Aimes, who was supposedly a government agent. Overall, Dante serves as the foil and polar opposite of both Dominic Toretto as well of Luke Hobbs for causing the fall of his Family's crime Business and killing his father.

He is portrayed by Jason Momoa, who also played Drogo in Game of Thrones, Keegan in Bullet to the Head and Flip in Slumberland.

History[]

Early life[]

Dante Reyes was born to gangland boss Hernan Reyes and an unnamed woman in Portugal before moving to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. According to Dante, Hernan was a "very bad daddy" but still "kind of liked him" and used to spoil him with money, power and freedom from the law. When Dante was young, he started to display sociopathic behavior that landed him into juvie, prison and mental institutions, such as cutting off the tongues of those who called him crazy, but his father always bailed him out of trouble and over time, he continued to display such behavior. Eventually, his father brought him into his crime family and made him his right hand enforcer with the promise that one day, he would rule it all.

Fast Five[]

Dante is first seen assisting his father with his plans to turn Rio's local gangs into a corrupt and powerful political organization by talking about a partnership with a double agent named Aimes, who would influence the Agency and eventually become its leader along with Tess, who is Mr. Nobody's daughter.

He is then told by his father that Dominic Toretto and his team are coming to steal all of Reyes' money in a vault kept in the Rio Police Station, Dante tells Hernan that he will kill Dom and his team, but Hernan tells him that suffering is better than death. After Dom and his team stole the vault, Dante helped his father, along his right-hand man Zizi, their mercenaries, and multiple cops in their payroll, chase after Dom and his allies for stealing their money. While Dom was taking out multiple corrupted cops on the bridge, Zizi orders Dante and his men to kill the latter with their mini-gun. He almost gets killed when Dom used the vault to knock Dante's side of the car into the water where he was legally dead for two minutes before surviving. Moments later, his father was defeated by Dom and killed by DSS agent Luke Hobbs and Zizi is killed by Brian.

After the loss of his money and his father, Dante plotted revenge against Dom, his family, his friends and anyone whoever knew him or cared about him. He continued his partnership with Aimes who provided him with security secrets and surveillance on Dom's Team in order to learn everything about them which he continued for 10 years.

Fast X[]

Dante eventually learns about Dominic Toretto's most prolific adversary Cipher and gathers intel on her along with members of her syndicate, hoping to use them in his personal quest for vengeance. He soon approaches Cipher while dragging two of her guards that he killed with an offer of partnership, but she turns him down revealing she had her own plans for Dom and her crew and ordered her agents to kill him, but reveals to her agents that he has kidnapped their friends, families, and loved ones on each of their devices, except one agent who he kills because he had no one. Dante succeeds in turning Cipher's agents against herand having the men stay behind to kill her, but she manages to disarm and kill them all because she never trusted them in the first place, causing her to crawl on her feet, injured, to warn Dom and Letty that Dante is coming for them, before getting arrested by Little Nobody and the Agency.

Dante then has Aimes set up a fake mission in Rome to steal supercomputer chips from a truck moving throughout the city with Roman Pearce leading the mission with Tej Parker, Ramsey, and Han Seoul-Oh; when actually Dante plans to frame them for a terrorist attack in Rome. Dante locks Tej and Ramsey in the truck in which he planted a secret bomb, intending to destroy the Vatican and kill as many people as possible, luring Dom and his family towards a trap. Dante then triggers multiple explosions throughout Rome and then release the bomb to roll throughout the city. During that fight between sides, the bomb also kills several policemen and slashes a bus in half. Dom chases after the bomb and Letty chases after Dante on motorcycles on a narrow street, failing to do so. He escapes, and Dom manages to push the bomb into a river near the Vatican, but Dante sets off the bomb, causing many deaths and much destruction to Rome.

Dante successfully frames Dominic Toretto and his friends for bombing up a small portion of Rome and killing dozens of people, if not more, with the help of Aimes who turns the entire Agency against the crew and puts out a multi-million bounty, causing the entire crew to split up unable to contact each other, and Letty is arrested by Roman authorities and sent to a black site prison in Antarctica.

Dante then hears that Dom will be at a street race in Rio and arrives in his Chevrolet Impala car with a million dollar bet to whomever can beat him in a street race and then sees Dom and has half of the street race attendees point guns at Dom, while the other half points their guns at him, including Dom's old friend Diogo. He then challenges Dom, Diogo, and Isabel Neves to a race, which they accept. In the dramatic car race against Dom, Isabel, and Diogo, he secretly had bombs planted underneath Isabel and Diogo's cars and forces Dom to choose which one to save. He then kills Diogo, after Dom chooses to save Isabel causing Dante to unfairly win the race.

He then kills two of Cipher's agents that he had by his side and then empties out the bank accounts of Dom's team which he uses to fund terrorists, mercenaries, and bounty hunters to go after the team. Dante then calls Dom after he goes to the Rio Police Station and discovers his vision board of Dominic Toretto, his friends, his family, and and anyone whoever knew him or cared about him and informs Dom that he has studied him for a decade with the goal of finding ways to his suffer for what he did to him, but Dom calls him dishonorable and that he will stop him. Dante then informs Aimes of Dom's whereabouts and has him arrested, while kidnaps Isabel.

After Dom is taken by Aimes and the Agency, he ambushes them on the bridge where his father died and Dom fights him off with Aimes pretending to join his side and help defeat Dante and Tess arrives to help them. After they rescue Isabel, Dom attacks Dante, who then has a sniper shoot Tess and Aimes and attempts to shoot Isabel before Dom saves her. He then steals the God's Eye from Tess in order to track down Dom's son, Brian. Isabel quickly takes Tess to the hospital and Aimes pretends to help Dom stop Dante.

Dante then uses the God's Eye to track Brian to Portugal with his uncle Jakob as they await Dom's arrival and sends his mercenaries to capture Brian, but kill Jakob. They then chase after them in a custom car with cannons built by Jakob. Dom then arrives on the scene with the help of Aimes and drives his car out of his plane and lands on two of the mercenaries' cars in order to catch up to Jakob and Brian. Aimes instructs Dom to meet him at an airstrip once he and Jakob are clear of Dante and his mercenaries, unaware that they being lead into a trap.

Dante then grabs Brian from Jakob's car after unjamming the cannons and attempts to kill Dom using helicopters. Jakob then sacrifices himself by using his cannon car to help Dom escape and Dom arrives with his car, Brian successfully escapes and jumps into Dom's window. They drive on a bridge on top of a dam that blocks a river, but is revealed to be another trap set by Dante who corners them with two remote controlled semi-trailers, and under his commands, Aimes shoots at the aircraft which Dom's crew has flown in to save the day, possibly killing them all. Aimes then reveals his true nature as one of Dante's most trusted enforcers. Dante then detonates the bridge and the dam, causing a flood to unleash upon Dom and his son, possibly killing them both as the screen cuts to black, although it's currently unknown if he succeeded in doing so, leaving both their fates to be deduced by the viewer.

Afterwards, it's revealed that despite hurting and possibly killing Dom, his friends and family, Dante is aware that Agent Luke Hobbs was the one who killed his father, as when Hobbs and his agents storm into an abandoned theatre once owned by Dante, Dante calls Hobbs and taunts him that he is going to go after him now and intends to makes Hobbs suffer, possibly endangering Hobbs, his daughter Samantha, his sister Lisa, and his relatives in Samoa. Unfazed, Hobbs responded that he "ain't hard to find” before crushing the phone.

Personality[]

Dante is described as "The Devil", as other villains such as Cipher fear him and his potential of unleashing havoc. An eccentric and unpredictable criminal mastermind, he has no empathy towards others or any remorse whatsoever. However, he did somewhat care for his father Hernan Reyes and sought to avenge him after the latter was killed. He also has some form of friendship with Aimes, whom his father developed a partnership with many years ago and had minor respect for Dom's tactics and driving skills.

Despite this, Dante is a sociopathic and sadistic monster obsessed with revenge and not having any points of honour or selflessness whatsoever. So much so that he is more than willing to do completely morally bankrupt actions for power and destruction, caring for only his own ends while jovially enjoying every second of his atrocious behavior.

Quotes[]

Relationships[]

Gallery[]

Dante Reyes with his father Hernan Reyes.

Dante taking over Cipher's organization.

Dante blows up a block of buildings in Rome.

Dante confronts Dom for the first time.

Dante after hacking and stealing Toretto's currencies.

Dante prepares to battle Dom in a shootout on the same bridge where his father died.

Dante chasing after Dom in a high-speed vehicle chase.

Dante taunting Dom before destroying the bridge.

Trivia[]

• Jason Momoa has described Dante Reyes as the "most mysterious adversary" Dominic Toretto and his crew have ever faced, one very sadistic and "a little androgynous".
• Fast X director Louis Leterrier stated that Dante's name, as well as that of Tess, was chosen in reference to Dominic Toretto's path to the light at the end of a metaphorical tunnel. As Tess represents the light by assisting him in protecting his family and friends like if she were his guardian angel, Dante represents the Hell he tries to drag Dom down into, with his name being a reference to the titular protagonist of the Divine Comedy poem Satan's nickname.
• Jason Momoa was initially reluctant on taking the role of Dante Reyes as he expected to witness drama behind the scenes during filming of Fast X, apparently because of the reported feud between Vin Diesel and former Fast & Furious director Justin Lin, who left the film due to apparent creative conflicts with Diesel. However, Momoa ultimately enjoyed the experience, befriended all his fellow cast members and particularly got along with Diesel.
• Dante's motorcycle is a 2022 Harley-Davidson Pan America model. To learn how to drive it, Jason Momoa actually contacted Harley Davidson himself (not the brand) to choose a bike of his liking and elected the 2022 Pan America version.
• Although Fast X has received mostly mixed reviews, fans and critics alike have praised Dante as the best part in the film, commending Momoa's performance as the film's best. Some of them have even deemed Dante as the "Fast & Furious version" of the late Heath Ledger's Joker. He even shared some similarities to Michael B. Jordan's Erik Killmonger and Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin respectively.
  • As such, Dante Reyes is considered the best Fast & Furious villain to date.
• According to Alan Ritchson, there was an early version of the Fast X screenplay in which Dante and Aimes were brothers.
• Dante is the first villain of the saga to fully succeed with his plans, at least for the time being.
  • Because of this, Dante Reyes is also similar to Thanos, as both of them were trying to erase the heroes off the planet and fully succeeded with their plans in the end.
• It's currently unknown whether Dante managed to kill Dom and his entire crew, besides Letty, who was indirectly saved by Cipher. Due to two more sequels being in development, it's likely some, if not all, of the Toretto crew survived.
• Dante's endgame for Dominic Toretto and Luke Hobbs is similar to Adrian Chase's was for Oliver Queen; avenge the death of his father by destroying everyone and everything Dominic and Luke loves. Though unlike Adrian Chase, Dante wants Dominic and Luke to die after he systematically destroys them, their families, and their allies. However unlike Dante (as far as we know) Adrian's plan mostly failed as most of Oliver's friends and family survived in the end and only his son's mother was killed by Adrian.
• Dante shares similarities with previous main antagonists from the Fast and Furious franchise:
  • Owen Shaw (Fast and Furious 6): Both are career criminals with various resources including a corrupt government agent that poses as their inside man.
  • Deckard Shaw (Furious 7): Both have a personal vendetta against Dominic Toretto and target him, his family and friends to avenge a beloved relative/former main antagonist.
  • Cipher (The Fate of the Furious): Both have computer hacking skills and are personal adversaries of Dominic Toretto. Both also endanger the life of Dom’s son, Brian Marcos.
  • Brixton Lore (Hobbs and Shaw): Both are psychotic killers with a sadistic sense of humor who hold grudges against the protagonists.
  • Otto (F9): Both are members of a wealthy family and enlist mercenary kill teams in their war against the Toretto Crew.
• When Dante lures Dom into a trap by having two remote controlled operated semi fuel tankers kill him, it is highly likely that he was doing this to remind Dom of his past life as a truck hijacker, as it could be implied that he was aware of Dom’s past.
• The threat of Dante Reyes had united some of Dominic Toretto's past adversaries, Deckard Shaw, Cipher, Jakob Toretto (Dom's brother), and Luke Hobbs altogether. In Deckard, Jakob, and Luke's case, it's to protect the people they love. In Cipher's case, it's in order to get revenge for him turning her men against her and stealing her resources.
• The only member of Dom's crew that Dante didn't target was Leon who's fate is still unknown after the events of The Fast and The Furious following their failed final hijacking, Vince getting injured by the truck driver and Jesse's death at the hands of Johnny Tran and Lance Nyugen.
• Despite the abrupt cliffhanger ending of Fast X, recent reports have emerged about Universal Pictures planning to bring Fast 11 back to the series' original street racing roots with a new villain after the underperformance of Fast X. Thus, it's currently unknown if Dante Reyes will possibly return in the planned Hobbs & Shaw sequel (taking into account the mid-credits teaser about him wishing vengeance over Hobbs; as well as the title having Reyes in it) or if he will simply not return and leave his fate unadressed. This is mostly due to the actors strike that left the two films’ development temporarily in a halt.
• Fast X was released the same year as Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023), where Dante's portrayer Jason Momoa is the titular protagonist (ironically).
  • Another ironic fact is that the last DCEU movie villain: Black Manta, who also had a similar campaign as Dante’s, held a grudge and wanted revenge against the protagonist (Aquaman) for causing his father’s (Jesse Kane) death.
• Dante is also revealed to be the true main antagonist of the entire film series along with Cipher, given the fact that he studied Dom, Hobbs, and all of their allies for 10 years after the events of Fast Five so he can plot his revenge against them after losing his money and his father, Hernan Reyes.

External Links[]

• Dante Reyes on the Near Pure Evil Wiki
• Dante Reyes on the Fast & Furious Wiki

Navigation[]

Villains

Tran's Crew Johnny Tran | Lance Nguyen Verone Crime Family Carter Verone | Roberto | Enrique Braga Cartel Arturo Braga | Fenix Calderon | Gisele Yashar Reyes Crime Family Hernan Reyes | Dante Reyes | Zizi | João Alemeida | Aimes Yakuza Uncle Kamata | DK Takashi | Morimoto Cipher's Organization Cipher | Connor Rhodes | Owen Shaw | Riley Hicks | Vegh | Klaus | Adolfson | Jah | Denlinger | Ivory | Oakes | Firuz | Mose Jakande | Louis Kiet Eteon Brixton Lore | Eteon Director SH1FT3R Shashi Dhar | Layla Gray | Jun | Rollie & Nacho Otto's Army Otto | Jakob Toretto | Sue Others Ted Gassner | Kenny Linder | Clay | Dwight Mueller | Deckard Shaw | Kara | Cleve Kelso | Rafaela Moreno | Mitsuo Mori | Moray | General Dudley | Sudarikov | Rusty | DANN