Perhaps no movie franchise has reinvented itself in the way that the Fast & Furious films have. Originally a Point Break-esque movie about street racers that steal DVD players, these films now involve submarines, tanks, magnetic stealth fighters, and nuclear weapons. These characters have gone from sparing no RPMs to saving the world.
But not all of these films are equal. Like most franchises, they range somewhat all over the place in quality and have spared no expense when it comes to doing the impossible to bring characters back from the dead in order to tell the story that it wants to.
CAUTION: Spoilers ahead
So here’s your rankings of the Fast and Furious movies of worst to best:
10. Fast & Furious
For being the fourth film in the franchise, it’s crazy to think that this was only the second time that the entire gang was back together. Brought together by the death of Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), Dominic (Vin Diesel)and Brian (Paul Walker) go undercover into the Mexican drug cartel in order to sniff out and make those responsible for her death pay.
Fast & Furious is at a weird spot for the franchise. It finds itself in between the street racing stories of the first three films and the international crime and justice tales of the latter half of the Fast Saga. It’s a movie that doesn’t quite know what it wants to be or how to do it. So much of the racing takes place in tight underground cartel tunnels so even the car chases aren’t nearly as compelling as the other films and the reveal that Braga’s henchman, Campos (John Ortiz), is actually Braga is a reveal that the movie wants to be waaaaaay more surprising than it actually is.
All in all, Fast & Furious, while the bottom of the barrel for the series at least got the family back in the driver’s seat. That’s what’s most important.
9. The Fast & The Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw
From the moment that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s Hobbs called Jason Statham’s Deckard Shaw “a tea-and-crumpet-eating criminal sum’bitch”, this movie was forged in iron. With the uncontrollably charismatic Idris Elba playing the antagonist Brixton Lore that brings them together, Hobbs and Shaw is a testosterone-fueled thrill ride.
It takes a lot of the elements that the Fast and Furious franchise is based in: cool characters, fast cars, over-the-top situations, and of course, family, and injects them into full throttle. But Hobbs and Shaw is a bit too much of a testosterone overdose and even Vanessa Kirby and Helen Mirren aren’t enough to counteract it. Rather than the characters coming together and loving each other as family, it’s a constant you-know-what measuring contest between the two leads that never gives the same feeling as the rest of the franchise.
8. 2 Fast 2 Furious
Possibly the most 2000s movie ever created, 2 Fast leaves behind every character from the first film outside of Brian O’Conner and places him in the Miami racing scene as he attempts to evade prosecution after letting Dominic Toretto free at the end of The Fast and the Furious. But once the law catches up with him, he is offered a deal to help bring down a local cartel kingpin in order to have his charges dropped.
2 Fast trades in the orange-y yellow of Los Angeles for the bright colors of Miami. There are more cars, more characters, and introduces one of the great relationships of the series as 2 Fast introduces Tej (Ludacris) and Roman (Tyrese). The film is home to some of the best Roman one-liners in the franchise (‘Ejecto seato, cuz!” and “It’s a hoasis in here, bruh” just to name a few). But the only characters that get to develop at all are Brian and Roman, leaving even Eva Mendes’s Monica Fuentes behind (that’s right, she was in this franchise, remember?).
7. The Fate of the Furious
The Fate of the Furious introduces the unthinkable: Dominic Toretto, a man who has spent 5 of these movies talking about “family” and never turning your back on that family…turning his back on family. It’s a clever way to switch things up and (attempt to) distract from Paul Walker’s absence. In an effort to save his son, Dom is coerced into helping cyberterrorist Cipher (Charlize Theron) and turning on his team.
Fate has some great action sequences, but Paul Walker’s absence is apparent and it’s only made worse by the fact that Dom becomes an enemy for most of the film. Theron’s Cipher is a menace, but she seems pretty uninterested in a lot of her delivery. The movie also makes the head-scratching choice of giving Deckard Shaw a pass on killing Han and allowing him to join the team with next to no repercussions. It’s a move that largely betrays the central tenet of these films, that nothing is more important than family, which is a bummer because Statham is way too fun as a (kinda) good guy.
6. The Fast and the Furious
Where it all began. The Fast and the Furious essentially plays as Point Break with street racers as Brian O’Conner attempts to infiltrate the underground street racing scene in order to root out a gang of thieves that have been stealing electronics from semi-trucks. As he dives deeper into this world, his paths cross with Dom and the gang, and eventually, his true self comes out as racing tensions rise.
The original film feels almost like a distant memory. To think that this series about drivers saving the world from destruction by cyberterrorists all began with felony theft street racers feels almost ridiculous. But while the first film is undoubtedly a good time, its mediocre writing leaves a lot on the table. The film is rife with one-dimensional characters and while the street racing is a blast, it never seems sure of whether it wants to be a street racing movie or a crime thriller. Rather, it ends up being a jack of all trades, but a master of none.
5. F9
Positing that Dom’s code of loyalty to family hasn’t always been the case, F9 is a nonstop action ride that introduces Dom’s brother Jacob (John Cena) who Dom cast out after the death of their father. F9 features some of the series’ most bonkers moments but they feel somehow more grounded than some of the other big moments in the series.
F9 feels like a jolt to the system after Fate of the Furious largely betrayed the series’ idea of family (by just letting Shaw off the hook) and Hobbs and Shaw turned into a pissing match of epic proportions. It returns the franchise to its full and total sincerity by removing The Rock (who was starting to feel too self-aware for the franchise) and sets up pieces both new and old for future movies. Re-introducing certain characters will most certainly have consequences for future films, but F9 doesn’t worry about that. It’s about the here and now. It’s also probably the funniest of the Fast films with Tej and Roman really getting to do their back and forth comedy routine.
4. Fast & Furious 6
Following up Fast Five is a tall order, and while Fast & Furious 6 doesn’t quite reach those heights, it does provide its fair share of thrills while also being the film that begins the franchise’s total swan dive into over-the-top superhero stylings. The film follows Dom’s team as they discover that Letty, thought dead in the fourth film, is actually alive and working for Owen Shaw (Luke Evans), an international terrorist.
Shaw isn’t particularly compelling, but Luke Evans is just cool and while the movie can tend to be all over the place at times, the action set pieces really are great. From the London car chase featuring custom-built bulletproof titanium formula 1 cars to the tank highway chase, Fast & Furious 6 rarely lets it foot off the gas and delivers one of the most ridiculous (in a good way) finales of the entire franchise–the 14 mile airplane runway.
3. The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
Tokyo Drift gets such an unfair shake. After two films of street racing, Tokyo Drift jumps across the ocean to introduce us to new characters and an entirely different world of street racing. The Tokyo street racing scene dominated by drivers who drift their cars around tight cornered courses. As he dives deeper into the drifting world, he finds himself tied up with the Yakuza and a rival that is willing to race him to the death.
Tokyo Drift is not only among the best Fast films, it introduced Han Lue (Sung Kang), one of the best characters in the franchise and caused a massive timeline adjustment in order to bring him back. And then there’s the racing. Whereas the first two films focus on quarter-mile straightaways, Drift introduces courses that wind through mountainous regions, city streets and parking garages allowing director Justin Lin to craft his driving set pieces in unique ways and work them more integrally to the story. And of course, it’s home to one of the best songs in the entire Fast Saga.
2. Furious 7
When Paul Walker passed away during the production of Furious 7, there were a lot of questions around what the film would look and feel like. He hadn’t quite completed all of his scenes and the film and franchise would have to react to that passing in some capacity. But Furious 7 impressively delivers not only a great Fast movie, but gives a truly wonderful sendoff to one of its founding members.
Furious 7 introduces Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell) who is a delight every time he is on screen, and Deckard Shaw (Statham) who is out to get revenge on Dom’s team after they defeated his younger brother in Furious 6. Shaw is instantly the best villain the franchise has seen (not a terribly high bar) and his presence feels menacing from his first moments on screen. He truly feels capable of anything and everything at all times.
This installment has some of the franchise’s best car set pieces (the car skydiving scene to the mountain chase is amazing) and largely sticks the landing of sending off Paul Walker in a way that doesn’t feel overly sentimental, all thanks to the clever handiwork of director James Wan.
1. Fast Five
The end of Fast and Furious left things in a perfect place; a relatively blank slate for our characters. While Dom was now in custody for his crimes, Brian O’Conner had turned his back on the FBI and was now ready to put it all on the line for his new family, with the film ending as the crew was ready to bust out Dom. After a brief rescue, the family finds itself in Rio de Janeiro on the run from the United States Government, who sends human wrecking ball, Luke Hobbs, to apprehend them.
Fast Five is easily the film responsible for setting the Fast franchise in the right direction. It took the right elements from each of the first four films and combined them into an action heist movie that is roaring on all pistons. The first film’s “family” emphasis, the second film’s humor, the third film’s breathtaking racing sequences and a focus on coming together to take down a big-time crime boss turns Fast Five into an adrenaline-filled ride. Dwayne Johnson is at his franchise-best and every scene is exhilarating, whether it’s a car scene, a fight scene or a shootout, Lin shoots it all with intensity and delivers the best film in the Fast Saga.
