by Heath Lynch, Contributing Writer
It has been 25 years since we learned that it doesn’t matter if you win by an inch or a mile, because winning is winning. Twenty-five years of living our lives a quarter mile at a time. Twenty-five years of not liking tuna sandwiches. But more than anything, it’s been 25 years since we learned about family.
That’s right, The Fast and the Furious is 25 years old.
The world has certainly changed a lot over the last quarter century, and the Fast & Furious franchise has done its fair share of changing as well. A series that started as a rip on Point Break, featuring street car racers instead of surfers and hijacking TV/VHS combos and DVD players instead of robbing banks, has grown into a film empire that’s brought in $7.476 billion across all of its theatrically released feature films. To put that into perspective, that makes this the eighth highest grossing film franchise ever, behind the likes of James Bond and Harry Potter, but ahead of such beloved franchises as Batman and Jurassic Park. A statement that would’ve seemed absolutely incomprehensible back in the summer of 2001 when the original film was released in theaters.
I remember when this was released in the wake of Gone in Sixty Seconds that this actually felt like the goofier film of the two. Especially with this stealing so much from Point Break and being largely lambasted by critics and mocked by audiences at the time who found it ironically entertaining, it never seemed like The Fast and the Furious would take off like it did. Even being a big fan of movies, I didn’t bother seeing it in theaters. The first time I caught this was over at my high school girlfriend’s house, and I spent most of my time laughing at the movie itself. But that ironic entertainment has turned into truly endearing love over the years. Are the performances hokey and the dialogue cheesy? Sure. Is this a tropey copy of other crime action flicks that had come before? Absolutely. But it’s entertaining, despite its flaws. The evolution of the franchise over time has been fascinating too. With the early films feeling like relics of the early 2000s (in a good way!), and the later films feeling the influence of the Marvel Cinematic Universe blockbuster phenomenon with our characters becoming living superheroes performing completely impossible feats as secret government agents. It’s wild to connect the dots from point ‘A’ to point ‘B’ of this series.
But as wild as it may be to think of this ever changing series that includes 11 feature films and two short films as part of its catalogue, and that this series is older than the awful 9/11 terrorist attacks, the most fascinating thing about the transformation of this franchise since its inception is the tragic loss of Paul Walker.
On November 30th, 2013, Paul Walker died in a car crash after his friend who was driving lost control of the vehicle that was going over 100 mph. The irony of dying in a car accident as someone who was most famous for being part of a film franchise about car racing aside, the loss of Walker was devastating. It was heartbreaking to audiences and shook the cast and crew of the series to its core as they were in the middle of filming Furious 7 when he passed. After a hiatus from filming to mourn his loss, the team had to pick themselves back up and the rest of the movie was completed using Walker’s brother as a stand-in double, with Paul’s face being CGI added after-the-fact. This led to a heartfelt tribute to Walker at the end of the film where we see his character drive off into the sunset, set to the tearful song “See You Again” by Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth that was commissioned specifically for the film in the wake of the loss.
Paul Walker’s death seemingly put an end to the franchise just as it was getting bigger than it had ever been before, with audience engagement at record levels. But, from that point on, the series morphed into something even more ridiculous and extreme than a bunch of street racers trying to pull off heists and con jobs. The era of Ocean’s 11 or The Italian Job influencing the series was over, and it took a turn for MCU superhero shenanigans ever since. While a large chunk of the audience loves that these movies kept going and got zanier with each new entry, a dedicated fanbase, myself included, feel that the series died with Paul, and that things should’ve ended with Furious 7.
There’s so much more you could dive into with this series, its impact when it first released, how it’s changed over the decades, and the franchise’s larger impact, but I feel as though we’ve dabbled in that enough. Let’s just jump to what we all care about, the real reason you’re likely here, the franchise ranking. This will include all 11 features, as well as the two short films, and we’ll do this in classic countdown fashion. So, here it is… The definitive (that’s right, we will be entertaining no arguments here, this list is concrete objective fact) Fast & Furious franchise ranking!
(**Editor’s Note: some arguments may be entertained; the following is quite muddy and subjective at best.)
13 – The Turbo Charged Prelude for 2 Fast 2 Furious
You remember DVD menus screens that looped the same generic video footage over and over again while it waited for you to click a button and make a decision? You’d be forgiven for mistaking this short film for being exactly that. A completely lifeless, boring, and unnecessary exercise in wasting time. This six minute short serves as a prolonged cold open to 2 Fast 2 Furious and follows Paul Walker’s Brian O’Conner as he travels across the country from Los Angeles to Miami in a dialogue-less experience that’s likely to put you to sleep. This feels like it was made by a fledgling film student who dropped out of school halfway through the first semester. It’s so bad.
12 – F9: The Fast Saga
The lowest point in the feature films this series has had to offer. Full of insane and poorly explained retcons, superhero powerups, and asinine plot devices that will make your head spin. People are coming back from the dead, gigantic magnets don’t obey the laws of physics, and a car goes up into space as F9 becomes the living embodiment of its internet meme persona. A decision that might’ve been funny in the moment, but one that has irreversibly damaged this IP. Once you acknowledge that your movies are a joke, audiences will always only see it as a joke. Even reviving your most interesting character from the dead, Han, can’t save this awful mistake of a movie. What a mess.
11 – Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw
There’s a surprising amount of people who like this movie. Those people are difficult and insane. (**Editor’s Note: said the writer who has yet to put Fast X on this list…) This is a movie about two characters, Luke Hobbs and Deckard Shaw, who have completely dissolved away to just become Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Jason Statham. It’s an excuse to have The Rock and Statham sling unfunny sophomoric jokes about each other’s dicks at one another because they’re supposedly mortal enemies, even though they spent the end of the previous movie together laughing at a family barbeque. Every so often there might be an interesting action set piece, but just as often there’s a stupid and unnecessary Ryan Reynolds or Kevin Hart cameo, and Idris Elba rolling around as a superhero under the thumb of a sinister supervillain… that we never meet. The movie just ends with us not knowing what the hell the purpose of everything was. It’s wild. This movie blows.
10 – The Fate of the Furious
This marked the beginning of the end for this series. A continuation of the franchise in the ‘Search for More Money’ after the tragic loss of Paul Walker during the filming of Furious 7. It features the welcome addition of Charlize Theron, which is nice, but allows us to languish in bad dialogue, an ugly attempt to replace Walker with Scott Eastwood, The Rock chucking a torpedo across a lake of ice with his bare hands, and a waterfall of zombie cars. It’s all so… dumb. But worse, it’s also very boring. This entry is surprisingly self-serious relative to many of the films around it in the franchise, and that tone drains what little fun can be found while watching. The only reason Fate of the Furious is above the likes of Hobbs & Shaw as well as F9 is the fact that this is at least trying, while the other two become awful living memes.
9 – Fast X
The best of the worst, Fast X stands as the high point of all the post-Walker entries. In many ways, it’s just as dumb and insulting as the previous three ranked feature films, especially with its truly abysmal ending. Actually, let’s say ‘ending,’ because this doesn’t actually end. A dam explodes, with water pouring through a canyon to seemingly destroy Dom and his son, only for the film to cut away and fade to black. The definition of a cliffhanger, but with no “Part Two’ on the horizon as there’s still not even a finished script for the rumored Fast Forever sequel that’s supposedly releasing summer of 2028. What a joke. But, as much as this movie fails in many ways, Jason Momoa’s portrayal of the devilish Dante single-handedly makes this worth watching. Though it borrows far too much from the Joker, the unhinged, androgynous, bombastic, and over-the-top sociopathic performance makes this a tolerable outing. Still not good, to be clear, but tolerable. (**Editor’s Note: Debatable)
8 – Los Bandoleros
This wildly underseen short film that takes place in the timeline directly before the events of Fast & Furious actually accomplishes some of the better character work this series has ever seen. This is both derogative and a compliment. But, as fun as it is to observe the crew in a 20-minute-long ‘Day in the life of…’ short that captures the crew going through the motions, there’s not much to hang your hat on outside of some decent character scenes. Decent enough, and worth watching if you’re a major fan of the series, but not remotely necessary in the grand scheme of things.
7 – Fast & Furious
Arguably the most forgettable film in the series, Fast & Furious is kind of a snooze. It’s not bad, necessarily, just incredibly dull. The biggest reason for this is due to how self-serious this entry is in tone. In fact, this might be the most serious film in the series. The problem with this is that the narrative is so uninspired that when you strip all the charm and humor, to try and do a revenge tale about the death of Letty Ortiz (which is later undone making this entire escapade feel weightless), it becomes insurmountably boring. You’d be forgiven for preferring to watch paint dry. The only reason this doesn’t rank lower is because it’s not nearly as offensive to my senses as all the other movies we’ve already ranked.
6 – Fast & Furious 6
In many ways, Fast & Furious 6 is tied with Fast & Furious. They’re both wrapped up in the pointless death and resurrection of Letty storyline, both far too serious relative to the franchise itself, and both get quite boring and forgettable over long stretches of the runtime. However, this movie has a dope tank sequence in the middle of the movie that makes no logical sense, and it ends with a chase down of a plane on a runway that’s roughly the length of Europe. So, there’s at least some over-the-top shenanigans here to keep you invested, and/or laughing at the movie, preventing you from falling asleep like you would during Fast & Furious. This slight edge bumps it up in the rankings.
5 – 2 Fast 2 Furious
Look, I understand. I can feel your disdain through the monitor. I can see your eyes rolling. I hear you saying, “Why in the hell is 2 Fast 2 Furious ranked this highly?!” To that I say, “Sorry, I like fun.” (**Editor’s Note: Hobbs and Shaw would like a word) The simple truth is, this movie is a blast. A completely self-aware parody of what the public’s impression was of the original. It ratcheted all of the goofiness of the first film up to 11 and gave us a straight comedy that also happens to have some fun action racing moments, making this one of the most entertaining and watchable films in the series. Like a cheap straight-to-DVD sequel, it’s fun to laugh at, but still believable for the world because it’s about street racers. Unlike the later movies where people become superhero secret agents who drive cars into space. The most ridiculous thing that happens in 2 Fast is driving a car backwards down a highway. There is no comparison. So, yeah, this movie is bad, like the vast majority of the movies in this franchise. But this one can at least be the bad movie you love to laugh at, and not one of the many bad movies you roll your eyes at.
4 – Furious 7
Not going to lie, this ranks so highly specifically due to Paul Walker. While this certainly lands more in the superhero spy craft half of the franchise, with cars skydiving on to mountain roads and others jumping between skyscrapers as a killer satellite program tries to kill people…. And I categorically hate all of that… It is undeniable that there are still some really engaging action moments, and that this more importantly serves as a tribute to Walker and the franchise at large and stands as one of the more emotionally gripping entries in the series because of that. I mean, don’t tell me your eyes didn’t at least slightly well up with tears when we see Brian O’Conner drive off into the sunset as “See You Again” plays in the background. That, on top of the big ‘family’ moments, recap of Brian and Dom’s friendship, and references to the history of the franchise as a whole, is more than enough to bump this entry so high up the list.
3 – The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
The little spin-off sequel that could! What was long considered the black sheep of the franchise that was one step above being straight-to-DVD and had to be reworked in the timeline continuity of the series to make a lick of sense, has since been reevaluated by the masses to be considered one of the absolute greatest entries in the franchise as a whole. A big reason for the success of this flick is simple – This is a distillation of everything this franchise was ever meant to be. It’s about street racers who get caught up in a life of crime, and how the criminal lifestyle comes crashing down around our heroes. That’s it, it’s easy. When you stick to a formula, it’s crazy how well the formula works. You get more racing here than most movies in this series, and this still stands as the only movie in the franchise where the main conflict and climax of the film is resolved by actual racing! Plus, more than anything, you have Han. This is the Han show through and through and seeing as how he’s easily the coolest character in the entire series, it’s hard not to love the Han show. Tokyo Drift rules. (**Editor’s Note: Surprisingly agrees)
2 – The Fast and the Furious
It took a while (far too long) to get to the part of the list where we’re exclusively talking about good movies, but we got here. With that, it’s finally time to talk about the OG, The Fast and the Furious. Even now at an unbelievable 25 years of age, this is still one of the greatest ways to experience this franchise. Sure, it’s largely just a remake of Point Break, but that doesn’t change the fact that this is a bombastic and fun time. One of the best encapsulations of early aughts culture in the best and worst ways, and because of that, a film that infected pop culture due to its sex appeal, cars, and ridiculous line readings. This movie is still a blast 25 years later, and it’s so great that we are getting to celebrate its anniversary with articles like these and a theatrical rerelease for all to enjoy.
1 – Fast Five
This is it, the GOAT of this series. It’s the “Avengers” of the Fast & Furious franchise. Where all the pieces, and all the characters/actors come together to deliver everything that this franchise promised. We are street racing, we are getting caught up in crime, we’re pulling off heists and stealing cars and money, and we’re laughing and feeling the rush of adrenaline all the while. To top it all off, we get to do a little globetrotting by taking place in Brazil, and we get the introduction of The Rock as Luke Hobbs which adds a formidable threat to Dom, Brian, and the gang which elevates the stakes and makes everything far more entertaining than any other entry in the series. Especially because The Rock is trying here and playing an actual character (not just playing himself to keep up his image). While I would always recommend the original film to anyone looking to get into this series, it’s almost undeniable that this is the best film in the series, and the “endgame” that the series was building towards. Excellent. Simply excellent.
The Fast & Furious franchise is such a conundrum. It’s crazy to realize that we’ve been watching these movies for 25 years, and that it has already been 13 years since Paul Walker’s death. For better or worse (often worse), Fast & Furious has continued to march forward. It’s a constantly morphing amoeba of street racing, crime, comedy, action, espionage, and superhero shenanigans. More often than not, it’s a mess, delivering some of the worst franchise slop in the 21st century. However, despite all odds, and thanks to some of the few truly enjoyable films in the series, these movies have captured the hearts and minds of movie-going audiences the world over, making it one of the most popular franchises of all time. Have fun going out to theaters to catch the original classic on the big screen to celebrate this quarter-centennial anniversary!
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