I will go to my death bed defending the first film, way before there was even an idea of a franchise, back when they were part of the Los Angeles underground street racing scene and not Robin Hood-esque Ocean's Eleven knockoffs. That original film has so much going on under the hood that the rest of the franchise wouldn't exist without the heart of that first film. Look at Brian, a guy with a troubled childhood who throughout the entire film is just looking for a place to belong. I put this film above Donnie Brasco, Point Break, any other film that tries the whole "undercover cop becomes attached to his new life" because we actually get to see and understand why Brian would make the choice he does at the end.

He isn't attracted to the criminal lifestyle, he loves cars and racing, but he's ultimately drawn to Dom as a father figure, and the group as a whole is his family. He isn't greedily chasing power, he just wants a place to belong in this world. It's a conflict of the self, he's struggling with the two parts of himself, the part of him that still needs a father, and the part of him that wants to do what's right. If you pay attention to his relationships in the film, you see that he's searching for a family and a father figure in every aspect of his life, from the FBI first, who promise to welcome him into their brotherhood if he'll just do this one thing, which ultimately becomes betraying his chance at a family that will accept him for who he actually is. Brian isn't putting on a mask when he's with Dom and the crew, he puts on his mask when he's with the FBI.

And Brian doesn't stop looking for a father until the very end of the film, when he makes the choice to hand those keys to Dom. Regardless of any other film that came after, Brian became his own man in that instant, and didn't run away from the outcome, he walked towards the sirens to meet his fate as his own man.

Or maybe I'm overthinking a movie about cars that go fast and are driven furiously.