Over the course of 11 movies so far, the Fast and Furious franchise has delivered plenty of incredible car stunts, pushing the limits of old-school practical effects. Although the franchise started out with a relatively grounded crime story in Los Angeles, it has since spun into globetrotting movies about heists, espionage, and threats to humanity. Throughout such turbulent change, the Fast and Furious franchise’s ridiculous stunts have gotten bigger and bigger, but they have always maintained an impressive level of practical effects, even in stunts which seem completely unbelievable.
With the Fast and Furious franchise coming to an end with the next movie, there’s one last chance for some more explosive action. Stunts so far have included cars being dropped out of planes, sent over steep cliffs and smashed into each other at great speeds, so there’s no knowing what could lie in store for the final installment. Dominic Toretto and his family seem able to survive anything that their enemies throw at them, but the absurd nature of the stunts is part of their appeal. Fast and Furious makes no claim to being realistic, and its best stunts are joyously outlandish.
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Every Fast And Furious Movie In Chronological Order
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10
Dom Drives Underneath A Truck
The Fast and the Furious (2001)
Looking back at The Fast and the Furious shows the humble beginnings of the franchise. The stunts may have gotten bigger and more absurd in later movies, but the more grounded stunts of The Fast and the Furious can often be more thrilling by comparison. While the later stunts use CGI to embellish the action, the earliest movies are all about jaw-dropping stunt driving, and everything is real. During one of the crew’s earliest heists in The Fast and the Furious, Dom must slide his car beneath a truck when the road becomes too narrow in front of them.
9
Jumping From Skyscraper To Skyscraper
Furious 7 (2015)
Furious 7 bid farewell to Paul Walker, and it remains one of the franchise’s best movies. As well as having an emotional story line, Furious 7 certainly doesn’t skimp on explosive stunts. With no other option as they try to make a quick getaway, Dom and Brian are forced to jump a rare supercar from one skyscraper in Abu Dhabi to another. After their brakes stop working, they have to repeat the death-defying feat. The stunt used extensive CGI, but the production team really did drive a car out of a glass building, albeit at a much lower height.
8
Racing On A Frozen Lake
The Fate of the Furious (2017)
The Fate of the Furious introduces Cipher, one of the most interesting Fast and Furious villains. Cipher adds a whole new type of threat to the franchise, even hijacking a nuclear submarine. As the crew race to trap the submarine in a narrow bay, they are pursued across a frozen lake by a small army of Cipher’s goons. The scene features plenty of great stunt driving, and it ends with the submarine bursting up from below the ice. The submarine was added using CGI, but the massive explosion was achieved using practical effects.
7
The Wrecking Ball Bomb In Rome
Fast X (2023)
The most exhilarating moments in Fast X all involve Jason Momoa’s Dante in some way. The flamboyant villain isn’t just out for his own self-interest, he also seems to enjoy the theatricality of his duel with Dom and his family. The sequence in Rome is a perfect example of this, as he unleashes a bouncing bomb in the streets and watches in glee as Dom and Letty must evade it. The narrow, ancient streets of Rome are the perfect playground for the stunt drivers. Fast X‘s cliffhanger ending sets up an explosive end to the franchise.
6
The Tank Bursts Out Of A Truck
Fast & Furious 6 (2013)
The tank’s sudden appearance in the highway chase in Fast & Furious 6 is among the franchise’s most shocking moments. Just as Dom and the rest of the crew think the odds may be in their favor, the tank bursts free from the back of a truck, tearing it to shreds like tissue paper. The souped-up tank accelerated off of a special ramp built into the back of the truck, and the effect of it obliterating parts of the highway is all genuine. It may be utterly implausible, but the tank scene is undeniably fun to watch.
5
A Gas Tanker Tumbles Off A Cliff
Fast & Furious (2009)
Fast & Furious may not be considered among the best Fast and Furious movies, but it still has its fair share of remarkable stunts. The opening scene sees Dom orchestrating a heist on a massive gas truck in the Dominican Republic. The movie hits its highest point early on, as the truck spins out of control and crashes over the side of a cliff, igniting the gas into an immense fireball. The explosion was shot using practical effects, and this gives it even more impact. Unfortunately, the rest of Fast & Furious struggles to live up to this thrilling start.
4
Driving Through A Minefield
F9: The Fast Saga (2021)
F9 took on the difficult task of raising the stakes once again, and the early sequence in the fictional Central American country of Montequinto stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the franchise’s best. The scene uses real land mines buried in the ground, sending real cars flying into the air with each explosion. The scene abruptly shifts gears between thrilling fun and nervous tension when Roman must clamber out of a car which is dangling perilously over a mine. The chase across a minefield is an early highlight of F9, and it helps reintroduce the danger that Cipher carries.
3
Raining Self-Driving Cars
The Fate of the Furious (2017)
The Fast and Furious franchise is well-known for treating cars like toys, smashing them together and throwing them around haphazardly, and very few scenes illustrate this as clearly as The Fate of the Furious’ raining cars scene. Cipher manages to hack into every self-driving car in New York City, and she sends them hurtling toward a Russian Minister of Defense’s convoy. Even cars which are several floors off the ground in parking garages start to shoot toward the convoy. The result at ground level is wonderfully choreographed chaos, with the city transformed into a war zone.
2
The Vault Chase
Fast Five (2011)
Fast Five brought Dwayne Johnson to the Fast and Furious franchise, and it began to pull away from all-out racing and move toward a broader style of action. Some action scenes, like Hobbs and Dom’s rooftop chase through the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, don’t involve any cars, but the movie’s climax returns to its roots. The bank vault scene used a few different vaults, one of which could be driven from the inside, with the wheels low to the ground so they wouldn’t show up on camera. In some shots, it’s a genuine steel vault causing damage.
1
Dropping Cars Out Of A Cargo Plane
Furious 7 (2015)
Furious 7‘s cargo plane drop is the most impressive and outrageous stunt in the entire franchise. It may look like pure fantasy, but the scene uses a remarkable amount of real footage. Furious 7 actually dropped cars from 12,000 feet above the desert in Arizona, and it used a team of skydivers with cameras strapped to their helmets to shoot the action from both above and below. Plenty of other movies would have used excessive CGI, but the Fast and Furious franchise’s commitment to practical stunts helps it stand out from its competitors.
