Summary
Many filmmakers have attempted to copy the success of the Fast & Furious franchise, but few have succeeded in capturing its essence. Movies like Need for Speed, Biker Boyz, and Torque imitate the high-speed stunts and criminal underworld of Fast & Furious, but fall short in creating cohesive narratives and emotional resonance. Films such as Getaway, Overdrive, and Drive Hard attempt to combine elements of Fast & Furious with other genres, but ultimately fail to deliver a compelling and coherent movie experience.
The Fast & Furious franchise is likely the most successful series of movies about street racing, but there have also been dozens of attempts to copy it. With the first movies in the series released in 2001, the movies about fast cars and a shady criminal underworld have gone on to be incredibly successful. The franchise has managed to earn almost $7.5 billion across 11 movies and even created some spin-offs within the same universe.
However, there are plenty of other opportunistic filmmakers who hoped to cash in on the success and popularity of this style of film. Some managed to gain a decent degree of success, building on established properties like the Need for Speed games, but others struggled to get off the starting line. From the blatant rip-offs like The Fast and The Fierce, to poorly executed clones like Street Racer, there are plenty of films that tried and failed to copy The Fast & Furious movies.
10 Need For Speed
2014
Need for Speed isn’t an inherently bad movie by any stretch. Featuring talented actors like Aaron Paul as the lead, joined by Dakota Johnson, Rami Malek, and Michael Keaton, the casting was excellent. The film also draws inspiration from the video games that bear the same title, which meant it already had some credibility and a solid fanbase. The issue is that it blatantly copies several aspects of Fast & Furious films, such as Paul’s character being an obvious copy of Vin Diesel’s Dominic Toretto, outlandish, impossible stunts that couldn’t happen in real life, and seeking to right some wrongs by driving fast.
9 Biker Boyz
2003
Laurence Fishburne stars in Biker Boyz, a movie about competing biker gangs, with one group led by Fishburne and the other by his estranged son. Like the Fast & Furious films, everything comes down to how well you race to earn respect and stand out in the community. However, the movie struggles to create high stakes or any emotional resonance the way that F&F movies do. Again, some decent performances from the cast, but the story falls flat.
Related Fast And Furious: Every Movie, Ranked By Box Office Gross The Fast & Furious series is one of the highest-grossing film franchises of all time, but some of its films have done a lot better than others.
8 Torque
2004
High-speed stunts that defy physics, a man framed for crimes he didn’t commit, and racers caught up in gang warfare, Torque has a lot in common with F&F. Starring Martin Henderson, the movie follows his character as he tries to evade capture by gang leaders who set him up for murder. He needs to race across the country to clear his name while evading capture by the gang seeking revenge and the police, who are hot on his tail. There are fun stunts and a compelling narrative, but it struggled to carve out a place in the racing movie landscape and barely recovered its budget at the box office.
7 Getaway
2013
Getaway features talented actors Ethan Hawke, Selena Gomez, and Jon Voight in a high-intensity action thriller that combines elements of Fast & Furious and Saw. Hawke plays Brent Magna, whose wife is kidnapped by a criminal to force him to comply with criminal demands. The movie has high-speed chases and a man being forced to comply with criminal activities to free his wife, which all manages to echo elements of F&F. Despite this, the confusion between trying to create a high-octane action movie and a dark twisty thriller fails to come together cohesively and the movie flopped.
6 Overdrive
2017
The writers of 2 Fast 2 Furious teamed up again in 2017 to create Overdrive. A movie about two brothers who are career car thieves. When they steal from a crime boss, they offer their services in the hopes of being forgiven. They form a team to pull off their biggest heist yet and the movie plays out like any other F&F title. Despite talented actors, the premise and plot are far too close to F&F, and it struggles to take off. Overdrive was a massive commercial flop that failed to even make $10,000 domestically and earned less than $10 million at the global box office (via Box Office Mojo).
5 The Fast And The Fierce
2017
A movie that blatantly rips off the Fast & Furious franchise title, while the plot is a mirror image of 1994’s Speed, The Fast and the Fierce is all-round, a rip-off. The title has nothing to do with the plot, although the poster and title would lead viewers to believe it bears some resemblance to the F&F movies. It’s probably for the best, however, considering the narrative follows two separate plots which both struggle to keep audiences engaged.
Related 20 Things Wrong With Fast And Furious We All Choose To Ignore There’s plenty to love in the Fast and Furious movies– the actors, car chases, and incredible stunts– but they don’t always make sense.
4 Drive Hard
2014
Drive Hard stars John Cusack and Thomas Jane in a film that feels like it’s intended to be a spoof of the Fast & Furious movies. Cusack plays a criminal who forces a former race car driver to be his escape driver. While the film is littered with moments that appear to be intended as comedy, nothing comes together cohesively, and it all ends up being a cheap mess. Thankfully, it only cost $6 million to make, but the movie barely managed to earn back a quarter of a million at the global box office (via IMDb).
3 Street Racer
2008
The Asylum is a small independent film production house that largely capitalizes on ripping off blockbuster films with movies that bear a striking resemblance in terms of titles, scripts, settings, etc. Street Racer is technically a mockbuster of Speed Racer, but the movie has a lot in common with Fast & Furious films. However, as one could expect from a production house that primarily creates mockbusters, it fails to deliver in most aspects. The script is unoriginal, the car chases and races lack excitement and the story struggles to stay consistent throughout.
2 200 M.P.H.
2011
Another The Asylum production, 200 M.P.H. is a film that draws inspiration from Fast Five. The movie contains several scenes that are like for like with its inspiration and follow a wider narrative of an illegal street racer who gets into trouble after the death of his brother. The problem with this film is the overall lack of effort. Nothing is consistent, and the film continually makes basic errors, while it tries to evoke some sort of semblance to the film that inspired it.
1 Redline
2007
Redline manages to pull together an extensive range of luxury exotic cars, but it still struggles to use them in an exciting or engaging way. The movie revolves around pretty girls, while the only characters that control anything are shady guys. It feels like it was only intended to be looked at, without any deeper thought whatsoever. The plot, direction, and script all failed to land. Making Redline another rip-off that fails to do anything innovative or actually deliver a movie with a coherent story like the Fast & Furious.