10 Times The Fast And Furious Movies Jumped The Shark

With Fast X set to hit theaters this week, it’s natural for fans of the Fast and Furious movies to reflect upon some of the most outrageous moments the franchise has provided over the years. If you’re someone who’s made it from the initial, much more grounded films to the absolutely over-the-top blockbusters the franchise has put out over the last decade, then there’s a good chance that you don’t care how utterly ridiculous they’ve become. Better yet, you probably embrace them for what they are: turn off your brain, action-packed fun.

Still, even the most devoted fans of the Fast and Furious movies would have to admit that a good number of their action sequences could cause even the least skeptical viewer to roll their eyes a bit. Then again, perhaps the laws of physics simply cease to exist to anyone in or associated with Dominic Toretto’s family. With that being said, this franchise didn’t just recently begin to jump the shark in terms of some of the ridiculous stunt–this been happening for a while now, as far back as 2003’s 2 Fast 2 Furious. Which are the most outrageous examples, though? I’m glad you asked!

Honestly, there are far more than just ten times when the Fast and Furious movies pushed the limits on what is or isn’t believable. We probably won’t cover everything in this list, including the number of crashes that members of the crew always manage to walk away from without a scratch. Here are some moments that just missed the cut, though:

Fast Five completely reinvigorated the franchise, and the train heist during the film’s first act is part of the reason why. It was, at that point, probably the most outlandish thing we had seen the Fast and Furious movies attempt. If only we knew what we were in for later on in that very same flick! It doesn’t crack our top ten, but needs to be mentioned for sure.

Taking place mere moments after a scene that does make our list, this logic defying moment disposes of Furious 7‘s main villain, Mose Jakande (Djimon Hounsou). As we would later find out, of course, he wasn’t the real villain, but rather one of Cipher’s lackeys. Dom surviving this scene because of an emotional speech from Letty instead of getting CPR might have been the most outlandish part. But hey, who needs medicine when you have family?

Again, like the train heist above, this moment from F9 probably makes the list if not for something even more mind-blowing and nuts that happens in the final act. Still, it’s asking a lot out of your audience to believe that you could pull this off without the cable snapping when you’re in midair and then plummeting to your doom.

You know that we had to mention this moment, just to include the gif. There might not be a more Dwayne Johnson certified moment in any other Fast and Furious movies than this one.

Shoutout to TJ Zwarych for this one. Let’s be honest: the Fast and Furious movies were destined for insanity the second these words came out of Paul Walker’s mouth.

I know that a lot of people consider 2 Fast 2 Furious to be the ugly duckling of the franchise, and I won’t really argue with that. But this moment from the film’s final act was pretty damn cool, not to mention literally impossible. An impact like this would have caused that boat to sink, no matter how expensive and fancy it was. We should have known that the Fast and Furious movies were headed for some crazy heights at this point.

Okay, this isn’t a resurrection as much as it was a retcon. But still, what the hell?! We saw Han’s car blow up. He was inside said car. Now we’re supposed to believe that he was a Mr. Nobody plant the entire time and somehow escaped that crash with his life? Honestly, this bothers me more than almost anything else the Fast and Furious movies have asked for us to accept. Maybe I should have put it higher?

Furious 7 comes up on this list more than any of the other Fast and Furious movies, and for good reason. This moment comes at the end of a fantastic fight inside this same bus between Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) and Louis Kiet (Tony Jaa). While Kiet is able to escape the bus before it reaches the cliff, O’Conner isn’t so lucky. Honestly, though, Letty’s car arriving just in the nick of time to catch Brian might be more outlandish than his climb.

“You thought this was going to be a street fight?” Honestly, this moment is kind of a letdown after a pretty badass fight scene between Dom (Vin Diesel) and Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham). I did not think it would end with Dom becoming an earth bender and literally causing an entire parking structure to collapse by stomping on a crack. Come on, man! He says a really cool one-liner as he does it, though, so bonus points for that.

I mean, the screengrab says it all, no? This isn’t possible! Even with the momentum from crashing his car into the railing, Dom wouldn’t be able to catch Letty and then somehow keep moving forward. Oh, and did I mentioned that they land safely on the hood of a nearby car? Would’ve loved to be in one of the nearby cars on either bridge watching that play out!

Some people might be shocked to see this iconic Fast Five scene only fifth on this list. To those people, I say keep scrolling. You’ll see why. Similar to the train heist, this vault caper is the most outrageous concept that had been incorporated into the Fast and Furious movies at the time. I’m not sure that the city of Rio would have been able to recover in time to host the 2016 Olympics had something like this really happened!

“Dom, cars don’t fly!” Or do they? Of all the downright ludicrous (or should I say Ludacris?!) moments throughout Furious 7, this scene takes the cake. This whole sequence includes a Ronda Rousey-Michelle Rodriguez fistfight, Jason Statham shooting up a penthouse and Tyrese Gibson shining brightly, but capping it off this way is pretty perfect. By this point in the franchise, we’ve been desensitized to Dom and his family surviving these crazy stunts.

I was once among those who believed the Fast and Furious movies should have ended after Furious 7; thank goodness nobody listened to me! The Fate of the Furious introduced us to Cipher (Charlize Theron), a terrorist who is such an advanced hacker that she manages to remotely pilot random vehicles. Turning the streets of New York City into a war zone by weaponizing these “zombie cars” is definitely one of the zanier things you’ll ever see.

An argument could be made for this to be at the very top of the list. We now have super soldiers in the Fast and Furious movies! I could also see people protesting the inclusion of Hobbs & Shaw on this list, as it’s a spin-off film. I say it counts, as the movie does take place within the franchise’s timeline and directly references events. Brixton Lore (Idris Elba) may be gone, but he can’t be the only genetically enhanced dude kicking around within this franchise. Maybe we’ll see another pop up soon!

You knew that this had to be number one, right? Fans sarcastically (or perhaps seriously) predicted that the Fast and Furious movies would somehow end with Dom and his family blasting into space. As it turns out, we still have two or three installments to go now, and it’s only Roman and Tej who make the trip, but they get there! The crew claims that they consulted NASA when developing this concept, but let’s be real: regardless of what they were told, they were going to make this happen. And we love them for that.

I honestly don’t know what to expect from this family of adrenaline junkies, but you can be damn certain that they’ll do something to top the space car! The Fast and Furious movies are nothing if not crowd pleasers, so you can be sure that Fast X will bring the crazy a quarter mile at a time.

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