How to watch the Fast and Furious movies in chronological order

The Fast and Furious franchise has been around for over 20 years.

We’ve had more than two decades of street racing, heists and espionage from Dominic Toretto, Brian O’Conner and their team – or family as they would call them. It’s one of the highest-grossing film series of all time, having a combined gross of over $6 billion, with 11 films released so far, including the latest Fast X, two short films that tie into those films, and multiple spin-off films in the works.

Fast X hit the streets on 19 May 2023, two years after Fast and Furious 9 which debuted on 25 June 2021. It’s a two-part finale so an extra movie following Fast X is coming, though it’s not slated to hit theaters until April 4, 2025.

As with the Marvel films and shows, it’s not as simple as watching the Fast and Furious films in the order they were released in, however. If you want to follow the storyline chronologically, you’ll need to do a little bit of shuffling. We’ve listed the best order to watch the Fast and Furious movies in, but be warned, there are spoilers in the immediate list below. If you want a straightforward list without spoilers, then head to the bottom.

There are spoilers below.

The Fast and the Furious

Where it all begins

The first Fast and Furious film arrived in 2001, and it focuses on Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) as an undercover LAPD officer who infiltrates Dominic Toretto’s (Vin Diesel) gang in an attempt to uncover those behind a heist crew involving three modified Honda Civics stealing DVD players from the back of tractor trailers. Simple beginnings for a series that’ll eventually see Ludacris go to space in a Pontiac Fiero.

Brian ends up falling for Dom’s sister, Mia, and the film ends with Brian helping Dom get away from the police by giving him the 10-second car he owes him after he lost his car to Dom in a street race earlier in the film.

2 Fast 2 Furious

Brian takes his talents to South Beach

2 Fast 2 Furious focuses on Brian O’Conner as the lead. Having relocated to Miami, Brian takes part in street racing to make a living, with a little car-modifying help from mechanic Tej Parker (Ludacris) – a character that goes on to play a big role in later films in the Fast and Furious franchise.

Brian ends up cutting a deal with his former boss – FBI Agent Bilkins (Thom Barry) – to return to undercover work and take down drug lord Carter Verone (Cole Hauser) in return for a clean record. His childhood friend Roman Pierce joins him as his partner and together they end up bringing Verone down, resulting in clean records for them both. \

Fast and Furious 4 (2009)

Dom and Brian get the family back together

Fast and Furious 4 sees Domonic Toretto and Brian O’Conner reunite after five years of Dom being on the run. Dom’s crew, which consists of Letty, Tego Leo, Rico Santos, Cara and Han Lue – some of which are main characters going forward – are hijacking fuel tankers in the Dominican Republic, before they go their separate ways.

Several months later, Dom finds out Letty has been killed so Dom returns to the US for her funeral and to find out what happened. Meanwhile, Brian, now an FBI agent, is trying to track down a drug lord called Arturo Braga, who it turns out Letty was working undercover for whilst trying to clear Dom’s record when she died (or so the film leads you to believe).

Dom and Brian work together to bring down Bruga and his henchman Fenix, which they succeed in doing thanks to Gisele (Bruga’s liaison) – another character that becomes prominent in the series going forward – but the result is Dom ends up getting caught by the FBI and sentenced to 25 years in prison. The film ends with Brian, Mia, Leo and Santos arriving in their cars to intercept the bus taking Dom to prison.

Fast Five

Dom and Brian plan one last job

Fast Five begins with Dom, Brian and Mia in Rio de Janerio, Brazil, where they are on the run after breaking Dom out of the prison bus in the previous film. Agent Luke Hobbs (Wayne Johnson) arrives in Rio to arrest Dom and Brian with the help of local officer Elena Neves, so Dom and Brian decide to steal money from crime lord Hernan Reyes to start a new life on the run. They pull together a team, which includes Han, Roman, Tej, Gisele, Leo, and Santos, along with help from Hobbs and Elena and succeed in the heist of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Hobbs and Elena help as a thank you to Dom, Brian, Mia and Vince (a character from the first film) saving their lives previously in the film, but Hobbs isn’t prepared to let them go free. Instead, he gives them a 24-hour head start. The end of the film shows a very pregnant Mia on a beach with Brian and Dom and Elena together. Hobbs then appears mid-credits with a file showing a recent photo of Letty – who Dom thinks is dead.

Fast & Furious 6

Letty’s alive, but can’t remember Dom

Fast and Furious 6 open with all the members of the heist in Brazil living happy lives in retirement, when Agent Luke Hobbs persuades Dom to help capture a former special ops soldier called Owen Shaw and his crew, one member of which is Letty – Dom’s wife. Dom and his crew agree to help in exchange for clean records, allowing them to come back to the US.

Dom and his team eventually complete the mission successfully, but not without loss. Gisele – Han’s girlfriend – sacrifices herself to save Han, resulting in her death. The mid-credits then show Han in Tokyo – the city him and Gisele were planning to go following the capture of Shaw – in a car chase. Han’s car is suddenly crashed into before it explodes and Dom gets a phone call from the driver – Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) – saying “You don’t know me, but you’re about to”. This is tied to the third Fast and Furious film – Tokyo Drift – from 2006, which sees Han working in the Tokyo racing scene. It also sets up Statham’s Shaw as the next villain for Dom’s crew.

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift

An American teen is introduced to the Tokyo race scene

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift focuses on high school student Sean Boswell, who goes to live in Tokyo in order to avoid jail for street racing. While in Tokyo, Sean meets Han, who gives him a job and trains him in a style of drift racing popular in the city. That leads Sean to challenging the local racing champ known as the Drift King, played by Billy Lee. We then see Han die in the accident that we found out in the previous film was orchestrated by Deckard Shaw. Han isn’t the only other character from the larger Fast and Furious universe to appear in Tokyo Drift as Dom shows up at the end to challenge Sean to a race.

Tokyo Drift is the first film in the series directed by Justin Lin and written by Chris Morgan. The pair would go on to write and direct the most successful films in the franchise.

Furious 7

Brian’s last ride

Furious 7 is all about rogue special forces assassin Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), taking vengeance on Dominic Toretto’s team for putting his brother, Owen, into a coma. Helped by a covert ops team led by Mr Nobody (Kurt Russel), Dom and his team attempt to track down Shaw, whilst also trying to obtain a computer program called God’s Eye and rescue its creator – Ramsay.

Following a few close calls and a one-on-one fight between Dom and Shaw at the top of a parking garage, Hobbs returns to help save the day. Shaw ends up going to prison, while Dom and his team are back on the beach. Brian retires from the team to be with pregnant Mia and their son, saying goodbye to Dom at a crossroads. Furious 7 is the last we see of Brian O’Connor as Paul Walker tragically died in a real car crash mid-way through filming, leading to the retirement of his character.

The Fate of the Furious

Dom is forced to turn his back on the family

In the eighth Fast and Furious film, Dominic Toretto is coerced into working for cyber-terrorist Cipher (Charlize Theron), which sees him go rogue and against his team – Letty, Roman, Tej and Ramsay – when on a mission led by Hobbs. Hobbs then gets arrested, ending up in the same prison as Deckard Shaw from Furious 7. Hobbs and Shaw are then recruited together by Mr Nobody to find Dom and capture Cipher.

After learning that Elena had a child with Dom that she kept secret from him, Cipher kidnapped the child in order to blackmail Dom. Elena is eventually killed by Cipher, and Dom is left needing help from his team, Hobbs, and the Shaw brothers if he ever wants to see his child again.

Universal Studios

Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw

The spin-off sees the two unlikely allies unite to take on a super-soldier

Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw is the first spin-off in the Fast and Furious franchise.

It sees the titular characters, agent Luke Hobbs and Deckard Shaw, team up to stop Brixton Lore (Idris Elba), a cyber-genetically enhanced terrorist in possession of a programmable virus.

Although the film doesn’t have any other Fast and Furious characters, it sticks to the basics of the franchise as Hobbs and Shaw go on a globe-trotting adventure to obtain the virus known as snowflake before heading to Hobb’s home in Somoa to make a final stand against Brixton.

F9: The Fast Saga

Dom’s long lost brother comes home

F9: The Fast Saga, picks up with Dominic Toretto now retired and raising his son Brian with his wife Letty. It’s not long before the gang is back together again, when Dom’s long-lost brother Jakob (John Cena) steals the first part of a device that can hack into computer weapons systems. From there, the entire gang has to head to different parts of the world in order to prevent Jakob from getting the other parts of the device he needs.

Fast X

The team’s past comes back to haunt them

Fast X sees the sins of the team’s past come back to bite them. You may remember the gigantic safe they pulled through Rio De Jianero hooked to cars in Fast Five that belonged to the druglord Hernan Reyes. Reyes’ son, Dante (Jason Momoa) has spent the decade since plotting his revenge against Dom for taking his family fortune. The film ends on a cliffhanger and was originally part-one of a planned two film finale for the main films in the Fast and Furious universe. Vin Diesel has since stated that there will actually be two more Fast and Furious movies.

That next chapter is still a little way off though, as Fast and Furious 11 isn’t slated to hit theaters until April 4, 2025.

Bonus short features

There are two short features that were originally included as DVD extras that bridge some of the gaps between the films. The Turbo-Charged Prelude for 2 Fast 2 Furious is a six-minute short film that was included in the special edition DVD set of the second film. It links the first film and the second together, showing Brian O’Conner as a fugitive wanted by the FBI for enabling Dominic Toretto to escape police capture. He crosses the country winning street races before ending up in Miami.

The second short film shows Dom planning a heist in the Dominican Republic with Letty before the events of the fourth Fast and Furious film. It was directed by Vin Deisel as well. It was included as a special feature with the fourth Fast and Furious film.

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When does the next Fast and Furious film come out?

That next chapter is still a little way off though, as Fast and Furious 11 isn’t slated to hit theaters until April 4, 2025. Vin Deisel has indicated that there will be one more Fast and Furious film following Fast 11. Beyond that, there are initial plans for a Hobbs and Shaw 2, as well as a Hobbs and Reyes spin-off featuring Jason Momoa’s character. There’s also been rumors of a spin-off centered around all the female character from the franchise. Those spin-offs are all in the very early stages of development though.