Get Up to Speed on the ‘Fast and the Furious’ Series in Time for ‘Fast Five’

Raise your hand if you knew that there was a fifth Fast and the Furious movie coming out. Yeah, we were surprised too when the trailer for Fast Five first came out. The film is not, as we originally suspected, a reboot, but yet another installment in the street car racing/thriller series. It hits theaters this Friday, so here’s your guide to get acquainted with the various sequels that came before so you’ll be ready when Paul Walker, Vin Diesel, and Jordana Brewster race back to the big screen.

If it’s not already confusing that the names are so similar, consider this: The movies that were released aren’t necessarily in chronological order. I’ve put them in the order in which they occur in the Fast and the Furious universe, with release dates in parentheses. (Spoilers for all the other films abound. But don’t worry, the description for Fast Five is spoiler-free.)

The Fast and the Furious (2001)

The job: Brian O’Conner (Walker) goes undercover to infiltrate Dominic Toretto’s (Diesel) street gang as they hijack trucks for millions of dollars in merchandise.

The bad guy: Johnny Tran, Dom’s rival and overlord of “Little Saigon.”

Memorable chase scene: Dom faces off against Johnny Tran’s people in his dad’s 1970 Dodge Charger.

Love interests: Brian falls for Dom’s sister Mia (Brewster); Dom’s girlfriend Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) is also part of his gang.

Deaths: Dom’s bud Jesse, in a drive-by shooting.

2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)

The job: Brian wants to start a new life of crime, but the FBI catches up to him and tells him they’ll wipe his record clean if he and his childhood friend and fellow criminal Rome Pearce (Tyrese Gibson) will go undercover as street racers to catch a drug lord.

The bad guy: Drug lord Carter Verone, who intends to smuggle laundered money to his private jet and flee Miami.

Memorable chase scene: As Verone attempts to escape, Brian and Rome race after him in a Camaro and crash-land it onto his yacht.

Love interests: Suki (Devon Aoki) and Tej Parker (Ludacris) have an on-again, off-again thing.

Deaths: None worth mentioning.