Even though Fast Five turned the Fast & Furious series into an action blockbuster franchise, it was actually Fast & Furious 6 that made over-the-top, ridiculous stunts a mainstay. The first Fast & Furious movie was released in 2001 and mostly focuses on street racing. Even though each movie in the franchise ramps up the action, the first four Fast & Furious movies all predominantly feature street racing. However, Fast Five essentially abandoned street racing and instead turned the series into one of the biggest action franchises in Hollywood.

Fast Five may have marked a major change in direction for the franchise, but it is still mostly grounded. Fast & Furious 6, on the other hand, features a plethora of unrealistic stunts that set a precedent for the rest of the franchise. After the sixth movie in the series, the stunts in Fast & Furious movies continued to get more and more ridiculous. Therefore, even though Fast Five is often credited with changing the Fast & Furious franchise forever, it was actually Fast & Furious 6 that solidified the series as an over-the-top action franchise.

Fast & Furious 6 Is When The Franchise Truly Went Over The Top

Fast & Furious 6 Includes Several Ridiculous Stunts

In Fast & Furious 6, Luke Hobbs asks Dom and his crew to help him take down Owen Shaw’s crew in exchange for full pardons after all the crimes they’ve committed. The story of Fast & Furious 6 is actually quite straight forward, pitting one crew against another. However, Fast & Furious 6 is when the action in the series truly gets ridiculous and features characters essentially acting like they’re superhuman. For example, Dom jumping from one bridge to another to save Letty is so overdramatic and unlikely that audiences are practically forced to turn their brains off.

The end of Fast & Furious 6 also includes a drawn out climax on a runway that seems to last forever. Fast & Furious 6’s climax makes less sense the more you think about it, and proves that the franchise expects people to turn their brains off and just accept what’s happening on the screen. Furthermore, Fast & Furious 6 brought Letty back from the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ, starting the trend of bringing seemingly ᴅᴇᴀᴅ characters back to life. Fast & Furious 6’s Letty plot line also changed the franchise forever, as practically every ᴅᴇᴀᴅ character seems to return down the line.

Fast Five Changed The Franchise’s Tone (But Its Action Was Still Grounded)

Fast Five Is Regarded By Many As The Best Fast & Furious Movie

Even though Fast Five was a dramatic shift in tone for the franchise, it did not include as many unrealistic action sequences as Fast & Furious 6. In fact, most of Fast Five’s action sequences are quite grounded. Fast Five is a pretty traditional action movie that builds towards a major heist. Obviously, Dom and his crew dragging a mᴀssive safe through the streets of Rio de Janeiro isn’t completely realistic, but it was believable enough for the story of the film.

Fast Five also features some of the most intense sequences of the entire franchise. For example, the favela chase scene in Fast Five keeps audiences on the edge of their seats as it feels like characters like Dom, Brian, and Mia are genuinely in danger. This is perhaps the last time audiences have any reason to worry about these characters in the Fast & Furious series, as the other films in the franchise treat them like they’re superhuman. Therefore, Fast Five is the last film in the franchise that featured action scenes that felt like they actually had stakes.

Things Only Got Weirder In The Fast Saga After Fast & Furious 6

The Fast & Furious Movies After The Sixth Film Are Even More Over-The-Top

After the numerous over-the-top action scenes in Fast & Furious 6, future movies in the series had to continuously one-up the previous films. Furious 7 wasted no time proving that it could include more ridiculous sequences than Fast & Furious 6. About halfway through Furious 7, Dom jumps a car between multiple skyscrapers in Abu Dhabi. Throughout the series, the crew successfully drive cars out of planes and land them on the ground, contain a giant wrecking ball in Rome, and two characters even go to space in a car.

For a long time, it was a joke that the Fast & Furious franchise would go to space. However, the ninth film in the series figured out a way to actually send Roman and Tej to space. This sequence, and many others, proves that the Fast & Furious franchise is much more focused on over-the-top action than telling a genuinely compelling story. This wasn’t always the case, but 12 years after the sixth film released in theaters, it is clearer than ever that it completely changed the Fast & Furious franchise.