Twitter fans are gushing over Jason Momoa’s villain licking blood off a knife.
When was the last time you drove a car at 120 mph for ten seconds in a quarter-mile? The answer is hopefully never, but it may feel like you do it every few years when another Fast & Furious flick drops and puts you in the driver’s seat for some insane stunts; or some exciting moments with characters going all out in their villainy. The new trailer (watch it here) for Fast X promised more of the same and an internet-melting moment of Jason Momoa licking blood off a knife.
There are indeed dozens of moments in the nearly four minutes of the trailer to feast your eyes on, including Vin Diesel’s Dominic Toretto destroying two helicopters at the same time using nothing by sheer will and horsepower. However, as the poster above states, all we can think about is the half-second where Jason Momoa kills someone and follows the deed up with a menacing lick of the knife. Of course, killing someone is bad enough, but casually tasting your kill’s blood adds an entire layer of maniacal villainy to the character.
This poster decided now was the time to jump on board the street-racing express (are they still about street racing?) to see what the hype is all about. And while there are multiple moments in the series with villains pulling some insane stunts on their prey (pouring motor oil down someone’s throat or burning a bucket to entice a rat to dig into someone’s stomach, unfortunately, comes to mind), this moment offers a menacing introduction to the franchise. But, of course, if you are going to watch Jason Momoa lick the blood off a knife, it helps if he has his shirt open.
While it started with Vin Diesel living his life a quarter-mile at a time, it has now evolved into some odd special ops team of gearheads running from law enforcement and retribution for ten movies, reinventing itself over and over. Are we the only ones that noticed Ludacris went from garage-owning bookie to master hacker from movie to movie? It’s easily hidden by moments like this when we can just get lost in the insanity of Jason Momoa cleaning a knife with his tongue.
Speaking of reinventing itself, this poster suggests that after the series jumped from street racing to drug-running to heist thriller, it has stumbled into yet another possible genre. Some of the most maniacal, zany, and fantastical villains in all of media come from the anime world, and Jason Momoa has tapped into that aura by bringing that feeling to the trailer. If Universal Pictures is watching these Twitter responses, they may have an opportunity to spin off the Aquaman actor into an anime origin story.
When you are Jason Momoa, getting people to watch you only takes a short time. From the moment he barreled into the hearts of everyone in Game of Thrones, he has captured attention in small moments; he only spoke approximately seven words in his entire time as Khal Drogo, after all. He proved he could do it again by leaving us wrecked in his momentary glimpse in the Fast X trailer…imagine what he will do with an entire movie.
