Since we first met Dom Toretto and company in 2001’s The Fast and the Furious, we’ve watched the group of street racers-turned-superheroes bring down planes, trains, and automobiles (as well as other modes of transportation) for one reason or another. And while the exploits of Vin Diesel’s most badass character make for a great movie-going experience, one aspect of the movies that seems to get glossed over (or at not mentioned whatsoever) is the collateral damage caused by the various characters in the first nine films of the multi-billion-dollar franchise.
So, with that in mind, we’ve put together a quick list of all the times the Fast and Furious characters have created a ton of collateral damage, whether it be the destruction of vehicles and property as well as all the injuries and potential deaths left in their wake. And with F9 right around the corner, now is the perfect time to look at all the dangerously unsafe yet popcorn-grabbing-worthy destruction from the franchise thus far.
The Prison Break - Fast Five
The Fast and Furious franchise was already a 10-year-old property by the time Fast Five came around in April 2011, but director Justin Lin and the large ensemble cast made a loud statement in the thrilling opening scene in which Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) and Mia Toretto (Jordana Brewster) caused a prison transport bus containing Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) and two dozen other high-risk inmates before the opening title card. With the franchise star sitting in his orange prison jumpsuit waiting to spend the rest of his days in prison, his partners in crime pull off a daring (and extremely dangerous) feat by forcing the prison bus to lose control before letting in slam into the back of one of their cars, flipping over in the process.
And while the in-movie news reports that provide expositional information about what will unfold throughout the movie say all other prisoners were accounted for following the accident, it’s not made all that clear if all survived or how many were injured in the process. After watching the crash multiple times, you can’t tell me no one was seriously hurt in this mess.
The Toretto Crew Drags Vaults Through The Streets Of Rio De Janeiro - Fast Five
The whole “breaking Dom Toretto out of prison” was just the first of many courses in the feast that is Fast Five, with the main entree being the epic vault heist that sees the expanded crew plan to steal $100 million in cash belonging to crime lord Hernan Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida) and start a new life. But instead of breaking into the police station holding the vault and taking the money there, the team instead decides to steal the entire vault.
As soon as the heist starts with Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) driving an armored truck through the wall of the police station, you know someone (or a lot of people) won’t make it out of this without a scratch. With Brian behind the wheel of one car and Dom driving the other, the two cars pull the vault through the streets of Rio, smashing through buildings, into cars, and wiping out all sorts of structures on city streets. Surely a lot of people were injured or worse, unless they were superheroes like Dom Toretto.
Dom And Brian Drive A Car Through The Abu Dhabi Skyline - Furious 7
By the time Furious 7 came around in 2015, the Fast and Furious franchise had already become the logic-defying yet highly enjoyable thrill ride we know it as today, but the seventh installment in the series took things to the next level. About halfway through the movie, the whole crew head to Abu Dhabi in order to steal the flash drive containing the God’s Eye chip (the powerful computer program capable of tracking anyone and everyone), which happens to be inside a car that is inside a building, an extremely tall building.
What follows is one of the most insane and deadly stunts of the entire movie and perhaps the franchise in general. Dom and Brian drive the Lykan Hypersport out of one building (sending shards of glass falling 100+ stories onto the busy streets of the megacity), through another building (narrowly missing a construction worker), and into a third building into what appears to be a museum before jumping out just as the car crashes to the ground. Destroyed vehicles? Check. Destroyed property? Check! Potential injuries and loss of life? Highly likely.
The Final Showdown Between The Toretto Crew And Deckard Shaw - Furious 7
While not as visually spectacular as watching a car drive across a city skyline, the climactic showdown between Dom Toretto’s crew (with the addition of Luke Hobbs, who literally flexes a cast off his arm) and Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) on the streets of Los Angeles is utter chaos and had to result in the deaths of like 20 people (I’m spitballing here). But seriously, everything about Furious 7's final fight would end up on the 24-hour news cycle while authorities sifted through the wreckage left behind.
With the God’s Eye having been hacked and taken off line, Deckard Shaw’s last resort is to fight Dom Toretto man-to-man on top of a parking garage in downtown Los Angeles. But through a stroke of luck, Dom takes out his opponent by making the parking garage partially collapse. Then through some nifty teamwork, Dom and Luke Hobbs bring down Mose Jakande’s (Djimon Hounsou) helicopter, making the whole scene even more destructive. And while the city block looks like a ghost town, everyone’s actions cause a large parking garage (with dozens of cars) to collapse. Oh, and don't get me started with Luke Hobbs firing a gatling gun all haphazardly before all of this.
Cipher Takes Control Of Cars In New York City - The Fate Of The Furious
The eighth film in the franchise, The Fate of the Furious, introduces one of the Toretto crew’s most diabolical enemies yet: the cyberterrorist known as Cipher (Charlize Theron). At one point in this 2017 action flick, Cipher takes control of hundreds, if not thousands, of cars in New York City and uses them like a horde of zombies as she tries to steal a nuclear device from the Russian Minister of Defense. What follows reaches a level of absurdity rarely seen in the franchise, which is saying something.
Cars with people in them, cars with people on them, and even cars with no one around start driving on their own and crash into each other and everything around them as the criminal mastermind tries to get her hands on the powerful weapon. And then Dom Toretto (who’s being extorted by Cipher, by the way) starts causing destruction (and putting lives at risk) by trying to evade his former friends through any means necessary. This includes driving on sidewalks, through storefronts, and in busy parks.
There are also other plenty of other scenes throughout the franchise where characters brought destruction in their wake, including but not limited to the opening race in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, the Fast and Furious 6 plane crash, and that poor dude who got ran over by an 18-wheeler in 2 Fast 2 Furious.
You can go back and check out all of those moments and more while you watch the Fast and Furious movies streaming ahead of the release of F9, one of the most anticipated 2021 movies on the calendar.
