When it comes to the Fast & Furious series, their action set pieces and fight choreography continue to impress fans to this day. This includes both scenes that are legitimately shot and those that have the benefit of CGI. F9 carried on this tradition of upping the ante in this regard, with many memorable moments that attested to the impressive stunts on display.
Sequences such as Dominic Toretto chasing after his brother Jakob, Cipher's usage of drones, and Roman and Tej's trek to space all heavily featured stunts that truly increased the film's overall intensity. With Fast 10 set to follow in the near future, it’s worth recapping the most notable stunts in the ninth installment.
Roman's Fakeout Death Through The Falling Truck
Although this also qualifies for one of F9’s cheesy but entertaining scenes, it was simultaneously a good bit of stunt work. In this scene, Tyrese Gibson's Roman has his car trapped between boulders and he is required to scale down to safety.
This moment was packed with tension, as Roman's movement around the car was fraught with a foreboding sense of doom. Moreover, the fakeout that he was crushed under the car moments later was a creative way for a car stunt, as it landed right in front of Roman rather than on him, only giving the illusion that he may have died.
Letty's Bike Chase Sequence
Racing and chase sequences were among the series details F9 brought back, with Letty getting solo focus early in the movie. These stunts required Letty to maneuver herself around heavy gunfire and uneasy terrain for survival, all the while keeping her balance on the bike.
It saw her keep up with Dom who was in his car, as their enemies closed in from each side. The stunt also had Letty complete wheelies, huge jumps, and finally land on Dom’s car after her bike was knocked off course. It went a long way in showing just how entertaining bike sequences can be in a series known mainly for cars.
Letty & Mia's Fight Scene In Tokyo
Mia finally got to show her fight skills alongside Letty in F9, with this sequence featuring a fair amount of stunt choreography. In Tokyo, the two women ran across a bunch of mooks whom they dispatched by making use of their environment, as they crashed out of the establishment and into the streets.
The stunt work was particularly impressive due to single-shots of the scene dominating the sequence, as Letty and Mia took on the bad guys through a mix of fighting styles and incorporating background elements like props, even including a spoon at one point.
Queenie Shaw's Escape
It doesn’t matter if it’s been 20 years since the series began or that F9 brought back this played-out trope, as car sequences are a standard Fast & Furious affair. Queenie Shaw’s was one of the more memorable ones, featuring car stunts like drifting and swift curves as part of her escape.
It also saw Queenie lead cops into her trail in such a way that they all ended up colliding with one another, leaving Queenie free to drive away. The 360-degree turn and reverse-drive into an alley was easily the standout moment of this piece of stunt work.
The Crew Flipping Over The Armored Truck
Fast & Furious movies always leave biggest moments for the climax and F9 was no exception. In the film's finale, after Jakob was turned into a more sympathetic character, he returned to help Dom’s crew take down Otto and his associates.
This led to an incredible stunt that featured Dom and Jakob trapping the armored truck containing Aries by the front with their cars as a way to flip the truck over. It was quite the sight to have race cars make short work of this huge truck, along with the eventual fallout of the vehicle standing perfectly at a standstill.
Dom's Destruction Of Cipher's Drone
While it’s clear that a lot of this was done through CGI, it doesn’t make pulling off the stunt onscreen any less impressive. As it happened, Dom used the armored truck to get to the edge of a cliff while Cipher arrived to target him through her drone.
Realizing this, Dom had the truck swerved to the side so as to have it topple straight onto Cipher’s drone after she fired her missile at the truck. The collision of both the vehicle and the drone brought an end to the action in explosive fashion for what was an exhilarating scene of stunt choreography.
Ramsey's Commandeering Of The Truck
This scene combined both the stunt work of car chase sequences with fight choreography. Ramsey took control of the truck containing one of the electromagnets to power Aries. It then transitioned over to the main road, where the electromagnet was activated various times and pulled in things from all around the street toward the track then back again.
Inside the vehicle, Tej and Roman took on Otto’s goons for what was another creative way to put a spin on a fight scene. As it happened, the electromagnet’s activation saw the men be pushed around the truck, which gave Roman and Tej the opening to strategically put the men down.
Dom & Jakob's Chase Across Streets And Rooftops
Despite pushing the limits of human durability, this sequence was superb in the way it blurred the lines between green screen usage and legitimate stunt work. Jakob was shown ziplining through the city, only for Dom to give chase by running across rooftops and intercepting Jakob in midair.
It got even more entertaining when the men entered the streets and Dom gave chase to Jakob where the two leaped from one car onto another in moving traffic. The stunts were highly impressive for the way they looked authentic enough for it to seem as if the men were legitimately engaging in this action.
Testing Of The Rocket Car
This was a simple but effective stunt that showcased how the Fast & Furious series was truly pushing the boundaries of what it’s capable of. Here, Sean Boswell and his friends strapped a rocket to a car, hoping it would be faster than a plane.
The stunt in question had the car in question speed up to ridiculous lengths, to the point where it exploded. Of course, that was what made it entertaining as it set up Roman and Tej’s later apprehension to using the same car to go into space.
Dom's Slingshot Of His Car
It’s obvious none of this was filmed in real life, but there’s no denying that the general idea of the stunt was marvelous. In the film's first act, Dom used a wire connected to his car to drive off the cliff and then have it slingshot to the cliff on the opposite side in order to avoid his enemies.
This not only brought in a commendable bit of stunt work involving cars, but was also a sequence that was intriguing to watch since the slingshot took its time, and the car was shown coursing through the air for a few seconds.