When The Fast and the Furious first hit theaters in 2001, it was criticized for vaguely ripping off the plot of Point Break and simply swapping out surfing for street racing. But the franchise has come a very long way since then. The sequels got bigger and bigger and before fans knew it, Dom Toretto was jumping a sports car from one skyscraper into another and Luke Hobbs was redirecting a giant missile with his bare hands.
One of the biggest action movie franchises in the world, Fast & Furious has given audiences a bunch of lovable characters, as well as some spectacular action sequences.
Character: Dom Toretto
Vin Diesel has anchored the Fast & Furious franchise from the beginning. He skipped the second and third movies, but since he returned for the fourth one, he’s turned it into a hit factory.
Now, every Fast & Furious movie is a hugely anticipated entry in the action cinema canon, and it’s all thanks to Diesel’s contributions.
Action Sequence: “They Got A Tank!” (Fast & Furious 6)
The action in Fast & Furious 6 culminates on the longest airport runway in the world (estimated to be 26 miles long based on the speed of the plane and the length of the sequence), as Toretto’s crew battles Owen Shaw’s crew on a plane mid-takeoff.
But the movie’s most memorable set piece comes before that. During a regular car chase on a highway, the bad guys suddenly reveal they have a tank at their disposal.
Character: Luke Hobbs
Dwayne Johnson’s butt-kicking government agent character Luke Hobbs was introduced as a villain in Fast Five. He even gets into a heated fistfight with Toretto. But, like many of the Toretto family’s enemies, he eventually became an ally.
The rest of the cast might be immune to Johnson’s charms, but his likability shines through for the audience in all his scenes. Hobbs’ physicality is often used for sight gags, like when he flexes out of his bandages in the hospital.
Action Sequence: Hobbs & Shaw’s Prison Break (The Fate Of The Furious)
The Fast & Furious franchise branched out of the mainline continuity for its first spin-off back in 2019 with Hobbs & Shaw, a buddy actioner pairing up Dwayne Johnson’s Luke Hobbs and Jason Statham’s villain-turned-ally Deckard Shaw.
This spin-off got a sort of backdoor pilot in the second act of The Fate of the Furious, as the two end up in a maximum-security prison and have to break out in the middle of a riot.
Character: Letty Ortiz
Female representation hasn’t always been one of the Fast & Furious franchise’s strong suits, but thanks to Michelle Rodriguez’s fierce performance, Dom Toretto’s childhood sweetheart (and later wife) Letty Ortiz has always been an awesome character.
She was seemingly killed off in Fast & Furious, but was later revealed to be alive in the mid-credits sequence of Fast Five, setting her up for a second wind in the next stage of the franchise.
Action Sequence: A Submarine Chases Cars Across Ice (The Fate Of The Furious)
In many ways, the Fast & Furious movies are an exercise in one-upmanship. The big set piece at the center of The Fate of the Furious’ marketing campaign sees a submarine chasing a bunch of cars and armored trucks across an icy plain. Among other wild things, this sequence sees Hobbs rerouting a missile with his bare hands.
This breathtaking sequence will be tough for the series to top. The next one is poised to finally send Toretto and co. into space after years of speculation.
Character: Roman & Tej
Roman Pearce and Tej Parker are included together because they’re a package deal. Their bickering back-and-forth makes them the comic relief duo in Dom Toretto’s ever-expanding crew.
Thanks to Tyrese Gibson and Ludacris’ electric on-screen chemistry, Roman and Tej are at the forefront of the Fast franchise’s funniest moments. It’s easy to see why they were offered a spin-off before Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham.
Action Sequence: Skydiving In Cars (Furious 7)
The opening sequence of Furious 7 sees Toretto and his crew bearing down on an armored convoy, which sounds like a pretty standard action scene, but the way they go about it is pretty novel.
They jump their cars out of a plane and parachute onto the road. While some CGI was used to smooth over the edges, the stunt team actually did skydive in cars for this sequence.
Character: Brian O’Conner
The untimely passing of Paul Walker left a gaping hole in the Fast & Furious movies. His real-life friendship with Vin Diesel brought a palpable dynamism to Dom and Brian’s infectious bromance.
Arguably, the final scene of Furious 7, which sees Dom and Brian engaging in one last race set to the sounds of “See You Again,” was the perfect ending for the franchise (although it’s been perpetuated for four more movies).
Action Sequence: Escaping With The Vault (Fast Five)
After all the previous Fast & Furious movies had been car-based actioners about street racing, Fast Five changed things up with the structure of a heist movie.
Of course, it didn’t shake up the formula too much, as the heist involves cars. The team attaches lines from their cars onto the vault and then drags the vault behind their cars through the streets of Rio de Janeiro.