Fast and Furious: ranking the most memorably OTT stunts from the franchise

Blow away those lockdown cobwebs with a blast of big-screen action in the form of Fast and Furious 9. The latest instalment in the relentless action franchise promises to restore the theatrical blockbuster experience as we're reunited with carjacker Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his crew.

One of the things that has distinguished this franchise is its escalatingly crazy stunt work. To that end, we've ranked several of the series' most memorable ser-pieces on an ascending scale of Vin, from relatively unremarkable to full-throttle insanity. Check out our list and get primed for the new movie.

 

8. Car vs train (The Fast and the Furious, 2001)

Vin Scale of Absurdity: 2/10

Yes, this patently ridiculous, albeit seat-gripping, climax from the first Fast and Furious movie only ranks at two points on our ascending scale of Vin. That tells you how cray-cray things are going to get from here. It sees car-jacker Dom versus FBI agent Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker), the latter of whom is experiencing divided loyalties between upholding the law and yielding to Dom's outlaw lifestyle. What better way to test that than with a drag race against an oncoming freight train?

7. Boat ramp (2 Fast 2 Furious, 2003)

Vin Scale of Absurdity: 4/10

Diesel left the franchise and sought pastures new, leaving Walker to carry this sequel. It says something about the nature of the series that a car leaping off a ramp onto a boat seems relatively sober. Hang on – things only get wilder from here.

 

6. World's longest runway (Furious 6, 2013)

Vin Scale of Absurdity: 6/10

Everyone hates the boredom of taxiing in a plane while waiting for it to take off. Fortunately, you've never flown with Furious 6 Airways, in which a runway stretches out to the length of a 10-minute action sequence. This is convenient for narrative purposes, however, as Dom and his crew find the time to take down the nefarious Owen Shaw (Luke Evans).

 

5. Car vs tank (Furious 6, 2013)

Vin Scale of Absurdity: 6/10

"Uh, guys, they got a tank." With those words, spoken by Dom's crewmember Tej (Ludacris), the Fast and Furious series fully committed itself to full-blown insanity. It's not just the site of a tank charging down a highway, mincing unfortunate passers-by in the process. It's the mid-air rescue of Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) by Dom that acts as the ultimate rebuke of the laws of physics.

 

4. Brazil bank safe pursuit (Fast Five, 2011)

Vin Scale of Absurdity: 6/10

The fifth Fast and Furious movie cemented the franchise's new philosophy, moving it from street racing saga to heist movie on wheels. It's capped off by a jaw-droppingly destructive climax in which Dom and his team drag a bank vault through the streets of Rio de Janeiro with Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson, making his franchise debut) in hot pursuit.

 

3. Car skydive (Furious 7, 2015)

Vin Scale of Absurdity: 8/10

Director James Wan graduated from creepy chills (Insidious; The Conjuring) to master of the impossible action sequence in the seventh Fast and Furious movie. At this point, the characters effectively became superheroes, replete with the ability to fix parachutes to cars and launch them out of the back of an airborne plane. 

 

2. Car vs building (Furious 7, 2015)

Vin Scale of Absurdity: 8/10

Abu Dhabi plays host to one of the most memorable scenes in Furious 7, as Dom and Brian (Paul Walker making his final series appearance) launch a supercar from one skyscraper to another.

 

1. Car vs submarine (Furious 8, 2017)

Vin Scale of Absurdity: 10/10

Charlize Theron's villainous Cipher makes life hell for Dom and his crew during the climax of Furious 8, commandeering a submarine through the Arctic pack ice and launching a torpedo at their convoy of vehicles. But the chef's kiss moment goes to Hobbs who singlehandedly reaches out, grabs said torpedo and sends it careering off course. Added to this, the intercutting of the torpedo sequence with Jason Statham's Deckard Shaw taking out the baddies on a plane – at the same time that he's protecting Dom's new baby. With this kind of enjoyably logic-busting action, it's surely only a matter of time before these guys go into space, right?

 

Where will the stunts in the ninth movie rank on our list? You can find out very soon. Click here to book your tickets for Fast and Furious Nine, opening in Cineworld on the 24th of June.