Paul Walker tribute: A ranking the 'Fast and Furious' franchise

The Fast and the Furious started as a film about street racing, but became so much more. It birthed a franchise revolving around the lives of the criminal Dominic "Dom" Toretto (Vin Diesel), his sister Mia (Jordana Brewester), his girlfriend Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), and his friend-turned-enemy-turned friend and sister's beau, Brian O'Connor (Paul Walker), a cop who became a criminal in the name of honor, love and friendship. Walker and Diesel led the franchise through its six films as new characters joined the team and some were lost. They have been the staple of a franchise of which the most recent film grossed $238,679,850, according to Box Office Mojo. The franchise is Walker's legacy and he will be missed from it greatly. He helped make all of these films enjoyable, but some were better than others, so here's a ranking of the six films in the series that he skillfully helped build:
#6. The third installment- Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)
Until the most recent movie, this installment seemed to bear no relevance to the franchise. The only common character was Han (Sung Kang). The film revolved around a teenager from Alabama, Sean Boswell (played by Lucas Black), who moves in with his father in Tokyo to avoid a jail sentence in America. Soon after coming to Tokyo he joins the world of drift racing, quickly rising to the top and finding himself in trouble. The drift racing was incredibly fun to watch—probably the most exciting kind of racing in the whole franchise, and it was amusing that Bow Wow co-starred, but the audience-character bond just wasn't quite the same. The fact that the recent movie brought Tokyo Drift into relevance boost its intrigue, but it's an easy choice for last place in the franchise.

#5. The fourth installment- Fast & Furious (2009)
This film picks up five years after the original. Brian has since earned back his freedom and is working for the FBI in Los Angeles. Dom left Letty so she wouldn't be penalized when authorities caught up to him. But he heads back to LA when Mia tells him Letty's been murdered. The film is great because it brings the franchise back on track. With Vin Diesel's absence in the second, and the then-apparent irrelevance of the third, this is the film that segues the old with the new. There's also a twist in the plot about who the villain is. And even better, it's the film in which Brian finally picks a side, when at the end he throws his rebuilt life away to free Dom from a prison transfer bus.

However, it has its flaws. For one, the only way we learn what happened to Letty is through Dom's re-imagining of the crime scene, which I found a little incredulous and frustrating. The racing scenes were cool because of the setting—desert and rock tunnels—but for some reason they looked more fake than in other movies. It introduces Gisele (Gal Gadot) who joins the team later on, but does so in the form of an unnecessary potential new love interest for Dom, who rightfully rejects her because he's not over Letty. All in all the movie was still enjoyable, but the plot was a little thin and with only Dom and Brian working together, it was missing some of the humor and flavor that other team members bring.

#4. The sequel- 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)
The first follow-up to the franchise had only one leg to stand on—Paul Walker. Vin Diesel did not return, for reasons uncertain, nor did the director or other main characters. So it was up to Walker and the replacement director, John Singleton, to make it work. They brought in an afro-sporting Ludacris to play Tej Parker, the ringleader of a racing underworld in Florida. Walker's O'Connor aims to redeem himself in the eyes of the law for the mess he made in the first movie by helping to take down a Miami drug exporter. He recruits childhood friend and talented driver Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson). Pearce is a great addition because in this film and in future ones, he is one of the most entertaining characters, delivering one liners and amusing banter. Another great newbie (though she doesn't stay)? Eva Mendes as Monica Fuentes, an undercover FBI agent who's embedded herself with the bad guy Carter Verone. The film is a bit more playful than others in the franchise and a little shallow, but considering what they had to work with, it was a success and it gave Walker his chance to shine.

#3. The fifth installment - Fast Five (2011)
Five reasons to love Fast Five: 1) It was the first time that team members from different parts of the franchise were brought together—Brian, Dom, Mia, Han, Roman, Tej, Gisele, Vince (Matt Schulze—from the original). 2) Rio is a beautiful and refreshing setting. 3) The film features some of the coolest cars and best fight/chase scenes—jumping rooftops, Dwayne the Rock Johnson facing off against Vin Diesel (Johnson as CIA agent Luke Hobbs), driving a car off a train. 4) It also features some of the best emotional scenes in the franchise: Mia tells her brother Dom and beau Brian that she's pregnant, prompting the guys to vow they'll all stay together. When Brian tells Dom he is worried he'll be a bad father because his own was, Dom reassures him that he is a worthy man. In addition, Dom's charisma wins over another police officer—Hobbs' partner Elena Neves (Elsa Pataky), and even, to a degree, Hobbs himself. This film really hammers in the theme of everlasting familial loyalty that is the emotional staple of the franchise, the deeper aspect underlying all the car chases and fight scenes. 5) The heist they plan is pretty ingenious. And of course, as a bonus, we find out at the end that Dom's beloved Letty is in fact, alive. Enough said.

#2. The most recent- Fast and Furious 6 (2013)
The film picks up after everyone has scattered to enjoy the riches of their last heist. Brian, Mia, their son, Dom and Elena have settled in the tropics. Hobbs suddenly shows up at their doorstop with a proposition, eventually offering Brian, Dom and the team full pardons in exchange for helping bring down Owen Shaw (Luke Evans), a criminal mastermind commanding an army of mercenary drivers with the goal of building a valuable and deadly bomb. The added incentive—a chance to find the living Letty, whose alleged death finally gets fully explained. Elena bows out graciously, encouraging Dom to go find his true love. The guys bring in Han and Gisele, who've started a relationship, Roman, and Tej (now afro-free and well toned). The newbie is MMA fighter Gina Carano, playing Hobbs' assistant Riley, who gets in an awesome fight with Letty.

The stakes are higher than ever and Shaw is a bigger, better, badder villain than any of the simplistic drug lords in past movies. The film runs long and some of the action is out-of-control, like Dom leaping from one bridge to another to catch Letty and successfully landing on the other side, and pulling down a plane with only three cars, but it's so thrilling and intense that nothing else matters. You're on the edge of your seat and jazzed up the whole time. It's tragic because they lose Gisele, but they get Letty back from the dark side and though at the end she is still struggling to remember their history, is welcomed back to the family eagerly, as they return to Dom's hometown to build the life they always wanted.

#1. The original- The Fast and The Furious (2001)
In Los Angeles where it all began. Brian, seemingly a nobody, visits the diner belonging to Mia and Dom. He flirts with Mia, to the distaste of Dom's crew member Vince, who jealously starts a fight. He builds street credit and wins Dom's attention by almost beating him in a street race, and then helping him flee from the cops who break up the after party. The audience finds out about a half hour in that he's actually an undercover cop tasked by the LAPD and FBI with finding out who is responsible for a series of thefts of moving shipping trucks. His superiors believe it's the ex-con Dom, but Brian must prove it's actually a gang of racers led by Johnny Tran.

But the longer he stays with Dom and his crew to investigate, the deeper Brian delves into the street racing world, the more enamored he becomes. He and Mia fall for one another and his loyalties become confused. The film is not only the core of the franchise because it's where it all began, but because it has everything that gave the franchise its success: sexy cars, thrilling races, interesting enough bad guys, romance, brotherhood. It may not be as high-tech and elaborate as the movies that followed but it was a story of love and loss, of the blurriness between right and wrong. It set the surprise franchise up perfectly for a lifetime longer than many might have expected of a debut film that seemed as simple as being about fast cars.

Six films later, the franchise still has plans for the future, with the next installment connecting the most recent with Tokyo Drift via the introduction of a new baddie, Ian Shaw, played by action hero favorite Jason Statham. The film, directed by James Wan, was set to come out in 2014, but due to Paul Walker's tragically sudden passing, it faces a delay. The story won't be the same without Brian O'Connor but hopefully they will commemorate the character in the best way to honor Walker's memory, and Walker's role in making the franchise what it is will never be forgotten.