History Film / TheFastAndTheFurious

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[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ff2_8.png]]
[[caption-width-right:348:''"Ride or die."'']]

->''"Again the watchman reported, 'He reached them, but he is not coming back. And the driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi; for he drives furiously.'"''
-->-- '''[[Literature/BooksOfKings 2 Kings 9:20]]'''

''Fast & Furious'', originally named ''The Fast and the Furious'', is a series of action films, which center on illegal street racing and ([[GenreShift later]]) heists, produced by Creator/{{Universal}}. Here, the cars are fast, the drivers are furious, {{technology porn}} abounds and the cast of characters who eventually become "the crew" aren't just comrades, they're [[ArcWords family]]. The movies are known for their unrelenting {{sequel escalation}}, steadily growing the films into one of the most popular, and financially successful, action franchises in recent memory.

Not at all to be confused with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcG1_0AM-vQ the 1955 movie also named]] ''The Fast and the Furious'', directed by John Ireland and starring Ireland and Dorothy Malone.[[note]]Incidentally, that film is also related to car racing, as it consists basically of a feature-length ChaseScene.[[/note]]
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!!Works
[[index]]
[[folder:Films]]
[[AC:''The Fast Saga'']]
* ''Film/{{The Fast and the Furious|2001}}'' (2001)
The first installment in the series follows Brian O'Conner (Creator/PaulWalker), an undercover LAPD cop, who is tasked with discovering the identities of a group of unknown automobile hijackers and underground street racers led by Dominic Toretto (Creator/VinDiesel).\\\

The film was directed by Rob Cohen and written by Gary Scott Thompson, Erik Bergquist, and Creator/DavidAyer. It was released on June 22, 2001.

* ''Film/TwoFastTwoFurious'' (2003)
Brian and his childhood friend Roman Pearce (Creator/TyreseGibson) team up to go undercover for the U.S. Customs Service to bring down drug lord Carter Verone (Cole Hauser) in exchange for the erasure of their criminal records.\\\

''2 Fast 2 Furious'' is a sequel to the first film and is the only film in the main series not to feature Diesel as Dominic. It also marks the first appearance of Gibson and Music/{{Ludacris}} as Roman and Tej Parker, introducing them to the franchise. The film was directed by Creator/JohnSingleton and written by Michael Brandt and Derek Haas. It was released on June 6, 2003.

* ''Film/TheFastAndTheFuriousTokyoDrift'' (2006)
High school car enthusiast Sean Boswell (Creator/LucasBlack) is sent to live in Tokyo with his father, and finds solace in the city's drifting community.\\\

''Tokyo Drift'' is a sequel to the previous films. Diesel makes a cameo appearance as Dominic at the end of the film. It also marks the first appearance of Creator/SungKang as Han Lue in the franchise ([[SharedUniverse though he'd previously appeared]] in a previous Creator/JustinLin film, ''Film/BetterLuckTomorrow''). Although this is the third film released in the franchise, it has been retroactively placed as the sixth, with the subsequent three installments being set between ''2 Fast 2 Furious'' and ''Tokyo Drift''. The film was directed by Lin and written by Chris Morgan, and was released on June 16, 2006.

* ''Film/FastAndFurious'' (2009)
After his girlfriend Letty Ortiz (Creator/MichelleRodriguez) is murdered, fugitive Dominic returns to Los Angeles and teams up with Brian, now an FBI agent, to avenge the murder of Letty and apprehend Arturo Braga (John Ortiz), a Mexican drug lord, crime lord and heroin importer.\\\

This film is set five years after the events of ''The Fast and the Furious'', a sequel to ''2 Fast 2 Furious'', and canonically long before ''Tokyo Drift'', as it features Kang as Han, wanting to travel to Tokyo in the future. It features the return of the original main cast (Diesel, Walker, Rodriguez and Creator/JordanaBrewster, who portrays Dominic's sister Mia). The film was again directed by Lin and written by Morgan. It was released on April 3, 2009.

* ''Film/FastFive'' (2011)
Dom, Brian (now an ex-FBI agent-turned-criminal), and Mia plan a heist to steal $100 million from Hernan Reyes (Creator/JoaquimDeAlmeida), a corrupt, evil Brazilian drug lord and crime lord who owns and runs the city of Rio de Janeiro to secure their freedom and topple his criminal empire while being doggedly pursued for arrest by a dangerously lethal U.S. Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) lawman federal agent Luke Hobbs (Wrestling/DwayneJohnson).\\\

The film continues directly from the end of ''Fast & Furious'', introducing Johnson and Creator/ElsaPataky as Hobbs and Elena Neves, respectively. It also features the returns of Gibson and Ludacris as Roman and Tej from ''2 Fast 2 Furious''; Kang as Han from ''Tokyo Drift'' and ''Fast & Furious''; and Creator/GalGadot, Tego Calderón and Don Omar as Gisele Yashar, Tego Leo and Rico Santos, respectively, from ''Fast & Furious''. Creator/EvaMendes also makes an uncredited appearance as Monica Fuentes in a mid-credits scene, reprising her role from ''2 Fast 2 Furious''.\\\

''Fast Five'' deliberately departed from the street racing theme prevalent in previous films, to transform the franchise into a heist action series involving cars. The film was directed by Lin and written by Morgan. It was released on April 29, 2011.

* ''Film/FastAndFurious6'' (2013)
Hobbs recruits Dom, Brian, and their team to help him defeat Owen Shaw (Creator/LukeEvans) and his skilled mercenary organization, promising to grant them full pardons for their crimes so they can return home to Los Angeles; Dom discovers that his supposedly deceased girlfriend Letty is still alive (albeit rather amnesiac) and working for Shaw.\\\

It is the last film to be set before ''Tokyo Drift''. In a mid-credits scene, Han's death scene from ''Tokyo Drift'' is replayed, with an added scene showing that his killer is Owen's older brother Deckard, portrayed by Creator/JasonStatham. Ortiz reprises his role as Braga from ''Fast & Furious''. ''Fast & Furious 6'' incorporates elements of spy and adventure films into the franchise. The film was directed by Lin and written by Morgan. It was released on May 24, 2013.

* ''Film/Furious7'' (2015)
After defeating Owen Shaw and his henchmen, Dom, Brian, and the rest of the team are eerily hunted down by his vindictively vengeful older brother Deckard, a rogue British special forces assassin seeking to avenge Owen by plotting to murder them all after killing Han in Tokyo and blowing up Dom's L.A. mansion using a letter bomb. The team allies with a Fed called Mr. Nobody (Creator/KurtRussell) to rescue a hacker, Ramsey (Creator/NathalieEmmanuel), from a Nigerian terrorist, Mose Jakande (Creator/DjimonHounsou).\\\

The film is set after the events of ''Fast & Furious 6'' and ''Tokyo Drift''. It features the return of Lucas Black as Sean Boswell from the latter film, after nine years.\\\

''Furious 7'' also marks the final film appearance of Walker, who died in a single-vehicle crash on November 30, 2013, with filming only half-completed. Following his death, filming was delayed for script rewrites and his brothers, Caleb and Cody Walker, were used as body doubles (stand-ins) to complete his remaining scenes. John Brotherton also was a minor stand-in for Walker. These script rewrites completed the story arc for Walker's character, who was subsequently retired. The film is dedicated to him. It was directed by Creator/JamesWan and written by Morgan, and was released on April 3, 2015.

* ''Film/TheFateOfTheFurious'' (2017)
With Dom and Letty on their honeymoon, while Brian and Mia having retired and the rest of the crew having returned to seemingly normal, peaceful lives, a sinister cyberterrorist named Cipher (Creator/CharlizeTheron) seduces Dom to the dark side and coerces him to join her and betray his team, using his baby son as leverage, forcing the rest of the team to rescue Dom and take down Cipher.\\\

The film is set after ''Furious 7''. It is the first film since ''Tokyo Drift'' to not feature Walker and Brewster as Brian and Mia. The film also marks the final appearance of Pataky as Elena in the series. ''The Fate of the Furious'' was directed by Creator/FGaryGray and written by Morgan. It was released on April 14, 2017.

* ''Film/{{F9}}: The Fast Saga'' (a.k.a. ''Fast and Furious 9'') (2021)
A few years after the events of ''The Fate of the Furious'', Dom and his family must come out of retirement after they are dangerously hunted down and targeted by a deadly assassin at the behest of Cipher: Dominic's forsaken younger brother Jakob (Creator/JohnCena), who also has a personal vendetta against him.\\\

The film features the return of Kang to the franchise, with his character Han revealed to be alive. Also returning are Brewster as Mia and Black as Sean, as well as Bow Wow and Jason Tobin, who reprise their ''Tokyo Drift'' roles as Twinkie and Earl respectively. This is the first film since ''Fast Five'' not to feature Johnson as Hobbs, while Statham only makes a cameo as Deckard in the mid-credits scene.\\\

Lin returned as director after not directing the previous two installments, while the film was written by Daniel Casey, marking the first time since ''2 Fast 2 Furious'' that a film was not written or co-written by Morgan. Originally scheduled to be released on May 22, 2020, ''F9'' was pushed back to June 25, 2021 as a result of the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic, though it [[ShortRunInPeru did launch overseas]] earlier on May 19 that year.

* ''Fast X'' (2023)
A tenth installment will be directed by Lin and written by Casey. It was scheduled to be released on April 2, 2021 before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, delaying filming until 2022. ''F9'' originally took its release date until it was delayed again for two months. It is currently slated for a May 19, 2023 release. Creator/JasonMomoa, Creator/DanielaMelchior, Creator/BrieLarson and Creator/RitaMoreno will join Diesel, Gibson, Ludacris, Rodriguez, and Kang, all of whom have been confirmed to reprise their roles, along with the return of Gadot for the first time since ''Fast and Furious 6''. In May 2022, Lin departed as director shortly after production began (but remained as a producer), to be replaced by Creator/LouisLeterrier.

* Untitled eleventh film (TBD)
An untitled eleventh film has been confirmed to be the final mainline theatrical entry in the series, with Lin in talks to direct yet again.

[[AC:Spin-offs]]
* ''Fast & Furious Presents: Film/HobbsAndShaw'' (2019)
Hobbs and Shaw are forced to team up with Shaw's sister Hattie (Creator/VanessaKirby), an [[UsefulNotes/SecretIntelligenceService MI6]] agent, to battle a cybernetically-enhanced terrorist named Brixton Lore (Creator/IdrisElba) who is threatening the world with a deadly virus.\\\

The film is set after the events of ''The Fate of the Furious''. Creator/HelenMirren reprises her uncredited role from that film as Magdalene Shaw, Deckard and Hattie's mother. ''Hobbs & Shaw'' was directed by David Leitch and written by Morgan and Drew Pearce. It was released on August 2, 2019.

* Untitled female-focused spinoff (TBD)

There is at least one female-lead spinoff in development. An untitled film focusing on female characters was first announced by Diesel in January 2019, with writers already on board. In June 2021, Diesel announced that a spinoff focusing on Cipher is also in development. It is unknown whether these projects are distinct or one and the same.

* Untitled ''Hobbs & Shaw'' sequel (TBD)

An untitled sequel to ''Hobbs & Shaw'' was announced to be in development in March 2020, with Johnson back on the saddle as producer and lead actor, and Morgan returning as writer.

[[AC:Short films]]
* ''The Turbo Charged Prelude for 2 Fast 2 Furious'' (2003)
A short film set sometime between the events of ''The Fast and the Furious'' and ''2 Fast 2 Furious''. It focuses on Brian as he goes on the run after helping Dom escape the LAPD, ending up as a street racer in Miami. It was released on June 3, 2003 as part of special home releases of the first film, and was screened in select theaters alongside the second film.

* ''Los Bandoleros'' (2009)
A short film set sometime between the events of ''The Fast and the Furious'' and ''Fast & Furious''. It details how Dom, Letty, Han, Leo, and Santos end up living in the Dominican Republic in the latter film (which never shows it, instead opening in medias res). It was released on July 28, 2009, included in special home releases of the fourth film.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theme park attractions]]
* ''Ride/FastAndFuriousSupercharged'' (2015--present)
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video games]]
* ''The Fast and the Furious'' (2004 arcade racing game by Raw Thrills. Was later ported to Wii under the name ''Cruis'n'', with all references to the film removed)
* ''The Fast and the Furious: Super Bikes'' (2006 arcade motorcycle game by Raw Thrills, and the first in their ''Super Bikes'' series; later ''Super Bikes'' games would do away with the film license)
* ''The Fast and the Furious'' (2006 open-world racing game for Playstation 2 and Playstation Portable developed by Eutechnyx and very loosely based on Tokyo Drift).
* ''The Fast and the Furious: Drift'' (2007 arcade racing game by Raw Thrills)
* ''Fast & Furious: [=SuperCars=]'' (2011 arcade racing game by Raw Thrills)
* ''VideoGame/{{Forza}} Horizon 2 Presents Fast & Furious'' (2015 standalone expansion of ''Forza Horizon 2'')
* ''VideoGame/FastAndFuriousCrossroads'' (2020)
* ''Fast & Furious: Spy Racers – Rise of [=SH1FT3R=]'' (2021): Video game based off the Netflix series.
* ''Fast & Furious Arcade'' (2022): Arcade racing game by Raw Thrills.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/FastAndFuriousSpyRacers'' (2019--21)
An animated show focusing on the adventures of Tony Toretto (voiced by Creator/TylerPosey), as he follows in his cousin Dom's footsteps to become a racing legend and hero. It is a co-production of Universal and Creator/DreamWorksAnimation, and streamed on Creator/{{Netflix}}. The series consists of six seasons, each with a different setting.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Other]]
* ''Film/BetterLuckTomorrow'' (2002)
Ben (Parry Shen) is a straight-A student who wants nothing more than to make the school basketball team, get with his cheerleader crush, and get into an Ivy League school. However his friendship with a group of other overachieving students become dangerous when out of boredom they start engaging in petty criminal acts which soon escalate.\\\

Directed by Creator/JustinLin, it was retroactively made part of the ''Fast & Furious'' franchise after Creator/SungKang reprised his role as Han in ''Tokyo Drift'' and other films in the franchise, with this film being considered his OriginStory. It was released on January 12, 2002 at the [[UsefulNotes/{{Sundance}} Sundance Film Festival]] and then released theatrically in the US on April 11, 2003.
[[/folder]]
[[/index]]
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!!This franchise contains examples of:
* ActorAllusion:
** Hobbs, being played by former WWE champion [[Wrestling/DwayneJohnson Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson]], gets to bust out a few wrestling moves - he pulls off a [[ProfessionalWrestling Doomsday Device]] [[spoiler: with Dom]] in ''6'', and hits the Rock Bottom, his WWE finishing move, in ''Furious 7''.
*** Hobbs' BrattyHalfPint daughter alludes to Johnson's foray into the ActionHeroBabysitter genre (''Film/TheToothFairy'', ''Film/TheGamePlan'', etc.) -- one that Vin Diesel also dabbed into.
*** In ''Fate'', the last few syllables of Hobbs' haka for the Red Dragons may sound familiar for anyone who's seen ''WesternAnimation/{{Moana}}''.
** In back-to-back scenes in ''Fast Five'', [[Creator/VinDiesel Dom]] [[Film/XxX jumps out of a convertible he's driven off a cliff and then is strung up by his wrists and menaced by a drug lord.]]
** An indirect one when Suki can be heard yelling "Move, bitch!" in the second movie, the one that introduced Ludacris to the cast.
** Creator/CharlizeTheron being cast as the new villain in the 8th installment hot off the back of her acclaimed turn as drive-fast, fight-fierce heroine Furiosa in ''Film/MadMaxFuryRoad'' made for a lot of good ''Fast and Furiosa'' puns. Coupled with the two movies' similar focus on cars, driving, fights, and action, the casting seemed particularly appropriate.
** In ''Fate'', Deckard mockingly calls Hobbs "Hercules". Guess who played the hero in the [[Film/Hercules2014 2014 Hercules film]]?
** Creator/PaulWalker's preference of Japanese imports in real life is reflected on Brian. In fact, the Nissan Skyline R34 GT-R from ''2 Fast 2 Furious'' and the Toyota Supra from ''Furious 7'' are his personal vehicles.
** Martial artist henchman Jah has half of the name of another character also played by Creator/JoeTaslim, [[Film/TheRaidRedemption Jaka.]]
* AdaptationExpansion: The entire franchise was inspired by a ''magazine article.''
* AlternativeForeignThemeSong: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HxYZeHQ9UM "Before I Decay"]] is the Japanese theme song.
* AnachronicOrder: Pull ''Tokyo Drift'' out of the lineup and stick it between ''6'' and ''7'', and you've got chronological order (i.e. 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 3, 7, 8). The mid-credits stinger in ''Furious 6'' is an extended scene from the middle of ''Tokyo Drift'' that puts it quite definitively between ''6'' and ''7''.
* AnachronismStew: Even though the movies are all contemporary, with the third film happening after movies 4, 5, and 6, it creates a strange paradox when it comes to the contemporary models of cars seen in those movies. Either ''Tokyo Drift'' is set in the "future" of 2015 and everyone drives 2006 model cars or earlier for some strange reason or the rest of the series takes place in 2006 but people are driving models that won't be seen for another 3-9 years. ''Furious 7'' confirms that ''Fast and Furious'' is set in 2009, as the date on [[spoiler:Letty's fake tombstone]] says 2009, and ''Fast Five'' and ''Six'' take place immediately (mere days, months at the most) after it, meaning movies 4-6 for the most part are set in 2009-10, with ''The Fast and the Furious'' being set five years prior in 2004. ''Furious 7'' takes place a few years later, as Brian's son Jack is a preschooler, meaning the events of ''Tokyo Drift'' can't happen any earlier than 2012 or so.
* ArcWord: Family, to emphasize the FireForgedFriends theme of the series.
* ArtisticLicensePhysics:
** Nearly every jump in the series.
** Drifting to go faster.
* AuthorAppeal: Justin Lin, who directed all of the movies from ''Tokyo Drift'' up to ''6'' mentioned in the commentary for ''Tokyo Drift'' that he liked cars landing on their roofs after a big crash. If you watch the movies he's directed again, it's pretty glaring just how many of them actually wind up like that.
* BackFromTheDead:
** Dom's 1970 Dodge Charger was wrecked and rebuilt before the events of the first movie, and history repeats itself several times during the course of the series.
** [[spoiler: Both Letty and as of the F9 trailer ''Han'' manage to live after what seems like definite deaths.]]
* BadassDriver: Pretty much anyone with more than 90 seconds of screen time, but hilariously subverted with Tej, who is shown to be unable to even drive a remote control toy car without "getting into an accident." He overcomes this eventually.
* BadassFamily:
** The Toretto Gang of carjackers may be surrogate and multi-racial, but their love and loyalty towards each other is stronger than most RealLife blood families. In fact, they ''explicitly'' refer to each other as family rather than just "friends", particularly at gatherings and when saying grace at meals. (So this is a bit of a case of FriendsAreChosenFamilyArent.)
--->'''Dom:''' I don't have friends. I have family.
** The Toretto family itself qualifies, consisting of Dom, Mia and their significant others, Letty and Brian.
** Owen and Deckard Shaw are both [[TheSociopath sociopathic]] ArrogantKungFuGuy [[BloodKnight Blood Knights]].[[spoiler:Their mother seems to be just as nasty.]]
* BloodlessCarnage: Starting by Furious 7, blood became noticeably absent in the series, likely due to the real life tragedy of Paul Walker and the series wanting to divorce itself from anything resembling that reality. For an example: Go back and watch Dom Vs Hobbs in Fast Five, and compare it to the bloodless fight of Hobbs vs Shaw.
* CarCushion: All the time. A car hood seems to be the equivalent of a feather mattress in this world.
* CarFu: What all the movies center around.
* CarPorn: As befitting a series about cars, nearly every car onscreen gets its own close-up treatment.
* CharacterDevelopment: Everyone gets their fair share, mostly due to the fact that their lives are drastically changed by the increasing weight and consequences of their dangerous, illegal endeavors.
* CliffhangerWall: The third film, ''Tokyo Drift'', was chronologically the last film for nine years -- the next three movies would be interquels. It wasn't until the release of ''Furious 7'' that the timeline moved forward again.
* ContinuityNod: The fourth and especially fifth and sixth films are loaded with them. The third film gets one retroactively when Dom mentions Han running with him.
* ConvenientlyEmptyRoads: PlayedWith like there's no tomorrow.
** ''Film/TheFastAndTheFurious2001'':
*** {{Invoked}} during the first street race, as it's shown that friends of the racers use their vehicles to block traffic from interfering.
*** Every time the crew pulls off a semi-truck heist, as the roads are conveniently clear of traffic. [[DownplayedTrope They do have to drive through construction during the first heist, however.]]
** ''Film/TheFastAndTheFuriousTokyoDrift'': ZigZagged.
*** {{Justified|Trope}} in the first race, since it takes place in a neighborhood where no one lives because all of the houses are under construction.
*** Averted during the chase [[spoiler: in which Han is killed]], as there is a decent amount of traffic on the roads.
** ''Film/FastAndFurious'': Played straight. When Brian and the crew break Dom out of the prison transport, there are no other vehicles around. The same is true during the opening gas truck heist.
** ''Film/FastFive'': {{Downplayed}}. During the final chase, there is some traffic, but not nearly as much as you'd expect.
** ''Film/FastAndFurious6'':
*** Downplayed and justified during the London chase, which takes place at night.
*** Refreshingly averted during the tank chase, as the cars of several innocent bystanders are destroyed in the chaos.
** ZigZagged in ''Film/Furious7''.
*** Averted when Dom chases Shaw after the funeral, as both are forced to maneuver through traffic.
*** Played straight when the crew rescues Ramsey but justified because the chase occurs on a remote mountain road.
*** Downplayed and justified during the final chase, which takes place at night.
** ''Film/TheFateOfTheFurious'': {{Defied}} when Cypher hacks and remotely controls dozens of cars in order to prevent the Russian Defense minister from escaping.
** Played straight in the climax of ''Film/{{F9}}'', where Dom manages to successfully steer an upside-down armored truck onto a cliffside road just outside Tbilisi. Upon re-righting it, he drives it along the highway. There are no other cars using this road, which is a good thing because Dom next jack-knifes the truck and spins it around in order to [[spoiler:use it like a whip to bring down an attacking remote-control drone plane with a UAV]].
* CoolCar[=/=]PimpedOutCar: Just about everything on wheels in the whole series.
* CriminalFoundFamily: Taken to meme-worthy levels as the main characters- especially the leader, Dom Toretto- routinely refer to each other as "Family" and justify all of their crimes and actions as being for the betterment of that family. While one or two of them are actually related, most are either childhood friends or outcasts that they basically "adopted" into said family. They use the phrase "Family" so often it is practically their catchphrase and a ''staggering'' number of joke sites and videos poke fun at the franchise for their overuse of the word
* DanBrowned: Go ahead. Watch these movies with actual gearheads.
* DarkerAndEdgier: ''Fast & Furious'' compared to the first. Its tone is grimier, about Dom getting revenge for Letty's supposed death. ''Furious 7'' has Deckard Shaw murder Han and has a revenge theme, which includes a bittersweet ending. ''The Fate of the Furious'' contains Cipher, the most dangerous villain in the series, who kidnaps Elena and brainwashes Dom into working for her, causing him to betray his family in order to save Elena and their son.
* DeadpanSnarker: Watch any of the films and try to locate someone who ''isn't'' one.
* DenserAndWackier: ''The Fast and the Furious'' was pretty much a straight cop drama that revolved around the world of street racing. Starting with ''2 Fast 2 Furious'', the focus shifted to the cars themselves, to the point where ''Tokyo Drift'' was almost entirely about the racing. Then, with ''Fast and Furious'', it took ''another'' change in tone, this time becoming an over the top action flick, while ''Fast Five'' somehow took it even further to the point where it was just another completely absurd action movie that's closer to something like ''Film/TheTransporter''. ''Fast and Furious 6'' has a plot more reminiscent of a Bond film, only even more over-the-top. ''Furious 7'' went up another notch, involving the team working for a top-secret spy organization against terrorists and a rogue spec ops agent out for revenge. Certainly a far cry from the first movie's original cop drama format. CrossesTheLineTwice in ''Hobbs & Shaw'', which introduces genetically modified cyborg supersoldier, moving the franchise closer to something like ''Franchise/GIJoe''.
* DrivingStick: Shifting techniques in street racing are SeriousBusiness.
** Even better because just about any lesson on performance driving technique in the series is total nonsense and potentially harmful to your engine.
** The first couple films are notorious for having characters up-- or downshift more times than would be possible with their cars' transmissions.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The first three films focused heavily on car culture amidst the relatively small time and contained criminal affairs of the plots. The fourth and especially fifth movies helped transition the franchise into the more action-oriented heist movies known today. Paul Walker was noted as feeling relieved when the changes occurred, believing that he had forcibly tried to look cool as per what the tuner scene needed.
* ExtremelyShortTimespan: Four and Five happen almost immediately after one another, with the final scene of Four being repeated and continued in Five, with the rest of the film's events occurring a few weeks following. Six, similarly, happens immediately after the ending of Five, which had a short TimeSkip between the bulk of the action and the final scene, based on Mia's pregnancy. All of this allows Four, Five, and Six to occur ''before'' the events of ''Tokyo Drift'', allowing Han to be featured in them, but it essentially limits the events of the three movies within about a single year. So within the span of a year, Dom and co lost Letty, avenged her by taking down the drug lord responsible for her death, fled to Rio, took down the crime lord who controlled the city, fled overseas, then came to London and Spain and took down an international terrorist.
* {{Fanservice}}: Essentially any non-speaking female role could be counted as fan service.
* GenreMotif/HipHop: The series runneth over with this, even the third movie, which is set in Japan.
* {{Interquel}}: The fourth, fifth and sixth films, which are set after the second but before the third movie. The seventh film takes place after the events of the third film, finally catching up to continuity.
* LateArrivalSpoiler: It's kind of hard to avoid the fact that [[spoiler:Deckard Shaw [[HeelFaceTurn becomes an ally for the protagonists]]]], considering that he and Hobbs now have their own spinoff movie.
* MadeOfIron: Just about everyone.
* MarketBasedTitle: Many foreign countries have regular NumberedSequels instead of the word removal - only "Fast" or "Furious" - they got in English (at times with TheForeignSubtitle - for instance, ''Fast Five'' is known in many countries as ''Fast and Furious 5: Rio Heist''). Likewise, ''Furious 7'' and ''The Fate of the Furious'' are known as just ''Fast and Furious 7'' and ''Fast and Furious 8''. However, all the films in the series so far has been released in Japan under the title ''Wild Speed'' instead.
* MatchingBadGuyVehicles: Crops up occasionally, and not just with cars. In the first movie, Johnny Tran's mooks ride similar motorcycles and even wear similar helmets.
* NeverMyFault: The characters tend to blame Brian for their misfortunes, such as the team being ripped apart, Vince and Mia being fugitives and Letty being supposedly dead. They tend to ignore the fact that they have suffered because they are criminals and even if Brian was involved in their lives, they still would have experienced these misfortunes. Additionally, it is unfair for them to blame Brian for Letty’s death when she was the one who decided to become an FBI informant so Dom could be pardoned for his crimes.
* NitroBoost: Used in all of the films.
* NoSeatBelts: Oddly enough, the lack of seat belt use seems to have little effect on [[RuleOfCool anyone's ability to survive catastrophic crashes]]. Until ''Furious 7'', where characters are actually seen wearing belts and on one occasion, a helmet.
* OddballInTheSeries: ''Tokyo Drift'' was set in Japan with an entirely different cast of characters. The only thing that connected it with the previous two films is the appearance of Dom in a cameo. Han would go on to appear in many of the sequels to tie it back into the franchise, but otherwise, it doesn't have much to do with the other movies.
* OddlyNamedSequel2ElectricBoogaloo: This has been taken to the point of, for lack of other fitting description, absurdity by this series: ''No two movies use the same numbering system''. The series goes:
** ''The Fast and the Furious''
** ''2 Fast 2 Furious''
** ''The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift''
** ''Fast & Furious'' (renamed in various markets due to its confusing nature, especially in languages that lack articles)
** ''Fast Five'' (known as ''Fast and Furious 5'' in the UK)
** ''Fast & Furious 6'' (some international versions have the title card simply read ''Furious 6'')
** ''Furious 7''
** ''The Fate of the Furious'' (or ''The F8 of the Furious'')
** ''F9'' (a.k.a. ''F9: The Fast Saga'' or ''Fast & Furious 9'')
** ''Fast X'' (''Fast 10'' in Roman numerals)
* PracticalEffects: From ''Fast Five'' onwards, the series has largely used in-camera effects for the stunts. Ironic, considering the DenserAndWackier SequelEscalation the series undergoes at that point.
* ProductPlacement:
** [[CoolCar Well, they are good-looking cars]].
** Corona beer is featured prominently in all the films starring Vin Diesel. Funnily enough, Corona doesn't receive (or pay) money at all for it; when Corona first popped up in the original, it was chosen by the crew simply because that would be the beer of choice in a L.A. neighborhood like that. Corona has enjoyed the product placement so much, they still allow the series to use their products without compensation, letting the film's promotion speak for itself in terms of boosted sales.
* RatedMForManly: The series runs on [[CoolCar cars]], manly heroes, and [[MaleGaze gratuitous shots]] of [[MsFanservice hot women]].
* RevolvingDoorCasting: Since there have been several movies over the course of several years with a ReTool here and a SoftReboot there, it makes sense that the cast of characters would get shaken up. Some were PutOnABus (with a few instances of TheBusCameBack) while others were KilledOffForReal or simply given ChuckCunninghamSyndrome. Not a single major character appears in every film (not including the spin-offs like Hobbs & Shaw) but a few come close:
** Dom was the {{Deuteragonist}} along with Brian in the first film but sat out for the second film and most of the third (he appears in a cameo in TheStinger). Since then, he has been the main character for the rest of the series.
** Brian was in the first film as mentioned above and was the lone protagonist for the second film. He was not present for the third but was a major part of every movie until the seventh when Paul Walker unfortunately passed away. His character retired to be with his family.
** Letty, Dom's love interest for most of the series, was in every movie except the second, third, and fifth films. In the fourth movie, [[spoiler: she is supposedly killed early on. Her photo appears in TheStinger in the fifth film as it is revealed she is not dead as previously believed, but she does not appear in person]].
** Mia, like the most of the other characters, did not appear in the second or third movies. Since she ends up as Brian's love interest, she retired as well to be with their family. Because of that, she did not appear in the eighth movie. She returns in the 9th.
* RiceBurner: Although all the cars in the movies are high performance, they are commonly accused of responsibility for promoting this in real life. These days, the cars from the first and second installment look fairly tacky. Some would argue they did back then. The developers picked up on this, by having Hobbs make a remark about an aftermarket stereo on a classic GT 40 being as cheap as some neon lights during the fifth movie.
* RuleOfCool: Some of the action and driving scenes are utterly ridiculous, especially in the later instalments... but does it really matter?
* RunningGag:
** Brian never legitimately beating Dom in a race. He almost does in the fourth film, and Dom lets him win in the fifth film. [[spoiler: He finally beats him fairly in 6.]]
** Han is always [[OralFixation eating something]], needing to keep his hands busy due to being an ex-smoker.
** Dom's 1970 Dodge Charger getting completely wrecked and Dom rebuilding it.
* SequelEscalation:
** The truck heists in the original movie are nothing compared to some of the jobs the characters pull in the later movies.
** The cars:
*** The first had cheap, yet easily modifiable import cars.
*** The second included more desirable, newer cars from the tuner scene.
*** ''Tokyo Drift'' followed the same vibe as the second, though this time the cars were built solely for function, pretty decals aside.
*** The fourth mostly had classic muscle cars and the odd import thrown in.
*** The fifth followed the same route, however by the ending, the team are in high-end exotics and hypercars.
*** The sixth has an eclectic mix of classic cars (which serves as a story point). ''And a tank''.
*** ''Furious 7'' has the limited production Lykan Hypersport (valued at $ 3.4 million), also serving as a plot point in that film.
** The villains:
*** The first film has Johnny Tran, a small-time criminal.
*** The second film has Carter Verone, a major drug dealer.
*** The third film has DK, also small-time but with a Yakuza uncle.
*** The fourth film has Braga, the leader of a major cartel.
*** The fifth film has Reyes, who has pretty much everyone in Rio in his pocket.
*** The sixth film has Owen Shaw, who has his hands in almost everyone's pockets, including the CIA and the DEA.
*** The seventh film has Owen's brother Deckard, a ruthless ex-Special Forces assassin and ghost proficient in both hand-to-hand combat and firearms who is also capable of [[OneManArmy racking up a terrifying kill count despite being on his own.]]
*** The eighth film has Cipher, a remorselessly sociopathic hacker-slash-warlord with a veritable god-complex who is ''fully'' able (and willing) to threaten the world with a global nuclear holocaust just to puff up her monstrous ego.
*** The ninth film features the return of Cipher, who now has a new evil sidekick: a master thief, deadly assassin and high-performance driver who just so happens to be Dom's forsaken brother.
*** ''Hobbs & Shaw'' has the series' first explicitly super-human threat: Brixton Lore, a cybernetically-enhanced SuperSoldier out to unleash a virus that will wipe out half of mankind.
* SequelGoesForeign: Starting from the third film, the series moves out from just being set in the US. Films three, five, and six are mostly set abroad, with films four, seven, and eight having sequences in other countries while remaining mostly set in the US.
** Fast & Furious 4 mainly takes place in L.A. and its crowded city streets. The opening scene is set in the Dominican Republic, and a scene shows Dom living in Panama. Some scenes towards the end of the movie (especially the climactic car chase through the Mexican desert) take place in Mexico.
** Fast Five takes place on the streets of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (actually filmed in Puerto Rico). Some scenes show Washington DC, Germany, Monaco, and SoCal.
** Fast & Furious 6 is also set abroad in London, England and in Spain, including the Canary Islands. A few scenes show L.A. while a scene also takes place in Russia and China.
** Tokyo Drift takes place in Tokyo after Fast 6, just before the 7th movie.
** Furious 7 is primarily set in L.A. (mainly filmed in Atlanta). A scene shows the team rescuing Ramsey by air dropping their cars over the Caucasus mountains in Azerbaijan (filmed in Colorado). The next 30 minutes take place in Abu Dhabi in the Middle East before returning to the home turf of L.A.
** Fast 8 primarily takes place on the NYC streets. Some scenes take place in Berlin, Russia, and Havana.
* TheSeriesHasLeftReality: It started out as a grounded crime drama where the only intense action the film had was the street racing scenes. The moment Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is introduced is when the movie became the over-the-top popcorn action franchise it's currently known as.
* SharedUniverse: As confirmed by WordOfGod, Han is the same Han who appeared in a previous Justin Lin film, ''Film/BetterLuckTomorrow''.
* SillyPrayer: The team has a barbecue and the duty of saying grace falls on Jesse for being the first to grab some food. It goes something like this:
-->'''Jesse:''' Dear Heavenly, uh...\\
'''Leon:''' Spirit.\\
'''Jesse:''' Spirit. Thank you. Please bless this meal which we are about to eat. Also, thank you for direct port nitrous injection, four-core intercoolers, ball-bearing turbos, and titanium valve springs. Amen.
* StealingFromThieves:
** ''Film/TwoFastTwoFurious'': Not a major haul, but Brian and Roman not only walk away with clean rap sheets for their help bringing down the villain, but even manage to grab some of the money he was laundering and sneak away with it once he's arrested.
** ''Film/FastFive'': The entirety of the film has Dom and Brian putting a team together to take on the crooked cartel boss they gained the ire of. Culminating in them literally ''stealing his money vault and dragging it through the streets of Rio.''
* TimTaylorTechnology: Nitrous Oxide injectors FTW. Or, as the characters once liked to say it, "NAAAAWS." As NOS is a trademark of Holley Performance Products, it was removed from the second film and replaced by generic "[=N2O=]" labels on the steering wheels and was verbally referred to as "spray" and "kick" after Holley got a bit stroppy about its appearance in the first one. The NOS brand returns in later films.
* WatchThePaintJob: Most installations in the series have some example of this.
* WorldOfBadass: ''Every'' named hero is either a world-class stunt driver or a master martial artist, or ''both.'' The only exception is Ramsey, who might just be the greatest hacker and programmer in the world.
----

It is the last film to be set before ''Tokyo Drift''. In a mid-credits scene, Han's death scene from ''Tokyo Drift'' is replayed, with an added scene showing that his killer is Owen's older brother Deckard, portrayed by Creator/JasonStatham. Ortiz reprises his role as Braga from ''Fast & Furious'', while Gadot makes her final appearance as Gisele in the series. ''Fast & Furious 6'' incorporates elements of spy and adventure films into the franchise. The film was directed by Lin and written by Morgan. It was released on May 24, 2013.

A tenth installment will be directed by Lin and written by Casey. It was scheduled to be released on April 2, 2021 before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, delaying filming until 2022. ''F9'' originally took its release date until it was delayed again for two months. It is currently slated for a May 19, 2023 release. Creator/JasonMomoa, Creator/DanielaMelchior, Creator/BrieLarson and Creator/RitaMoreno will join Diesel, Gibson, Ludacris, Rodriguez, and Kang, all of whom have been confirmed to reprise their roles. In May 2022, Lin departed as director shortly after production began (but remained as a producer), to be replaced by Creator/LouisLeterrier.

A tenth installment will be directed by Lin and written by Casey. It was scheduled to be released on April 2, 2021 before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, delaying filming until 2022. ''F9'' originally took its release date until it was delayed again for two months. It is currently slated for a May 19, 2023 release. Creator/JasonMomoa, Creator/DanielaMelchior, and Creator/BrieLarson will join Diesel, Gibson, Ludacris, Rodriguez, and Kang, all of whom have been confirmed to reprise their roles. In May 2022, Lin departed as directer[[note]]but stayed on as producer[[/note]] shortly after production began and replaced with Creator/LouisLeterrier.

* DenserAndWackier: ''The Fast and the Furious'' was pretty much a straight cop drama that revolved around the world of street racing. Starting with ''2 Fast 2 Furious'', the focus shifted to the cars themselves, to the point where ''Tokyo Drift'' was almost entirely about the racing. Then, with ''Fast and Furious'', it took ''another'' change in tone, this time becoming an over the top action flick, while ''Fast Five'' somehow took it even further to the point where it was just another completely absurd action movie that's closer to something like ''Film/TheTransporter''. ''Fast and Furious 6'' took it UpToEleven, with a plot more reminiscent of a Bond film, only even more over-the-top. ''Furious 7'' went up another notch, involving the team working for a top-secret spy organization against terrorists and a rogue spec ops agent out for revenge. Certainly a far cry from the first movie's original cop drama format. CrossesTheLineTwice in ''Hobbs & Shaw'', which introduces genetically modified cyborg supersoldier, moving the franchise closer to something like ''Franchise/GIJoe''.

A tenth installment will be directed by Lin and written by Casey. It was scheduled to be released on April 2, 2021 before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, delaying filming until 2022. ''F9'' originally took its release date until it was delayed again for two months. It is currently slated for a May 19, 2023 release. Creator/JasonMomoa, Creator/DanielaMelchior, and Creator/BrieLarson will join Diesel, Gibson, Ludacris, Rodriguez, and Kang, all of whom have been confirmed to reprise their roles.

It is the last film to be set before ''Tokyo Drift''. In a mid-credits scene, Han's death scene from ''Tokyo Drift'' is replayed, with an added scene showing that his killer is Owen's older brother Deckard, portrayed by Creator/JasonStatham. Ortiz reprises his role as Braga from ''Fast & Furious'', while Gadot makes her final appearance as Gisele in the series. ''Fast & Furious 6'' incorporates elements of spy and adventure film to the franchise. The film was directed by Lin and written by Morgan. It was released on May 24, 2013.

* AnachronismStew: Even though the movies are all contemporary, with the third film happening after movies 4, 5, and 6, it creates a strange paradox when it comes to the contemporary models of cars seen in those movies. Either ''Tokyo Drift'' is set in the "future" of 2015 and everyone drives 2006 model cars or earlier for some strange reason or the rest of the series takes places in 2006 but people are driving models that won't be seen for another 3-9 years. ''Furious 7'' confirms that ''Fast and Furious'' is set in 2009, as the date on [[spoiler:Letty's fake tombstone]] says 2009, and ''Fast Five'' and ''Six'' take place immediately (mere days, months at the most) after it, meaning movies 4-6 for the most part are set in 2009-10, with ''The Fast and the Furious'' being set five years prior in 2004. ''Furious 7'' takes place a few years later, as Brian's son Jack is a preschooler, meaning the events of ''Tokyo Drift'' can't happen any earlier than 2012 or so.

* AuthorAppeal: Justin Lin, who directed all of the movies from ''Tokyo Drift'' up to ''6'' mentioned in the commentary for ''Tokyo Drift'' that he liked cars landing on their roofs after a big crash. If you watch the movies he's directed again, its pretty glaring just how many of them actually wind up like that.

** The Toretto Gang of carjackers may be surrogate and multi-racial, but their love and loyalty towards each other is stronger than most RealLife blood-families. In fact, they ''explicitly'' refer to each other as family rather than just "friends", particularly at gatherings and when saying grace at meals. (So this is a bit of a case of FriendsAreChosenFamilyArent.)

* CarPorn: As befitting a series about cars, nearly every car onscreen gets its own closeup treatment.

* DarkerAndEdgier: ''Fast & Furious'' compared to the first. It's tone is grimier, about Dom getting revenge for Letty's supposed death. ''Furious 7'' has Deckard Shaw murder Han and has a revenge theme, which includes a bittersweet ending. ''The Fate of the Furious'' contains Cipher, the most dangerous villain in the series, who kidnapps Elena and brainwashes Dom into working for her, causing him to betray his family in order to save Elena and their son.

** The first couple films are notorious for having characters up- or downshift more times than would be possible with their cars' transmissions.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The first three films focused heavily on car culture amidst the relatively small time and contained criminal affairs of the plots. The fourth and especially fifth movies helped transition the franchise into the more action-oriented heist movies known today. Paul Walker was noted as feeling relived when the changes occurred, believing that he had forcibly tried to look cool as per what the tuner scene needed.
* ExtremelyShortTimespan: Four and Five happen almost immediately after one-another, with the final scene of Four being repeated and continued in Five, with the rest of the film's events occurring a few weeks following. Six, similarly, happens immediately after the ending of Five, which had a short time-skip between the bulk of the action and the final scene, based on Mia's pregnancy. All of this allows Four, Five, and Six to occur ''before'' the events of ''Tokyo Drift'', allowing Han to be featured in them, but it essentially limits the events of the three movies within about a single year. So within the span of a year, Dom and co lost Letty, avenged her by taking down the drug lord responsible for her death, fled to Rio, took down the crime lord who controlled the city, fled overseas, then came to London and Spain and took down an international terrorist.

** Corona beer is featured prominently in all the films starring Vin Diesel. Funnily enough, Corona doesn't receive (or pay) money at all for it; when Corona first popped up in the original, it was chosen by the crew simply because that would be the beer of choice in a L.A. neighborhood like that. Corona has enjoyed the product placement so much, they still allow the series use their products without compensation, letting the film's promotion speak for itself in terms of boosted sales.

*** The seventh film has Owen's brother Deckard, a ruthless ex-Special Forces assassin and ghost proficient in both hand-to-hand combat and firearms who is also capable of [[OneManArmy racking up a terrifying killcount despite being on his own.]]

*** The ninth film features the return of Cipher, who now has a new evil sidekick: a master thief, deadly assassin and high performance driver who just so happens to be Dom's forsaken brother.

* WorldOfBadass: ''Every'' named hero is either a world class stunt driver or a master martial artist, or ''both.'' The only exception is Ramsey, who might just be the greatest hacker and programmer in the world.

Not at all to be confused with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcG1_0AM-vQ the 1955 movie also named]] ''The Fast and the Furious'', directed by John Ireland and starring Ireland and Dorothy Malone, though the fact that is one of the first films to have a feature-length ChaseScene may have had something to do with the 2001 film being given the same title.[[note]]Creator/RogerCorman, who created the outline for that film, licensed the rights to its title to Universal. According to the first film's director, the whole concept of the series was based on a magazine article about street racing.[[/note]]

* ''Videogame/TheFastAndTheFurious'' (2006 open-world racing game for Playstation 2 and Playstation Portable developed by Eutechnyx and very loosely based on Tokyo Drift).

* MarketBasedTitle: The movies are marketed/broadcasted in Japanese as ''WILD SPEED''.

* Untitled tenth film (2023)
An untitled tenth film is planned, with Lin and Casey set to return to direct and write, respectively. It was scheduled to be released on April 2, 2021 before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, delaying filming until 2022. ''F9'' originally took its release date until it was delayed again for two months. It is currently slated for a May 19, 2023 release. Creator/JasonMomoa has joined the cast.