It began with a magazine article
The Fast and the Furious, released in 2001, grew out of a magazine article from 1998 about illegal street racing in New York, where young drivers raced tuned-up cars at night. The film moved the action to Los Angeles, and made DOM TORETTO the leader of a street-racing CREW and BRIAN O'Conner an undercover police officer sent to join them.
Its title was borrowed. A low-budget film called The Fast and the Furious had been made in 1955, and the producers paid for the right to use the name.
From street races to space
The first films were about street racing and car culture. Later films turned into huge action HEIST films, with the crew stealing a bank vault by dragging it through city streets, fighting off a submarine on the ice and, in the ninth film, driving a car into space. The series grew to be one of the most successful in cinema history. The first film cost about 38 million dollars to make; later ones cost several times as much. Because stunts wreck cars, a film usually uses several identical copies of each hero car, so a car that looks the same from shot to shot may be many different vehicles.
HOBBS, a tough government agent played by Dwayne Johnson, and SHAW, a former villain, became popular enough to get their own spin-off film.
Nitrous, turbos and drifting
When the crew hit a button to boost their cars, they are using NITROUS oxide, a real gas that some drag racers use. It adds oxygen to the ENGINE, letting it burn more fuel and briefly make much more power. It is the same gas dentists use as laughing gas. A TURBO forces extra air into an engine using the flow of the exhaust, and OCTANE is a measure of how well fuel resists burning too early.
Tokyo Drift, the third film, is about DRIFT racing, where drivers slide sideways round corners on purpose. The sport grew up on the mountain roads of Japan, and a famous Japanese drift driver known as the Drift King makes a brief appearance.
Family, and Paul Walker
FAMILY is the series' constant theme: Dom repeats that nothing matters more, and the crew — LETTY, his sister MIA, ROMAN and TEJ — treat each other as family.
Paul Walker, who played Brian, died in a car accident in 2013, away from filming, while Furious 7 was still being made. His brothers stood in for some remaining scenes, and computer effects completed others. The film ends with a tribute to him, as the two friends drive side by side and then part at a fork in the road.
Real racing and the rest of the grid
Dom's favourite car is a black 1970 Dodge CHARGER he built with his father in the family GARAGE. The films make STREET racing look thrilling, but in real life it is illegal and very dangerous, to drivers and to everybody else on the road. Proper racing happens on closed tracks, covered on our race cars page.
Every RACER knows how to use the GEARBOX and when to change up.