10 Franchises That Made It To Episode 7 Before Star Wars

3. The Fast And The Furious

What's the story?

A cop goes undercover with a bunch of thrill-seeking action junkie thieves and forms a close bromantic bond with their charismatic leader. And, yes, that is just the plot of Point Break. 

After the requisite uninspired rehash sequel and cheaper threequel lacking the leading actors, the series surprised a lot of people by reuniting the whole team for the confusingly titled part four, Fast & Furious, before surprising almost everyone when the follow-up, Fast Five, turned out to be much better than anything before it.

What's in Part 7?

In Furious 7 (it seems you can be either fast or furious now, not both), Paul Walker's Brian and Vin Diesel's Dom try to settle back to normal lives in America until Jason Statham turns up as the vengeful brother of their previous villain and they have to jump back into a series of impossible yet spectacular car stunts to stop him using some sort of evil computer programme. Also Dom's once presumed dead wife now has amnesia.

How does it compare to the previous six?

While not quite the breath of fresh air that big, dumb and very good fun Fast Five proved to be, the series has unusually found its USP in the later installments, especially since it realised crazy stunts were more fun than street racing and added cast MVP Dwayne Johnson's DSS agent. 

So, not the best in the series, but better than many of the earlier ones.

Did it go beyond seven?

Although still on release in some parts of the world, Furious 7 has already made well over a billion dollars and is the fifth highest earning film of all time. Even Walker's death is unlikely to hold the series back from further episodes.