Summary
- The Fast and Furious franchise constantly pushes the boundaries with jaw-dropping stunts and intense driving sequences.
- Each movie has its standout moments, from street races to prison riots and even a space launch, showcasing a wide range of action sequences.
- The franchise’s sense of humor allows for increasingly unbelievable scenarios, giving it the license to outdo itself and keep audiences hooked.
Since 2001, Fast and Furious has been a non-stop source of high-speed thrills, and the best scenes from each movie showcase what the franchise is all about. Although there have been a lot of changes along the way, every Fast and Furious movie includes jaw-dropping stunts, and some of the most tense driving sequences ever put on film. Dom Toretto and his crew start out as street racers and petty criminals, but they escalate to multi-million dollar heists and government-sanctioned espionage. The franchise constantly attempts to outdo itself, but its sense of humor gives it license to get more and more unbelievable.
With an exciting batch of upcoming Fast and Furious projects in the works, the franchise looks set to push its boundaries even further. It’s bizarre to see how far things have evolved since The Fast and the Furious over 20 years ago, but even the first movies have some remarkable scenes which are just as thrilling today as they were back then. From old-fashioned drag races to prison riots and even a space launch, the franchise has an incredible range of action sequences. Looking back on the best moments from each of the 11 movies released so far gives a taste of what makes Fast and Furious so popular.
11 The Fast & The Furious (2001)
Brian and Dom’s first race
Although Brian ends up finishing second, he shows everyone that he’s a serious contender.
Brian joins up with the rest of the street racers as a complete outsider, and he has to fight to earn respect. In his first drag race, he goes up against Dom and two other racers, and although Brian ends up finishing second, he shows everyone that he’s a serious contender. The first race of The Fast and the Furious isn’t just a great action scene with punchy visuals and palpable tension. It also tells a story and reveals a lot about the two central characters. The Fast and Furious franchise is known for its increasingly outrageous stunts, but the first movie provides hair-raising action without anything too complicated.
10 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)
The demolition derby
Dom doesn’t appear in 2 Fast 2 Furious, so Brian needed another partner to team up with. Roman Pearce eventually becomes one of the key members of the Fast and Furious family, but his introduction makes him seem like an unstable wildcard. Brian watches Roman competing in a demolition derby, smashing into other cars with reckless abandon and kicking in his own broken windshield, showing his ankle tag. Brian and Roman have a history together, but even after some troubling times, Brian knows he can trust Roman. The demolition derby is a great way to introduce Roman as a loose cannon with little regard for safety.
9 The Fast & The Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)
Dom’s cameo
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift follows a completely new set of characters, but Dom makes a surprise appearance in the very last scene to challenge Sean to a race. Dom’s American muscle car looks out of place against Sean’s Japanese drift car as they line up, symbolizing how Tokyo Drift marks a departure for the franchise. The credits roll just as the race is beginning, so the result is a mystery. The franchise eventually reveals who won the final race in Tokyo Drift, but not for many years. The cut-to-black ending shows that although Sean’s story is complete, his racing career is just getting started.
8 Fast & Furious (2009)
The gas tanker explosion
The confusingly named Fast and Furious reunited Brian and Dom for the first time since the franchise’s first movie. Fast and Furious uses more CGI than its predecessors, which allows for some truly ridiculous stunts, but the movie’s most memorable moment is primarily achieved with practical effects. As Dom and his crew attempt to hijack a gas tanker in the Dominican Republic, their plan is hampered by a strangely tenacious truck driver. The driver eventually grabs his pet iguana and jumps to safety, but this sends the truck tumbling over a cliff. It remains one of the best stunts in any Fast and Furious movie.
7 Fast Five (2011)
The favela chase
Fast Five could be the best Fast and Furious movie of them all, as it turns the street-racing franchise into a more broadly ambitious crime saga. Fast Five is a heist movie, and it brings in action elements that aren’t specifically limited to cars. One memorable scene features Dwayne Johnson as Luke Hobbs chasing Dom, Brian, and Mia over the rooftops of the favelas in Rio de Janeiro. Johnson’s relationship with Vin Diesel has become notoriously fraught, but Fast Five sees Hobbs and Dom in a thrilling game of cat and mouse, and they bring the best out of each other.
6 Fast & Furious 6 (2013)
Shaw drives a tank
The Fast and Furious franchise steadily introduces a new raft of vehicles with each movie, but none have had the impact of Owen Shaw’s tank in Fast and Furious 6. Dom’s crew try to stop Shaw from assaulting a highway military convoy, but as they stop a truck in its tracks, a tank comes bursting out from the back. Tanks are usually limited to low speeds, but Shaw’s tank easily chews up cars as it barrels down the highway. The entire tank chase is a highlight, but nothing tops the initial moment when the tank appears and the crew finally understand the scope of what they’re dealing with.
5 Furious 7 (2015)
Paul Walker’s farewell
He and Dom share one last emotional drive alongside each other before the road splits, and they head off in separate directions.
Furious 7 was rocked by the tragedy of Paul Walker’s death part-way through production, after the actor was involved in a car crash unrelated to the movie. Despite this devastating incident, Furious 7 found a touching way to pay tribute to the man who had played Brian O’Conner since the franchise’s first movie. Using cutting-edge visual effects and the help of Walker’s brothers, some of Brian’s scenes in Furious 7 were completed after the actor’s death. Brian’s story receives a happy ending, and he and Dom share one last emotional drive alongside each other before the road splits, and they head off in separate directions.
4 The Fate Of The Furious (2017)
Hobbs and Shaw’s prison riot
Before Luke Hobbs and Deckard Shaw got their own spinoff, The Fate of the Furious showed some glimpses of their dynamic partnership. The pair are locked up together in a high-security prison, but Shaw soon engineers a prison break which frees every prisoner from their cells simultaneously. The ensuing riot is a cacophony of violence, and it highlights the contrast between Hobbs and Shaw’s styles. Shaw is wiry and agile, using parkour and advanced martial arts to weave his way through the prison guards. Hobbs, on the other hand, is a human battering ram. Rubber bullets bounce off him without any effect, and he can toss people like action figures.
3 Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019)
Brixton chases Shaw through London
Hobbs and Shaw has its flaws, and one is that it wastes the potential of Idris Elba’s villain, Brixton. One scene which shows Brixton’s potential is his motorbike pursuit of Hobbs, Shaw and Hattie through the streets of London. Brixton’s specialized motorbike allows him to ride up on a wall, bounce between the roofs of cars, and even slide under a truck. In the end, he gets sent crashing through the top of a double-decker bus. There are only a few scenes which indicate Brixton’s abilities, and his motorbike pursuit is an example of the heights Hobbs and Shaw could have reached if he were better utilized.
2 F9 (2021)
Going to space
The Fast and Furious franchise’s most notoriously ridiculous scene occurs in F9, when Tej and Roman blast off into outer space in a Pontiac Fiero. For another franchise, this would constitute an egregious “jumping the shark” moment, but Fast and Furious is built on one-upping its outlandish stunts. The movie knows that this scene is nonsensical, but it’s proud of its absurdity. It says a lot that Roman and Tej are chosen to become astronauts, as they usually provide comic relief. There’s no telling where the franchise could go in the future, but Roman and Tej’s journey into space shows that anything is possible.
1 Fast X (2023)
Dante’s challenge to Dom
Fast X introduces the Fast and Furious franchise’s best villain, Dante Reyes. He’s similar in some ways to Deckard Shaw or Jakob Toretto, due to the fact that his family history has given him a reason to clash with Dom’s crew, but he’s not the usual Fast and Furious villain. He faces up to Dom, causing a tense showdown, and challenges him to a race. His flamboyant persona and quirky charm are very off-putting for a villain, and Jason Momoa steals the scene. The Fast and Furious franchise will always be about high-octane stunts, but some of its quieter moments which focus on character can be just as memorable.
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