The Fast and Furious movies are known for going over the top, but F9 actually taking the franchise into space was seen by many fans as its “jump the shark” moment. Despite The Fast and the Furious starting the street-level origins of the franchise, the movies have gradually gotten bigger and wilder, becoming international spy movies that feel unrecognizable compared to the relatively grounded first movie. While there was joy in seeing how ridiculous the movies would get over the years, there seems to have been a breaking point that F9 eventually found.

There are a number of movie franchises with “jump the shark” moments, referring to an infamous Happy Days episode and meaning the moment a story goes too far for audiences. It might have seemed as though the Fast and Furious movies were incapable of throwing off their fans with the increasing silliness, but seeing Tej (Chris “Ludacris” Bridges) and Roman (Tyrese Gibson) turn an old car into a spaceship and actually leave Earth’s atmosphere in F9 might have been that moment.

Tej & Roman Going Into Space In A Case Was One Step Too Far

The Fast And Furious Franchise Went Into Space And Left Reality Behind

Given how increasingly ridiculous the Fast and Furious movies had been getting over the years, there was an ongoing joke that the franchise would eventually have to go to space in order to top itself. F9 took that challenge by concocting a premise in which Tej and Roman modify a Pontiac Fiero with some rocket boosters, strap it to a plane that flies into the upper atmosphere, and take out the villains’ satellite.

The important thing to note is that the fan demand for taking the franchise into space was largely seen as a joke. It has become as common as “jumping the shark” that a movie franchise that has run out of ideas suddenly throws in a space element. However, this has rarely been received well, with Jason X, Moonraker, and Leprechaun in Space as prime examples. The Fast and Furious franchise didn’t seem to understand that by actually going through with this, they would be taking the franchise to a point it could never come back from.

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As much as Dom was becoming more of a superhero than a grounded street racer in these movies, the Fast and Furious franchise was still keeping one foot in reality for the most part. However, going into space was just a laughable moment that might have entertained some people initially, but made things too cartoonish going forward. Much like Han’s return in F9, it is an example of the Fast and Furious franchise conceding to fan demand without considering how damaging it is for the actual story.

Fast & Furious Has Nearly Jumped The Shark Several Times Before

The Series Is Known For Going Over The Top

While it is easy to point to the space sequence as the moment the Fast and Furious franchise jumped the shark, these movies have been getting closer and closer to that moment for quite some time now. Fast Five was the movie that amped up the action of the franchise, but Fast and Furious 6 was when they really started to ignore the laws of reality in these movies. This includes the soap opera-esque storyline of Letty coming back from the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ with amnesia, as well as the moment Dom jumps from a car to catch her in midair.

In retrospect, these moments were quite tame as Furious 7 only embraced this kind of thing more, including Dom and Brian jumping a car from one building to the next and parachuting cars out of a plane. However, even without the space sequence, it is likely that F9 would have been seen as the franchise turning point in ridiculousness. Several storylines also took cues from soap operas, with the convoluted return of Han and Jakob Toretto revealed as Dom’s long-lost brother. The sequence of Dom attaching a rope to his speeding car and swinging across a canyon also received backlash.

There have been hints that the final Fast and Furious movie will return to its street-level roots, which could be an ideal way to close out the franchise. However, with the return of Gisele (Gal Gadot) in Fast X, it seems as though they are still very willing to be ridiculous. In the end, as much as fans have been wanting to see the franchise go back to something smaller scale, moments like the space mission in F9 make it hard to imagine that ever working out.