The Fast and Furious movies have taught us a great deal about street-racing, family, and how to continue to up the ante when it comes to over-the-top stunts. With nine mainline movies, plus the Hobbs and Shaw spinoff film, the franchise has given audiences plenty to talk about and more than a few reasons to come back for each subsequent chapter.
Before we set off for the highly anticipated 10th installment, it’s probably a good idea to strap into the wayback machine and take a trip down memory lane and remember those stunts that had us on the edge of our seats. And as part of our partnership with AMC Theatres, where Fast X tickets are now available to purchase, we’re going to do just that.
Parachuting Cars (Furious 7)
Furious 7 remains the highest-grossing installment in the franchise, and there are a few reasons for that, including the fact the movie featured some of the most ridiculous stunts in cinematic history.
This includes the “parachuting cars” scene in which the Toretto crew drive cars out of a plane, parachute down onto a mountainous road, and attempt to rescue Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel). Though Roman (Tyrese Gibson) adds some very on-brand humor to this sequence, it’s just as thrilling as anything else in the franchise, and has his quality about it that makes it impossible to not freak out about if the crew will land without wrecking, let alone rescue Ramsey in time.
Train Heist (Fast Five)
Fast Five is the best Fast and Furious movie, no matter how you break it down. There’s the introduction of Dwayne Johnson’s Luke Hobbs, and the new direction with a focus on heists, as opposed to street racing, and some of the most daring stunts that breathed new life into the decade-old franchise. This includes the iconic train heist in the early goings of the 2011 movie.
This sequence follows the small Toretto crew as they attempt to steal three cars from a moving train. This set piece starts at like a 10 and just gets crazier from there. Fistfights, shootouts, explosions, Dom driving a car off a moving train and catching Brian (who’s hanging from said train) before a bridge takes him out is one hell of a sequence, and then there’s the whole “driving a car off a cliff into a body of water” moment that caps it all off. All these years later, I’m still on the edge of my seat just thinking about it.
Bringing Down An Airplane (Fast And Furious 6)
Fast and Furious 6 is a surprisingly fun and intense entry in the franchise, especially when it comes to the final act. Of course, I’m talking about the finale where the Toretto crew bring down a massive cargo plane with nothing more than a few cars and a henchman being thrown into a jet engine.
After the rest of the crew gets off the plane before it crashes into the ground, Dom is about to jump when he decides to go after the movie’s villain, Owen Shaw (Luke Evans) for some much-needed payback. For a minute there, it looks as if Dom won’t make it off in time, but just as you think the franchise star is going up in an epic explosion as the plane crashes, he drives out of the wreckage in a Dodge Charger to live another day.
The Rope Swing (F9: The Fast Saga)
Early on in F9: The Fast Saga, the Toretto crew searches for Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell) and his crashed plane deep in the jungles of Central America. But instead of finding the secretive government agent, they find themselves ambushed by a technologically-advanced army led by Dom’s estranged brother, Jakob Toretto (John Cena), which leads to perhaps the most ridiculous stunt of the movie: the rope swing.
Whenever I go back and watch Dom and Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) drive into the support beam of a collapsed rope bridge and swing across a massive gap, I can’t help but think about watching this spectacle unfold on the big screen for the first time. When the music stops, Dom lets off the gas, and we get that Fast & Furious slow motion, I’m just floored with excitement and fear, even though I know how it ends
Double-Skyscraper Jump (Furious 7)
There’s no way I was going to write about the franchise’s biggest action scenes and not mention the double-skyscraper jump sequence from Furious 7 This scene encapsulates everything I love about the franchise – souped-up cars, logic-defying stunts, and slow-motion shots of Vin Diesel and Paul Walker – and I just can’t get enough of it.
As soon as Dom and Brian get in the car, you know what’s going to happen: these dudes are about to drive a Lykan Hypersport out of the tower, through another, and into a third before jumping out just before the car drops 100 stories. This scene was all over the trailers, but doesn’t take anything away from this exhilarating and iconic sequence of events.
Chase Through Tokyo (The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift)
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift is a movie that doesn't get talked about enough, which is a shame because it features one of the best driving sequences in the franchise. Of course, I’m talking about the chase sequence through Tokyo.
With Takashi (Brian Tee) and Morimoto (Leonardo Narm) on their tails, Han and Sean Boswell (Lucas Black) drive on the crowded streets, avoiding head-on collisions around every turn. With high-speed straightaways, and tight turns through crowded crosswalks, not only are you concerned with the safety of the main characters, but the thousands of pedestrians going about their night. And all of this leads to one of the most unforgettable moments in the franchise: Han’s shocking “death” in a fiery crash.
Rescuing Dom From The Prison Bus (Fast & Furious / Fast Five)
This next scene is featured in two movies – Fast & Furious and Fast Five – which makes it a unique addition to this list. At the end of the franchise’s fourth installment, Dom Toretto is sentenced to 25 years to life, but just as he’s being transported to prison, his crew is seen preparing for his rescue.
That story picks up two years later in the Fast Five opening that sees Brian, Mia, and company pull off the daring rescue operation that essentially sets the tone for the badass action movie. Playing chicken with a prison bus, the crew distract the driver long enough for Brian to get in front and cause a massive rollover. This moment was just too fast and too furious for one movie, and I’m all for it.
Dom And Brian’s One-On-One Race (The Fast And The Furious)
At the end of The Fast and the Furious, Brian, whose undercover identity has been compromised, attempts to arrest Dom, but has to settle for one final quarter-mile race on the streets of Los Angeles. This exciting and epic race not only creates one of the franchise’s most iconic shots – the two cars crossing a railroad track just barely beating a train – which is followed by a gut punch of a moment when Dom gets hit by a semi-truck seconds later.
This is one of those races and Fast & Furious moments that always comes up but never gets old to watch. Twenty-two years later, I still feel my stomach drop as Brian’s Toyota Supra pulls up next to Dom’s Dodge Charger, knowing what’s about to go down.
We’ll have to wait and see how Vin Diesel and company up the ante with the next adventure. But the only way to know for sure is by watching Fast X when it debuts nationwide on May 19th, so go ahead and purchase your tickets and get ready to fasten your seatbelts.
