Byte Size: Revving Up The Fast Saga
"~Salute La Familia~!!" *drinks Corona™*
Coinciding with the global release of its ninth main instalment, F9, the media property known as the Fast & Furious franchise officially turns 20 this month.
Over two decades, the franchise has spawned eight additional films in the main series, now known retroactively as The Fast Saga, one film spin-off, an animated series for kids, and a much-maligned video game adaptation, generating over $5 billion in cross-platform revenue. I’ll just let that all sink in for a second…
As I mentioned in my review for the franchise film spin-off, Hobbs & Shaw (2019):
“If the spy thrills of the equally entertaining and successful Mission Impossible franchise could be thought of as the cinematic equivalent of a double espresso shot, then Hobbs and Shaw and the entire Fast & Furious franchise writ large is essentially a meathead crushing a tall-boy can of Rockstar Energy drink.”
While these films may appear to be nothing but big, loud, dumb fun on the surface (and rest assured—they are), they’re also big business and, in my humble opinion, crucial cultural artefacts worthy of semi-serious study.
Thus, in preparation for my premiere screening of F9 next week, I thought we could drift through The Fast Saga together and rev our collective brain engines.
Ride or die, indeed.
The Fast and the Furious (2001)
Ground zero. The O.G. It all starts here with a weird retread of Point Break (1991) for the 2000s X Games set. In his review of the film, critic Roger Ebert said that while the film has a “pirate spirit,” it also “doesn’t have a brain in its head.” A mighty powerful endorsement if you ask me.
Obligatory Outrageous Set Piece: the quarter-mile train jump.
2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)
Easily the worst film in the franchise, purely for introducing Tyrese Gibson’s Roman and then refusing to kill him off. Although we do get Ludacris in an afro.
Obligatory Outrageous Set Piece: jumping a car onto a moving yacht.
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)
Not the worst one but it is the most forgettable. So much so that I’m struggling to recap anything that happens… I think the main non-Vin Diesel dude has an accent? And there are Japanese e-girls at some point? I don’t know. Hard pass.
Obligatory Outrageous Set Piece: underground drifting in a parking garage.
Fast & Furious (2009)
Following the collective “meh” from audiences after the mediocre third film, director Justin Lin and writer Chris Morgan came in and went back to basics. This entry essentially functions as a soft reboot, bringing back the original cast and fucking with the timeline in ways that the franchise is still trying to unravel.
Obligatory Outrageous Set Piece: driving under a rolling fireball tanker of death.
Fast Five (2011)
Now, this is where the studio heads at Universal clearly decided the entire franchise required a much-needed service. After Lin & Morgan managed to fuel-inject some interest back into the franchise, the emphasis on street racing and drug-running was dropped altogether, replaced by high-stakes heists, gunfights, and lavish global set-pieces.
Obligatory Outrageous Set Piece: the Rio heist bank vault wrecking ball.
Fast & Furious 6 (2013)
This is where the franchise really starts to go buck wild and just do insane shit for the pure white-knuckle thrill of it. The crew somehow drop into hot zones like a troop of well-trained soldiers with zero training and engage in “vehicular warfare” with foreign mercenaries. It’s utter chaos and it totally rules.
Obligatory Outrageous Set Piece: a human being jumping from a tank onto a moving muscle car.
Furious 7 (2015)
I’d argue this is probably the best film in the franchise due to the sense of narrative stakes involved. While the crew do lizard brain, death-defying shit all the time, there are actual consequences shown here. Not to mention the real-life passing of original star Paul Walker and his memorial tear-jerker showreel.
Obligatory Outrageous Set Piece: a toss-up between cars dropping out of the sky like a juvenile God kicking around Hot Wheels, or Dom ghosting a sports car from one Abu Dhabi skyscraper to another. You choose.
The Fate of the Furious (2017)
Upping the stakes once again, the last theatrical entry in the saga gives us yet another new villain, soap opera reversals with change-of-heart motivations, cringe one-liners, and a sheer glut of ridiculous action set pieces. It’s like a meathead symphony of destruction.
Obligatory Outrageous Set Piece: many contenders here, but you can’t beat the gang driving factory sports cars on frozen open water, fighting off a breaching ex-Soviet nuclear submarine. Gloriously stupid.
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