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As Fast 10 arrives in theaters, Dominic Toretto and the gang are back for more death-defying car chases. This time around, the team are facing one of their biggest foes yet as Jason Momoa’s Dante plots terror. However, while in any other franchise car pinball would likely be one of the wildest set pieces, it’s very familiar territory for the Fast & Furious films.
Over the past two decades, we’ve seen Vin Diesel and the team leaping off canyons, landing cars on yachts, and even heading into space. Now as we reach the beginning of the end of the franchise, there’s no better time to dive into some of the craziest scenes in the beloved action series. So, crack open a Corona and let’s get into the top 10 wildest Fast & Furious moments…
10. The Fast & the Furious: Brian and Dom race
While the Fast & Furious movies get wilder as they go along, it would be remiss not to include the original film that kicked everything off. Probably the most grounded of them all, it still features some epic action sequences. The most notable of which is the race between Dom and Brian after the former finds out the latter has been undercover all this time. The quarter-mile stretch sees the pair navigating a moving freight train, using NOS at just the right time, and of course, some early noughties motion-blurring camera work. While it’s not the most out there sequence, the emotional weight behind the encounter means it deserves a prime place on our list.
9. 2 Fast 2 Furious: Brian races off and jumps on a boat
"You’re not going to do what I think you’re gonna do?" Roman asks Brian in the lead-up to one of the first outrageous moments of the franchise in 2 Fast 2 Furious. After drug lord Carter Verone realizes that Monica Fuentes has double-crossed him, he kidnaps her on a yacht. Left with no other way of getting to her, Brian decides to drive the Yenko Camaro off a ramp and straight onto the deck of a moving boat. It comes at a climactic moment in the movie as they apprehend Verone and save the day.
8. Hobbs & Shaw: Helicopter vs. trucks
Yes, we know it’s a spin-off – and yes, we know it’s not the best of the franchise. But, we couldn’t help but include this frankly ridiculous sequence from Hobbs & Shaw. When Idris Elba’s Brixton pursues the duo in a helicopter, their solution is to attach a chain from the truck they’re driving to it. And would it be a Fast & Furious movie if a cliff wasn’t involved? As Hobbs dangles off a mountain, he’s aided by some friends who attach more weight to the chain, which helps drag the helicopter down – and yes, you guessed it, off another cliff.
7. Fast Five: The train heist
The action had certainly kicked up a notch by the time we reached Fast Five and the DEA train heist scene. Dom, Brian, Mia, and the gang plot to recover three cars for Hernan Reyes as they ride through the Brazilian desert. Driving alongside a moving train, they attach a ramp to the side of the hauler, with each team member jumping into a car before speeding off into the desert. All the while, they’re fighting both Reyes’ men and the DEA, before leaking fuel causes a huge explosion. Add in inconvenient bridges, car chases, and a giant leap off a canyon, it’s fair to say Fast Five set a new bar for the franchise.
6. Fast & Furious 6: Dom catches Letty
In one of the best twists of the movies so far, Letty’s return in Fast & Furious 6 held a lot of emotional weight: not only had she lost her memory and was working with the enemy (Luke Shaw in this case), but she didn’t want to reunite with Dom and the gang (what about family, Letty?). This made the moment that Dom saves her during the convoy race in Spain all the more powerful. After tracking them to a NATO base, Dom’s crew pursues Shaw and Letty – who are speeding away in a tank. When Brian and Roman flip it, Letty is catapulted into the air between two bridges. Without hesitation, Dom crashes his car, leaps out of it and catches her mid-air. Inarguably, cinema at its finest.
5. Fast Five: The bank vault scene
We couldn’t help including another scene from Fast Five. After all, who could forget the infamous bank vault scene? Towards the end of the movie, the Fast family team up with The Rock’s Luke Hobbs to break into police headquarters and steal a bank vault inside of which is $100 million in cash from corrupt businessman Hernan Reyes. After strapping it to their cars, they race the vault through the city where it takes out everything in its path, including police cars, building windows, and bus stops. It’s a bonkers sequence in the best possible way.
4. Fast & Furious 6: The plane sequence
Don’t worry – we haven’t forgotten about the incredible plane sequence in Fast & Furious 6. In one of the final set pieces of the movie, Shaw and his team try to take off in an Antonov An-124 jet, but not before the team concoct a plan to keep them grounded. Racing alongside the plane on what seems to be the longest runway in the world, they use their cars to tie cables around the plane’s wheels. Not only does the jet get grounded, but it also bursts into flames as it hits the runway. Dom just about makes it out alive by bursting through the nose in his car. Incredible.
3. Fast & Furious 7: Skyscraper jumping
"There’s nothing sadder than locking a beast in a cage," laments Dom as he and Brian see Deckard Shaw’s Lykan Hypersport in Fast & Furious 7. Trapped in one of Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Towers, they hatch a plan to escape using the iconic car – by driving it through the window and jumping across to another skyscraper. The only issue? No brakes. So Dom and Brian have to crash through a third skyscraper, this time taking out precious Terracotta Army statues. Any sequence that ends with Dom hanging off the edge of an absurdly tall building is surely one for the Fast & Furious history books.
2. F9: Dom rope swings his car
F9 is pretty hard to top when it comes to outrageous sequences – and it doesn’t get any crazier than the rope swing scene. While Dom and Letty are trying to live a quiet off-grid life, the news arrives that Mr. Nobody’s plane has crashed and Cipher is responsible. Then when Jakob, Dom’s long-lost brother, turns up, a car chase ensues across a literal minefield. The only escape? A crumbling old bridge. The first car goes over it, destroying it in the process, leaving Dom with the ingenious (or very stupid) plan to hook onto the bridge’s rope and swing across to the other side. Like a motorised Tarzan.
1. F9: Driving into space
Just when you thought that the stunts couldn’t get any wilder in F9, there comes the space scene. Yes, you’re reading that right. The SPACE scene. The crew goes intergalactic in F9 to send out a signal to reset all digital devices on Earth. This sees Tej and Roman drive a rocket car created by Sean Boswell, Twinkie, and Earl Hu into the Earth’s orbit. Well, it was always an in-joke among fans that one day the stunts would go so far that the Fast franchise would end up in space... We just didn’t think they’d take us literally.
Fast 10 arrives in theaters on May 19. For more upcoming movies, here's our round-up of 2023 movie release dates.
