Deckard Shaw

Deckard Shaw is the main antagonist of the 2015 global action blockbuster hit Furious 7, the seventh film in The Fast and the Furious franchise and the key yet background antagonist in both The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift and Fast & Furious 6, and the anti-hero/supporting protagonist in The Fate of the Furious, the eighth film in the franchise. He is the older brother of Owen Shaw.

He is portrayed by Jason Statham, who also plays Frank Martin in the Transporter trilogy, Chev Chelios in the Crank series, Lee Christmas in The Expendables series, an unnamed airport man in Collateral and Frankenstein/Jensen Ames in the Death Race series.

Early Life
Deckard Shaw was born approximately sometime in 1970. As the eldest brother of Owen Shaw, the two grew up together and were close. The two used to start fights in "the yard" with people who were stronger than them. If Owen was trouble, Deckard was the one who stepped in and finished the fight for him. He taught Owen that a man must have a code to live by.

As adults, both Deckard and Owen enlisted the British Armed Forces. During his time in the military special ops, he distinguished himself by acts of gallantry, saving the life of hostages and his own teammates, risking his own life for them in the process. Due to his actions, he was recommended for the Victorian Cross, the highest military honor. However, as opposed to his brother, Deckard became an operational agent for clandestine operations. As an assassin, Shaw went on to become Lieutenant who served in Special Boat Services from 1990 until the end of 1999. During his time in the military, Shaw developed a reputation of being a type of asset Hobbs claimed no government would ever admit to employing but they decided he was needed for the time being.

In 2000, he became Major in the Special Air Service, a position he spent the next eight years in until 2008. When he was no longer needed, his superiors sent a squad of men after him in order to kill him. However, his abilities were underestimated and Shaw escaped and fell off the grid. Like his younger brother Owen, he eventually became a mercenary for hire.

Fast & Furious 6
Deckard's appearance at the end of Fast & Furious 6 is a cameo, foreshadowing events that would occur in Furious 7. Rehashing events that occurred in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, the end of the film reveals that the driver of the Mercedes which ran Han Seoul-Oh's Mazda RX-7 VeilSide Fortune off the road in Tokyo was Deckard.

After Deckard steps out of his Mercedes, he throws the necklace that belonged to Dominic Toretto and Letty Ortiz beside Han's badly damaged RX-7, ignoring Sean Boswell and Neela who was watching him. The RX-7's leading fuel then ignites via the car's engine fire. As the car burns, Deckard called Dominic and warned him, "You don't know me. You're about to" as Han's car was destroyed in the explosion caused by the fire.

Furious 7
Following the events in London that resulted in Owen Shaw's hospitalization, Deckard caught wind of what happened to his brother. Heading for the hospital where his brother was being treated, he attacked the armed personnel that were guarding the youngest Shaw.

In Owen's hospital room, Deckard reflected on their childhood and realized that they couldn't outrun the past. He decided to take revenge in his brother's stead and threatened to harm hospital staff if they didn't look after his brother.

Leaving the hospital, Deckard heads for the United States' DSS office. At the office, Deckard observes the conversation between Luke Hobbs and Elena Neves. When Hobbs leaves his office, Shaw proceeds to hack Hobbs' computer and extracts information on the the team responsible for harming his brother.

When Hobbs returns, Deckard and the DSS exchange blows when Shaw attempts to escape. Though he manages to hold his own, Shaw uses the appearance of Elena, attempting to act as Hobbs's back up, to detonate a bomb. He finds cover while Hobbs is forced from the building with Elena by the explosion. When the information was extracted from Hobbs's computer, Shaw headed for Tokyo.

He then delivered a bomb to Dominic from Tokyo, disguised as a package from Han. The moment he calls Dominic triggers the bomb as he ran Han's RX-7 with the Mercedes, barely leaving Dominic, his sister and Brian O'Conner time to escape before it detonates and destroys the Toretto House.

Deckard heads for Los Angeles and observes Han's funeral. Dominic takes notice of him and pursues him in his Plymouth Road Runner. Facing each other down in a game of chicken, they crash their cars into each other. They finally meet face to face and exchange words before Deckard pulls a gun on Dominic.

Dominic is saved by the intervention of Frank Petty, whose men chase Shaw off, allowing him to escape. Deckard again tries to kill Dominic and his crew at the Caucasus Mountains during the rescue of a hacker named Ramsey. Though he is forced to break pursuit, Shaw observes the rest of the crew's rescue attempt until the arrival of Mose Jakande. Following Dominic's escape down a cliff in the modified Dodge Charger, Shaw approached Jakande and the two formed an alliance.

Shaw attempts to kill Dominic and Brian in Abu Dhabi, however, he fails when the two are able to escape in by jumping the towers in the Lykan HyperSport.

Dominic, Brian and Petty locate Deckard at a remote factory using God's Eye, Ramsey's hacking device which can locate any individual on the globe.

However, Deckard reveals that he has allied himself with the terrorist Jakande in a surprise attack. In the ensuing battle, many of Petty's men are killed and Jakande manages to retrieve God's Eye. Dominic and Brian and an injured Petty escape. Deckard and Jakande later follow the crew back to Los Angeles.

Shaw goes after Dom and chases him to the roof of a parking garage. As they play another game of chicken, Shaw's vehicle is crushed by Dom's charger as he lifts up the front part of it. After that, the two engage in an epic one-on-one brawl on all over the roof of the parking garage. During the fight, Shaw manages to gain upper hand until Dom starts throwing around, until Shaw hits him with one of his metal sticks which they fought with at the start of the fight. When Jakande sees the two fighting on the parking garage from his helicopter, he believes that Shaw is no longer useful to him and destroys a part of the parking garage, which causes the roof to fracture. Dom, standing on the stable end of the roof, stomps on the roof, which causes the part Shaw was standing on to collapse beneath his feet. Shaw is injured by the collapsing level of a parking garage and survives the rest of the building's collapse. He is later taken into custody in a secret prison by Hobbs, who promised to "wait for him" on the other side of the prison if he ever escaped.

The Fate of the Furious
He reappears in the eighth movie from the franchise, still imprisoned. After Hobbs is betrayed by Dom and imprisoned for the theft of an EMP device in Berlin, he is brought to the very same prison Shaw is incarcerated in and is delivered to a cell. Annoyed, Hobbs realizes that Shaw is imprisoned in the cell next to his own and Shaw continuously mocks Hobbs, further fueling the rivalry between the two. After a breakout for Hobbs is instigated by the government agent Frank Petty, Shaw seizes the opportunity to open his own cell as well, freeing all inmates of the prison and causing a riot. During the chaos, Shaw attempts to escape but is pursued by Hobbs. Eventually, Hobbs catches up to Shaw but before the two can fight, they are stopped by Eric Reisner and a group of SWAT members who reveal that the entire riot was orchestrated by Petty.

To the surprise of Hobbs and the rest of the team, Petty later reveals that they are supposed to team up with Shaw in order to find the cyber-terrorist Cipher. Both Hobbs and Shaw are appalled by the thought of working together and the rest of the team also voice their hate for Shaw. Deckard himself makes clear that while he might be forced to work with Hobbs and the rest, he will never be part of their team. He also reveals that he hates Cipher because she was the one to corrupt his brother Owen and then left him for dead. Petty cuts down the argument between Hobbs and Shaw and orders them to work together. While the team is still coming together and trying to work out a way of finding Dom, they are being attacked when Cipher and her crew ironically attack the very building. After the government agents and the team have been desoriented by concussion grenades, Cipher recognizes Deckard and mocks Dom for already having been replaced. She also mocks Deckard, claiming that he made the wrong choice when she offered him to work for her. She adds that Owen seems to be the smarter one of the two Shaw brothers.

After Cipher and her team have fled, Hobbs' team tracks them down to New York. There, they once more prepare to take down Cipher and to find Dom. As they are passing time, Hobbs reads Shaw's military rap sheet and learns that Shaw was a hero during his time in the military. Hobbs offers to help Shaw with some repairs directly after, implying that he is beginning to think of Shaw more than just an enemy. However, they are not even close to becoming friends and although the two insult each other again, they laugh it off afterwards.

When they find out that Dom has trapped and is attacking the Russian Minister of Defense, the team sets out to stop him. The entire team confronts Dom after he obtained the minister's suitcase. They pursue Dom in a car chase through Manhattan, attaching steel wire to his car to take him down. However, Dom manages to free himself from all the wires, causing all of their cars to crash. He attempts to escape on foot but is prursued by Shaw. Eventually, Dom turns around, draws a gun on Shaw and shoots him in the chest twice, seemingly killing him. However, during the finale, it is revealed that Dom had previously made a deal with a New York crime lady who is revealed to be Shaw's mother. The two managed to fake Shaw's death and Magdalene reveals that they have to take down Cipher. She also tells Deckard that he has to take his little brother along.

Together with Owen, Deckard boards Cipher's untraceable plane in mid-air by jet-pack suits. While Cipher is dealing with problems on the ground, the Shaw brothers storm the plane, revealing themselves to Cipher who is shown to be afraid for the first time. She sends her security teams to the brothers' position, but Deckard and Owen manage to kill them. Owen heads to the cockpit to hold the pilot at gunpoint while Deckard frees Dom's son from Cipher, destroying any influence she has on Dom after reporting this to the latter. Deckard take the infant boy and put headphones with soothing music on his head in order to prevent him from noticing the chaos and death all around him.

Deckard eventually confronts Cipher. Cipher notes that Deckard is out of bullets, but Shaw replies that he does not need bullets to eliminate her. He vows to kill her for what she did, but Cipher claims that there is one flaw in his plan, Cipher is the only one with a parachute. With the press of a button, Cipher opens the plane's door and is sucked out immediately. Deckard, however, manages to get hold of both Dom's son and a handle, preventing himself from being sucked out of the plane. The doors are sealed moments later.

After the boy is safe and the team is back together, Deckard joins the celebrating family along with both Petty and Resiner in New York City. With their differences set aside, he is soon welcomed to Dom's family in the end, now being fully redeemed.

Personality
Like Toretto, Shaw values family above all else, although he is limited to blood relations only whereas Toretto considers anyone loyal to him family. Like his younger brother Owen, he has known for fighting dirty. One example includes pulling a gun out at Dom who was charging at time with a melee weapon. He has a very genuine love for his brother Owen, and calmly admits to protecting him from a myriad of misfortunes when they were children because of Owen's wayward and criminally diabolical misdoings. This implies that Deckard is more reasonable than his brother.

Abilities
Shaw is a highly trained soldier in the United Kingdom Special Forces, and a former member of the Special Boat Service and the Special Air Service. Trained in a variety of combat techniques, Shaw's abilities vary from the expert handling of firearms and explosives to hand-to-hand combat.

Trained to operate as an assassin for the British Government, Shaw presumably worked under clandestine parameter and carried out jobs as a "secret weapon". When he was deemed expendable by his government, Shaw went into business for himself as a mercenary for hire, much like his brother Owen, also former member of British Special Forces.

Shaw is an extremely skilled fighter and martial artist. When fighting both Hobbs (a traditionally trained fighter) and Dominic (a street fighter who improvises), Shaw's abilities as an trained operative allowed him to maintain and often surpass both in agility and physicality. Deckard was able to hold his own against the two in hand to hand combat and a street fight respectively.

Shaw is also an evasive and highly skilled vehicular driver. He drives an Aston Martin, a Maserati Ghibli, a Lamborghini Aventador, and a fast attack vehicle with little complication. He drives and attacks Toretto with in the Caucasus Mountains in Azerbaijan).

Quotes
"Dominic Toretto, you don't know me, but you're about to."

- Shaw's most famous line - calling Dom after killing Han.

"Did you really think this was going to be a street fight?"

- Shaw, saying to Dom if he thinks their first fight will be a street fight, he will win.

"They say if you want to glimpse the future, just look behind you, I always used to think that was bollocks, but now I realize you can't outrun the past. When we were kids you'd start fight with the toughest bastards in the yard. But I was the one who had to stop and finish them. You'd steal from the corner shop, but it was me who'd brave the old man's belt. I'd hope you'd outgrown it, that playing the gangster made you harder, smarter, better. But deep down, I guess I always knew you'd end up like this, despite everything I did teach you. Still, you're my flesh and blood. So you remain my cross to bear. Rest now, little brother, while I settle you one last score."

- Shaw's speech to his brother Owen Shaw.

"I'm here for the team that crippled my brother."

- Deckard explains why he wants to kill Toretto and his crew after he broke into the DSS office.

Trivia

 * Firstly, when the casting ended, Universal Pictures had published that Statham's role of the main antagonist will be Ian Shaw, but it was officially changed to Deckard Shaw.
 * Jason Statham's appearance at the end of Fast & Furious 6 makes him the key antagonist, although his appearance is an uncredited cameo.
 * Deckard being the driver of the Mercedes and responsible for Han's death in Tokyo Drift is a minor retcon. Close inspection in Tokyo Drift sees passersby tending to the driver of the vehicle (although the driver isn't seen), but in Fast & Furious 6 he exits the vehicle and walks away.
 * Deckard Shaw is the first villain in The Fast and the Furious franchise to have a chance of redemption while other villains from the franchise did not have a chance of redemption (his brother also redeemed but with anti-hero qualities now).