It started out as a relatively gritty film series grounded in the realities of underground street racing, but the Fast and Furious series has evolved and grown exponentially over recent years into something entirely different.
Instead of the character dramas about drag races and undercover cops – which admittedly did take a few liberties with the laws of physics from time to time – the last few films have ditched the idea of reality entirely.
And why not? People want to see cars being flown into space and Vin Diesel bombing around in a super car dodging explosions, and quite honestly we hope the series continues to get more and more ridiculous as time goes on.
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Fans of the films have been replying to twitter user @KevOnStage in a viral thread all about the moment the series “abandoned reality”, and it’s a timely reminder of just how outlandish they are ahead of Fast X which is out later this year.
These are the times the Fast and Furious movies 'abandoned reality' – and took us along for the ride.
The rope swing scene from F9
Where to even start with this one. Not only does a car attach to a plane after driving straight off a cliff, but Diesel proceeds to follow it by swinging off a rope like Spider-Man and landing safely(ish) with Michelle Rodríguez. If Fast 9’s stunts have anything to go by, we’re clearly in for some of the biggest and silliest stunts ever in Fast X.
When Vin Diesel fought off 20 men and pulled down a building
He’s a big guy, Diesel. But is he big enough to fight off a squad of hired goons and pull down the entire bowels of a building with his bare hands? Definitely not.
When Vin Diesel smashed into Jason Statham
There have been some unhinged moments in the franchise, but sometimes the simplest are the most effective. In this bonkers scene from Fast and Furious 7 Diesel and Jason Statham take part in a demented game of chicken. The pair of them slam their cars head-first into one another, before surviving a crash that would have definitely killed them both. Bonkers.
Vin Diesel stopping submarines
All of Fast and Furious 8 or Fate of the Furious is like something dreamed up by a five-year-old with their first Hot Wheels set, and nothing is more unrealistic than this moment. It sees Diesel guide a heat-seeking missile into the path of a submarine, before taking cover from the explosion behind their cars, all on a thin sheet of ice.
Flying a car into space
If the series hadn’t jumped the shark already, then sending a car into space, before breaking the sound barrier and crash landing into a satellite at -270 degrees Celsius in Fast 9 surely did it.
When Vin Diesel defied the laws of gravity
By this point in Fast and Furious 6, the series had abandoned laws of physics to such a great extent that they gave Diesel straight-up flying capabilities. After Rodríguez is thrown from a tank, she looks doomed to fall from a great height, only for Diesel to take off, zoom through the sky and catch her mid-air, saving the day. Thank heavens.
When Vin Diesel develops magic powers in the fourth film
This has to be the strangest in the entire list. For a brief moment in Fast 4, the creators of the franchise briefly gave Diesel the power to evaporate into thin air and miss a fatal crash. For a moment, it looked like they’d turned the series’ biggest star into a wizard with magical powers, but then it was never referenced again and things carried on as normal. Very odd.
When The Rock held the weight of a chopper
Dwayne Johnson’s arrival in the Fast series really helped to turn the franchise into the testosterone-fuelled beast it is today. His first appearance was in Fast 5 and it’s this moment from spin-off movie Hobbs & Shaw where he held the weight of an entire helicopter that really nailed the daftness of his character, and his seemingly limitless strength.
Driving from one skyscraper to another
The films are never short on spectacle, no-one can deny that. What is debatable, though, is the viability of a car driving out of one hi-rise building and then landing perfectly safe in another skyscraper a little further apart.
When Vin Diesel survived direct missile strikes
Although Vin Diesel is already in a Marvel film (he plays 'Groot' in Guardians of the Galaxy) – the fact is, he’s been playing a superhero for more than 20 years. The man is indestructible, as this clip of him taking direct hits from missile strikes, before rolling out onto the road without a scratch proves.
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