It’s almost that time again! After such a long break from cinemas, our society can once again gather in a loud dark room and watch some big men hit each other with their cars. Yes, with the arrival of F9: The Fast Saga close upon us, we here at Pop Culture Maniacs figured we’d take a look back at the highs and lows of the high-octane franchise we love so much. Grab a couple Coronas, crank up the NOS, and let’s begin our official ranking of the Fast & Furious movies!
Note: I’m including Hobbs and Shaw in this list, but not the animated Netflix show Spy Racers, or Justin Lin’s Better Luck Tomorrow, which was the first (and only) non-Fast & Furious appearance of fan-favorite character Han.
9. The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)
Starting us off at the lowest point of the franchise is the third installment: Tokyo Drift. The history behind how we got to this film is actually pretty interesting. The studio wanted to continue the F&F franchise but didn’t know how. Some past Fast stars like Vin Diesel and Michelle Rodriguez turned down the opportunity to return, whilst others, like Paul Walker, were deemed “too old” to continue an action series and not even offered their old roles back. What we’re left with is an almost entirely self-contained story about characters we’ve never seen before going on adventures in Japan.
Now, I’m not against the idea of spinning off from the main continuity of the Fast & Furious movies (as you’ll see later in this article, I’m personally a Hobbs & Shaw defender). That being said, these new characters just don’t have the same charm as the protagonists of the prior two movies. Lucas Black (who was 25 at the time of filming) stars as a 17 year American forced to study abroad in Tokyo. Not only is Black laughably too old for his part, but the character itself is just the worst. He is super special and always right, just by nature of being an American. He’s obnoxious, selfish, and drags the whole movie down.
On the plus side, the movie introduces audiences to Sung Kang’s Han, the only relatable character in the movie, who is so likeable in fact, that they retroactively changed the continuity of the series to bring him back from the dead for future sequels. Tokyo Drift also represents an upgrade in visual style, as longtime Fast and Furious Director Justin Lin finally arrives to begin the process of making this a viable film franchise. Major steps forward for the series, but not enough to save this from being the weakest movie of the lot.
8. 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)
The best-titled entry in the series, but still one of the worst films, 2 Fast 2 Furious follows Paul Walker’s Brian O’Connor, still on the run after the events of the original movie, now driving as a double agent for a Miami drug cartel. Watching this movie feels like watching someone else play a video game, as each scene is just a brief exposition dump to set up the next big race. Sometimes Brian wins the missions, sometimes he doesn’t, but it ultimately never much affects the paper-thin plot. Essentially filling the void left by Vin Diesel’s absence is Tyrese Gibson as Roman Pearce, a tough ex-con and former friend of Brian recruited for the cartel job. Roman is introduced as a brilliant driver able to hold his own against Brian. It’s a characterization unique to this movie, as future installments water Roman down to just being comic relief. So it’s not all bad, just far too extreme. 2 Fast 2 Furious is everything the original Fast and Furious was, just dialed up to 11. More early 2000’s bro-rock on the soundtrack, more barely dressed women being treated like objects, and more big cars going fast. In the immortal words of Brian O’Connor: “Forget about it, cuh.”
7. Fast & Furious (2009)
A soft reboot of the franchise that sets the stage for future, better installments. What this movie does well is table setting. Director Justin Lin and Screenwriter Chris Morgan have an idea for what this series could be, and use this fourth movie to set it all in motion. That means we’re reuniting Vin Diesel’s Dom Toretto with Paul Walker’s Brian O’Connor. Characters from all three of the previous films return and team up (including Han, making this and the next two movies prequels to Tokyo Drift), uniting The Family that will become the heart of Fast saga. This also represents a shift away from the illegal street racing plots of the original three, and into the more broad-strokes action storylines we’ll see moving forward.
Unfortunately, despite all the good this does for the series moving forward, the actual movie itself is pretty generic and slow. Although featured prominently in the promotional material, Michelle Rodriguez’s Letty only appears briefly in the prologue before being (seemingly) killed off-screen. The rest of the plot follows The Family going on a revenge mission against the bad guy’s who (allegedly) killed her. It should be noted that Fast & Furious also sees an advancement in what will become in the invincibility of these formerly mortal characters. The earlier three movies featured characters actually getting injured and sometimes even dying. In Fast & Furious, however, Dom at one point gets shot and literally doesn’t flinch. Every installment from this point on presents the family as unkillable. While this fourth movie may not be an exceptional story on its own, Fast & Furious is a big and important pillar in what the series becomes.
6. The Fate of the Furious (2017)
Remember how unkillable I said the characters are after 4? Well 8 takes their immortality to new heights, as the characters basically dare God to smite them, though He never does. The film sees Dom forced to turn against his family and fight on behalf of Charlize Theron’s enigmatic villain Cipher.
It turns out Dom had a secret baby with Elsa Pataky’s character from Fast Five, and now his literal family is being held hostage by Cipher, who will kill them both if Dom doesn’t do her bidding. By “do her bidding” I of course mean stealing the nuclear launch codes so she can literally destroy the planet. Obviously, this is the most high-stakes adventure these characters have been on, which is conceptually amusing, but kind of falls flat when put into practice. It is undeniably funny that what started as a team of street racers who bootleg VCRs has morphed into a group of international super-spies trying to stop the world from exploding. The problem is that they’re so invincible at this point that there isn’t really anything at stake. We know they can’t get hurt, so there’s no suspense to them going on a mission this dangerous.
On the plus side though, this film introduces us to Dame Helen Mirren’s character, the mother of previous Fast and Furious villains Deckard and Owen Shaw, and it’s truly amazing to watch her share a screen with Vin Diesel. This is also the movie where The Rock rides a nuclear torpedo across a frozen body of water and into a tank full of bad guys. So there’s a lot to love here if only the story weren’t as bleak as it is.
5. Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019)
This buddy-cop spin-off for The Rock and Jason Statham is incredibly entertaining. The movie follows the mismatched team of hard-nosed secret agent Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and literal murderer Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) as they team up to stop Brixton (Idris Elba), a half-cyborg terrorist bent on releasing a super-virus onto the public. Directed by David Leitch of Deadpool 2 and John Wick fame, Hobbs & Shaw is hands down the most light-hearted of the Fast & Furious movies, with its focus mainly being on having a good time and earning some laughs.
I genuinely think this is a really fun movie, my only real problem with it is that it’s halfheartedly tied to the Fast & Furious franchise. By this point in the series, both The Rock and Jason Statham have fallen back into their usual action hero personas, and therefore no longer really feel like the Hobbs and Shaw we were introduced to several movies back. In Fast Five, Hobbs is a humorless, by-the-book officer of the law. In this movie he’s as funny and charming as The Rock typically is in his movies. Same goes for Shaw, who only two movies ago was the violent antagonist who murdered Han, and is now working for the government and cracking jokes as if everything is water under the bridge. It’s not. #JusticeForHan. All and all though, this big, silly, over-the-top buddy comedy is a welcome change of pace in the oftentimes self-serious Fast Saga.
4. The Fast and the Furious (2001)
Where it all began! In this original installment, we’re introduced to Dom and his crew – a group of low-level street racers who are planning to steal a shipment of VCRs from a cargo truck. Brian, simply an undercover cop at this point, goes undercover to infiltrate the gang before their next big job. Despite this movie essentially being a beat-for-beat remake of Point Break with cars instead of surfing, it actually holds up pretty well. It’s interesting how their most low-key adventure is one of their most solid. Most of the credit goes to the pairing of Vin Diesel and Paul Walker, who have such intense on-screen chemistry with each other that you wouldn’t be surprised if they started making out at any moment. It’s sweet. The car chases are fun, the characters are pretty solid, and the plot is easy to follow. This may be the most basic Fast & Furious, but it holds up pretty well.
3. Fast & Furious 6 (2013)
Surprise! Letty’s alive! In this sequel to the 4th and 5th installments/prequel to the 3rd, we learn that although we definitely saw Michelle Rodriguez’s character explode… no we didn’t. She actually escaped without a scratch, although she now has amnesia and is working for the bad guys. It’s up to Dom and The Family to stop the villainous Owen Shaw and rescue Letty. This movie is awesome. It’s goofy as hell and it works. By this point in the franchise Justin Lin has a complete mastery of how to make these movies, so it’s pretty smooth sailing for action fans. All the characters you’ve come to care about are fully included in the action, and unlike F8, it’s tonally light enough to allow them to have fun with the ridiculous set pieces. This is the one where they fight a tank! It’s great!
2. Furious 7 (2015)
This installment introduces us to our greatest threat yet: Jason Statham’s Deckard Shaw, out to avenge his brother Owen and destroy The Family. Deckard Shaw is hands down the best villain in the series, and Jason Statham is a welcome addition to the cast. Seeing him fight The Rock is pure bliss. Having him retroactively kill Han raises the stakes to new heights, while also uniting the previous six movies into one somewhat coherent story. This is the movie where Vin Diesel and Jason Statham drive headfirst into each other, get out, and beat each other with car scraps. This is also the movie where The Rock flexes so hard that the cast on his arm shatters. It’s a pretty great movie.
However, you can’t talk about Furious 7 without addressing the somber elephant in the room. Halfway through production, actor Paul Walker tragically died in a car accident, leaving his brothers to stand in for him and complete the film with the use of CGI. This sudden loss rocked the fan community and forced this seventh installment to be significantly reworked to allow the respectful retirement of Walker’s character Brian. Of course, it isn’t fair to hold it against this movie, but the mid-production rewrites are somewhat obvious and lead to a bit of an uncomfortable watch at points. It is impossible to separate this movie from the tragedy, but the cast and crew did an admirable job at picking up the pieces and moving on. There’s a touching tribute to Walker at the end set to the best theme song of the whole series: Wiz Khalifa’s “See You Again”. It’s sweet and heartfelt when it needs to be, and over the top and ridiculous whenever it gets the chance. Furious 7 is a Fast saga highlight.
1. Fast Five (2011)
Rounding out the list is the installment which many fans and critics (including this one) consider the definitive high point of the series: Fast Five. This is the film where they fully make the jump from street racing to heist action. The Family was wronged by a crime boss in Rio and now they’re out to even the score.
This movie is high stakes fun from the very beginning, picking up right where 4 left off and filling in the gaps with a genuinely exciting montage which sets the tone right from the very beginning. Significantly, Fast Five also gives us the first appearance of The Rock’s Luke Hobbs, played here as a sort of Javert-style officer with a very black and white view of morality. As stated earlier, it’s great that The Rock is in these movies. It’s no coincidence that the franchise gets good after he shows up. His larger-than-life energy really heightens the rest of the movies going forward. The characters are just superhuman enough to make the action ridiculous but still exciting.
The plot isn’t as convoluted as it becomes in later movies. The “drag a giant bank vault through the streets of Brazil” climax sets the bar for future action set pieces of the franchise. This is the absolute sweet spot of what Fast & Furious can be. This is the first movie of the series to be well received by critics and fans alike, and for my money, it remains the bright spot of the series.
What will F9: The Fast Saga bring us? We’ll find out this weekend. Until then, I’ll keep living my life a quarter-mile at a time.
