The Fast and the Furious

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When the producers ran out of ideas to name their new sequel.
On the other side of the world a new style of street racing rules the Tokyo underground. The cars are lighter. The tires are slick. When you drift, if you ain't out of control, you ain't in control. And if you work the wheel back and forth just right... you get blue sparks.
—Xkcd #127

The Fast and the Furious is a series of street racing films produced by Universal Studios. The cars are fast, the drivers are furious, there is plenty of Technology Porn and a little story on the side.

The first film, The Fast and the Furious, starring Paul Walker and Vin Diesel, was directed by Rob Cohen and released in 2001. Brian O'Conner (Walker) is an undercover LAPD officer looking into a string of highway semi-truck hijackings, which he suspects is linked to ex-convict Dominic "Dom" Toretto (Diesel) and his car shop crew. Brian works to get into their inner circle and comes to respect Dom for his sense of loyalty, which causes problems when his superiors start questioning where Brian's allegiance lies.

The second film 2 Fast 2 Furious, starring Paul Walker and Tyrese Gibson, was directed by John Singleton and released in 2003. Brian O'Conner has long since left the LAPD and fled to the streets of Miami, but is coerced to infiltrate a local drug lord's money laundering operation as a runner. He recruits his childhood friend Roman "Rome" Pearce (Gibson) for a second driver, and both of them work to undermine the bad guys and get their criminal records wiped clean while trying to stay alive in the process.

The third film, Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, starring Lucas Black, was directed by Justin Lin and released in 2006. Black plays teenager Sean Boswell, who accumulates some serious motor vehicle violations that could earn him jail time. To keep him out of trouble, he is sent to live with his U.S. Naval officer father in Japan and finish school there. The culture clash is brutal, especially when he gets friendly with the girlfriend of a guy with Yakuza connections and a love of the drift races.

A fourth film, Fast & Furious, was released in Spring 2009 with Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez, and Jordana Brewster reprising their previous roles. It's been five years and Brian has returned to Los Angeles law enforcement, this time as an FBI agent hunting another drug dealer. He reunites with Dom, offering him a pardon in exchange for help catching the drug dealer. Tension heats up when their personal motivations are revealed as Brian, Dom, Letty, and Mia struggle to work through the residual complications of their last encounter with each other.

A fifth film, Fast Five, released in April 2011, brings Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson into the mix as a government agent, and star returners include Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, and Sung Kang. Brian, Dom, and Mia are wanted criminals and have escaped to Rio de Janeiro. Complications have encouraged them to quit their dangerous lifestyle for good, and they agree to pull a big job -- One Last Job -- worth $100 million and then disappear forever. They bring many of their old crews on board, and struggle to outfox their corrupt yet incredibly powerful mark while avoiding the dogged pursuit of DSS Agent Luke Hobbs (Johnson).

Fast Five had the biggest grossing opening weekend of the franchise (breaking two records in the process) which more than doubled that of its immediate predecessor, and garnered the most critical praise of the series. It's also notable for bringing back the bulk of its previous main characters and conglomerating them into a single team.

According to The Other Wiki, a sixth film is in development as of the opening weekend of Fast Five.

The following tropes are common to many or all entries in the The Fast and the Furious franchise.
For tropes specific to individual installments, visit their respective work pages.

Vince: "Where's Letty?"

  • Artistic License Physics: Nearly every jump in the series.
    • The entirety of the climactic chase scene in Fast Five.
  • Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny: Refreshingly averted with Jesse in the first film. This also doubles as an example of Shown Their Work: Jess dropped out of school; 37 to 50% of afflicted adolescents never earn a high school diploma as they either drop out or are expelled for behavioral problems. People with true ADD often find an interest, subject, or hobby that "calms them down" or is able to hold their full and focused attention (such as Jesse's love of cars). They are also at higher risk for things like criminal activity, impaired driving ability, injury, social impairment, drug and nicotine abuse, and poor financial management... all of which Jess exhibits, out of the many possible other adverse effects of the disorder.
  • Back From the Dead: You know that 1970 Dodge Charger (which was wrecked by his father and rebuilt before the first film's events) that Dom wrecks in the first film? It's back in the fourth film. And it gets wrecked and rebuilt AGAIN, and reappears in the next film only to get smashed up a fourth time. Dom isn't happy.
    • Although she's only seen through a picture, Letty shows up at the end of Fast Five hijacking a military convoy.
  • Badass Boast

Dom: "You almost had me? You never had me. You never had your car. Granny shiftin', not double clutchin' like you should. You're lucky that hundred shot of NOS didn't blow the welds on the intake. You almost had me? Now me and the mad scientist gotta rip apart the block and replace the piston rings you fried. Ask any racer, any real racer. It don't matter if you win by an inch or a mile; winning's winning."

  • Badass Driver: Pretty much anyone with more than 90 seconds of screen time, but hilariously subverted with Tej, who is shown to be unable to even drive a remote control toy car without "getting into an accident."
  • Beleaguered Childhood Friend: Rome did three years in prison and ended up on house arrest prior to 2 Fast 2 Furious. He blamed it on Brian for not helping him, but Brian didn't hear about his arrest until after he had already been sentenced to do time so there was nothing he could do.
  • Berserk Button: Dom has a serious temper, especially if his loved ones are in danger. The button doesn't activate instantly, however; it usually takes a few seconds to warm up, and viewers can actually watch Dom reach the boiling point.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Once per movie.
  • Billing Displacement: The first movie is best known as a Vin Diesel flick. Paul Walker actually plays the main character.
    • The fourth movie prominently features Michelle Rodriguez on the poster and in the trailers, even though her character dies roughly fifteen minutes into the movie.
  • Black Best Friend: Rome (but only his home boys can call him that) and Twinkie
  • Book Ends: The fourth movie. It begins with Dom and his gang hijacking an oil truck and ends with him getting rescued by Brian, Mia and his gang from the beginning. Also counts as a Bolivian Army Ending. This is ultimately subverted by the creation of the fifth movie, as well as Dom's appearance in Tokyo Drift.
    • Also invoked with Fenix. Earlier in the fourth movie Dom sees Fenix standing over Letty before killing her in some sort of guilt induced hallucination. At the end, Fenix stands over Brian in much the same way before Dom swoops in for the rescue.
  • Brick Joke: "I owe you a ten-second car."
  • California Doubling: The shooting for Fast Five took place in Puerto Rico. It's pretty easy to notice if you live in Puerto Rico too.
    • Scenes from Fast Five were also shot in Atlanta.
  • The Cameo: Vin Diesel at the end of Tokyo Drift, and Eva Mendes and Michelle Rodriguez in the credits of Fast Five.
  • Car Fu: What all the movies center around.
  • Character Development: Everyone gets their fair share, mostly due to the fact that their lives are drastically changed by the increasing weight and consequences of their dangerous, illegal endeavors. Vince is the best example, going from an overly jealous jerk in the first film to a loving, caring, and protective individual with a dash of his old temper. Brian uses a lot of slang in the first two films, particularly the second, but the fourth and fifth take place five years later after he matures a lot more. Off-screen, Paul Walker has stated that the most difficult thing he found with his character early on was trying to act cool, and by Fast & Furious he no longer felt that pressure and stopped trying to force a certain image.
  • The Charmer: Sean in Tokyo Drift. He successfully catches the attention of the girlfriends of two different guys, one a Jerk Jock and the other a Yakuza wannabe. This is also subverted when he tries his wink-and-smile combo on Cindy after the drag race and his mouth is full of blood; she is appropriately turned off.
  • Childhood Friends: Dom and Vince. Also Brian and Roman Pearce.
  • The Complainer Is Always Wrong: Vince in the first and fifth films; he finally calls Dom out on it in the fifth. Roman shares this role in Fast Five, as well as being a semi-Butt Monkey.
  • Conspicuous CG: This is how they did a lot of their special effects during the racing scenes. It's at its worst in 2 Fast 2 Furious.
  • Continuity Nod: The fourth and especially fifth films are loaded with them. The third film gets one retroactively when Dom mentions Han running with him.
  • Cool Car / Pimped-Out Car: Just about everything on wheels in the whole damn series.
    • The piece of crap 1970 Chevy Monte Carlo the protagonist of Tokyo Drift has at the start of the film says otherwise, though.
    • Nice exotics like Ferraris tend to be sidelined or non-existent (the original features a F355 getting easily outdragged by the Protagonist's Supra).
    • Hobbs' armored car is the rare (for this franchise) non-racing example. The amount of punishment it takes is incredible.
  • Creator Provincialism: Having owned 2 R34 GT-R's, a classic 1971 C10 Skyline and ending Fast Five with an R35, Brian appears to have a keen interest in Nissan's GT-R range. The actor who plays him, Paul Walker, purchased one of just 14 legalised R34 Skyline GT-R's in America before modifying it to around 500 BHP. A YouTube video has surfaced of Paul testing out a Mine's modified R35 GT-R as well.
  • The Danza: Tego Leo played by Tego Calderon.
  • Dan Browned: Go ahead. Watch these movies with actual gearheads. We dare you.
  • Dawson Casting: Tokyo Drift is the only offender, for obvious reasons: Lucas Black (Sean) was 22, Zachary Ty Brian (Clay) was 23, Nikki Griffin (Clay's girlfriend Cindy) was 28, Nathalie Kelley (Neela) was 21, Bow Wow (Twinkie) was 19, Leonardo Nam (Takeshi's friend Morimoto) was 25, and Brian Tee (Takeshi) was the worst at 29. Only Bow Wow was still technically a teenager out of the cast.
    • Both Toretto (Vin Diesel) and Vince (Matt Schulze) were said to be 24 when The Fast and The Furious has been made. Vin Diesel was 34, Matt Schulze was 29 by then.
    • Well, Schulze was still in his twenties at least. Diesel, however, passed pretty well for 24-year old Toretto. (Many have jokingly attributed Diesel's younger appearance compared to his real age to his love for D&D.) However, the actors for Tokyo Drift easily stand out as people older than their character's ages, Dawson Casting at it's damn-near worst.
  • Doomed by Canon: In the third movie, the character Han is introduced, and then killed off towards the end. Since the fourth and fifth movies take place before that, they were both able to feature Han and show what he was up to before he went to Tokyo. Unfortunately, everyone knows what awaits him when he gets to Tokyo.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Watch any of the films and try to locate someone that ISN'T one. Hell, make a game of it.
  • Did Not Get the Girl: Played straight in the first two films, but the fourth film subverts the trope usage from the first one.
  • Drives Like Crazy: Sean in Tokyo Drift.
  • Driving Stick: Shifting techniques in street racing are Serious Business.
    • Even better because just about any lesson on performance driving technique in the series is total nonsense and potentially harmful to your engine.
  • Dropped A Bridge On Her: Letty has all of five minutes of screentime in the fourth film, and the next thing we know, Mia calls up Dom to tell him that Letty has been killed by Big Bad Fenix. We get to see what happens later, at least, but it's still awkward and mean-spirited, especially since Michelle Rodriguez has her name on the posters. Eventually subverted since she wasn't quite dead in the fifth movie.
  • Dueling Stars Movie: Fast Five is most notable for being Vin Diesel Vs. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. Johnson's character was originally going to be an older guy, but awesomely enough the filmmakers took up a fan's suggestion on Facebook that it would be great to see Diesel and Johnson in a movie together.
  • DVD Commentary: The commentary for the first one by Rob Cohen goes to show the depth of insight a director can have about hidden aspects of the movie. Oh yeah, and he likes to blow stuff up too.
  • Enhance Button: Used briefly by Dwayne Johnson's team in Fast Five to track down Torreto.
  • Every Car Is Rear Wheel Drive: Mostly subverted, although a Skyline in the second movie was converted to rear wheel drive for certain stunt work.
  • Fair Cop: US Customs agent Monica Fuentes in the second film. Rio police officer Elena Neves in the fifth. Brian O'Connor, for the ladies.
  • Fan Service: The fourth film has moments of hot girls kissing during club scenes.
  • Fatal Family Photo: Not so much a photo, but being introduced to Vince's child and significant other pretty much sealed his fate.
  • Five-Man Band: In the original.
  • Foregone Conclusion: In the fifth film, Dom attempts a Self-Sacrifice Scheme in order to ensure Brian escapes with Mia, but as he is seen alive and free in Tokyo Drift which chronologically takes place afterwards, we already know he'll be saved at the last minute.
  • Gaiden Movie: Tokyo Drift. Fridge Brilliance considering the origin of the trope name and the setting of the movie.
  • Gatling Good: An SUV has a roof-mounted one in Fast Five.
  • Genre Motif: Hip Hop: The series runneth over with this, even the third movie, which is set in Japan.
  • Hey, It's That Guy!: The Big Bad of Fast Five is Bucho.
  • High Heel Face Turn:
    • Gisele in the fourth movie.
    • Zig-zagged in the fifth movie with Officer Neves. It seems like she'll end up in this role throughout most of the film, but both her and Hobbs end up joining forces with Toretto. She doesn't assist them in actually stealing the money, but does meet up with Dom again after the fact.
  • Hollywood Driving: Invoked in 2 Fast 2 Furious. So much so that if this weren't a movie, they would have both already been killed in a collision.
  • Homage / Actor Allusion: In back-to-back scenes in Fast Five, Dom (Vin Diesel) jumps out of a convertible he's driven off a cliff and then is strung up by his wrists and menaced by a drug lord.
  • Inspector Javert: Hobbs in Fast Five is characterized this way until he decides to help Dom because his team was killed and he wants revenge. After an Enemy Mine for a day or two, he gives Dom a mercy lead.

Hobbs: Give me those documents. *throws them aside* All I care about is that Toretto is a name on a list!

  • Interquel: The fourth and fifth films, which are set after the second but before the third movie (the third currently is the last chronologically). Film six is also going to be, if The Stinger of Fast Five is to be believed.
  • Killed Off for Real: Vince in Fast Five, and considering his sendoff in the garage, doubt he's coming back.
  • Large Ham: Dwayne Johnson in the 5th movie, especially in his introductory scene.
  • Mercy Lead: In the 5th movie, Hobbs gives Dom and Brian a 24 hour lead before chasing after them. This naturally leads to the following exchange:

Hobbs: "I'll see you again, Toretto."
Dom: "No, you won't."

  • Military Brat: The protagonist of the third movie.
  • Missing Trailer Scene: More like missing lines, from Fast Five: "If you're gonna survive, stop thinking like a cop. You're in my world now," and "Chances are sooner or later, we are gonna end up behind bars or buried in a ditch somewhere. But not today." Both are spoken by Dom, but do not appear in the film, even out of the context presented in the trailer.
  • My Greatest Second Chance: When Dom fights Hobbs, he starts winning and ends up with a wrench in his hand. This is a reference to how he nearly beat a guy to death with a wrench in his backstory.
  • Nitro Boost: Used in all of the films.
  • No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Dom is prone to this. The first film reveals how much of a "model of self-control" he is by showing pictures of a guy Toretto nearly beat to death with a three-quarter inch torque wrench in an act of personal revenge. Dom admits this to Brian himself without prompt, and it's heavily implied he harbors remorse for permanently disabling the guy.
  • Not So Different : In the fifth movie, Hobbs shows his contempt for Dom when he reminds him how he beat a guy to death with a wrench prior to the first movie. However, during the fight between Hobbs and Dom later in the movie, Hobbs reaches for a wrench and tries to hit Dom with it. Seconds later, Dom actually refrains himself from doing the same thing. See My Greatest Second Chance entry above.
  • No Seat Belts: Oddly enough, the lack of seat belt use seems to have little effect on anyone's ability to survive catastrophic crashes.
  • Oddly-Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo: This has been taken to the point of absurdity by this series: No two movies use the same numbering system. The series goes The Fast And The Furious, 2 Fast 2 Furious, The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift, Fast & Furious, Fast Five (known as Fast & Furious 5 in the UK). Just to confuse things further, the fourth and fifth films are Midquels fitting between the second and third films, and the main characters are inconsistent across the series as well. The producers are reportedly planning two more sequels, but haven't settled on the titles yet. They're casually referring to them as Fast Six and Fast Seven. Just to keep the tradition, here's to hoping they name them something like Fast VI and Fast 7: Forever Furious.
  • Once Per Movie: A cameo by a rapper. Averted in Fast Five, where Ludacris, Don Omar and Tego's characters are main characters.
  • Only in Miami: 2 Fast 2 Furious takes place in Miami. The opening scene has the characters drive by the American Airlines Arena, home to the NBA's Miami Heat. That should be a tipoff.
  • Only Known by Their Nickname: Twinkie in Tokyo Drift. Also doubles as an Ironic Nickname, as the term "twinkie" is usually reserved for Asians.
  • The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Dom and Fenix in the fourth film.
  • Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Invoked by Neela in Tokyo Drift; she was originally from Australia and her accent goes in and out depending on her current mood. This is often Truth in Television, when things like shouting or being upset will bring out your native accent even if you've lost it over time.
  • Outrun the Fireball: Dom in the fourth film. Also inverted at the beginning, where Dom runs toward the fireball. It's seen in the trailer, so it doesn't count as a spoiler.
  • Parental Bonus: In 2 Fast 2 Furious, Brian is called "Bullet" once. While in that context it could just be considered a nickname based on how fast he drives, it doubles as a reference to Bullitt, a movie about a cop that has one of the most famous car chase scenes in the history of cinema.
  • Plot Armor: Played straight, subverted, and double-subverted throughout all movies involving Dom.
  • Racing the Train: Brian and Dom do this at the end of the first movie while also drag-racing against each other.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: Twice-convicted Dominic Toretto and former LAPD Officer/FBI Agent Brian O'Conner.
    • Although there personalities are seemingly an inversion of what you'd expect. Toretto is calm and cool headed well O'Conner is much more fiery.
  • Refuge in Audacity: This was pretty much the crew's M.O. in Fast Five. For Starters: Dom's plan to get Reyes to move his money was to attack one of Reyes' drug houses, show his face and burn his money in front of Reyes' men and instruct them to tell Reyes what happened. Reyes moves his money to one heavily guarded spot instead of ten spots that are just guarded well, just like Dom planned. Except for the part about, it being a police station.
  • Replacement Love Interest: Eva Mendes as Monica Fuentes in 2 Fast 2 Furious. This is promptly squashed by First Girl Wins in Fast & Furious. Dom also gets one in Fast Five. Interestingly enough, Dom is her Replacement Love Interest too. One wonders how that's going to play out since Letty is actually alive.
  • Rice Burner: Although all the cars in the movies are high performance, they are commonly accused of responsibility for promoting this in real life.
  • Robbing the Mob Bank: In Fast Five, Dom and Brian assemble a team to rob drug kingpin Reyes completely blind.
  • Running Gag: Brian has never legitimately beaten Dom in a race. He almost does in the fourth film, and Dom lets him win in the fifth film.
  • Sequel Goes Foreign: The third film goes to Japan, the fifth to Brazil.
  • Sequel Hook / The Stinger:
    • The Fast and the Furious: Dom is driving along a beach in Mexico.
    • Tokyo Drift: Dom shows up in Tokyo.
    • Fast and Furious: Dom's escape from the prison bus, revealed at the beginning of Fast Five.
    • Fast Five: Agent Eva Mendes revealing Letty is alive and driving in Berlin.
  • Sitting on the Roof: In Tokyo Drift, a Yakuza starts a fight on the roof of the school with the guy who sold him a defective iPod.
  • Sixth Ranger Traitor: Played with in the first one; Brian was an undercover cop while Dom, Letty, Leon, Vince, and Jesse were professional thieves.
  • Smug Snake: Practically every villain, but the series originals were Johnny Tran and his cousin Lance.
  • Sour Prudes: Dom's girlfriend Letty temporarily use this position (without seeming to have it as an integrated part of her personality) as she chase off two girls hitting on Dom at the first race.

Letty: I smell [sniffs] skanks. Why don't you ladies pack it up before I leave tread marks on you faces?

  • Steal the Surroundings: The crew takes this up a notch, stealing a massive vault by towing it with their cars, starting a lengthy Chase Scene where they drag it throughout the city.
  • Status Quo Is God: Brian and Dom never quite stay out of trouble, no matter how many chances they get.
  • Subcultures in Japan: Just about everyone of note in Tokyo Drift is a hashiriya (car enthusiast).
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Roman in 2 Fast 2 Furious, replacing Dominic from the original.
  • Technology Porn: Ever seen the inside of a camshaft?
  • Tempting Fate: Reyes right-hand man remarks that with the amount of security at the police station that's housing his drug money, not even God could steal it.
  • That's What I Would Do: Brian tries to narrow down a list of suspects with the same name to figure out which one is involved with street racing. He has his FBI partner read off a list of the suspects' cars. After hearing about a Nissan 240SX with an illegal modification, he remarks that he's the one. His partner asks how he knows this and he replies "Because that's what I'd drive."
  • Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Used in Fast Five:

Dom: This is Brasil!

  • Tim Taylor Technology: Nitrous Oxide injectors FTW. Or, as the characters once liked to say it, "NAAAAWS." As NOS is a trademark of Holley Performance Products, it was removed from the second film and replaced by generic "N2O" labels on the steering wheels and was verbally referred to as "spray" and "kick" after Holley got a bit stroppy about its appearance in the first one. The NOS brand returns for films 3-5 though.
  • Trailers Always Lie: Mia driving in Fast & Furious's trailer. She only drives at the very end, a minute before the credits.
  • True Companions: The most important thing to Dom, Mia, and their friends is family, which is what causes Brian to flip for them in the first place.
  • Trying to Catch Me Fighting Dirty: During a race in the fourth film, Dom bumps Brian's car and causes him to lose control in order to win. This becomes a sore spot for Brian in the next sequel when he insists that was the only way Dom could have beaten him.
  • Under the Truck: Done in the first and second films.
  • Undercover Cop Reveal: Brian in the first film.
  • Unresolved Sexual Tension: When Brian and Mia see each other again in Fast & Furious, Mia hadn't yet forgiven him for his role as an undercover cop five years earlier. Naturally, this is followed by They Do.
  • Watch the Paint Job: Most installations in the movies have some example of this, though Dominic's Dodge Charger in the first film (which was built by his late father and is revealed midway through the movie to be some sort of intimidating uber-car) getting completely pulverized by a semi truck in the movie's last drag race is the most remembered instance of this. The funniest example would be Sean from Tokyo Drift wrecking Han's S15 Silvia with a Skyline engine because he just can't drift.
  • We Have the Keys: One scene in the second movie.
  • What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: The power shifting, oh God...
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: Everyone's whereabouts are explained and accounted for throughout the series, except for Leon, who completely disappears after the first film, and Suki, who disappears after the second.
  • Worthy Opponent: "Is it Toretto?" "No." "Not interested." "Do you believe in ghosts?"
  • Xtreme Sport Xcuse Plot:
    • First movie: Excuse is the street racers are hijacking shipment trucks to fund their activity and a cop goes undercover to infiltrate the group.
    • Second movie: Excuse is same undercover cop and an ex-convict become street racers in order to get hired as drivers for a drug lord so they can infiltrate his operation.
    • Third movie: Excuse is a street racing teenager sent to his US Navy dad stationed in Japan wrecks a yakuza drifter's car and he must work as his errand boy until he pays his car.
    • Fourth movie: Same as the second (different drug lord) and the added twist that Don is also going undercover on his own initiative to get revenge on the man who killed his girlfriend.
  • Yakuza: Pretty much every single Japanese character in Tokyo Drift.
    • And their uncle, quite literally!
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