The Fast and the Furious is an American franchise including a series of action films, which center around illegal street racing and heists, and various other media portraying the characters and situations from the films. Distributed by Universal Pictures, the series was established with the 2001 film titled The Fast and the Furious; followed by six sequels, two short films that tie into the series, and as of May 2015, it has become Universal’s biggest franchise of all time.

The Fast and the Furious (2001)

The film is based on an article, titled “Racer X”, about New York street clubs that race Japanese cars late at night, although the film is set primarily in Los Angeles. While elite street racer and ex-convict Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his crew: Jesse (Chad Lindberg), Leon (Johnny Strong), Vince (Matt Schulze) and Letty Ortiz (Michelle Rodriguez), are under suspicion of stealing expensive electronic equipment by hijacking moving trucks, Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) is an undercover police officer who attempts to find out who exactly is stealing the equipment.

2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)

Watched by undercover Customs Agent Monica Fuentes (Eva Mendes), Brian is caught by US Customs agents and given a deal by agents Bilkins and Markham (James Remar) to go undercover and try to bring down drug lord Carter Verone (Cole Hauser) in exchange for the erasure of his criminal record. Brian agrees but only if he is given permission to choose his partner, refusing to partner with the agent assigned to watch him. Brian heads home to Barstow, California, where he recruits Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson), a childhood friend of Brian who had served jail time and is under house arrest, to help him. Pearce agrees, but only for the same deal Brian was offered, and with the help of Monica, Brian and Roman work together to take down Verone. After acquiring confiscated vehicles and being hired by Verone as his drivers, the duo return to a Customs/FBI hideout, where Roman confronts Markham over the latter’s interference with the mission.

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)

After totaling his car in an illegal street race, Sean Boswell (Lucas Black) is sent to live in Tokyo, Japan, with his father, a U.S. Navy officer, in order to avoid juvie or even jail. While in school, he befriends Twinkie (Bow Wow), a “military brat” who introduces him to the world of drift racing in Japan. Though forbidden to drive, he decides to race against Takashi (Brian Tee) aka D.K. (Drift King) who has ties to the Yakuza. He borrows a Nissan Silvia from Han Seoul-Oh (Sung Kang), now a business partner to Takashi, and loses, totaling the car because of his lack of knowledge of drifting – racing that involves dangerous hairpin turns. To repay his debt for the car he destroyed, Sean must work for Han.

Fast & Furious (2009)

About five years after the events of the first film, Dominic and his new crew (Letty, Han, Leo, Santos and Cara) have been hijacking fuel tankers in the Dominican Republic. When their trail gets too hot, Dominic disbands the crew. However, he is later informed that Letty has been murdered. Dominic returns to Los Angeles where he finds traces of nitro-methane at these crash site, and tracks the buyer of the gas to David Park. Meanwhile, Brian O’Conner, who has been working as an FBI agent, is tracking down a drug trafficker named Arturo Braga. When Brian and Dominic cross paths at David Park’s apartment, Dominic is about to drop David out the window. But Brian intervenes, and works a scheme where he enters a street race where the winner would join Braga’s team of drivers. Although Dominic wins the four-car race by bumping Brian’s car, Brian later joins the team by replacing one of Braga’s other drivers.

Fast Five (2011)

When Dominic “Dom” Toretto is being transported to Lompoc Prison by bus, his sister Mia Toretto and friend Brian O’Conner lead an assault on the bus, causing it to crash and freeing Dom. While the authorities search for them, the trio escapes to Rio de Janeiro. Awaiting Dom’s arrival, Mia and Brian join their friend Vince and other participants on a job to steal three cars from a train. Brian and Mia discover that agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) are also on the train and that the cars are seized property. When Dom arrives with the rest of the participants, he realizes that one of them, Zizi, is only interested in stealing one car, a Ford GT40. Dom has Mia steal the car herself before he and Brian fight Zizi and his henchmen, during which Zizi kills the DEA agents assigned to the vehicles. Dom and Brian are captured and brought to crime lord Hernan Reyes, the owner of the cars and Zizi’s boss. Reyes orders the pair be interrogated to discover the location of the car, but they manage to escape and retreat to their safehouse.

Fast & Furious 6 (2013)

Following their successful Rio heist, Dominic “Dom” Toretto and his professional criminal crew have fled around the world: Dom lives with Elena; his sister Mia lives with Brian O’Conner and their son, Jack; Gisele and Han live in Hong Kong; and Roman and Tej live in luxury.DSS agents Luke Hobbs and partner Riley Hicks investigate the destruction of a Russian military convoy by a crew, led by former British SAS Major and special ops agent Owen Shaw. Hobbs persuades Dom to help capture Shaw by showing him a photo of the supposedly long-dead Letty Ortiz, Dom’s former lover. Dom and his crew accept the mission in exchange for amnesty, allowing them to return to the United States.

Furious 7 (2015)

After defeating Owen Shaw and his crew and securing amnesty for their past crimes, Dominic “Dom” Toretto, Brian O’Conner, and the rest of their team have returned to the United States to live normal lives again. Brian begins to accustom himself to life as a father, while Dom tries to help Letty Ortiz regain her memories. Meanwhile, Owen’s older brother, Deckard Shaw, breaks into the secure hospital the comatose Owen is being held in and swears vengeance against Dom, before breaking into Luke Hobbs’ DSS office to extract profiles of Dom’s crew. After revealing his identity, Shaw engages Hobbs in a fight, and escapes when he detonates a bomb that severely injures Hobbs. Dom later learns from his sister Mia that she is pregnant again and convinces her to tell Brian. However, a bomb, disguised in a package sent from Tokyo, explodes and destroys the Toretto house just seconds after Han, a member of their team, is killed by Shaw in Tokyo. Dom later visits Hobbs in a hospital, where he learns that Shaw is a rogue special forces assassin seeking to avenge his brother. Dom then travels to Tokyo to claim Han’s body, where he meets and races Sean Boswell, a friend of Han’s, who gives him personal items found at Han’s crash site.

“Fast and the Furious Franchise” Gallery