From the streets of southern California to skyscrapers in Abu Dhabi, from special agents to former criminals, there’s a lot about the Fast and the Furious franchise that packs a punch.
On the evening of our first glimpse of next year’s The Fate of the Furious, we’re looking back at some of the most intense moments we’ve seen the franchise accomplish. From car chases to train heists to arguments, this series has amassed muscle cars and muscle-y men, solidifying the series as one of the most action-packed franchises of all time.
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Check out our picks for the most muscle moments of the franchise and let us know what we missed in the comments!
“I’m in your face!” – The Fast and the Furious
Back in 2001, Vin Diesel’s presence in The Fast and the Furious was something to fear, with his shaved head, gravelly voice, and massive physique. One of Brian’s (Paul Walker) first interactions with Dominic Toretto came from an altercation between Brian and someone in Dom’s crew. Brian tried to reason with Dom, explaining that his bud had gotten in his face, only for Dom to reply, “I’m in your face!” Diesel has recently shared the screen with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who must be at least 75 times bigger than Diesel, but 15 years ago, Diesel struck fear in the hearts of audiences with those four simple words.
[H/T YouTube/Remove Kebab]
Train Robbery – Fast Five
Ten years after the original film, Fast Five served as a reinvention of the franchise. The filmmakers didn’t want to limit themselves to the underground world of streetracing, and instead focused on a stolen car with an important computer chip, a much more universal situation. Brian, Mia (Jordana Brewster), and recently sprung from jail Dom rip the walls off the side of a train car (while it’s moving) so they can snag some automobiles. The heist of these vehicles is impressive enough, merely thinking about how dented and scratched a car would get after being sucked out the side of a train, but the sequence culminates in ridiculous fashion with Dom and Brian driving a car off a cliff and into a ravine. Don’t worry, the two jump out of the car at just the right time that the car breaks the surface tension of the water and they don’t have a scratch on them. Science!
[H/T YouTube/Movieclips]
Safe Escape – Fast Five
This installment ramped up every action element possible, so it makes sense that its finale was the series’ height of automobile awesomeness. When Dom and Brian realize they need to steal money from a safe but don’t have time to crack it open and haul the treasures it holds, they instead decide to just hitch the safe to some muscle cars and drag it through the streets of Rio de Janeiro. The duo don’t care about law enforcement or laws of physics as they somehow drag a massive safe around the city in a spectacular scene that would’ve destroyed thousands upon thousand of dollars worth of damage and injure countless civilians, and that’s only if any of it was even possible.
[H/T YouTube/Movieclips]
Highway Tank Chase – Fast Six
It seemed like an impossible task to achieve, but somehow Fast Six managed to go even further into levels of absurd action sequences than Fast Five, and all it took was a “high speed” chase involving a tank. When the villain takes the military vehicle on the highway with Dom’s amnesiac girlfriend Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), our heroes realize the only way to stop him is through a complicated series of cables serving as weights and impromptu trebuchets. The sequence culminates with Letty being launched through the air, from a tank, across a highway, only for Dom to climb onto his hood, drive his car into a barrier, allowing him to catch his former love in mid-air, and the two land “safely” by crashing through the windshield of another car. This scene set a new bar for the franchise, which would subsequently be exceeded in the next film.
[H/T YouTube/Movieclips]
Pretty Much All Of Furious 7
It’s hard to begin picking out five great moments from the franchise when Furious 7 alone has five incredible moments. Adding Jason Statham and Kurt Russell to the cast are enough to make every scene that much more exciting, but that’s only the beginning. One scene features cars getting dropped from an airplane resulting in soft landings thanks to parachutes and ends with Brian literally running up the side of a bus that is falling over a cliff to get back to safety. Not enough for you? How about the scene that involves driving a car around a swanky loft in a skyscraper in Abu Dhabi until it drives out of a window and crashes into another skyscraper, a few floors down? If none of this is enough, then the finale which features driving a car up a demolished parking garage ramp, tossing a bag of grenades onto a midair helicopter’s skids, allowing them to be shot with a gun to blow up said helicopter? The film truly must be seen to be believed and we can’t wait to see what The Fate of the Furious will show us.
[H/T YouTube/Movieclips]
