Plot Summary
If you’re feeling the need for speed, then One Fast Move might be the go-to movie for you. Off the track, it’s a little slow and occasionally dull. But when the race scenes kick in, so too does the adrenaline.
The movie tells the story of Wes Neal (K.J. Apa) who has dreams of being a professional motorcycle racer. To achieve this ambition, he pays a visit to Dean Miller, the father he has never met.
Dean used to be a top-class racer so has what it takes to train his son to be a champion. But when it comes to being a good father to Wes…well, that’s where he stalls.
In this ending explained article for One Fast Move, we ask the question: What does Wes learn about his father?
How does the movie begin?
At the beginning of the movie, Wes takes part in an illegal street race. He’s fast but not fast enough to avoid the police who catch and arrest him.
Wes spends 6 months in military prison for his crime. When he speaks to his probation officer after his release, she tells him finding work will be difficult. The only job she thinks he’ll be able to get is in construction but Wes doesn’t want this. He had time to think while he was in prison and during this thinking time, he made the decision to follow a racing career.
How does Wes pursue his dream?
Wes is aware that Dean, his father, used to be a professional motorcycle racer. Despite never having met the man, he tracks him down and asks him to train him.
Dean agrees to do so, though he’s happier relating to Wes as a mentor and not as a father figure. This doesn’t seem to matter to Wes who admits to his girlfriend Camila that the only reason why he connected with his father was because he wanted to fulfil his racing dream.
The training goes well, leading to Wes winning his first race. When he’s not on the track, he works with Dean’s friend Abel who owns a motorcycle store. With money coming in, a promising career, and a woman by his side, life is good for Wes.
However, it’s not long before his chances of happiness almost come crashing down.
What happens to Wes?
During training, Dean tells Wes to be careful with the bike he’s riding. From the way Dean speaks about the machine, it’s like he cares more about the bike than his son. He even says it feels like a “child” to him. This comment seems to make Wes resentful.
On the day of the second race, Dean tells Wes to force another rider off the track. Wes doesn’t seem happy about this but he follows his father’s wishes. However, he comes off worse when the other rider forces him off the track instead.
At the end of the race, a fight breaks out between Wes and the other rider. When Camila sees them fighting, she walks away from Wes, as she doesn’t want her son to be witness to Wes’s violent side.
A short while later, Wes visits Camila to make amends. Not only is she unhappy about the fight but she’s upset that he didn’t tell her he went to prison. She learnt this information from Dean who purposely let it slip that Wes had served jail time. Dean did this as he wanted Wes to concentrate on racing and not on a relationship.
The meeting between Wes and Camila ends on a sour note. However, she eventually decides to accept Wes back into her life, which we discover later in the movie when she turns up at his next race to support him.
What happens between Wes and his father?
Wes spends time with Dean and asks him why he left his mother. Dean tells him he met his mom in church and had a good time with her. That “good time” led to her becoming pregnant, which Dean wasn’t happy about.
Instead of sticking around to be a father to Wes, Dean decided to leave, as he didn’t want to throw his life away. In short, he was more interested in racing than being a father.
This revelation causes a rift between Wes and Dean, causing the two of them to fight. Just before Wes heads out the door, Dean admits that he was “afraid,” meaning that he was scared to be a father.
What does Wes learn about his father?
The next day, Dean visits Wes and apologises for the fight. He talks to Wes about his own father and how the man was abusive towards him. It’s this relationship that made Dean think he wouldn’t be a good father to Wes, so he left, thinking Wes and his mom would be better off without him.
Wes and Dean patch up their differences but there’s still another battle to come. This one takes place on the race track as Dean decides to return to race again for the first time in 20 years. It’s here where Wes learns something else about his father.
Who wins the race?
Wes and Dean move ahead of the pack and battle it out with each other for first place. But just before the race ends, Dean veers off the track and sends himself and his bike hurtling to the ground.
With his father out of the picture, Wes is able to cross the finishing line as the victor. But it’s not only the race he’s won. He’s also won the support of his father. He had lived with the impression that his father never cared for him. But during their head-to-head moment on the track, Dean sacrificed his chance at a comeback win to let Wes take the victory instead.
For Wes, this was the evidence that his dad did care about him after all. Cue a happy ending!
Read More: One Fast Move Movie Review
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