Fast & Furious 6: is it the most underrated movie in the Fast Saga?

Last Updated on November 3, 2023

When Fast Five came out in the summer of 2011, it was a smash hit. While people expected the franchise to do well, no one thought that the film would be so big that it would turn what had, up to then, been a series of glorified B-movies into the next major tentpole franchise. To capitalize on the film’s success, Fast & Furious 6 (whose on-screen title is simply Furious 6) was immediately put into production. Director Justin Lin and star Vin Diesel had already planned an epic conclusion for what they hoped would be the next film before Fast Five came out. With their sequel now a reality, Lin and his crew opted to make this an even bigger film than its predecessor, with their home studio, Universal, now granting them the kind of tentpole movie budgets reserved for the 007 and Mission: Impossible franchises, as Fast Five had been an international smash as well as a domestic one.

In the end, Fast & Furious 6 would be an even bigger hit than Fast Five, despite opening against The Hangover – Part III, a movie many thought would crush the Fast Family. The reverse was true, with Fast & Furious 6 more than doubling that film’s box office take at home and internationally. Yet, in the ten years since it hit theatres, people seem to have forgotten just how big of a film it was, with it being overshadowed by the next movie, Furious 7, which stands as the franchise’s biggest hit to date. If people remember Fast & Furious 6 now, it’s mainly for the epic (and gloriously silly) runway chase and Jason Statham’s cameo in the post-credits sequence. Yet, it remains an essential addition to the franchise, with it being the last film Paul Walker completed. It also marks the “death” of Gal Gadot’s Gisele and the return of Michelle Rodriguez as Letty in this instalment of Revisited, written by Cody Hamman, edited by Juan Jimenez and voiced by Travis Hopson.

Do you think Fast & Furious 6 holds up? Let us know in the comments!