Roman Pearce is a main character in the Fast & Furious franchise, making his debut as the deuteragonist of 2 Fast 2 Furious, and became one of the main characters in the film series. He is the childhood friend of Brian O'Conner and a former convict who harbored stolen cars. He won his freedom after taking down drug lord Carter Verone in an undercover assignment by U.S. Customs with Brian in Miami. He then became a member of Dominic Toretto's crew and partner of Tej Parker, when Dom, his sister Mia and Brian planned to steal money from corrupt Portuguese businessman, Hernan Reyes.
Backgrounds[]
Roman Pearce was born and raised in Barstow, California. As a child, he befriended another Barstow local, Brian O'Conner. Roman and Brian grew up together, and often caused trouble together and played sports. Roman and Brian attended high school together, and often dated the same girls, Roman dating the girls Brian was no longer romantically involved with. When Roman and Brian attended prom, Roman presumably had sex with an undesirable girl nicknamed "No Knees" Denise.
Not unlike Brian, Roman turned to a life of crime and began stealing cars. When Brian joined the Los Angeles Police Department, Roman presumably distanced himself from Brian, considering him the "enemy". Two months into Brian's career as police officer, Rome was arrested for housing stolen cars in a garage.
Roman believed that Brian, who was unaware of his arrest, could've done something to help him. While in prison, Roman later came to resent Brian.
Roman spent three years in an upstate prison and was later released on house arrest. He was not allowed to move beyond a hundred yards from his home, a trailer home. He wore a monitor on his ankle leg that prohibited his movement. Roman was later employed as a driver for a Demolition Derby in Barstow.
Personality[]
During the events of 2 Fast 2 Furious, Roman is still dealing with the knowledge that childhood friend, Brian O'Conner, has become a police officer and did not use his power as an officer to help him while in prison. By default, Roman does not trust the police and considered anyone who entered their ranks the "enemy". In general, Roman has a problem with authority figures or individuals who use their power and privilege to undermine him.
Roman holds grudges and is not lenient toward anyone who he feels betrayed him. However, Roman has a tendency to blame others for consequences from his own actions, and will avoid taking responsibility for those actions on account of his pride. His relationship with Brian suggests a strong bond of trust fostered from their youth. Following their reconciliation, Brian revealed the reasons that led him to let Dominic Toretto go in Los Angeles was connected to the guilt of not being able to help him.
Roman is not of the mind that personal vendettas and business ventures are a wise unions, but is not against mixing the two when great sums of money are involved. When he is not preoccupied with his anger, Roman often allows his ego to get the better of him and as a result, he is often picked on, his physical features (such as his forehead) exaggerated for jokes. Roman's strongest suit is often his mouth. Roman's sense of humor is often disarming to strangers who question the motives of the crew, or make assumptions about his temperament based on his record with Dominic Toretto. His need to be the center of attention and hear himself speak can be used to distract opponents during scores or other situations.
Roman also tends to be somewhat impulsive. This was shown when he was playing with a new weapon Tej developed from Shaw's crew, narrowly missed Dom and Han.
Appearances[]
2 Fast 2 Furious[]
Following Brian's arrest in Miami by Special Agent Bilkins and U.S. Customs Agent Markham, Brian agreed to help Bilkins and Markham expose and arrest drug lord, Carter Verone, if he could choose who would go undercover with him. Bilkins and Brian traveled to Barstow where Roman was making a living a demolition derby driver. When Roman won the derby, he spotted Brian in the stands with Bilkins and headed for his RV.
He ignored Brian's calls until he used his nickname, "Rome". Taking offence, Roman reminds Brian that only his friends could call him "Rome" and called Brian a pig. Brian clarified that he wasn't a cop any longer. Following Bilkins's confirmation that it was true, Roman punched Brian when he continued to try to acknowledge Roman as his friend.
Roman was overpowered by Brian in their fight, but refused to listen to Brian when he tried to convince him to come with him to Miami to earn his freedom. It was not until Bilkins again confirmed that Brian's offer was legitimate that Roman obliged the deal to have his criminal record expunged in exchange for his help.
After meeting with Monica Fuentes, an undercover U.S. Customs agent in a relationship with Verone, Roman remained standoffish with Brian during their undercover roles as Carter Verone's new drivers. He acclimated to his new environment and developed a friendly rapport with Suki and Tej Parker.
In the company of Monica and the U.S. Customs and FBI agents, he questioned Brian's dedication to the undercover sting whenever he interacted with Monica, reminding his friend that he often got in trouble because of his relationship with women. Brian dodged Roman's questions regarding Dominic Toretto, the criminal he let go free during his tenure as a police officer, and Roman held his actions against him. Monica warned Brian and Roman that Verone planned to kill them once his money was delivered to drop off point, then assumed to be the airstrip.
Brian and Roman worked with Tej to lose Bilkins's and Markham's tracking devices on their Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VII and Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder. During that time, Roman finally took responsibility for the actions that led to his arrest and reconciled with Brian, who he longer blamed. Brian admitted that letting Dom go was largely motivated by the guilt he harbored for being unable to help Roman. With help from Tej, they orchestrated a "scramble", after driving into a garage they later had hundreds of race cars come out, having switched cars with Tej and Suki while in the garage.
Roman headed for the airstrip as planned, but was warned by Brian that changed had planned. Roman talked, distracting Roberto, one of Verone's men, long enough to use the nitrous trap in the passengers seat to eject Roberto from the car. He headed for the docks and knocked out one of Verone's men before he helps Brian with Enrique, who attempted to shoot Brian in the 1969 Yenko Camaro SYC. Roman and Brian saved Monica, driving the Yenko off the top of the docks and crash the vehicle into the boat Verone was using to escape the authorities. Roman's arm was broken in the process, but they were able to help Monica, who later apprehended Verone.
Fast Five[]
When Brian, Dom, and Dom's sister Mia Toretto planned a heist to rob corrupt Brazilian businessman, Hernan Reyes, of $100 million after he set them up for a DEA Train Heist, they called in former associates of theirs to form a new crew. Roman was recruited on account of his skills as a "fast-talker" and for his history with Brian in Miami. After arriving in Rio, he reunited with Tej and then met Dom and the rest of the crew.
Roman was initially reluctant to join the crew, thinking that the mission was personal and would not bring good business until Dom announced that the score was for $100 million and Tej calculated that Roman's cut would be a little over $11 million. Convinced that the benefits of the score outweighed the risks, Roman decided to help the crew.
Roman assisted the team with sneaking in a motorised robot into the police station so they could inspect Reyes' grave. He also auditioned to drive during the heist but proved his skills were not equipped to handle Reyes' security. He then helped steal police cars from a local precinct to use during the heist, racing Brian, Dom and Han for $1 million. Following the Ambush in Rocinha which resulted the deaths of Hobbs' team and Vince, Dom wants to get revenge and continue with the heist, but everyone in the crew decides to abandon the mission as the whole thing is a trap and Reyes has extra security at the police station with Roman reminding Dom that Vince is dead. After Luke Hobbs decides to join them in their heist with Elena Neves assisting them, everyone decides to finish the job. During the heist, Roman posed as a police officer with Han Seoul-Oh and helped clear the way for Dom and Brian by disabling other police cars by driving into them.
Following the heist, Roman received his cut and used part of his share to buy a Koenigsegg CCXR from a sheikh in Abu Dhabi as well as his own private jet. He reunited with Tej at his newly opened garage and was disgruntled to learn that Tej had bought the same car. Roman continued to live his life of luxury surrounded by women he paid to be a part of his entourage, although he remained tight with his money.
Fast & Furious 6[]
Roman was on his way to Macau with his entourage when he was called by Dom to come to London for another job. Roman instructed his pilots to divert to London and offered his entourage buffet vouchers as an apology. Roman arrived in London and reunited with the rest of the team, minus Leo and Santos, and met Riley Hicks, associate of Luke Hobbs. Hobbs introduced them to their latest target, Owen Shaw, and his connection to Dom's wife, Letty Ortiz who was believed to be dead after her murder at the hands of Fenix Calderon. They learned Shaw's crew was building a Nightshade device, which can disable a country's military communication grid for 24 hours, endangering countless lives and they were only one component away from finishing it. Hobbs offered them a chance to reunite with Letty, who was presumed dead, but Brian pushed the negotiations one step further for full-pardons to every member of the crew.
but were able to retrieve more information and find out Shaw was working with Arturo Braga and that's how he met Letty. Brian left to the United States under the alias of a fake criminal to interrogate Braga while the rest of the crew found out Shaw's hide out. Though it was abandoned, they deduced he was after their final component in an army base in Spain. As they were about to leave, Brian made it back just in time to join them. Upon finding out one of Shaw's men was "caught", Brian, using the information from Braga, deduced Shaw wanted it to happen. Tej, who was talking with Hobbs, told the crew they were following protocol and transporting the component to a safe location. Having realized this, the crew deduced Shaw wasn't after the base, but the convoy transporting the component. Instead of rendezvousing with Hobbs they crew went to escort the convoy. They were too late as Shaw's crew already took the convey only to find the component was inside a tank.
Roman drove in front of the tank and Shaw's crew tried to shoot him but he narrowly dodged it, but it resulted in his car being disabled by the tank. Roman was able to use a cable to link his car to the tank before jumping onto Brian's car. Brian then used Roman's destroyed car as an anchor by pushing it over a bridge, disabling the tank and Shaw's crew was arrested.
Furious 7[]
Not long after returning to LA, Han was seemingly murdered in Tokyo at the hands of Deckard Shaw, brother of Owen, although this would prove later to a setup to fake Han's death for unrelated reasons. Roman attended Han's funeral where he asked Brian to promise him that there would be no more funerals following Han's, to which Brian assures him that there'd only be one funeral left, Deckard's.
Roman and the rest of the crew were brought to Mr. Nobody to work for his Agency to liberate a computer hacker named Ramsey who was abducted by terrorist, Mose Jakande in exchange for using Ramsey's creation, God's Eye to locate and kill Shaw. While being briefed, Roman expressed his disapproval for the plan made by Mr. Nobody's team to rescue Ramsey, and told them that he was tired of doing things he's told to do, and that he either gets to call the shots or walks out. When Dom gave him the table, Roman wasn't quite prepared yet, but came up with the plan to hit the motorcade from the most secure, physically inaccessible point from the mountain as an element of surprise. However, he still delegated to Tej to think of the way to get to that point.
However, when the only way to do it was to airdrop from a cargo plane, Rome chickened out and was about to stay up in the plane, only for Tej to remotely activate the parachute on his Camaro, pulling Rome out of the plane. Being seconds late, he landed in the trees and didn't take part in the original attack by Brian, Dom, Letty and Tej. However, later on, when Deckard arrived at the scene and started chasing Dom, Roman came into the game late and took him out, after which, when they ran into more goons of Jakande, Dom told Roman to go with the others.
Later, as the crew regrouped, Ramsey described the team, and Roman himself as the "team joker", to which he was offended and claimed himself to be "Double Alpha, and Man Candy" instead.
The crew traveled to Abu Dhabi to meet Safar, a friend of Ramsey's who had God's Eye. On the beach, he and Tej lusted over Ramsey and were called out by Letty and were then interrupted by the arrival of Safar when they learned that he sold the drive containing God's Eye to a prince who lived in the Etihad Towers. Safar got them onto the guest list for the party and Roman was tasked with distracting the partygoers - in Ted's words, "shine brightly, like only Roman Pearce can do".
Roman was able to do this by hijacking the stage and pulling a stunt known as the "birthday routine". Doing this drew the attention of the guards who left their posts from the vault, which allowed Dom and Brian to get in and steal the car. Roman's speech was interrupted by Letty fighting Kara and Deckard then showed up as Dom and Brian fled in the prince's car. With the guests distracted, Roman escorted an injured Letty out of the tower away from Deckard.
After recovering God's Eye, they used it to track Shaw to an automated factory and the crew prepared to go find him at sun up, however Dom and Brian snuck away to do it without the rest of the team to avoid them becoming murderers.
With a war incoming from Jakande, the crew returned to LA and Roman expressed his nerves at dealing with this latest hardship. During the conflict he drove a 1985 Chevrolet Caprice Classic sedan with Tej as they tried hacking into God's Eye to recover it. After rescuing Ramsey from Brian's car, they swapped her into Letty's car just moments before the Caprice was blown up. Roman and Tej continued on foot and made it to the parking garage where Dom was fighting Shaw, they witnessed as the parking garage collapsed and Letty regained her memories.
A few weeks following the conflict, the crew gathered on the beach to say goodbye to Brian who was retiring into a quiet life with Mia so he could raise his son and unborn daughter. As they said goodbye, Roman exclaimed that things would be "different now".
The Fate of the Furious[]
Roman was called to Berlin with the rest of the crew to recover a stolen EMP from a military base. After recovering the EMP they were betrayed by Dom who ran Hobbs off the road and then took the EMP, delivering it to cyberterrorist Cipher who was holding Elena Neves and Dom's son hostage. The remaining crew went into hiding as Hobbs was arrested to determine their next move and they were then gathered by Mr. Nobody after they made Interpol's Top 10 Most Wanted list, minus Roman who was put at number 11. Roman suggested calling in Brian for help but Letty disagrees as they agreed to keep Brian and Mia out of the game.
The team were recruited by Mr. Nobody, and his associate Little Nobody, once more to stop Dom and Cipher. Their base was infiltrated by Cipher and Dom who stole God's Eye and Deckard, who was also recruited by Mr. Nobody, was able to determine that they were going to New York City. The team followed them there and attempted to stop Dom as he stole a nuclear football. They chased after Dom and harpooned their cars to him to stop him from escaping but Dom was able to destroy their cars and escape on foot.
After returning to their hideout, they realised that Cipher's associate, Connor Rhodes, connected Cipher to both Mose Jakande and Owen Shaw and they realised that Cipher coming after Dom was because he destroyed two of her teams and she now wanted revenge for that.
Mr. Nobody returned and revealed that the nuclear football Dom stole could be used to activate nukes on a submarine that was housed at a military base in Vladovin, Russia.
They followed Dom to Vladovin and witnessed as he infiltrated the military base and used the EMP to shutdown their systems and reboot the submarine so Cipher could take control of it. Roman, Tej, and Little Nobody boarded the submarine so they could pull the trigger chips which was successful at the last second. The team then fled, and Roman drove a Lamborghini Murciélago LP640 which he took from the agency's Toy Shop. Roman's car was destroyed when it fell below broken ice and he was saved by Tej and then tagged along with Hobbs in his car until Dom rejoined the crew, after Deckard saved his son from capture, and destroyed the submarine. Following the submarine chase, the crew were taken off the Most Wanted list and returned to New York where Dom and Letty were now living as they celebrated another successful mission and welcomed Dom's son, who he named Brian, into the family.
F9[]
Roman arrived, with Ramsey and Tej, to Dom and Letty's farmhouse in LA and shared the news of Mr. Nobody's plane crash and the extraction of Cipher. Dom was initially reluctant to join the rest of them in searching the crash site in Montequinto and Roman reminded him that Cipher killed the mother of his child, Elena Neves. Roman drove an armoured car in Montequinto and used it to escape the ambush by the military. When the car was destroyed and Roman narrowly avoided being blown up by a landmine and crushed by his car, he joined Tej and Ramsey in Tej's 2020 Jeep Gladiator which they use to escape over a bridge which promptly collapsed.
After the gang arrived in the Caspian Sea, Dom instructed the team to split up and sent Roman and Tej to Cologne where they meet Sean Boswell, Twinkie and Earl who provided them with weapons, cars and gear as well as a demonstration of their rocket engine-powered Pontiac Fiero which blew up after the demonstration. Roman and Tej then met up with Ramey and Dom in Edinburgh where Jakob Toretto stole the second half of Project Aries. On a hunch, Roman fought two delivery drivers and discovered a large magnet in the back of their truck which was causing an electromagnetic field to shutdown security systems. Roman and Tej were captured and held hostage in the truck which was then stolen by Ramsey who used it to run Otto's Jaguar off the road. Roman and Tej then took out four guards, using their fighting skills to good use, before Ramsey captured Jakob in the truck using the magnet and they returned to the Caspian Sea where they were reunited with Han who was revealed to still be alive.
When the bunker was infiltrated, Tej and Ramsey used the magnet to cause a diversion and the team fled the bunker. Once they learnt that Jakob and Otto have launched a satellite into orbit, Roman and Tej contacted Sean and Earl, who rebuilt the Fiero, and they used it to send themselves into orbit. When Tej tried using the magnets on the Fiero to destroy Otto's satellite, they failed and Roman suggested using the rocket engine. Tej warned him that doing so could either, kill them upon impact with the satellite or leave them stranded in space as the remaining engine fuel was what they needed to return to Earth. Roman told Tej that they had no choice and that this may be the end for them and if it is they'll go out together, side by side to save their team. Roman activated the engine and blew up the satellite. The duo survived and were found by a space team who helped them get back to Earth. Roman and Tej regrouped with the rest of the team in Los Angeles after spending a few weeks in space and sat down to a barbecue as Brian arrived in his Nissan Skyline to join them.
Fast X[]
Roman was sent to Rome along with Han, Tej and Ramsey to recover a chip that belonged to a supercomputer, unaware that this was a trap set by Dante Reyes to frame the family as terrorists. In Rome, Roman and Han drove a Lamborghini and Alfa Romeo, respectively, to infiltrate the convoy. They soon discovered that it was a trap when the truck was remotely hijacked by Dante and multiple explosions went off. It was then revealed that the truck contained a large bomb ball which Dante was planning to use to frame the family as terrorists. The attack was intercepted by Dom and Letty who were made aware of Dante's trap by Cipher, and Dom was able to mitigate the effects of the explosion by pushing the bomb into the water. As a result of the attack, the family were all framed as terrorists, forcing Tej, Roman, Han and Ramsey to go underground and into hiding to avoid capture by the police. Roman arranged transportation for them in the form of a shipping container transporting aftershave and he used that to get them to London. After their bank accounts were drained by Dante and they were betrayed by Ramsey's old associate, Bowie, Han decided to pay Deckard a visit to seek his help. Given that Deckard had not made contact with Han following his attempted assassination, he believed Han was coming for revenge and proceeded to fight him, locking Roman, Tej and Ramsay outside. Han then revealed he didn't want to fight Shaw and that he needed his help. They group were then ambushed by members of The Agency who were sent after them by Aimes, and the group worked together with Shaw to take them down. Whilst Shaw provides them with armor, Ramsey discovered that they are being tracked and so are allies of them, including Magdalene. Shaw packed a bag of armor and drove off to find her.
When Aimes joined forces with Dom, with Dom being unaware that this was another trap as Aimes was working for Dante, Aimes arranged air transport for the team to come to the crew's secret rendezvous spot in Portugal. As they approached the landing strip, Aimes shot down the plane that the group were in and revealed that he was working for Dante. The plane went down and seemingly crashed, leaving the fate of those inside, including Roman, unknown.
Fast XI[]
Coming soon!
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Roman's quote, "We ain't hungry no more" is a popular online meme.
- He is the 3rd character to be played by a rapper, along with Tej Parker, who was played by Ludacris. His actor, Tyrese Gibson, also sung the song, "Pick Up the Phone", along with Ludacris, which was featured in the motion picture soundtrack of 2 Fast 2 Furious.
- He is the only character played by a rapper to have a prominent role in the series, along with Tej Parker.
- Tyrese also sung the song "Too Easy", which featured Ludacris.
- His statement about Cipher being the person who killed Elena Neves is false. The person who killed her was Connor Rhodes, whom Dominic Toretto later killed.
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