Fast & Furious moments that defied physics

The Fast & Furious franchise has been disregarding the law of physics for more than 20 years.

And along the way, it has given us a few moments that were a lot, even by Hollywood standards.

From the ‘strongest’ Alfa in the history of the world to the numerous life-ending moments that protagonists survived without a scratch, here are five moments that had us doing a sly eye-roll.

(We still love you though, our Fast and the Furious family).

READ MORE: The 10 cars we can’t stop thinking about from the Fast and Furious franchise

1. An Alfa Giulietta drags a 200t cargo plane

Let’s start on a high note, with one of the most improbable car scenes ever.

In Fast & Furious 6, the baddie Owen Shaw (Luke Evans) boards a moving cargo plane and Dominic Toretto’s crew chase after him on the longest runway we’ve ever seen.

At some point, the 181,000 kg (nearly 200 US tons) cargo plane can’t take off because it is being pulled down by… an Alfa Giulietta.

For the record, the Giulietta is a 3,000 lbs hatchback with a 170hp engine.

Oh boy.

2. Muscle car vs prison bus, car wins

In the opening scene of Fast Five (2011), Brian, Tego, Letty and Rico break Dom out of a prison bus in the desert.

That premise is fair enough, but the way they actually pull it off is crazy.

Brian is at the wheel of a 1970 Dodge Charger R/T, he overtakes the bus and then stops right in front of it, pulling the handbrake and causing the bus to crash into the car before rolling over five times.

It goes without saying, the car’s unscathed, as is Brian.

And of top that we should remember that Dom was sitting in the bus the whole time, with chains and shackles.

But of course, he’s uninjured. And when they cut to a news segment (with Perd Hapley from Parks and Recreation) it seems everyone on the bus survived just fine.

3. Bus falls off a cliff, Brian does parkour

This is one of those moments where you can just picture screenwriters throwing books of physics out of the window.

Brian was fighting the bad guys in the bus, but then the bus falls off a cliff and Brian survives.

How?

Well, first of all, luckily for Brian, the bus was falling in slow motion, which helps.

As the bus is (sloooowly) sliding off the edge of the cliff, Brian starts running on the side of the bus, and then he jumps, saving himself by grabbing the spoiler of Letty’s car, who was just happening to be doing donuts in the area. Pretty smart of Letty really.

4. Dominic Toretto fetches a flying car with his bare hands

Fast & Furious 9 announced itself with a self-explanatory trailer, which included a bunch of eye-popping scenes.

During yet another car chase, Dom is standing on the roof of his moving car – because why not – and Dom’s brother Jakob uses his own vehicle to deliberately hit a third car, basically using it as a wrecking ball to ricochet and hit Dom.

And Dom stops it with his bare hands.

Honestly, everything about it is a bit weird.

Just watch the video, minute 1:11.

5. All cars are hacked (Yay!)

There’s so much to unpack here.

Cipher (Charlize Theron), the baddie in Fast & Furious 8, is a mastermind who manages to hack every single car in the scene, causing them to fall from the sky in an attempt to stop Dom and his crew.

This scene is a bit ridiculous for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the incredible amount of damage it causes.

There’s an unwritten rule in movies that says the audience is more or less willing to ignore casual damage to people and buildings around as long as the good guy wins but this was a lot, wasn’t it?

It’s kind of like the police chase in The Blues Brothers.

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