Fast & Furioushas had its ups and downs over the years, but there’s one entry in the franchise that saved it from a disappointing future. Hitting the big screen in 2001,The Fast and the FuriousintroducedVin Diesel as Dominic Torettoand Paul Walker as Brian O’Conner, a duo that would eventually become the franchise’s anchor.
This debut installment was followed by2 Fast 2 Furiousin 2003 andThe Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Driftin 2006, neither of which were as well received. The same can be said forFast & Furious(2009), the fourth installment. Although the first movie developed a passionate fan following,the three sequels that followed suggested that maybe the franchise had run out of road.
Fast Five Marks A Turning Point For Fast & Furious
The Fast Saga Was On Rocky Ground
Hitting theaters in 2011,Fast Fivechanged everything forFast & Furious. Directed by Justin Lin and pitting Dom and Brian against a Brazilian drug lord and tenacious federal agent Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson),this fifth installment injected some much-needed NOS into the franchise, opening up a brighter future.
Tokyo Driftmay now have a cult followingamongFastheads, but it was undeniably a box office disappointment at the time. The film essentially wiped the slate clean and introduced an entirely new story and slate of characters, and audiences voted with their wallets. As seen in the chart below,the third film grossed just $158 million worldwide.
The Fast and the Furious(2001)
55%
74%
37%
50%
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift(2006)
38%
69%
29%
67%
78%
83%
71%
84%
82%
72%
88%
59%
56%
$704M
Tokyo Drift’s performance threw a wrench in the franchise’s gears. In a 2013 interview withThe Wrap, former Universal Pictures co-president of production revealed thatthe film had executives “weighing whether to go straight to video or not for future sequels,“a decision that would have killed the franchise’s chances for major success.
After the Dom cameo inTokyo Driftwas met with enthusiasm from audiences, though, executives decided to give Diesel more creative control. The result wasFast & Furious, essentially a franchise Hail Mary. The film earned the worst reviews in the franchise, butits financial success paved the way forFast Five, which remains the second-highest ratedFast & Furiousmovieon Rotten Tomatoes.
Diesel remains a producer on allFast & Furiousmovies and has a great deal of power in terms of the franchise’s creative direction.
Fast Five Steers Fast & Furious Toward Success
Dom’s 2011 Outing Establishes Key Continuing Franchise Elements
With a strong response from critics and audiences alike,Fast Fivelaid the groundwork for future sequels and cemented the franchise as a big-screen experiencewith no risk of going straight to DVD. The film’s action is generally gritty and grounded, but the bank-safe heist is the first real taste of the kind of over-the-top set pieces that define later installments.
In addition to opening the door for more bombastic stunts,Fast Fivealso reinforced who the faces of the franchise are. It’s not justDom and Brian carrying the Fast Sagaforward, but figures like Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), Mia (Jordana Brewster), Tej (Ludacris), Roman (Tyrese Gibson), Han (Sung Kang), and Hobbs. They’ve all become fan favorites.
What’s more, it’s clear that theFastfranchise itself knows just how importantFast Fiveis.Fast X’s (2023) whole premise is essentially built around and inspired by the events of the 2011 film, with Jason Momoa’s Dante having been retconned into the story as Reyes' (Joaquim de Almeida) son.
Fast X: Part 2’s releaseis on the horizon, and though the franchise has arguably lost some of its luster since 2011, each new installment is still undoubtedly a major theatrical event. Things may now be winding down for the Fast Saga, butFast Fiveremains the movie that made the franchise’s last 14-plus years possible.
