When the first Fast and Furious film came out, it was just an unassuming movie about street racing.
Twenty years and a nine films later, Universal Studios has turned it into a multi-billion-dollar franchise.
However, the franchise is about to come to an end.
After F9, which was released about a year ago, Universal confirmed a two-part finale for 2023 and 2024.
So, from the first to the ninth and every one in between, we’re ranking every Fast movie (excluding spin-offs) from worst to best.
9. Fast and Furious 9 (2021)
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Fast and Furious 9 – also known as F9 – was divisive.
The plot was weak and the action scenes were so unrealistic it was almost comical.
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Even on-screen characters asked, “how come we do these crazy stunts and always survive?”
And did we mention the Pontiac Fiero that goes into space? It was all a bit too much.
Some people hated it, some people loved it.
“The Fast and Furious series means nothing anymore. Nobody stays dead and there are no stakes,” one said.
Conversely, other viewers actually appreciated the lack of realism.
Force Hammer Gaming tweeted: “F9 doesn’t care how unbelievable it is, and embraces it.”
In F9, baddies became allies and characters that died on screen were resurrected.
We were even introduced to Dom’s brother, who was never mentioned in any of the previous movies.
So much for being all ‘about family’, huh?
8. The Fate of the Furious (2017)
The Fate of the Furious was filmed on an enormous budget and it grossed over $1.2 billion.
In a way, Fate and the Furious paved the way for F9 because it was Universal’s way of telling us physics doesn’t really matter anymore.
And just because characters die it doesn’t actually mean they’re dead.
The movie had one redeeming feature, though.
We’re introduced to Cipher (Charlize Theron), a criminal mastermind and world class hacker who wants to destroy the planet.
Why? No one knows.
7. Fast and Furious 6 (2013)
This is where things started to go south.
The plot got thinner, the action sequences became less believable and each character became parodies of themselves.
Fast & Furious 6 also accidentally created what’s probably the weakest link in the franchise: Han’s death.
Han’s character was introduced in Tokyo Drift and killed on screen.
However, fans loved it and as the franchise got bigger, Universal brought him back from the dead in this movie without actually explaining how.
On the plus side, we meet Deckard Shaw, a former MI6 agent turned assassin who wants to kill Dom for what he did to Deckard’s brother Owen Shaw’s brother (Luke Evans).
Deckard Shaw is portrayed by Jason Statham, and Statham is such a perfect fit for the role.
6. Fast and Furious (2009)
Simply titled Fast & Furious (without the ‘the’), this was the fourth film in order of release and third according to the timeline.
It’s not that bad even though it’s a bit grim and the car element was not as prevalent.
We meet the antagonist Arturo Braga (John Ortiz) and Gisele (Gal Gadot), who is going to become a staple in the franchise.
It also gave us possibly the best punchline in the entire franchise.
When Brian O’Conner explains he knows Dom because he’s dating his sister, Braga simply says:
“You’re a lucky man. You’re still breathing.”
5. 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)
2 Fast 2 Furious proved this franchise could go places.
We just weren’t sure which places exactly.
Universal couldn’t get Vin Diesel to sign up for a sequel so they hired Tyrese Gibson and Ludacris instead.
Gibson plays Roman Pearce, Brian’s childhood friend, while Ludacris plays Tej Parker, a mechanic-turned-hacker.
The movie is quite enjoyable even though the plot is a bit questionable.
The location is hot, literally since the whole story is set in Miami, as are the cars.
If we had to pick two favorite cars from this one, we’d go with Suki’s pink Honda S2000, because it’s just so cool, and of course Brian’s Nissan Skyline.
4. Fast Five (2011)
Fast Five was a turning point in the saga.
Years later, Universal Pictures admitted they deliberately stepped away from the street racing theme to turn the movie into an action-heist franchise.
It worked, both commercially and critically, and the movie grossed over $620 million against a production budget of $125 million.
We were also introduced to Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson), a DSS agent who wants to go after Dom and his crew.
The ending scene featuring Gal Gadot, Sung Kang and a Lexus LFA was the cherry on top of the cake.
3. The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)
Tokyo Drift is the worst-performing Fast movie at the box office, having ‘only’ grossed $158 million worldwide.
It was also panned by critics, who didn’t like the plot or the characters.
Fans also criticized production for not including any of the stars from the previous films, with the exception of a short cameo appearance by Dom Toretto.
Quoting YouTube satire channel Honest Trailers, the movie was “a Vin Diesel cameo away from totaling the whole thing”.
However, the film actually ended up becoming a cult classic, chiefly because of the cars it featured, and because of a new character named Han.
Portrayed by Sung Kang, Han is a wealthy street racer with a mysterious past and dangerous connections.
Tokyo Drift has two more things going for it.
Firstly, the city of Tokyo looks spectacular in the movie.
And secondly, there are a lot of cool cars and they all play a key role in the plot.
At the end of the day, the cars are what made us fall in love with the Fast franchise in the first place.
2. Furious 7 (2015)
Furious 7 was the most profitable Fast and Furious movie, with a box office gross of over $1.5 billion.
It was also the most critically acclaimed.
Unfortunately, this probably had something to do with the fact that Paul Walker died during filming in November 2013.
Universal Pictures eventually decided to recruite Paul’s brothers Cody and Caleb and used CGI to complete filming.
Paul Walker’s character Brian O’Conner was retired, and given a touching tribute in the ending scene everyone’s familiar with by now.
Furious 7 was visually stunning, and it included some pretty expensive cars, most of which appear in the Abu Dhabi scene.
Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson) is seen driving a Bugatti Veyron as they arrive in the UAE.
In addition to that, Dom and Brian literally crashed a Lykan Hypersport through a skyscraper.
At $3.4 million, this is the most expensive car ever featured in the franchise.
1. The Fast and the Furious (2001)
The first film of the saga is also arguably the best, and it will probably never lose that status.
Every single piece of the puzzle falls into place.
The plot is believable, the action sequences are top-notch and the actors look like they were born to play their respective roles.
Can you even watch a Vin Diesel movie today without automatically thinking of Dominic Toretto?
From O’Conner’s legendary orange Toyota Supra to Toretto’s Charger, it was just perfect.
