We rank all of the Fast and Furious movies, from the first all the way to Fast X!
Let’s race! The Fast & Furious movies have been pleasing audiences since they first appeared on the big-screen back in 2001 with stakes being raised film after film. A series of movies that started with a simple street-racing premise has catapulted into one of the largest film franchises in cinema history and seemingly won’t be stopped. The 11th film in the franchise, Fast X, raced into theaters this past week, blowing away box office and critical expectations and proving that audiences aren’t done with the Toretto family just yet.
Despite the film leaving audiences with several cliff-hangers, and the announcement that another film will follow the next one despite rumors that it would be the last, it’s only human nature to want to compare the movie to all of it’s predecessors. After all, with franchises as large as the Fast Saga, there will never be a conclusive scale as to which solo movie is the best, but looking at the films from different perspectives always helps shed new light on them. With that being said, let’s take a look at Fast X and see how it stacks up against the rest of the Fast and Furious movies.
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
There has to be a movie at the bottom of the list, and unfortunately Tokyo Drift takes home that unwanted honor (although this will be controversial to some). While the film isn’t completely horrible on it’s own, the issue is that it’s completely disjointed from the rest of the Fast and Furious franchise, even if the franchise has gotten away from the street racing aspect. Yes, the change in atmosphere from drag racing to drifting, as well as the cultural change of shifting from America to Japan was refreshing, but not enough to save a movie that fans thought would be a completed trilogy that felt more like a Fast and Furious knock-off. The inclusion of the character of Han and his bigger role in the franchise has been great – credit where it’s due.
2 Fast 2 Furious
One of the biggest complaints from the die-hard fans of the original The Fast and the Furious was that the franchise has strayed far away from the racing aspect that they loved about the first movie. Unfortunately, the second movie was the one that started that trend. While entertaining and flashy, especially for the early 2000s, the movie just felt like it wasn’t as connected to racing as the original and became more of a heist film that involved cars instead of a movie about cars that included a heist. While not nearly as disjointed as Tokyo Drift, the addition of characters like Roman Pearce and Tej Parker has been great for the overall franchise.
The Fate of the Furious
While racing is one of the key elements of the Fast and Furious movies, fans know that the largest theme behind the franchise is ‘family’, specifically the responsibility that Dom feels toward keeping his safe. So, when The Fate of the Furious ultimately centered around pitting Dom against his blood family and his racing family, it left a sour taste in fans mouths. In theory, the idea has merit and does raise the stakes in terms of what Dom has to accomplish, especially since it did end with the death of the mother of his child, but in hindsight it was a move that didn’t bode well. Not to mention this was the direct sequel to Furious 7 and the first film in the franchise without Paul Walker.
Hobbs and Shaw
Was this a spin-off? A sequel? A side quest to serve as a break from the actual story? Whatever it was, it wasn’t the best nor the worst movie in the Fast and Furious franchise, but ultimately didn’t really feel like a Fast and Furious movie at all. The franchise has leap-frogged from genre to genre over the years, but let’s face it – this was an action movie. The concept of putting Hobbs and Shaw together in order to save the world was only considered a Fast and Furious movie because that’s the franchise where the characters previously existed in. Take away the names Hobbs and Shaw, and this movie has nothing to do with the others. Action packed and entertaining, yes; Fast and Furious, not so much.
F9
They drove a car into space. Whatever else happens in this franchise, that is primarily what this particular movie will be remembered for. Another movie that seemed to forget that the Fast and Furious franchise is, at its core, about family, the tenth film in the series introduced the character of Dom’s brother, Jakob. The movie decided to go in a completely different direction than the rest and pitted Dom against his own flesh and blood, a fact that he and Mia had somehow let slip for nearly two decades. Again, the introduction of John Cena was a welcome one and he poised as a formidable threat (and later ally) but it still couldn’t save the backwards premise.
Fast X
The most recent movie in the Fast and Furious franchise falls right in the middle of its predecessors, neither blowing them out of the water nor drastically falling short of expectations. In all honesty, the movie still centers around a lot of the unrealistic action-adventure explosion scenes that the franchise has become known for, but at it’s center the movie finally got back to the concept of ‘family’ and allowed Jason Momoa to shine as a villain. As time goes on, this movie will probably shift back and forth on this list, but as it stands, Fast X is a welcome film in the Fast and Furious franchise and has left (some) fans feeling more satisfied than they have in a long time.
Fast and Furious
With Tokyo Drift feeling like a side-mission, the fourth movie in the franchise brought everything back together and did the exact same thing Fast X did – got back to being about family. Yes, the fourth film also truly upped the ante in terms of leaving the ‘racing’ premise behind and becoming more about Dom and the team on some crazy mission, but racing/cars were still a prominent part of the movie and it was focused more on getting revenge for the death of Letty rather than to save the world. Now that the movies have really taken a drastic turn with the concept of spy missions and the world being at stake, it’s nice to look back on movies like this one where family was the entire driving point.
Fast and Furious 6
This was the critical turning point where the Fast and Furious franchise stopped trying to be about racing and really just focused on Dom and the team – and honestly, it worked. While racing and cars have always been a staple of the series, it always comes back to family. For the sixth film, Dom and the team were recruited by Hobbs to stop global terrorist Owen Shaw – and it just so happens that the only people that can stop him are the greatest drivers in the world. Fast and Furious 6 might not have followed the same grounded and simplistic concept that the original films had, but the transition to action-adventure blockbusters was a change that the franchise definitely needed.
Fast Five
We’re getting into the really good ones now. Fast and Furious ended on a huge cliffhanger and had fans clamoring about what could happen next for Dom and his family. As it turned out, Dom and his family wanted out of the racing and criminal life and wanted to be left alone – but they needed money to do so. How does one get money? They get the band back together. In an Avengers style team up, all of the prior prominent drivers from the past Fast and Furious movies showed up in Rio to help Dom and Brian steal $100 million, ultimately succeeding and sealing their fates for a new enemy years later. The addition of Dwayne Johnson as Luke Hobbs (and easily his best performance) combined with getting all of the best drivers from years past into one picture had fans cheering throughout the entire movie.
Furious 7
It’s all coming together. As mentioned, Tokyo Drift was the bump in the road that made the entire Fast and Furious franchise feel as though it was split into two separate franchises (the first two movies, and then 4-6). Luckily, Furious 7 came in and seemingly tied everything together in a way that allowed fans to feel as though all seven movies were now officially part of the same franchise. Yes, this movie didn’t really hone in on the concept of family (at least not as much as some of the others) and really raised the bar in terms of action/stunts, but the last on-screen performance from Paul Walker combined with tying the entire franchise into one cohesive timeline paired for one great experience.
The Fast and the Furious
Again, which of these movies is best or worst is not set in stone and will forever be debated among fans. If you like the world being at risk combined with explosions and action-packed spy-missions, you probably don’t agree with this decision. If you like cars, racing, and the simplistic concept of family, then you absolutely agree with it (and you fell in love with this franchise for the same reason). The Fast and Furious franchise was built from the ground up, and that meant that the first film needed a grounded premise – a group of street racers were robbing truck-drivers and selling the merchandise for profits. No explosions, no world-saving – just cars and a group of people trying to get by. While the Fast and Furious franchise will probably never get back to movies like this, it’s still arguably the best that they’ve made.
Do you agree with how we ranked the Fast and Furious movies? Let us know in the comments!
