Since 2001, the Fast and Furious movies have morphed into a massive, sprawling franchise.
In fact, the series easily rivals most comic book movies for surprisingly dense lore, outrageous
action, and heroic (one might even say superheroic) leads.
In 2001's The Fast and the Furious, we're introduced to Brian O'Connor, an undercover
cop tasked with taking down a gang of muscle-car-loving thieves who have been stealing what they claim
to be millions of dollars of DVD players.
Brian finds a possible lead in Dominic Toretto, the charismatic ringleader
of a group of car heads who may or may not be the same gang that Brian's after.
"I live my life a quarter-mile at a time."
To make things even more complicated, Dom's sister Mia, the shop owner of Toretto's Market,
is the object of Brian's affection.
Brian impresses Dom with his driving, eventually ingratiating himself into Dom's team, which
isn't a family just yet.
Unfortunately, Brian soon learns that he can only play both sides of the law for so long,
and comes clean to the Toretto family when it looks like Dom and his gang will end up
on the wrong end of a trucker's shotgun.
With Brian's cover blown and Dom forced to leave town, the two have one last quarter-mile
race.
Ultimately, rather than take his new friend into custody, Brian gives Dom the keys to
his car and lets him race off into the distance.
2 Fast 2 Furious surprisingly isn't the second part of this franchise.
Instead, that honor goes to The Turbo Charged Prelude for 2 Fast 2 Furious, a short film
which sees Brian on the run after letting Dom go free.
For some reason, this leads to a nationwide manhunt, with his face plastered all over
the nightly news.
That sort of thing tends to present a problem when you're driving across America winning
street races like some sort of gear shaft version of Johnny Appleseed.
When cops seize his vehicle while Brian's driving through Texas, he's able to hitch
a ride with an unnamed woman who recognizes his face, possibly because of his uncanny
resemblance to Lance Harbor from Varsity Blues.
After that, he buys a new car, wins more street races, and finds himself in Miami, the city
where the heat is on.
In 2003's 2 Fast 2 Furious, Brian has fully transformed from undercover cop with an unmistakable
surfer accent into a king of the Miami street racing scene with an unmistakable surfer accent.
Together with organizer and former racer Tej, Brian's been racking up the bills and notoriety
in Miami.
That all comes to a screeching halt when he's arrested by the Miami Police after they fire
an electronic harpoon into his car.
The police want Brian to go undercover inside a criminal organization, and they're willing
to wipe Brian's criminal record if he can take down Verone, Miami's resident drug lord.
Brian recruits his childhood best friend and ex-con Roman to help him race his way into
Verone's good graces.
With the help of another undercover agent, Monica Fuentes, Brian and Roman
capture Verone, clear their criminal records, and walk away with a pile of illicitly acquired
cash.
And that's about when the timeline hits turbo speed with chronological hijinx.
Los Bandoleros was a short film co-written and directed by Vin Diesel that serves as
a prelude to the fourth film, Fast & Furious, following Dom as he assembles a new crew for
an upcoming heist of a gasoline truck in the Dominican Republic.
Letty's back to rekindle her romance with Dom, but she's not the only familiar face
in the short film.
Han originally appeared and died three years earlier in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo
Drift, which was the third movie released.
A quick line of dialogue establishes that the Han we see here has never been to Japan,
so we know that this takes place before Tokyo Drift.
For now, though, all you need to know is that Dom loves Letty, the people of the Dominican
Republic, and stealing gas from the rich to give to the poor.
2009's Fast & Furious begins with the heist planned in the Los Bandoleros short.
Dom, Letty, Han, Tego, and Santos steal a bunch of gas to give to the people of the
Dominican Republic, but their celebration is short-lived; Dom knows that as long as
he's a wanted criminal, Letty's in danger of being arrested too, so he leaves Letty
in the middle of the night, off to go live his life one quarter-mile at a time.
Meanwhile, Brian is working with the FBI as a field agent, trying to find leads on a drug
lord named Braga.
Dom is forced to return to Los Angeles after learning that Letty was seemingly killed by
one of Braga's men while she was working with Brian to take the drug lord down in exchange
for clearing Dom's criminal record.
Dom and Brian both go undercover in Braga's street-racing organization Brian intending
to catch Braga, Dom intending to kill him.
While there, they run into and befriend Gisele, Braga's wondrous right-hand woman.
Eventually, Dom and Brian reconcile and take Braga down.
"I woulda won that race if you didn't cheat."
"You hit your head hard."
Unfortunately, Dom is captured by the FBI and sentenced to 25 years in prison for all
of his prior street-racing related crimes.
Luckily for him, Brian is used to going against the law to save his friend.
The film ends with Brian, Mia, and the rest of the crew teaming up to break Dom out.
2011's Fast Five picks up immediately where Fast & Furious left off.
Dom escapes from prison with his family, and the crew heads to Rio de Janeiro to figure
out their next moves.
Brian takes a gig stealing cars from a train, but unbeknownst to the Family, one of the
cars they steal belongs to Reyes [RAY-ez], a ruthless drug lord who controls Rio with
an iron fist.
Dom, Mia, and Brian recognize that they've got a golden opportunity to steal enough money
from Reyes to fund their fugitive lives permanently.
It's more than a three-person job, so they put out the call for the whole Family to assemble:
Roman, Tej, Giselle, Han, Tego, and Santos all arrive ready to steal 100 million from
Reyes.
Unfortunately, Reyes isn't the only obstacle in their way.
Luke Hobbs, a Diplomatic Security Service agent and all-around tough guy, is on the
hunt for the Family.
Along for the ride is Elena, a Rio patrol officer with a grudge against Reyes for the
murder of her husband.
Dom and Hobbs have their requisite tough-guy face-off…
"This… is BRAZIL!"
...but they're forced to work together after Reyes kills Hobbs' entire team, save for himself
and Elena.
The Family's heist goes off without a hitch, and Hobbs gives Dom a full 24-hour grace period
before they resume their muscular-cat-and-muscular-mouse chase.
After the end of Fast Five, there were only two things that could get the Family back
in action: the promise of amnesty and the knowledge that Letty is alive.
It turns out that Letty survived the explosion back in Fast & Furious, but got amnesia.
She was then conscripted into a kind of evil version of the Fast Family led by the villainous
Owen Shaw.
Hobbs and his new partner Riley bring the Fast Family, because obviously, only fast
thieves can catch fast thieves.
"Wasn't that hard to find you, Toretto."
"Wasn't hiding."
Eventually, through the magic of street racing, Dom's able to convince Letty that she's being
manipulated by Shaw, and convinces her to join the team.
Unfortunately, she's not the only double agent; Riley's been working for Shaw the whole time,
just waiting for the perfect opportunity to betray Hobbs.
It all comes to a head on the world's longest airstrip as the Fast Family battles to stop
Shaw from escaping with secret government technology.
Gisele sacrifices herself to save Han, Shaw is stopped, and ultimately, the Family's previous
crimes are forgiven, allowing them to return to Los Angeles once again.
After Giselle's death in 2013's Fast & Furious 6, Han finally makes good on his promise to
visit Tokyo in a movie released seven years earlier: The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.
The third movie released in the series, Tokyo Drift was a failed effort to reinvent the
franchise without Paul Walker or Vin Diesel, and most of the film concerns itself with
Sean Boswell.
He's a high schooler sent to live with his father in Tokyo after his penchant for street
racing lands him in hot water in the states.
Sean meets Han, whose cool-as-ice persona and street racing skills have made him a major
player in the underground racing scene.
Han takes Sean under his wing, even loaning him a car and tutoring him in the ways of
drifting to beat D.K., the nephew of a Yakuza crime boss.
“You know what D.K. stands for?"
"Donkey Kong?"
"Drift King."
Unfortunately, Han's training is interrupted when D.K. and his uncle's henchmen attack
Han's garage.
In the ensuing chase scene, Han is tragically hit by a passing motorist, and his fuel tank
goes up in a massive ball of fire.
Consumed with racing vengeance, Sean challenges D.K. to a race in which the winner has to
leave town forever.
Sean wins, becoming the new Drift King, and Dom shows up, explaining that Han was "family."
The post-credits scene of Fast & Furious 6 returned to Han's death in Tokyo Drift, but
with one major bit of context: a mysterious stranger who's following the chase on a police
scanner.
With careful timing, the stranger speeds right into Han, and then the as yet unnamed character
calls Dom on the phone as Han's car burns, delivering a foreboding message:
"Dominic Toretto, you don't know me… but you're about to."
There's nothing more important than family in the Fast & Furious universe, but bad guys
have families, too.
In this case, Owen Shaw has a big brother named Deckard.
He kills Han in the post-credits scene of Fast & Furious 6.
When the Family hears about Han's death, Dom travels to Tokyo to pay his respects and start
the hunt for Deckard.
Meanwhile, Deckard's been busy; he's already attacked Hobbs and Elena to find out everything
he can about the Fast Family.
When Dom finally meets Deckard, their climatic street fight is interrupted by a mysterious
government agent named Mr. Nobody, who needs Dom and his team to do some odd jobs for them
in return for the use of God's Eye, a hacking tool that can find anyone on the planet, including
Deckard.
"This time, it ain't just about being fast."
The team rescues Ramsey, the hacker who designed God's Eye, from a Somali mercenary trying
to use the device for nefarious reasons.
It all comes to a head in Los Angeles, of course, where Dom and his team need to keep
Ramsey away from Deckard long enough for her to disable the God's Eye.
Fortunately, they have some help from Hobbs.
"Daddy's gotta go to work."
Deckard Shaw is taken to jail after Dom beats him by stomping on a parking garage like the
Incredible Hulk, and then Dom briefly dies and is resurrected with the power of love,
thus avenging Han.
The real-life death of Paul Walker leads to the character Brian's retirement, as he rides
off into the sunset with Mia and their son.
After going to Havana and winning a street race by driving backwards in a car that literally
explodes, Dom runs into Cipher, a cyberterrorist who blackmails him into betraying his Family
for the only reason he would: even more family.
Dom's ex-girlfriend Elena secretly had his child between the events of Fast & Furious
6 and Fate of the Furious, and Cipher is holding the two of them hostage unless Dom gives her
what she wants: nuclear weapons.
While Dom battles against his Family and Mr. Nobody, he calls in favors from some old friends
and recent enemies, including the Shaw Brothers, who now have full-on jetpacks.
They all help Dom double-cross Cipher, but unfortunately, Elena dies, and Cipher escapes
to lick her wounds and plot a future sequel.
Deckard Shaw arrives to the requisite post-battle meal with Dom's son, who's named Brian after
Dom's best friend.
What's next for the Family?
Coming in August of 2019 is Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw, which will see the
eponymous odd couple facing off against a super-powered Idris Elba.
"Look at me.
I'm black Superman."
Fast & Furious 9 is slated for 2020, and while there hasn't been much news about it since,
an animated show called Fast & Furious: Spy Racers was announced in April 2018.
Now, with reports of on-set conflict between series leads, the future looks cloudy.
The spinoff might be a way to keep Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and his popular character
in the universe without him sharing screen time with Vin Diesel.
Whatever else is on the road ahead, no one really knows for sure.
All we can do is get there ourselves, one quarter-mile at time.
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