10 Times When The “Fast and Furious” Movies Abandoned Reality

With the release of the tenth installment of the Fast and Furious film “Fast X” raking in $280 million opening weekend, the franchise is pretty much self-aware of the extent of its over-the-top action sequences and corny one-liners. Some may even say that the series has jumped the shark (minus the shark), but audiences are still entertained and invested in the F&F family’s storyline before it reaches its final conclusion.

Because despite all the crashed cars, explosions, and conveniently-dodged bullets the cast has gone through, they all managed to walk away without a scratch, bruise, or even a twisted ankle. Even though we all know it’s the product of movie magic, there have been countless moments through the films where the laws of common sense no longer apply. But who cares if they get an F in Physics 101, when they’ve got an A+ in Family.

F9 – The Rope Swing Scene

Dom Toretto is either the most skilled driver in the world or the luckiest. Because aside from dodging bullets and rockets from military helicopters, he is able to properly intertwine a cable from a collapsed bridge into his car’s front axle before swinging across a crevasse like Tarzan before doing fifteen barrel rolls. Then, he and Letty emerge from the wreckage looking and feeling peachy.

The Fast and The Furious – Quarter Mile Race

Based on the current stunts performed by the F&F family, this street race between Brian and Dom seems rather tame. Back when the films were all about street racing, this climactic scene, though awesome, suspended reality… and suspensions. Because as many experienced drivers will tell you, it is impossible for a car to do both a burnout and a wheelie at the same time. That, and the fact that Dom was able to survive getting T-boned by a semi-truck at a high speed really set audiences up for the wild 10-film ride they were in for.

Fast Five – Prison Break Bus Scene

At this point, the F&F family has concluded that the laws of physics no longer apply to them. While they do demonstrate some impressive driving in their plan to free Dom from a prison bus, the fact that they were able to use his Dodge Charger as an indestructible giant speed bump does raise a few eyebrows.

Fate of the Furious – Fighting a Nuclear Submarine

Under normal circumstances, a regular street car wouldn’t stand a chance against a military-grade submarine. But since we’re in the world of the “Fast and Furious”, normal circumstances don’t apply here. Unless anyone could easily use the ice shelf to launch their car into the air and then use the submarine to intercept a heat-seeking missile.

Fast Five – Bank Vault Scene

By far one of the most destructive scenes in the film franchise, we watch as the crew put a more action-filled twist on bank heist movies. Because rather than steal the contents out of the vault, they just take the vault! But remember, this is a movie. Unless it is made out of paper maché, the possibility of two high-performance cars being able to drag a 20,000-pound bank vault through the streets of Rio de Janeiro is not likely. But who needs the possibility when you’ve got family?

Furious 7 – Skyscraper Jump

The Lykan Hypersport is one of the rarest cars in the world. In fact, there are only 7 of them in existence. So it would be a sin if one of these cars were to show up in a “Fast and Furious” movie, and they leave it alone. That’s just not the style of the F&F crew. If anything, they include it in one of the most extreme, heart-pounding sequences to appear in the franchise by plowing it through three skyscrapers Abu Dhabi before “parking” it at the ground floor.

Fast & Furious 6 – Tank

Watching Dom Toretto take on an actual tank actually sounds like a fair fight. You’ve got an indestructible machine, and you’ve got a tank. While the idea of fighting and defeating a tank is not likely, the real hair-raising moment is when Dom perfectly launches himself out of his car to catch Letty to prevent her from falling to her demise.

2 Fast 2 Furious – Boat Jump

Another old-school F&F stunt that started to push the envelope was when Brian and Roman go full “Dukes of Hazzard” by launching themselves onto the yacht of a crimelord, preventing his escape. If this were to take place in the real world, there wouldn’t be a conveniently-placed jump ramp. And if there was, the likelihood of everyone in the car and boat surviving this crash would be very low. But a good movie stunt is a good movie stunt.

Furious 7 – Plane Drop

It’s action sequences like the famous plane drop from Fast and Furious 7 where audiences wonder if there was any need for a scriptwriter for this movie. But then again, sending themselves out of the cargo hold of a plane to pursue the bad guys is not outside the realm of options for this crew to choose from.

F9 – Going To Space

As soon as this scene happened, audiences couldn’t help but ask how we went from street racing to outer space. But if the Fast and Furious is going to embark to the stars, you would assume they’d be taking an actual rocket, right? How does a 30+-year-old Fiero sound?