The Fast and the Furious franchise is one that needs no introduction. It’s been one of Universal’s most successful franchises, having been around since 2001, and it’s still going strong today. The eighth (yes, eighth!) installment of the series, The Fate of the Furious, hits theaters this weekend and is sure to deliver more of the entertainingly high-octane and goofy action that we’ve come to expect from these films. Thus, in honor of its impending release, I decided to do a Top 10 list of my personal favorite action sequences from this smash hit of a franchise. Though, again, who’d thought that this series would manage to last this long? Not only that, but this series has also somehow managed to get better with each new installment. For the record, yes, they’re completely ridiculous films with action sequences that defy all logic and physics… but they’re also highly entertaining to watch. And, yes, there are those out there who absolutely scoff at these films, questioning why they became so gosh darn successful despite being so silly (looking at you, CinemaSins). But, at the same time, it’s clear that this franchise has one hell of a fanbase. Heck, it’s a fan-base that I myself am a part of, having been a fan of the franchise ever since the fourth installment. Now, with this list, I only have one ground rule that I’m maintaining and that is that I wanted to have at least one stunt from each of the previous 7 films. Because if I didn’t, then this list would’ve most likely been made up almost entirely of sequences from films 5 through 7. So, with that in mind, rev up your V8 engines (complete with NOS boost) and prepare yourselves as we delve into some of the craziest and yet awesome stunts from the Fast and the Furious franchise.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
I’ve got not one, not two, not three, not even four, but five Honorable Mentions to list. What can I say? This franchise knows how to do awesome action sequences. First up, there’s the scene from the climax of the original Fast and the Furious in which Dominic Toretto’s crew tries to hijack a semi-trailer truck but then must deal with the driver’s heavily armed response. Brian O’Connor manages to come in to help them out of this situation but this then leads to him having to blow his cover as an undercover cop when he calls for medical support for an injured member of Dom’s crew. Overall, a solidly tense action set-piece that culminates in that big reveal. Then, from the third film, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, there are the two primary drift races between Sean Boswell and Takashi AKA ‘D.K.’ (Drift King). I’m listing them both instead of just one because both are good in their own unique way. The first is fun because we get to see a clearly inexperienced drifter like Sean go up against a drifting expert like Takashi. Suffice it to say, Sean doesn’t do so well in the race and he ends up decimating his car, which he borrowed from Takashi’s business partner (and, as we learn later, a former member of Dom’s crew), Han Lue. But, by the time the second race rolls around, Sean has become more experienced with drifting. This results in a much more neck and neck battle between him and Takashi as they race on a treacherous mountain track, culminating in Sean beating Takashi to become the new Drift King.
Next up, from film #4, Fast and Furious, there’s the first true ‘street race’ of the film, in which Dom and Brian race through Los Angeles so that they can be recruited to a team that transports heroin across the U.S.-Mexico border for drug lord Arturo Braga, who both are trying to take down. All in all, it’s another solid street race that shakes things up from previous street races by having them drive through traffic, unlike the ones in the first two films where those involved in the races got the streets closed and, therefore, free of any traffic and police. That and this sequence is also minimal in its use of CG compared to previous films, where they primarily used it for shots of the cars’ engines. It’s also quite funny to see Brian argue with his GPS (provided to them for the race) when he ends up going off-course. Finally, from Fast and Furious 6, there’s the big finale in which Dom’s crew pursues Owen Shaw’s crew, who are escaping via plane on a ridiculously long runway. This admittedly long (about 13-15 minutes to be precise) but exciting sequence is full of epic and over-the-top stunts both inside and outside the plane (e.g. when Hobbs launches into the air to knock out one of Shaw’s goons who’s being held down by Dom). And it all culminates in the plane being brought down by Dom’s crew and Dom’s car crashing through the nose of the plane in gloriously ludicrous fashion, as one would expect from this franchise at this point.
And while it isn’t an action sequence, I also want to highlight the ending of Furious 7, namely because of how it serves as a fitting tribute to series star Paul Walker. Of course, as we all know, Walker tragically passed away in a car accident in November 2013, during a break from filming. The filmmakers then reworked the ending so that Brian could be given a proper send-off. Thus, after they defeat Deckard Shaw, Dom and crew decide that it’s time for Brian to retire so that he can be with his family; his girlfriend, and Dom’s sister, Mia, their son Jack, and their incoming second kid. As Dom goes off for a drive, Brian catches up with him and as they go on one last ride together, we cut to a montage of moments from the previous films, all set to ‘See You Again’ by Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth and a touching monologue from Dom in which he notes “No matter where you are, whether it's a quarter mile away or half way across the world, you'll always be with me. And you'll always be my brother.” It’s a monologue that’s clearly referring to both Brian O’Connor the character and Paul Walker. Finish with a shot from above of the two driving off in separate directions and you have a guaranteed tear-jerker ending that’s sure to affect any fan of this franchise. And think about this for a moment; this is coming from a franchise that’s primarily known for crazy action sequences and not its writing. It just goes to show that all this talk about ‘family’ that keeps getting brought up throughout the films is an accurate reflection of the great camaraderie of the franchise’s ensemble cast.
10. THE FINAL RACE (THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS)
It’s only fitting that we start this list off with a scene from the original Fast and the Furious from 2001. It was a simpler time back then. Before the physics-defying stunts of its most recent outings, this series started out as a simple street racing franchise… as well as being an unofficial ‘remake’ of Point Break but that’s another story. Anyway, kicking off this list is the final race between Dom and Brian after taking down gang leader Johnny Tran. When Brian catches up to Dom, the two end up in a quarter-mile drag race. This race culminates in an awesome moment in which the two cross a railroad crossing just as a train passes through. Unfortunately, for Dom, he then immediately rams into an oncoming truck, resulting in his trademark 1970 Dodge Charger R/T flipping in the air before crashing. Fortunately, for him, Brian ends up giving him his car so that he can get away from the cops. After all, as noted earlier in the film, Brian did owe him a ‘ten-second car’ after a confrontation with Tran’s gang resulted in Brian’s previous car, which Dom had just won in a street race, being blown up. Like I said before, the simplicity of this action sequence is why it ends up being so memorable. The only thing holding it back, really, is that the slow-motion shots of Dom and Brian in their cars before passing the railroad crossing are a bit too much. However, with that said, the shot of Brian handing his keys over to Dom is one of the most iconic images in the franchise’s history, even after all these years.
9. THE FREEWAY RACE (2 FAST 2 FURIOUS)
Next up, we have a scene from 2 Fast 2 Furious, which admittedly is the weakest entry in the series. This is primarily due to a mediocre plot which culminates in an anti-climactic finale with an equally mediocre villain. Not even this film’s action sequences can save this from being the ‘worst’ in the series. However, there are still some memorable action sequences from this film, like the one chase scene near the end where Brian and company have a bunch of street racers drive out of a garage to distract the police. But, for this list, I’m going with the race that takes place on a crowded Miami freeway. In this scene, Brian and his best friend Roman Pearce race a bunch of other drivers to acquire a package from an impounded car so that they can be recruited by drug lord Carter Verone to be his drivers. In a film where some of the racing sequences were more CG-based, especially compared to the ones in the first film, this one was done practically and features some great stunt work, including one where a car ends up getting crushed when it gets caught in-between two trucks (though, let’s be honest, that car’s driver CLEARLY died in that moment) and another where Brian does a 180-degree turn and drives backwards for a bit. Now, admittedly, he mainly did this just to show off in front of Roman but it’s impressive to note that Paul Walker really did do this stunt himself. And, because of aspects like this, this scene gets a slight edge over the final race from the first film and lands at the Number 9 spot on this list.
8. OPENING HEIST (FAST AND FURIOUS)
2009’s Fast and Furious served as the long-awaited return of the series’ original stars. It was the first time that the series’ main leads (Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster, and Michelle Rodriguez), had appeared together in a Fast and Furious film since the original and while it ended up being the worst-reviewed entry in the series, with a mediocre 28% on Rotten Tomatoes, I’d argue it’s rather underrated. Now, admittedly, this is mainly because THIS was the film that got me into the franchise. I remember seeing the film’s Super Bowl ad and was interested in it despite having never seen any of the other films beforehand. I didn’t end up seeing it in theaters but I did watch it when it came to HBO, so yes, this was the first Fast and Furious film I ever watched. But, I’m getting off-track here; aside from being perhaps a bit too serious for a Fast and Furious film, I’d say that this film was like a better-directed version of the first film. It was the second film in the series to be directed by Justin Lin and while the series wouldn’t truly start to shine until the next installment, this one still has its moments. For one thing, it starts off with a pretty epic opening heist in which Dom and his crew, including his girlfriend Letty Ortiz and Han from Tokyo Drift, hijack a large fuel tanker in the Dominican Republic. However, like the truck driver from the climax of the first film, the tanker’s driver soon starts fighting back once he realizes what’s going on. This time around, though, they do manage to steal a good amount of the tanker’s fuel sources and the sequence ends with Dom and Letty narrowly avoiding the tanker as it crashes towards them in a crazy but awesome stunt that was seen in all the trailers, including that Super Bowl ad I mentioned earlier. I guess you could say that thanks to this scene, I officially became a fan of the Fast and the Furious franchise.
7. CHASE THROUGH TOKYO/HAN’S DEATH (THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS: TOKYO DRIFT)
As we’d come to find out, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, despite being the third film of the series to be released in theaters, was not the third film from a chronological standpoint. Instead, it took place after the events of the following three films; Fast and Furious, Fast Five, and Fast and Furious 6. This explains why Han appears in those films as a member of Dom’s crew despite what happens during this sequence from Tokyo Drift. It all starts when Sean, Han, and company are confronted by Takashi over a theft that Han had pulled on his family, who are tied to the Yakuza. Thanks to a diversion from their friend Twinkie, Sean, Takashi’s ex-girlfriend Neela, and Han manage to escape with Takashi and his sidekick Morimoto right behind them. This leads to a tense but exciting chase through the city. There’s even one point where they must drive through a crowded street, resulting in a pretty nice shot when they drift through the crowd. And while Sean and Neela manage to get rid of Morimoto, who presumably dies after crashing into an oncoming car, Han, unfortunately, ends up being hit by another car after managing to get away from Takashi. Before Sean can save him, the car explodes, bringing a sad end to easily the best character in the film. This scene would later be revisited during the mid-credits scene of Fast and Furious 6, where we learn the identity of the driver who hit Han’s car; none other than Jason Statham’s Deckard Shaw, setting up the epic confrontation between him and Dom’s crew in Furious 7.
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| "Dominic Toretto. You don't know me... you're about to. |
6. TRAIN HEIST (FAST FIVE)
After Fast Five opens with a bang as Dom is broken out of a prison bus by Brian, Mia, and their crew (a scene that was teased at the end of Fast and Furious), the film then sets the stage for the first big action sequence set in its main locale, Rio de Janeiro. In this sequence, Dom, Brian, and Mia, along with their old friend Vince (who last appeared in the first film, released a full decade prior), attempt to steal a bunch of cars from a train with the help of some locals. When Dom overhears one of the locals, Zizi, mention that he’s primarily interested in one of the cars, a Ford GT40, he has Mia ride off with it instead. Of course, this then leads to trouble as Dom and Brian must then deal with Zizi and his henchmen. They barely manage to escape, as the scene culminates in an epic stunt in which the two end up driving off a cliff and jump out of their car before it crash-lands into the water below. Unfortunately, for them, this results in two things happening. First off, they are immediately captured and are then confronted by Rio’s primary crime boss, Hernan Reyes. And, as they come to learn, the GT40 contained a computer chip that was full of information regarding Reyes’ criminal empire. But then, because Zizi killed three DEA agents during the heist, this results in DSS agent Luke Hobbs being called in to capture them when they’re framed for the murders. In short, a lot happens in this scene and, fittingly enough, it’s an excellent sequence with great stunt-work and camerawork. You could even say that it began the series’ transition from street racing to action-filled heist plotlines. Either way you look at it, this scene clearly helped when it came to making Fast Five the most critically/commercially successful entry in the series at that time.
5. JUMPING TOWERS IN ABU DHABI (FURIOUS 7)
Yep, can’t forget about this one. During the sequence where his crew attempts to steal a powerful computer device known as the ‘God’s Eye’ from a billionaire in Abu Dhabi to help them find Deckard Shaw, Dom and Brian escape from Deckard Shaw (so… really, no need for that God’s Eye device but hey, this is a Fast and Furious film; who seriously goes into it for the plot?) by driving the fancy new Lykan HyperSport out of the Etihad Towers. And how do they do this? By jumping across the complex’s three towers with the car, of course. What else would they’ve done, take the elevator? In all seriousness, though, this is yet another awesome set-piece. And while some parts of the jump were clearly CG (including CG Paul Walker, even, as this was one of the scenes that required the use of his brothers Cody and Caleb Walker as stand-ins), you’d be surprised to find that there was still quite a bit of practical stunt work involved in filming this scene. Obviously, they didn’t ‘really’ jump the car through the towers, but most of the shots in which they go in and out of them were done practically on a set, highlighting the great efforts of the filmmakers to do as many practical stunts as possible even as this franchise continues to get more and more insane with its set-pieces. After jumping out the first tower (right in the middle of a lavish party), Dom and Brian then crash through the second tower on a floor that’s under construction. They then jump out that tower and crash through the third tower, right in the middle of an art exhibition, before jumping out the car before it falls out the tower and descends to the ground below. And while this does mean that the HyperSport (1 of only 7 in the world) gets totaled, it did see more action in this moment than it did when the billionaire they were stealing from was just keeping it locked up in his penthouse. Dom said it best, “Nothing sadder than locking a beast in a cage”. Too bad we didn’t get to see Brian punch the guy in the face like he said he was going to do. Ah well…
4. DOM VS. HOBBS (FAST FIVE)
At Number 4, we have the only action sequence on this list that doesn’t primarily involve cars. However, it’s still an epic sequence regardless, as it consists of Dom finally going one-on-one with Hobbs when the latter comes in with his team to arrest Dom and his crew. Suffice it to say, this highly-anticipated showdown between Vin Diesel and the Rock lived up to the hype. And as many will agree, the addition of Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson to the series’ ensemble cast is arguably the primary catalyst behind the Fast and Furious franchise’s unexpected rise in quality. The smack-talking but still all-around charismatic DSS agent proved to be a great addition to the franchise and the build-up to his confrontation with Dom was well handled by Justin Lin and his team, from his very first scene where he immediately starts preparing to hunt Toretto once his team arrives in Rio (him to Rio’s chief of police: “Stay the f*** out of my way!”) to the scene where he and his team confront Dom and company at a street race but are driven away by the street racing community of Brazil. But when the two finally go toe-to-toe, all bets are off. Over the course of three minutes, the two crash through several glass windows and the fight ultimately ends with Dom nearly bashing Hobbs’ head in with a pipe wrench, a callback to the first film where it was established that Dom nearly beat a man to death with a socket wrench after he had killed Dom’s father during a stock car race. Mia’s pleas for him to stop are what ultimately keep Dom from pulling the same move twice.
3. DRAGGING A GIANT SAFE THROUGH RIO (FAST FIVE)
In Fast Five’s big climax, Dom, Brian, and their crew pull off their big heist on Hernan Reyes. How so? Well, by having Dom and Brian drag a giant safe containing his money through the city of Rio with their cars, of course. What other option would there be? What follows may arguably be the series’ first truly physics-defying action sequence, as the safe becomes a battering ram, smashing through everything in its path. Not only does it smash through several cars, both police and civilian, but it also smashes through a few buildings as well, including a bank. Han and Roman also help Dom and Brian out by getting rid of some of Rio’s extensive police force in police cars that they themselves stole earlier in the film. This chase through the city ultimately ends up on the bridge leading out of the city, with the police, Reyes, and Zizi in hot pursuit. Realizing that there’s no way that they can outrun them all, Dom has Brian go off without him while he stays behind to deal with their pursuers. And, of course, he gets rid of them with the safe, as multiple cars are launched in the air and into the water below. It all culminates in Dom ramming the safe into one of the two remaining cars before jumping out of his car as it launches into the air due to the safe’s recoil and slams into Zizi’s car, critically injuring Reyes, who is ultimately killed by Hobbs for revenge against the death of his team earlier in the film (Zizi is killed by Brian, who came back to help Dom). But while Hobbs has Dom and Brian leave the safe with him, giving them a 24-hour head start before he goes after them again, he finds that they had switched the real safe with a fake one during the pursuit, allowing them to successfully pull off their big heist.
2. CARS PARACHUTING OUT OF A PLANE (FURIOUS 7)
When the first trailer for Furious 7 premiered, it immediately gave us our first look at one of the film’s crazy stunts; Dom and crew airdropping their cars out of a plane to ambush a mercenary convoy in the Caucasus Mountains in Azerbaijan to rescue hacker Ramsey. What more can I say? These films continually manage to up the ante with their crazy stunts with each new film and this sequence is no exception. But you know what’s even crazier? A lot of this sequence was done practically. I mentioned this earlier when I talked about the ‘car jumping the towers’ stunt but I wanted to bring it up again because that’s ultimately one of the coolest things about the recent entries in this series. While there are certainly some stunts in these films that implement CG in some way, they still try to do as many practical stunts as possible, no matter how crazy these set-pieces get. And in this instance, they literally sent these cars out of a plane. Obviously, shots of Dom and crew at the wheel were done in front of a blue-screen but, for the most part, those are real cars soaring down from the sky and that’s quite an impressive feat. The ensuing chase is great too, from Dom and Letty ripping the back of the convoy’s large bus off with hooks to Brian climbing out the side window of the bus and running up its side to get back onto the ground before it falls off a cliff. And even after Dom, with Ramsey in tow, is cornered by the mercenaries and their leader, Jakande, they manage to get away by driving backward off the mountain. And even though their car ends up getting totaled on the way down, they survive. Why? Because this is a Fast and the Furious film, of course. These characters are basically superheroes at this point.
(P.S. Also, in one of the best humorous moments of the series, Roman initially backs out from dropping out of the plane, resulting in Tej forcibly dragging him out of it by activating his parachute while he’s still on the plane. If I haven’t mentioned it already, Roman usually gets a lot of the best lines/funny moments in these films and this is easily one of his best.)
1. CARS VS. TANK (FAST AND FURIOUS 6)
For my Number 1 pick, I’m going with a scene from Fast and Furious 6 which, at the time I’m writing this, still stands as my favorite entry in the series to date. Overall, it’s a toss-up between this and Fast Five in terms of being my ‘favorite film’ of the franchise. For now, the sixth film wins out by a slim margin for various reasons. One of these reasons is that it has a stronger villain in the form of Luke Evans’ Owen Shaw, who operates on a mantra where he views his crewmates as expendable, a sheer contrast to Dom’s crew and their familial bond that has been such a definitive element of this franchise. Not only that, but when we first meet his crew, we see that Letty, who supposedly died during the events of Fast and Furious but is revealed to have survived albeit now suffering from amnesia, is working with them. And in the first of the film’s two climactic action sequences (the other being the plane chase), Dom and his crew pursue Shaw’s crew when the latter attempts to steal a computer chip from a NATO base in Spain so that they can build a device that can block all military communication on Earth. However, they soon realize that Shaw is instead gunning for the military convoy that’s transporting the chip away from the base. When they get there, Shaw and his crew have already hijacked the convoy and are now running around in a big tank. As it begins to bulldoze its way through a busy freeway, crushing cars left and right, Tej remarks that they need a Plan B… or Plan C… or Plan D… or Plan E, bottom line, “We need more alphabet!”
I picked this as my favorite action sequence from these films because it basically has it all. The set-up is so simple (cars vs. a tank) and yet so effective, with Dom and crew running around trying to avoid the tank and its gunfire while they do what they do best which, as Brian notes, is to ‘improvise’. At one point, Roman’s car is about to be crushed by the tank, resulting in him having to jump over to Brian’s car, which had gotten over to that location after doing a sick jump off a ramp made of broken pieces of a bridge that the tank destroyed. And then the scene ends with an epically ridiculous stunt. To stop the tank, Dom and crew end up flipping it by sending Roman’s damaged Mustang, which he had tied to the tank with a cable, off a bridge part of the freeway to use as an anchor. However, this results in Letty, who was outside on top of the tank when this happens because Shaw ordered her to deal with the cable, to be sent flying off it. To save her, Dom ends up launching out of his car and catches her in mid-air over a big drop before they crash down onto a car on the other side of the freeway. Is it a ridiculous moment that defies all logic? Yes. Did it elicit a great reaction from the audience when I saw this in theaters? Hell yeah! That’s another reason why Fast and Furious 6 is my favorite entry in the series; it resulted in one of my all-time favorite theater experiences, as I saw it with an enthusiastic crowd who reacted to every major stunt in the film, including this one. It really goes to show how far this series has come, as it’s amassed a large and dedicated fan-base who are always along for the ride and I’m proud to say that I’m one of them.
And those are my Top 10 favorite stunts from the Fast and the Furious franchise. Be sure to sound off in the comments below with your own favorite stunts from these films. And you can expect a review of The Fate of the Furious sometime this weekend.
