When it comes to the Fast & Furious series, fans have come to expect vehicular carnage on a scale that would have seen many other franchises jump the shark a long time ago, but Dominic Toretto and his crew’s adventures over the last decade have been characterized by the kind of preposterous action sequences that turned a brand that was running on fumes a decade ago into one of the most lucrative in the entire industry.
Each new installment is now obligated to up the ante, and based on the first trailer for F9, that’s exactly what returning director Justin Lin looks to have done. Just when you thought you’d seen it all in The Fate of the Furious when Dwayne Johnson diverted live torpedoes with his bare hands, along comes a magnetized stealth bomber to pluck a soaring car out of mid-air to let you know that you haven’t.
These movies revel in massive-scale destruction, and have caused an awful lot of property damage along the way, so it comes as no surprise to discover that well over 1500 vehicles have been totaled by the gang over the last two decades. According to a study by a British insurance firm, close to 1800 cars have been destroyed by Dom’s extended family to date, ranging from a relatively meager 78 in the first movie to 350 in Fast & Furious 6.
While the idea of a bunch of insurance salesmen in suits gathered round a table watching Fast & Furious movies seems more than a little strange, the research is based on determining the value of the vehicles in question and then assigning a cost based on the damage that they’ve taken, which is probably the least interesting sentence that’s been written about this franchise in a very long time. From the looks of F9 so far, they’ll need to take an awful lot of notes when it finally hits theaters next year.
