Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has played villains a few times in his acting career, and he played one just two years before he took on the role of Luke Hobbs in Fast Five. Dwayne Johnson usually plays heroes in his various movie roles, but he’s also dabbled on the other side. Dwayne Johnson has played nine villains in his career, from the Scorpion King in The Mummy Returns to the titular supervillain in Black Adam. While those movies range from fantasy horror to superhero, Johnson played one villain who was very similar to his character Luke Hobbs in Fast Five.
Johnson joined the Fast & Furious franchise in 2011’s Fast Five. That film also saw the franchise transition from being primarily focused on racing to becoming more of an action and heist series, which made Johnson a perfect fit. Fast Five has since become one of Dwayne Johnson’s best action movies, but it wasn’t the first time he played a villain in an action film. Johnson portrayed another antagonist just two years before Fast Five, and he did so alongside an incredibly impressive cast.
Dwayne Johnson’s Agent 23 Was The Secret Villain In Get Smart
In 2008’s action comedy Get Smart, a movie remake of the 1960s comedy series, Dwayne Johnson played Agent 23. Though he was an agent for the U.S. government agency CONTROL in the film, by the end of Get Smart, Johnson’s Agent 23 was revealed to be a double agent who helped the terrorist organization KAOS plant a nuclear bomb as part of a presidential assassination attempt. Just two years later, Johnson played Luke Hobbs in Fast Five, another government agent who was tasked with hunting down Dom Toretto and his crew.
Why Get Smart’s Reviews Weren’t Great (Despite The Amazing Cast)
Dwayne Johnson got to work with a fantastic cast in Get Smart, but that wasn’t enough to save its reviews. Get Smart stars Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Alan Arkin, Terrence Stamp, and the Rock, and other notable comedians like Terry Crews, David Koechner, James Caan, Bill Murray, and Patrick Warburton all played smaller roles. Despite such a star-studded cast, however, Get Smart only received a critical score of 51% and an audience score of 67% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Get Smart received such a poor reception partially because of its deeply talented cast. Critics often mentioned that while Carell was hilarious as Maxwell Smart, the rest of the cast was much less funny than he was. The cast itself isn’t totally to blame for that criticism, though, as Get Smart was designed to be a straight-faced parody of spy thrillers, and as such, most of the cast play typical and serious spy characters. Instead, they provided the setup for Carell to poke fun at the genre, which unfortunately wasn’t enough to keep Get Smart from feeling like an ordinary early 2000’s action comedy.
Dwayne Johnson Played An Even Better Villain In Fast Five
Like many of the other actors in Get Smart, Dwayne Johnson played Agent 23 in a fairly traditional way. Aside from a few visual gags – like walking into a wall while trying to impress a woman and sharing a climactic kiss with Carell’s Max – Agent 23 wasn’t the most compelling villain Johnson has ever played. Agent 23 was the typical strong, charismatic, and effective secret agent until his betrayal, when he essentially just worked as a stand-in bad guy. Johnson’s take on Luke Hobbs in Fast Five was much better than his portrayal of Agent 23 in Get Smart.
Hobbs was almost the exact opposite of Agent 23: he was rude, single-minded, and very outwardly antagonistic to the crew. In essence, Hobbs just had a lot more personality and many more memorable character traits than Agent 23 did. Agent 23 was a living trope, whereas Hobbs was a reinterpretation of the government agent archetype. Hobbs was more like an obsessive bounty hunter who was willing to fight with his hands than the typical aloof and managerial agent audiences might have expected. Dwayne Johnson and his unique take on Hobbs may have been a big reason Fast Five is the best movie in the Fast & Furious franchise.
One thing that both Get Smart and Fast Five really convey that seems to have been lost through the years is just how well Dwayne Johnson can do playing a true villain. Aside from 2022’s Black Adam, Johnson hasn’t played a bad guy since 2013’s Pain and Gain. Instead, he’s opted for more heroic or morally complex characters, which is a shame given how much talent he displayed in those villainous roles. If Dwayne Johnson ever does decide to play the villain once again, he’ll have his experience from both Get Smart and Fast Five to rely on.