While each consecutive movie in the Fast & Furious series has gotten more and more unbelievable, fans still love watching the movies to see what earth-defying stunt they will pull next. The upcoming Fast & Furious 9 is shaping up to be the most unrealistic of them all, (with rumors also circulating about sending the gang to space) but it hasn’t always been this way.
Compared to the later movies in the series, the original film is one of the most serious crime dramas ever made. The first few movies were simple crime movies with street racing, and the wild concepts the series could visit next were unfathomable back in the early 2000s.
Hobbs & Shaw (2019)
Though it’s ultimately a buddy comedy movie more than anything else, there’s no mistaking Hobbs & Shaw for the over the top action movie that it is. The villain of Hobbs & Shaw, Brixton, is essentially a supervillain, as he can self-heal and with the right tech, can fly.
This is by far the most unrealistic movie in the Fast & Furious saga, and though the series is rooted in crime, the franchise has started to look like a superhero flick than anything else.
Furious 7 (2015)
It’s almost a certainty that nobody in the world would ever think that a Fast & Furious movie would ever make them cry, but Furious 7 managed to bring tears to the audiences' eyes as it marked the last appearance of Brian O'Connor.
However, the two hours preceding that final scene makes absolutely no sense. There’s no attempt to even explain what’s going on, but it leads to some of the most exciting (albeit bizarre) scenes in the series. From Mr. Nobody showing up and offering the crew his entire garage full of sports vehicles, skydiving cars, and jumping from the top of one skyscraper to another in Dubai, the movie is more like a rollercoaster than a film.
Fate Of The Furious (2017)
As Fate of the Furious features cars speeding along on ice and shooting at a giant submarine, “high-tech terrorism,” and thousands of cars driving themselves in New York, it weird calling this movie tame. But, compared to its predecessors, Fate of the Furious is actually pretty grounded.
However, though shockingly not the only famous movie villain called Cipher, the new big-bad of the series has an enormous amount of unrealistic power. And, as Dom has a child that nobody ever knew about, the movie continues its ridiculous soap-opera-like narratives in the best way possible.
Fast 5 (2011)
Fast 5 is the movie that started the series as fans know it today, with the movie completely reinventing the series as an action movie (and not the crime drama that it was).
By expanding the series into a globe-trotting affair, (and introducing Dwayne Johnson) it was the first movie in the series that would hint at the franchise raking in billions. However, it was also when the series first threw all logic out of the window. As the movie is about the family pulling a heist in Rio, the whole final act follows Dom and Brian dragging a bank vault through the city at 50 mph, destroying buildings, landmarks, and surely murdering countless people in the process.
Fast & Furious 6 (2013)
Between the narrative and the action sequences, Fast & Furious 6 is one of the most fascinatingly absurd movies in the series. This was the movie where the producers realized that when it comes to the Fast & Furious series, fans couldn’t care less about continuity.
Not only is Letty brought back to life, and not only is Han still somehow hanging around, but the final chase scene, which takes place inside and outside of an airplane, happened on a 28-mile long landing strip.
2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)
2 Fast 2 Furious is so unrealistic because Brian is still offered a job with the FBI after the first movie. In the final scene of The Fast and the Furious, Brian let Dom escape when he should have turned him in.
And though it’s possible that the cops would never have known that Brian did that, the short film Turbo Charged Prelude shows what happens between the events of the first and second movie, and in it, Brian is a wanted man. Not only that, but the fact that the FBI would hire funny man Roman Pierce on Brian's say so is just absurd - especially when it proves that he now cannot be trusted.
Fast & Furious (2009)
Dom was always a trouble maker, and he clearly always felt comfortable around criminals, so it’s hardly surprising that he found himself smuggling drugs between Mexico and the US. And while the reunion between Dom and Brian is supremely done, that’s as far as the reality of the movie goes.
Even in the moments that don’t revolve around cars racing through secret tunnels under the border, there are so many questionable moments. The most glaring of all being how Brian severely beats his FBI work colleague in the middle of the office, and he gets nothing more than a slap on the wrists.
The Fast And The Furious (2001)
Being the very first movie in the series, not only is the The Fast and the Furious the most realistic out of them all, but it’s actually very much grounded in reality. As the series has become known for death-defying jumps between trains and skyscrapers, the wheels barely ever come off the floor in the first movie.
Even the narrative of being an undercover cop trying to uncover a gang of street-racing thieves isn’t so farfetched. Instead of stealing bank vaults, they are robbing trucks full of DVD players, which could be chalked up to nothing more than a petty crime compared to later movies.
The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)
Tokyo Drift has become something of a cult hit amongst fans, as it sits a little outside of the series as a whole. The crime syndicates take a back seat, as the souped-up cars are front and center in Tokyo Drift.
The movie focuses almost exclusively on street racing and drifting, which was incredibly popular in Tokyo at the time. The only unrealistic part of the movie was actor Lucas Black trying to pass as a teenager.