Vote up the savviest hints and easter eggs from the series.
Just like star Vin Diesel, the Fast and the Furious franchise might come off at first like a single-minded vessel of hypermasculinity. But the films aren't all slick cars, death-defying stunts, and bald men growling at each other. Just like Vin has surprising depth, it turns out there's actually some clever foreshadowing in the Fast and Furious movies.
While the franchise often foregoes plot and logic in order to deliver high-octane thrills, it still demonstrates at least a superficial commitment to continuity between its entries. Even when the forgotten "third" entry, Tokyo Drift, seemed like it was destined to be a standalone movie, the franchise retconned the heck out of it and somehow turned it into the sixth film chronologically. In fact, the seventh and eighth movies both explore the fallout from a major event in Tokyo Drift. Depending on how you look at it, that means that Fast & Furious, Fast 5, and Fast & Furious 6 are either really clever setup for Tokyo Drift, or are just tacking on information to make Drift seem like it was a major player all along. Either way, it's fun to pick apart Fast and Furious easter eggs and see how all the movies are connected.
From the timeline of Han and Gisele's doomed romance to revelations hidden in tie-in short films, here are the things you missed in the Fast and Furious movies.
When Letty and Dom are figuring out where to escape to at the beginning of Fast & Furious, Letty tells him, "I hear Rio is good this time of year." Sure enough, Rio ends up being the setting for the events of Fast Five.
After Letty "dies" in Fast & Furious, Dom discovers that she was actually spying on Braga (the movie's Big Bad) for Brian. This sets up her return in Fast & Furious 6, in which viewers learn she's still alive and has been working for Braga since developing amnesia.
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The Nightshade Device In Fast & Furious 6 Sets Up Cipher
Owen Shaw, the villain of Fast & Furious 6, creates a "Nightshade" device that can disable power to an entire region. In The Fate of the Furious, Owen's brother Deckard reveals that the villainous Cipher was actually the mastermind behind this plot.
In Tokyo Drift, Han is shown dying in a fiery car crash. The scene is revisited in a post-credits sequence at the end of Fast & Furious 6, but with a twist. The man responsible for ramming into Han's car is Deckard Shaw. His appearance foreshadows his identity as the Big Bad in Furious 7; he's the brother of previous franchise villain Owen Shaw.
This reveal also means the series has jumped back to the original timeline. Since Han is now dead, Furious 7 and The Fate of the Furious both follow the events of Tokyo Drift.
Han and Gisele had an adorable, and ultimately tragic, romance throughout Fast Five and Fast & Furious 6. When Gisele ends up sacrificing herself to save Han from Owen Shaw's henchmen, Han is spurred to move to Tokyo like they had talked about – thus foreshadowing his appearance in Tokyo Drift and his own death in a fiery car crash.
Technically, Vin Diesel only agreed to appear in the post-credits scene of Tokyo Drift because Universal promised him they'd give him the rights to the Chronicles of Riddick. Diesel had recently branched out into production, and wanted to make a third installation in the franchise.
Still, the fact that Diesel's character Dom shows up at all indicates his merry band of road warriors is somehow linked to this otherwise standalone movie. This suggestion pays off later when Han completes his arc by moving to Tokyo and dying, thus causing Dom to travel to Tokyo and reclaim his possessions.
