Fast & Furious

The Fast and The Furious film series is an action film that focuses on street racing and heists. Produced by Universal Studios, the series was established in 2001 with eponymous first installment, which has since been followed by four sequels, and two short films that tie into the series. In 2011, Fast Five was released in theaters.

Films

• The Fast and The Furious (2001)
• 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)
• The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)
• Fast & Furious (2009)
• Fast Five (2011)
• Fast & Furious 6 (2013)

Storyline chronological order

After the creation of the third film, Tokyo Drift, filmmaker Justin Lin and writer Chris Morgan decided to connect their newest sequel with the original film of the series by casting Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster and Sung Kang to reprise their roles in subsequent sequels, Fast & Furious and Fast Five, whose plots provide a back-story of the characters and events that lead to The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. The installments are listed here in chronological order based on storyline instead of release order.

The Fast and The Furious (2001)

Main article: The Fast and the Furious (2001 film)

The film is loosely based on a magazine article, titled "Racer X", about street clubs that race Japanese cars late at night. Elite street racer and ex-convict Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his crew: Jesse (Chad Lindberg), Leon (Johnny Strong), Vince (Matt Schulze) and Dominic's girlfriend Leticia Ortiz (Michelle Rodriguez), are under suspicion of stealing expensive electronic equipment. Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker) is an undercover police officer who attempts to find out who exactly is stealing the equipment, working for FBI agent Bilkins (Thom Barry) and LAPD officer Tanner (Ted Levine).

Falling for Dominic's younger sister, Mia Toretto (Jordana Brewster), Brian later confesses to her his status as an undercover cop and convinces her to come with him to save her brother and his friends from the armed truck drivers. He tracks Dominic's location by triangulating his cell phone signal and they arrive at the hijacking in-progress to find Leticia, badly injured at the car accident, and Vince critically wounded, having been shot by the truck driver. Brian and Mia work together with Dominic, Leon and Leticia to rescue Vince. Brian then makes the difficult decision to blow his cover to the crew by phoning in for a medivac. The revelation enrages Dominic, but he contains himself and flees with Leon, Leticia and Mia as the medivac arrives for Vince.

Brian follows Dominic to his house and holds him at gunpoint to prevent him from fleeing. Jesse arrives shortly afterwards, apologizing for his actions at Race Wars and pleading for Dominic's help with Johnny Tran (Rick Yune). Moments later, Tran and his cousin Lance Nguyen (Reggie Lee) perform a drive-by shooting and kills Jesse. Brian and Dominic chase them, with Dominic driving his late father's modified 1970 Dodge Charger. Dominic forces Lance's motorcycle off the road, severely injuring him, while Brian shoots and kills Tran. Afterwards, Brian and Dominic engage in an impromptu street race, narrowly avoiding a passing train. Dominic is then very badly injured when he collides with a semi-truck and rolls his car twice, rendering the Charger un-drivable. Instead of arresting him, Brian hands over the keys to the Supra and lets Dominic escape, making good on his promise to deliver a "ten second car." Sometime later, Dominic is seen driving through Baja California, Mexico in a 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS.

Turbo-Charged Prelude (6 minute film) (2003)

Main article: Turbo-Charged Prelude

Brian leaves Los Angeles before the LAPD gets a chance to arrest him. While the FBI launch a national manhunt on him, Brian travels across Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, winning in every street race he participates in with his red Mitsubishi 3000 GT. However, he is forced to ditch his car at a motel in Dallas when police are notified of his presence. He manages to hitch a ride from an unknown woman, despite her knowing he is a wanted man. She drops him at a used car lot, where he buys a green Nissan Skyline GT-R R34. Later, he modifies it and repaints it silver, with blue lightning vinyls on the sides, before traveling eastbound and winning more street races on the way. Upon reaching Atlanta, Georgia, Brian heads south toward Miami, Florida, where he sees Slap Jack's (Michael Ealy) Toyota Supra and Orange Julius' (Amaury Nolasco) Mazda RX-7 before the screen reads "2 be continued...".

2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)

Main article: 2 Fast 2 Furious

Watched by Customs Agent Monica Fuentes (Eva Mendes), Brian is caught by the police and is given a deal by agents Bilkins and Markham (James Remar) to go undercover and try to bring down drug lord Carter Verone (Cole Hauser) in exchange for his criminal record to be erased. Brian agrees but only if he is given permission to choose his partner. Brian heads home to Barstow, California, where he recruits Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson), a former friend of Brian who had served jail time and is on house arrest, to help him. Pearce agrees, but only for the same deal Brian was offered, and with the help of Monica, Brian and Roman work together to take down Verone. After being hired by Verone as his drivers, the duo is going to a Customs/FBI hideout, where Roman confronts Markham over the latter's interference with the mission. After the situation is cooled down, Brian tells Bilkins and Markham that Verone plans to smuggle the money into his private jet and fly off, but also suspects something wrong with Monica's role in the mission.

On the day of the mission, Brian and Roman begin transporting duffel bags of Verone's money, with Enrique (Mo Gallini) and Roberto (Roberto Sanchez) riding along. Before the 15-minute window is set, the detective Whitworth (Mark Boone, Jr.) decides to call in the police to move in for the arrest, resulting in a high-speed chase across the city. The duo lead the police to a warehouse, where a scramble by dozens of street racers disorient the police. Following the scramble, police manage to pull over the Evo and the Eclipse, only to find out that they were driven by Tej Parker (Ludacris) and Suki (Devon Aoki), respectively.

As Brian approaches the destination point, Enrique tells him to make a detour away from the airfield. Meanwhile, Roman gets rid of Roberto by using an improvised ejector seat powered by nitrous oxide. At the airfield, Customs Agents have Verone's plane and convoy surrounded, only to discover they are duped into a decoy maneuver while Verone is at a boat yard several miles away. As he knew Monica was an undercover agent, he gave her the wrong information on the destination point. When Brian arrives at the intended drop-off point, Enrique prepares to kill him when Roman suddenly appears, with both of them dispatching Enrique. Verone makes his escape aboard his private yacht, but Brian and Roman use the Camaro and drive off a ramp at high-speed, crashing on top of the yacht. The duo manage to apprehend Verone and save Monica. With their crimes pardoned, Brian and Roman ponder on what to do next other than to settle in Miami when Brian mentions starting a garage. Roman asks how they would afford that and Brian reveals that he took some of the money, as Roman also reveals that his pockets aren't empty, having taken money for himself.

Los Bandoleros (20 minute film) (2009)

Main article: Los Bandoleros (film)

Leo Tego (Tego Calderón) is in a prison of the Dominican Republic, ranting about corporations holding back the electric car and starting wars for oil, while, on the streets, Omar Santos (Don Omar) chats to an old man unable to find enough gas. Han Seoul-Oh (Sung Kang) arrives and is collected from the airport by Cara Mirtha (Mirtha Michelle) and Malo (F. Valentino Morales). They drive him back to Santos' house, where his aunt Rubia (Adria Carrasco) is struggling with rising prices linked to the cost of gasoline and Dominic is working on his car. The team then enjoy a welcome meal with the family. After breaking Leo out of prison, they head to a club, where Han and Cara flirt, while Dominic meets up with local politician Elvis (Juan Fernandez), who informs them of a window of opportunity to hijack a gasoline shipment. While relaxing at the club afterwards, Dominic is surprised by the arrival of Leticia, who has tracked him from Mexico. The two drive together to the beach, where they rekindle their relationship.

Fast & Furious (2009)

Main article: Fast & Furious

Dominic Toretto and his new crew: Leticia, Han, Leo, Santos and Cara, are hijacking fuel tankers in the Dominican Republic. Dominic begins to suspect the trail is too hot and leaves Leticia behind in order to protect her from harm. Several weeks later, in Panama City, Dominic gets a call from Mia, who tells him that Leticia has been murdered by Fenix Calderon (Laz Alonzo), after getting into a near fatal car accident. Dominic heads back to Los Angeles to examine Leticia's crash and finds traces of nitromethane. He then goes to the only car mechanic that uses nitromethane and coerces him into giving him the name David Park (Ron Yuan), the man who ordered the fuel.

Meanwhile, F.B.I. agent Brian O'Conner is trying to track down a drug dealer named Arturo Braga (John Ortiz). His search leads him to David Park. Dominic arrives at Park's apartment first and hangs him out of the window by his ankles before letting go. Brian, who was also on his way to Park's place, saves Park and Park becomes the FBI's new informant. Park gets Brian into a street race through Los Angeles. Brian selects a modified Nissan Skyline GT-R R34 from the Impound Lot. Dominic also shows up to race in his modified 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle. Gisele Yashar (Gal Gadot), the liaison for Braga, reveals that the winner will become the last driver on a team that traffics heroin between the United States-Mexico border. Dominic wins by bumping Brian's car, making him lose control. Brian uses his power as an FBI agent to arrest another driver, Dwight Mueller (Greg Cipes), and takes his place on the team.

The following day, the team meets one of the Braga's men. They drive across the border using underground tunnels to avoid detection. Brian had prior knowledge that, after the heroin was delivered, Braga ordered the drivers to be killed. However it was revealed to Dominic from Fenix that he killed Leticia and after a tense stand-off, Dominic detonates his car with nitrous to distract Braga's men and Brian hijacks a Hummer with US$60 million worth of heroin. Both Dominic and Brian drive back to Los Angeles and hide the heroin in a police impound lot where Brian picks up a modified Subaru Impreza WRX STI. Later on, Dominic finds out Brian was the last person to contact Leticia, which resulted in him being attacked by Dominic until he learnt Brian put Leticia undercover for tracking down Braga, so she could clear Dominic's name. Brian tells his superiors that in exchange for Dominic's pardon, he will lure Braga into a trap, forcing him to personally show up to exchange money for the heroin. At the drop site, however, Ramon Campos (Robert Miano), the man who claims to be "Braga", is revealed as a decoy, and "Campos", the real Braga, escapes and flees to Mexico.

Brian and Dominic travel to Mexico on their own to catch Braga. They find him at a church and apprehend him. As Braga's henchmen come down to rescue their leader, Brian and Dominic drive through the underground tunnels back to the United States. When some of Braga's men are killed, Brian crashes his car and is injured after being T-boned by Fenix at the end of the tunnel. Before Fenix can kill Brian, Dominic, who survived the explosion and exchanged his 1970 Dodge Charger with a 1973 Chevrolet Camaro, drives into and kills Fenix. As police and helicopters start streaming to the crash site on the USA side, Brian tells Dominic to leave, but Dominic refuses, saying he's tired of running. Despite Brian's request for clemency, the judge sentences Dominic to 25 years to life. Dominic boards a prison bus that will take him to Lompoc penitentiary and as the bus drives down the road, Brian and Mia, along with Tego and Rico (who assisted in the Dominican Republic heists), arrive in their cars to intercept it.

Fast Five (2011)

Main article: Fast Five

Following the events of Fast & Furious, when Dominic is being transported to an USA prison, Mia and Brian lead an assault on the bus, causing it to crash and freeing Dominic. While authorities search for them, the trio escape to Rio de Janeiro. Awaiting Dominic's arrival, Mia and Brian join their friend Vince and other participants on a job to steal three cars from a train. The job goes awry when Brian and Mia discover the train is carrying DEA agents and that the cars are seized property. When Dominic arrives with the rest of the participants, he realizes that one of them, Zizi (Michael Irby), is only interested in stealing one car: the Ford GT40. Dominic has Mia steal the car herself, while Brian and Dominic fight Zizi and his henchmen, with Zizi killing the DEA agents assigned to the vehicles. Dominic and Brian are captured and brought to crime lord – and owner of the cars – Hernan Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida), Zizi's boss, where he orders the pair be interrogated to discover the location of the car. However, they manage to escape and retreat to their safehouse.

Dominic is blamed for the murder of the DEA agents and U.S. DSS agent Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and his team arrive in Rio to capture him. While Brian, Dominic and Mia examine the car to discover its importance, Vince arrives and is revealed to be working for Reyes when he removes a computer chip from the car. Dominic forces Vince to leave and, after investigating the chip, Brian discovers it contains details of Reyes' criminal empire including the locations of $100 million in cash, and plan on stealing Reyes' money to start a new life. The trio organize a team to perform the heist, recruiting Han, Roman, Tej, Leo, Santos, Gisele and Vince. Hobbs and his team eventually find and arrest Dominic, Mia, Brian and Vince. While transporting them to an airport for extradition to the United States, the convoy is attacked by Reyes' men, killing Hobbs' team and Vince. Hobbs is saved by Dominic, Brian and Mia as they fight back against Reyes' men and escape. Wanting revenge for their murdered team, Hobbs and Elena Neves (Elsa Pataky) agree to help with the heist.

The gang breaks into the police station where Reyes' money is kept and tear the vault from the building using their cars, dragging it through the city with police in pursuit. Believing they cannot outrun the police, Dominic makes Brian continue on without him while he attacks the police and the pursuing Reyes, using the vault attached to his car to smash their vehicles. Brian returns to kill Zizi, while Reyes is badly injured by Dominic's assault. Hobbs arrives on the scene and executes Reyes. Hobbs refuses to let the pair go free, but unwilling to arrest the team, agrees to give them a 24-hour head start to escape. The gang split Reyes' money, with Dominic leaving Vince's share to his family, and they go their separate ways. In a post-credits scene, Hobbs is given a special file by USA Customs agent Monica concerning the hijack of a military convoy in Berlin. In the file, Hobbs discovers a recent photo of Leticia, Dominic's presumed-deceased girlfriend, revealing she survived the events of Fast & Furious, leading to the thought of a possible sequel.

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)

Main article: The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift

After totaling his car in an illegal street race, Sean Boswell (Lucas Black) is sent to live with his father, who is stationed as a USA Naval officer in Tokyo, Japan, to avoid juvy or even jail. While in school, he befriends Twinkie (Bow Wow), a "military brat", who introduces him to the world of racing in Japan. Though forbidden to drive, he decides to race against Takashi (Brian Tee), the Drift King, who has ties to the Yakuza, and loses, totaling the car because of his lack of knowledge of drifting, racing that involves dangerous hairpin turns. To repay his debt for the car he destroyed, Sean must work for Han, now a business partner to Takashi. Later on, Han becomes friend with Sean and teaches the young racer how to drift. Takashi's uncle Kamata (Sonny Chiba), an Yakuza head, admonishes Takashi for allowing Han to steal from him. Takashi confronts Han, Sean and Neela (Nathalie Kelley), where upon they flee. During the chase, Han is killed and Takashi, Sean and his father become involved in an armed standoff which is resolved by Neela agreeing to leave with Takashi. Twinkie provides his saved money to Sean to make up for Han's stolen money which Sean returns to Kamata. Sean proposes a race against Takashi to determine who must leave Tokyo. Sean and Han's friends then build a car from various spare parts and Sean wins the race. Later, Sean, now the "DK", is challenged to a race by an unnamed driver. This driver turns out to be Dominic.

• (Note: These events happen after the movie Fast Five.)

"Fast Six" (2013)

Vin Diesel and series producer Neal H. Moritz are already developing the sixth film "Fast Six", which will be written by Chris Morgan. Director Justin Lin stated in an interview that he intends to get Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Lucas Black, Eva Mendes, Dwayne Johnson and Tyrese Gibson back as well as others (e.g. Thom Barry and obviously Michelle Rodriguez). On June 24, 2011, Vin Diesel revealed on his Facebook account that the release date for "Fast Six" is Memorial Day (May 24), 2013.

Related films

Although not officially part of The Fast and the Furious film series, Sung Kang plays the character Han Seoul-Oh in the film Better Luck Tomorrow, directed by Justin Lin, who directed The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, Fast & Furious and Fast Five. In Fast Five, Gisele Yashar attributes Han's constant need to occupy his hands to him being a former smoker, referring to his habits in this film, an easter egg reference according to Lin's commentary.

Box office performance

Film	Release date		Box office revenue			Budget	Reference
	Worldwide	United States	United States	Outside US	Worldwide
The Fast and the Furious	September 7, 2001	June 22, 2001	$144,533,925	$62,750,000	$207,283,925	$38,000,000
2 Fast 2 Furious	June 6, 2003	June 6, 2003	$127,154,901	$109,195,760	$236,350,661	$76,000,000
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift	June 16, 2006	June 16, 2006	$62,514,415	$95,953,877	$158,468,292	$85,000,000
Fast & Furious	April 1, 2009	April 3, 2009	$155,064,265	$208,100,000	$363,164,265	$85,000,000
Fast Five	April 20, 2011	April 29, 2011	$208,468,305	$392,831,354	$601,299,659	$125,000,000
Total			$697,120,406	$866,531,915	$1,566,568,802	$364,000,000

Critical reception

Film	Rotten Tomatoes		Metacritic
	Overall	Top Critics
The Fast and the Furious	52% (145 reviews)	64% (33 reviews)	58 (29 reviews)
2 Fast 2 Furious	36% (155 reviews)	39% (33 reviews)	38 (35 reviews)
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift	35% (109 reviews)	43% (30 reviews)	46 (31 reviews)
Fast & Furious	28% (170 reviews)	23% (30 reviews)	45 (27 reviews)
Fast Five	78% (173 reviews)	82% (33 reviews)	67 (29 reviews)
Average Ratings	46%	50%	51

Characters

Main article: List of characters in The Fast and the Furious film series

List indicator(s)

* A dark grey cell indicates the character was not in the film.

Character	Film
	The Fast and the Furious (2001)	Turbo-Charged Prelude (6 minute film) (2003)	2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)	Tokyo Drift (2006)	Los Bandoleros (20 minute film) (2009)	Fast & Furious (2009)	Fast Five (2011)
Brian O'Conner	Paul Walker					Paul Walker
Dominic Toretto	Vin Diesel			Vin Diesel
Leticia Ortiz	Michelle Rodriguez				Michelle Rodriguez
Mia Toretto	Jordana Brewster					Jordana Brewster
Roman Pearce			Tyrese Gibson				Tyrese Gibson
Han Seoul-Oh				Sung Kang
Tej Parker			Ludacris				Ludacris
Leo Tego					Tego Calderon
Omar Santos					Don Omar
Gisele Yashar						Gal Gadot
Vince	Matt Schulze						Matt Schulze
Sean Boswell				Lucas Black
Leon	Johnny Strong
Jesse	Chad Lindberg
Bilkins	Thom Barry		Thom Barry
Johnny Tran	Rick Yune
Monica Fuentes			Eva Mendes				Eva Mendes
Carter Verone			Cole Hauser
Suki			Devon Aoki
Jimmy			Jin Au-Yeung
Takashi				Brian Tee
Neela				Nathalie Kelley
Twinkie				Bow Wow
Arturo Braga						John Ortiz
Fenix Calderon						Laz Alonso
Cara Mirtha					Mirtha Michelle
Diego							Luis Da Silva
Luke Hobbs							Dwayne Johnson
Elena Neves							Elsa Pataky
Hernan Reyes							Joaquim de Almeida

Merchandising

Video games

The film series has spawned several racing video games for arcades, iPhone OS, PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable. The arcade game The Fast and the Furious (known as Wild Speed in Japan) was released by Raw Thrills in 2004. In 2006, the video game The Fast and The Furious was released for the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable. Fast and Furious: Pink Slip, Fast & Furious, Fast Five and Fast & Furious Adrenaline have all been released for the iOS and are available on the iTunes App Store.

Toys and model kits

Racing Champions released diecast metal replicas of the film's cars in different scales from 1/18 to 1/64. RadioShack sold ZipZaps micro RC versions of the cars in 2002. 1/24 scale plastic model kits of the hero cars were manufactured by AMT Ertl.

External links

• Official website
• The Fast and the Furious at IMDb
• 2 Fast 2 Furious at IMDb
• The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift at IMDb
• Los Bandoleros at IMDb
• Fast & Furious at IMDb
• Fast Five at IMDb
• The Fast and the Furious 6 at IMDb