Every Film in the Fast & Furious Franchise, Ranked by Rotten Tomatoes Score

Nov 30, 2023

Here's how Rotten Tomatoes definitively ranks the Fast & Furious movies.

The Fast and Furious series is one of the biggest blockbuster franchises in the world, earning over $6 billion across the 10 core films. Beginning as a semi-grounded action film focused on cars and street racing culture, the series has since evolved into a collection of some of the best sci-fi action blockbuster movies of the 21st Century. Over the last 20 years, the Fast & Furious films have not only entertained audiences, but even helped improve casting diversity in Hollywood, as reported by Den of Geek.

With some of the most outrageous action scenes, intense chase sequences, and biggest names in modern cinema, the series has become a box office heavy hitter and cultural phenomenon. Releasing a new core film roughly every two years, the series has had its share of dizzying high points, and a few moments that didn't resonate with audiences and critics. From the humble origins in LA's Street Racing culture, to latest high-stakes battle around the globe, here are all the main Fast & Furious films, ranked by their Rotten Tomatoes score.

With a critic score of 37, and the lowest audience rating in the series at 50, the second film in the franchise, 2 Fast 2 Furious, is also the one that was the least well received overall. Featuring even more fiberglass and underglow than the original, but without the justification of being centered around car culture, this action film was a case of all flash and no bang for both the critics and audiences.

This was also the only film in the mainline franchise not to feature Vin Diesel as Dominic Toretto in some way, an absence that didn't do the film any favors with anyone. However, this entry introduced Ludacris and Tyrese Gibson to the series as the immensely entertaining Tej Parker and Roman Pearce respectively, bringing a silver lining to an ultimately forgettable sequel.

After a few outings without the full cast from the original films, 2009's Fast & Furious brought back the core characters to seek revenge for the apparent death of Dom's girlfriend, Letty Ortiz, played by Michelle Rodriguez. This film served as a soft reboot of the franchise following Tokyo Drift's disappointing performance at the box office.

This is also the last film to put much focus on cars and racing before transitioning into a focus on action heist films that happened to feature fast cars. One criticism among fans was the choice to have this film set before Tokyo Drift, creating a slightly confusing timeline. Critics, however, eviscerated the film, with one review from Cinema-Crazed going as far as describing it as "not even worth the most forgiving fan's time" in a scathing review. While audiences were ultimately more lenient on this entry, the terrible critic score of 29 makes this the second worst reviewed overall.

The time that the series went to Japan. This third entry in the franchise followed a completely new protagonist, the teenage Sean Boswell played by Lucas Black. Boswell becomes involved with the underground world of Japanese drift racing and conflicts with "DK" an antagonist with connections to the Yakuza. This film also introduced fan-favorite character, Han Seoul-Oh, played by Sung Kang, who would seemingly meet his end in the film but be brought back in later installments.

This film is arguably the one most specifically tailored for gear-heads, with some of the best race scenes and several automotive in-jokes, including a cameo by the real-life drift king, Keiichi Tsuchiya. However, the movie didn't do particularly well at the box office, and leaning into such a niche subject did little to endear the film to critics and audiences, resulting in a lukewarm reception compared to later films in the franchise.

The movie that started the whole series and made Vin Diesel and Paul Walker into household names in 2001 remains an audience favorite. The Fast and the Furious focuses on the high-octane world of import tuners and street racing, with a plot about stolen electronics providing the overall frame of the story. The movie blew up like a Civic on nitrous, making over $40 million in its opening weekend, and causing a boom in the popularity of street racing all over the US.

Later entries in the series would depart from the racing angle and raise the stakes to a global scale, making this initial outing a major outlier in the franchise. However, the ultimate influence of The Fast and the Furious is evident with the continued focus on found family, loyalty, and of course, high-powered car chases featuring impressive machinery. Trends in both cars and movies may have moved on since 2001, but fans will always have a soft spot for this first trip with the fast family.

The eighth film in the series, and the one that pitted Vin Diesel's Dominic Toretto against his crew, The Fate of the Furious is a solid entry in the "blockbuster action" era of the franchise. Featuring Charlize Theron as the dangerous cyberterrorist, Cipher, this film pushes the stakes higher than any previous entry with a nuclear threat hinging on the events of the film.

Revealing Cipher as the ultimate villain behind several of the previous movies' plot lines creates a neat web of continuity, and also opens the door for several previous antagonists, including Jason Statham and Luke Evans' Shaw brothers, both of whom were the primary threats in previous entries, to change sides and help the heroes. The fast formula is evident, even while Dwayne Johnson throws torpedoes, making for another crowd-pleasing outing for Dom and his family.

The very latest film in the franchise, Fast X brings in Jason Momoa as Dante Reyes, the son of Fast Five's main villain bent on revenge against Dom and his family. Following the pattern of the previous movies, the stakes are higher, the antagonist even more dangerous, and the stunts more extreme than ever before, resulting in a tie for the highest audience score of the entire franchise.

Not only is the movie predictably over the top, but it even takes moments to be self-aware, even hanging lampshades on the escalation that the series has become so well known for. However, despite a great reaction from audiences, critics are less convinced, giving the tenth entry of the series a score just under the original. However, the major criticism by critics is that this movie is more of the same, which fans of this two decade old series of action flicks clearly don't seem to mind.

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In the ninth installment of the franchise, F9, the audience is introduced to Dom's estranged brother, Jakob, played by John Cena. Once again, series villain Cipher is after a science fiction super weapon, and the team is brought out of hiding and retirement in order to stop her. The stunts are bigger, the fights are more brutal, and the stakes manage to be both more personal and higher at the same time. In other words: a fairly typical Fast and Furious movie.

Critics gave this entry a 59, with negative reviews focusing on the implausibility of the action scenes and tonal shifting, while positive ones admitted the over-the-top nature of the movie but determined it was too much fun to care. Audiences seemed to agree with the more positive take, resulting in the second-highest score of the entire franchise at 82. This film brought back fan-favorite Sung Kang, delivered great action, and finally sent a car into space.

The sixth entry in the Fast and Furious franchise is the last to be set chronologically before Tokyo Drift, and incorporates elements of spy fiction and adventure films. After the events of Fast Five, the crew are fugitives despite their wealth, and the action is set up by Dwayne Johnson's Luke Hobbs needing their help to bring down Owen Shaw, played by Luke Evans, in exchange for full pardons.

Critics and audiences alike enjoyed the fast-paced action of Fast & Furious 6, praising the over-the-top action and culmination of several story threads set up by the previous films in the franchise. The mid-credits scene introducing Jason Statham's Deckard Shaw clarified the timeline of the films and set up the next entry in the franchise brilliantly, giving the audience an antagonist that they would already be invested in seeing taken down without the need for any more exposition.

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Fast Five is the point where the series intentionally left cars and racing behind and embraced its identity as an action packed collection of heist films which just so happened to feature fast cars. This departure ultimately brought the series in line with both critics and audiences, outperforming every previous movie in both categories.

This film also introduced action star Dwayne Johnson to the franchise, pitting him against Vin Diesel in an on-screen rivalry that apparently spilled into a very public off-screen feud, as outlined by The Week. Despite any behind-the-scenes friction, though, Fast Five breathed new life into a franchise by changing tack and opening the series up to a wider audience than ever before. This set the stage for every film that followed, and was a critical part in making Fast and Furious into the blockbusters we know today.

The seventh outing of the Fast and Furious franchise, and Paul Walker's final role before his death, Furious 7 stands out as one of the best, if not the absolute best, film in the series to date. In a long line of movies that have a reputation for loud, mindless action, this one offers up a surprising amount of humanity alongside the stunts and serves as a terrific tribute to the fallen star of the series, even including a beautiful side by side drive as a send-off to the actor and his character at the end of the film.

The central theme of family is stronger here than anywhere else in the franchise, as Dom and his crew tangle with the vengeful Deckard Shaw, who is hunting them in revenge for his brother. Kurt Russel also joins the cast as the government agent, Mr. Nobody, and brings Lucas Black's Sean Boswell for the first time since Tokyo Drift, firmly cementing the film's place in the canon of the series.

Ryan Christian is a writer and self-styled "story enthusiast" with a passion for plot and character in any medium, and enjoys a good video game as much as classic literature. If he isn't writing, Ryan can usually be found scouring a local book store, catching the latest blockbuster, or enjoying a long relaxing drive through the countryside.