The The Fast and the Furious movie is 21 years old.
The saga tells the story of an ever-growing "family" of car thieves, hackers, and adrenalin junkies. In the first movie, Walker's undercover cop Brian O'Conner infiltrates Dominic Toretto's illegal street racing gang. By F9, Ludacris and Tyrese Gibson's characters are driving in space. Naturally, a lot happens in the middle of those two films.
Between the unassuming but legend-spawning debut movie and the Fast & Furious 10, viewers need to watch the remaining films in a very specific order that doesn't always relate to when Universal released them. Here's a rundown and explanation of how to watch The Fast Saga the right way.
- The Fast and The Furious
- The Turbo Charged Prelude for 2 Fast 2 Furious
- 2 Fast 2 Furious
- Fast & Furious
- Fast Five
- Fast & Furious 6
- The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift
- Furious 7
- The Fate of The Furious
- Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw
- F9
The Fast Saga seems to be full of fun, boisterous movies that suggest viewers can dip in and out. However, as with any modern tentpole franchise, it's not so easy. By the most recent release, F9, long-beloved characters have seemingly died and returned, had children, or discovered new relatives. For a series that kicked off with a movie about driving really fast in a straight line, the plot has taken a labyrinthine turn. Even before the first sequel came out, Universal released "Turbo Charged" to show Brian street racing as a fugitive from the law after letting Toretto run free.
The Fast Saga is not Harry Potter. It wasn't always supposed to be this long, but the movies kept doing better than the last. Shuffling the order a little allows for some more tying into the wider universe and increased narrative sense. The main anomaly Fast & Furious 6, Sung Kang's Han seemingly watches his lover, Gisele (played by Gal Gadot), plunge to her death from the wing of a jumbo jet while saving his life. He escapes to Tokyo to grieve and, unsurprisingly, drive at high speed around tight corners.
Partway through Tokyo Drift, the viewer sees Han's car burst into flames. It was pretty surprising in 2006, at the time of release. But it's not until the post-credits scene of 2013's Fast and Furious 6 that it's discovered Jason Statham's Deckard Shaw is behind the explosion – an act of revenge for the near-mortal injury of his brother, Owen, played by Luke Evans in Fast and Furious 6. As the audience eventually sees the return of Han, Deckard, and Owen in later installments, it's important for the wider Fast & Furious story to know the character motivations and narrative context behind their corner of this growing (and apparently neverending) world.
