Fast and Furious is one of the most profitable movie franchises of all time, spanning eight movies, with a spin-off: Hobbes & Shaw on the way. We’re looking at some of the top stunts from each film and it’s basically a list of how each movie has had insanely jaw-dropping stunts.
The Fast and the Furious (2001)
An actual drag race
Back where it all began, the first Fast and Furious movie. Back in 2001 the franchise wasn’t even a franchise yet, and it wasn’t really even about blowing stuff up. Back then, it was about street racing.
The film certainly has it’s roots as a bit of a crime thriller type thing. Brian (Paul Walker) plays an undercover cop, trailing prime suspects in a dirty money and hijacking case, who just so happen to be Dominic (Vin Diesel) and his sister.
One of the most iconic scenes of the film is the moment where Brian, races against Dominic This short drag race gave a taste of the insanity to come, with turbo boost buttons and narrowly missing an oncoming train.
2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)
Jumping off a ramp onto a super yacht
The second movie still had a plot close to its roots, it explored Brian moving to a new city, now set in Miami which then ends up with him dipping his toe into the street racing scene there. The film however enters the scene with drug busts and deals cut with the FBI.
The film follows Brian on a mission to take down a powerful drug dealer in order to gain immunity with the FBI.
The scene we’ve picked here is when they drive a car off a ramp and somehow land on the back of a yacht, half destroying it. We’ve gone from simple heightened reality drag races to physics-breaking jumps.
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)
An actual street race, just with flips and building smashing
Set this time in Japan, the movie is a bit more similar to the first in that it’s more about the street racing scene than the crime fighting scene. As the name suggests, this film ushers in a whole lot of drifting into the franchise.
This film ironically is perhaps the most faithful one there is, there’s no big drug busts, or undercover cops. It’s just about the main character, this time Sean (Lucas Black) taking on the local champion of Japanese street racing. They throw some love triangle stuff in there too for good measure, Sean ends up falling for the champion’s girlfriend.
The pick for wacky stunt here is a moment not actually in Japan, it shows a race between two people in a housing development area. In the race, the two cars smash through houses, crash into each other, clear jumps and inevitably flip around 100 times in the air. FF is starting to get more about crashing and blowing stuff up.
Fast & Furious 4 (2009)
The gas tanker heist
This film explores undercover FBI agents, infiltration, gangs, murders and a whole load of things not to do with street racing. One of the first scenes in the films shows just how far the franchise has come at this point.
Back to the OG cast, of which the franchise impressively always sticks to now, Dom heads to LA to track down the murderer of one of his closest friends. It’s here where Dom finds Brian again and the two investigate the killing together.
We’re not dealing with races now, we’re dealing with multi-million dollar heists using cars. The scene shows a petroleum tanker heist, with characters jumping off of moving vehicles, blowing stuff up, and driving under a flaming rolling tank of petrol. This is where the franchise gets a taste for crazier stunts.
Fast Five (2011)
The moving bank vault heist
The plot is all about dodging the feds and life on the run. Somehow the characters need to do one more car related mission to track down a super villain in order to gain their freedom.
This film has Brian, now an ex-copper, joining Dom and Mia (Dom’s sister) evading the authorities after breaking Dom out of custody. In a mission to gain freedom, the team head to Rio to catch a corrupt business man. It’s at this point they throw Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson into the mix as an agent following the team.
Following the trend put there by the previous film, this scene has nothing to do with street racing, it shows the FF gang stealing an entire bank vault, hitching it to the back of their car and driving around a city with it, which ends up causing several major accidents to say the least.
Fast & Furious 6 (2013)
Jumping off a tank and having Vin Diesel catch you in mid-air
This film covers the FF crew helping the feds in tracking down a gang of skilled mercenary drivers.
Think of a fast car and the first thing to pop into your head probably isn’t a tank. No matter, it made it into this film anyway. FF6’s scene shows the gang doing stunts not even with cars anymore. It has someone jumping off of a moving tank, being hurled into the air, and then being caught in mid-air over a bridge by Vin Diesel.
Furious 7 (2015)
Attaching parachutes to your cars and flying them instead of driving them
Another grubby deal between the FF crew and the feds, they now have to track down a kidnapped computer hacker in exchange for assurance of more normal lives.
The tear-jerker Fast and Furious moive, the one in which Paul Walker died during filming. His untimely death led to the most memorable and iconic scene of the franchise, the final goodbye between Dom and Brian on the splitting road.
This film has a scene that doesn’t even involve driving anymore. Why use your cars to drive on roads when you can just attach a parachute to them and drop them out a plane?
We’re also giving this film an extra scene in honour of Abu Dhabi. How could we not talk about hypercars smashing through top floors of skyscrapers in the Abu Dhabi skyline?
The Fate of the Furious (2017)
Escaping a massive submarine chasing after you
In a major plot twist for the franchise, Dom (Vin Diesel) suddenly becomes a bad guy.
Dom is married, Brian and Dom’s sister are retired and the rest of the crew has dropped all the crime stuff for good. However when Dom is offered yet another deal, he goes evil for once, meaning the team must unite once more to bring him back to the side of good.
The most recent true FF film, expected then for it to have the most ridiculous scenes of all, completely disconnected from the idea of street racing. We’ve moved onto heists, tanks and cars with parachutes now. This scene shows the crew driving along frozen waters, being chased down by an enormous emerging submarine. Racing against a submarine is a kind of street race maybe?
Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw (2019)
Ripping helicopters apart with your bare hands
It’s ‘REALLY’ not about cars anymore. Tracking down a genetically enhanced anarchist whom has control of a humanity-altering ‘bio threat’ is far from the street race origins.
This film isn’t out yet, though from the recent trailer, showing Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson pulling down helicopters with his bare hands, it’s a fair assumption to say this will be the most insane FF film yet and the least to do about cars.
