If you've watched The Fast and the Furious, you'll agree with me that some of the stunts you saw were more than impressive. Can you believe that some of those stunts were done in real life? Yeah, some of those stunts were risky to the point where they look as if they were given some additional CGI effects. Actually, that's not always the case. A movie such as The Fast and the Furious has so many real stunts. Of course, some special men who are highly trained aided in filming this movie, which broke some records. Nonetheless, these men didn't appear in the movie because the audience had their favorite characters. From time to time, the audience gets attached to characters. Thus, the faces of the actors who played Dominic Toretto and Brian O'Conner were placed over those of the stuntmen. Still, the stunts remained all real.

Well, those two, Toretto and O'Conner, are the characters who appeared often on the stunts. You have to admit that the stuntmen who did their stunts have guts! They must be used to adrenaline, especially feeling a thrill which is combined with fear. It's unimaginable to drive a car from a flying plane. Can you imagine what that could feel like? Still, somebody had to man up and do that stunt. Actually, skydiving cars from thousands of miles above the ground is just the tip of the iceberg. There's more to that that will leave you shocked. You'll either open your mouth very wide or feel the thrill as if you were in that stunt.

20 Skydiving cars into the ground

Pulling such a stunt really required effort. The filming team didn't just wake up one day and went on with the stunts. As a matter of fact, a test shot was taken, but it didn't turn out as expected. One car was deployed from a plane, and the raw footage had some errors because the cameras weren't placed in the suited position. Nonetheless, that wasn't the end because the team had to do more to make that scene feel real. I'm sure that even when you were in the cinema, you had to confirm that you weren't 12,000 feet above the ground.

Ironically, the actors you saw changing gears and accelerating out of the plane weren't there to do the stunt. Camera filming was done by skydivers. Can you believe it? Even the skydiving itself is a stunt. So, the skydivers had to be very cautious and on the lookout just to make sure that they didn't collide with the cars. Cameras were also put on the ground, on an extra helicopter, and in the car just to get every moment right. However, in a stunt such as that, it's near impossible for something not to go wrong. One of the car's parachutes didn't open up, and it got dismantled. Yeah, it wore the worst face you can see in a car. That's enough even to scare off a bat which doesn't see.

19 Throwing a bus off a cliff

The thought of this just sickens, and it makes you feel as if you could've pulled some strings with the producers so that they could've used CGI instead of destroying a car. Really? A bus was destroyed so that a 3-minute scene could be filmed. Yes, this scene was as real as it looked. I'm pretty sure a defense similar to that of lawyers in courts could've been put up. The stuntman had to hang from the door as the bus was sliding off a cliff then pull himself up and run on side. Even if you were given a million dollars to pull such a stunt, you'd probably turn it down. It was way too risky.

It gets better—the stuntman had to jump just at the right moment the bus was falling to support himself on the oncoming car. In a situation such as that, a nanosecond counts and makes a difference. The stuntman jumped simultaneously as the bus was falling from the cliff. Well, if you had your eyes closed while watching the movie, now you know what really happened. The fear instilled by that stunt is enough to make you freeze.

18 Tanker destroying a fleet of vehicles on a highway

The tanker in this scene wasn't a mere figment of the imagination. It was real because the producers made up their minds on making that highway a warzone of cars. CGI effects couldn't have achieved that kind of realness that was demonstrated. This tanker became the monster villain that destroyed whichever car was on its path. Yes, real cars were destroyed and turned into dust because forgiveness wasn't on the plate.

By the end of this scene, the highway looked like a graveyard of cars that expected their owners to go and pay their respects.

Actually, that was just the tip of the iceberg. Bridges and other kinds of infrastructure were also destroyed. The tanker, which had the capability to fire, brought down a whole bridge with one shot. At least, the cars that were destroyed under the bridge were buried literally in concrete. Surprise was the feeling that this scene instilled. Even the actors weren't expecting that level of madness that was demonstrated by the tanker. If this tanker wasn't taken down, it could've turned into the main character in The Fast and the Furious. Such amazing work was done in that scene.

17 Michelle Rodriguez swinging on the back of a fuel tank trailer

Surprisingly, this scene was actually done by Michelle Rodriguez. There was no need to get a stuntman to perform this move. Adrenaline must've pushed her to the wall by giving her the courage to jump from the track to the muscle car. Vin Diesel gave her some support after she jumped. What's more shocking is that the car was in reverse at a top speed, and Vin Diesel had one hand on the steering wheel. Vin Diesel's other hand was meant to save Michelle Rodriguez. If one of their hands was greasy, then Michelle could've been badly hurt.

The brighter side is that such scenes aren't done blindly. Nobody would sign up for such a risky stunt without some precaution being taken. Well, if you want to say ‘hi' to your maker before the right time, then you can do that scene blindly. Some safety straps were put around Michelle, while some secret and hidden drivers drove the tanker. The drivers drove at an understandable speed of about 25 mph, just to keep her safe. Of course, that cannot be revealed to the audience while watching the movie, or else, they could lose interest.

16 Dropping dozen of cars off a building in New York

Coincidentally, this scene was named "raining cars." Well, that's just the perfect name because the producers made it rain while filming that scene. Initially, some damaged and wrecked-up cars had to be piled up before the ‘car rain' dropped in cats and dogs. In the garage where the action was to take place, a crane was placed to push the cars over the edge. In the filming, things were different, unlike in the movie, where cars automatically drove themselves like zombies.

To make sure that everything went as planned, the cars had to be pushed over the edge at the same exact speed.

If the cars could speak up, I'm pretty sure New York could've been filled up with screams from these cars. They could've been asking for forgiveness from the producers who were sacrificing them for entertainment purposes. On the other hand, the producers admitted that the filming of this movie needed practical moves. To them, zombie cars raining over New York for some seconds was the secret. So, the seven cars were dropped with a winch. Shockingly, seven cars from the parking lot were ‘wasted' to get that scene, and forty more cars were down on the motorcade to make the impact huge.

15  The yacht jump scene

Intensity is what this scene made you feel. Even the actors admitted this was a crazy scene. You could see it from Roman's face when O'Conner decided to pull the ‘Yacht jump' move. If the actor who wasn't involved in the filming of the stunt was that scared, what about the actual stuntman? Well, filming this stunt wasn't a joke even though it gave you a thrill that made you think of doing such a thing. Planning took about 3 months. It came to a point where a digital video had to be generated to predict the moves that were to be made in the real field.

After that, the footage was recorded in a very professional way. Actually, the damage you saw in the movie didn't happen to that extent. You'd be shocked to know that the producers had to make sure that the car didn't even have a leak of oil from the engine to save the fish. It could've been discouraging to have a shoal of fish floating on the sea after filming that scene. It was either to nail the villain or the poor fish. So, the producers chose the nasty villains.

14 Tanker jumping off the back of a truck

By now, I'm pretty sure you're very familiar with the tanker scene that was listed above. The tanker had a special place where it was housed before it unleashed its evil powers to the cars along its way. The way it landed on the highway was clear enough to send a message to all the cars in the world that it was not to be taken lightly. Otherwise, all the cars would've experienced some minutes in hell.

This tanker was torturing cars literally right from the start. It couldn't even spare the truck that was sheltering it because it went through it, turning it into little pieces.

During filming, that really happened because a whole truck was destroyed. A ramp was built so that the tanker could speed up the truck and destroy it. The extent to which the producers went to film this scene is just unimaginable. Furthermore, the ramp was built on a public highway where other cars pass through. That determination is just worth it for such a movie, which blew up in the cinemas by becoming very popular worldwide. Destroying that truck was certainly profitable and not regrettable in any way.

13 Bank vault tied to a car

Universal Studios had to collaborate with Dodge to get powerful muscle cars so that this vault could be dragged. It came to a point were special cars were designed so that the stunt could be done because it wasn't a walk in the park. Preparations had to be made especially for this stunt that involved dragging a vault that weighed a ton. A normal car with a low horsepower cannot handle that. Let's hope that the vault had some money that gave the drivers a psyched-up spirit while they were driving the two muscle cars. It was amazing to the point where you felt as if you could do such a thing yourself.

The introduction to this movie should've incorporated a warning that says, "Don't try this at home," just to keep off crazy thoughts from the viewer's minds. Pulling the vault was really insane. Infrastructure was destroyed by these two muscles cars. The cars looked as if they were having a gym session with a vault that weighed over a ton. Dodge should be really proud of these cars, which appeared as beasts while pulling that vault stunt. All the modification that was done to the Dodge cars turned out really well.

12 Wrecking ball destroying a fleet of cars

It seems as if this wrecking ball was having fun destroying all those cars. It even had a smile on its face while doing it. This wrecking ball must've been very evil beyond even imagination. The Fast and the Furious team did all the work by building this wrecking ball, which destroyed cars as if it was its usual hobby. What's more shocking is the cars which the heroes drove in the movie had stuntmen in real life. They made a hollow way so that the wrecking ball could navigate between the cars without wrecking them up then make a mess of the bad guy cars.

Clearly, if anything could have gone wrong with the wrecking ball, the stuntmen could've experienced the worst. It was a matter of life and death to them. To make the scene look more interesting, the producers added some debris to the scene. Debris flew out of the wrecked cars in a very amazing manner that was enticing to the viewers. Maybe the audience was very excited to see that mess done to the bad guys. It brought that feeling of ecstasy and vengeance.

11 The truck explosion in a snow race

If this stunt was done in a large city, terrorist police would've raided the filming in a matter of minutes. Police would've thought a car was held in a hostage situation. The explosion wasn't a joke, and this is why it was done in the North Pole. Maybe it even melted the nearby ice, and the truck sank in the water. Furthermore, this was just the first explosion which acted as a pioneer to many more that were to come. There were about three explosions that were done.

Shooting that scene was more like playing a video game whereby you had to aim for cars and blast them off with a rocket launcher.

If you've played GTA on a six-star level, you'll understand the fight that happens between you and the cop cars. It involves lighting cars in tons of explosions. That's what happened in that scene. The producers showed no mercy because the cars in that scene were barbecued. Those poor cars experienced some minutes of hell flames, which turned out to be very vicious and brutal.

10 Sinking a Lamborghini into a frozen lake

How could they let a Lamborghini feel that kind of unbearable cold? That cold is in another ridiculous level, and the Lamborghini must've been shaking in that condition. Roman, who was driving the Lamborghini in the movie, was scared to hell when the car was spinning around the snow. Well, he didn't have the right car for that climate, and that was what the directors had in mind. But who thought the producers would submerge a Lamborghini into a frozen lake? Yes, it was a real Lamborghini. Let's hope that they pulled it out of the frozen lake before it turned into solid ice and became a part of that lake.

Surprisingly, one of the producers admitted that the Lamborghini had undergone some unimaginable abuse. Not only did the Lamborghini go through hell in the frozen water, but also, the driveway was very rough. The ice was about 6 inches thick with some protruding icebergs, so you can imagine the torture the tires underwent. Still, they had to make this movie great no matter what it took. The Lamborghini didn't suffer in vain; at least, the movie became very successful since it grossed over $1 billion.

9 Train heist by Brian O'Conner

In this stunt, The Fast and the Furious crew decided to up their game by hiring a train to shoot this scene. However, the surrounding serenity was a green screen placed along the train. It was really amazing to see how the cars were pulled off the train. Shockingly, that was as real as it looks. Cars were pulled from the train in a sideways direction, and that's really confusing and risky. In addition to that, the train had a very big hole on the side, which the cars were pulled from.

The level of creativity that was seen here is just amazing. Cars seemed as if they were flying in a sideways manner, resisting their forward movement and pulling up a strategic move to look insane.

Remember the gasoline jump by Michelle Rodriguez? This stunt here was a competition to the gas truck, and that's why it was shot on a train with a whopping $25 million. Getting a railroad, a train, and a special kind of truck where the cars were supposed to land is what topped up that stunt and made it expensive. As a matter of fact, that truck which was used in the heist was built from scratch by the movie team.

8 Throwing cars downhill with terrain full of trees

Insanity is what this scene demonstrated. How could The Fast and the Furious team throw out four cars at the same time to meet their demise? This is just like buying a dream car and smashing it into little pieces. Cars in that scene seemed as if they had turned into glaciers melting down a mountain. If they had the ability to scream, they would've called for help very loudly. The Fast and the Furious team even admitted shooting this scene was challenging. Going up to an altitude of 14,000 ft brought about some oxygen deficiency to the production team, but they had to put up with those conditions.

Most of the producers felt light-headed at that altitude, and maybe this is what the cars felt as well, so they decided to give up by going over the cliff. Moreover, this scene was shot in Azerbaijan, where the forest was very dense and thick. Of course, the cars were put through a disastrous experience because some large rocks were put in their way. The rocks became bigger obstacles to boost the impact that the cars were to take in. Everything in this scene happened as it appeared on the movie screen.

7 Ramsey bus rescue scene

This scene was full of action, and you could see it by the way Ramsey was arguing with Brian O'Conner about jumping off the bus. Even in the movie, she was scared as hell to jump to the car, which was being driven by Toretto. Yeah, she jumped to the car in real life; that wasn't a CGI effect. Of course, she wasn't doing it in freestyle mode because she had some kind of protection that was supposed to take care of her in case things went south. Moreover, having that grip to hold on to the bonnet of the car was a piece of work that Ramsey managed to pull off. If her hands had slid in the slightest way, the shooting of the scene could've happened again and again.

How did she manage to hang there for a minute? It must've been tough for her. However, the driver of the car (Toretto) managed to pull her from that life-threatening situation. Ramsey was given a push, thanks to Toretto's driving skills. I hope you had your eyes open in that scene even though it was very intense.

6 Havana race

If you can precisely recall the extreme race at the beginning of Fast and Furious 8, there was a fire that broke out in one of the cars. Astonishingly, the fire was real. It wasn't a joke. The stuntman must've finished the race smelling like barbequed meat. Initially, the fire could be contained and retained, but when the car started moving at a demonic speed, the fire started spreading insanely. It got to the interior of the car and even touching the steering wheel became very hard. Actually, the steering wheel had turned into untouchable and red-hot coal. On the other hand, the car looked like an asteroid entering Earth's atmosphere at a super speed.

The stuntman couldn't withstand the fire, and it had to be toned down a little bit for the sake of the stuntman's life. In the end, a bigger fire was ignited to make the scene complete as written and described in the script. The two clips were combined to come up with that breathtaking scene, which was very effective because of the race and the fire that made it even hotter. That racing car must've experienced a whole day in hell.

5 Tokyo drift garage scene

The stuntmen made drifting in this scene look very easy. It's as if they were playing with toys. If they were taken to these big racing championships, the world would've been surprised to see those moves. CGI cannot manipulate such super moves, which are practically done. This scene was more about practical moves than computer effects. Cars were fixed with cameras in almost every direction to the point that they lost their shape. During the filming, these cars looked like trucks made of cameras because every moment had to be captured precisely.

The kind of drifting that took place there was enough to make you smell the burning tires just from the screen. All that took proper planning and commitment straight from the producers to the actors even though they didn't perform some stunts. Their faces appearing on those stunts was effort enough to bring the movie into action. Everybody had a role to play to make those car moves seem as lively as possible. However, those moves are only to be done by stuntmen, and I hope you didn't destroy your car pulling such a move.

4  Destroying public infrastructure with a tanker

It's utterly shocking to realize that The Fast and the Furious team had the kind of determination that won them the permission to film this scene on a public highway. The Canary Island government gave The Fast and the Furious the green light to shoot that scene in their highway. In this scene, this tanker left a wreck on the highway. Even driving the tanker through the highway was enough to make a mess of the road. Not only did the heavyweight tanker ruin the road, but it also destroyed the partition between the roads. This government must've been really into The Fast and the Furious franchise to sacrifice all that.

I'm pretty sure you're familiar with what this tanker did to one of the bridges in the Canary Islands. It brought down a section of a bridge, which took civil engineers and architects to design. You can imagine the kind of frustration they would've felt passing through that place and seeing their work in pieces. It must've been really hard to see such a thing. However, everything was repaired back to normal after that scene was filmed.

3 Driving a fast car into a room full of people

This is a part of the Abu Dhabi scene in Fast and Furious 7 where a car jumped from one building to another. Well, before that happened, there was a party. People were enjoying themselves, and they were surprised by seeing a car in the building joining the party. However, the car joined the party in a low and chaotic mood. Actually, that car was the party crasher, and when it was driven in, everybody lost their minds. The good part is, the scene was as real as it looks.

There were approximately 150 people in the room when the car was driven in unceremoniously.

So, the car came in and wrecked everything up, especially the bar, which was supposed to leave people in a rather happy mood. Everybody panicked and left the room in a confused manner. Of course, that was all part of the script, and those attendees were extras paid to react accordingly in that specific scene. Anyway, the producers made this scene epic without hurting anyone during filming. Safety comes first. On screen, that was different because even Jason Statham joined the party in beast mode with a machine gun. He started shooting around.

2 Dominic Toretto and Brian O'Conner jumping off a high-speed moving car in Abu Dhabi

This stunt was done in real life but with stuntmen. After that, CGI was applied to "clones" and the actors' faces were put into the movie. Toretto and O'Conner were caught unaware in Fast and Furious 7 when they realized that the car's brakes had jammed before they completed the mission, so they had to jump. Still, the car was spinning, and this happened in reality. Stuntmen were in a car that had no doors, and they had to calculate exactly when they were to jump out. If they had made a mistake and jumped out at the wrong time, then the spinning car would've hurt them.

Luckily, they were able to pull off that stunt perfectly to the point where Toretto looked as if he was about to fall off a building. To make it real as possible, the car which the stuntmen were driving was destroyed. Just like in the film where the car took the fall for Toretto and O'Conner, that happened in reality. The car was lifted 60 ft above the ground, and then, it was released to take a very hard impact similar to that you saw in the movie. Some editing was done to enhance that reality and make it more interesting than it looked.

1 Shaw escape scene

‘'There's no way that scene could've been real.'' I'm pretty sure that's what you're thinking right now. But believe me. I too was shocked the same way upon realizing that the scene was done on a highway. Shaw was driving a car that was literally tackling and flipping opponent cars on the highway. This scene could've made you feel as if you were watching a rugby match because cars were flying in the air after being tackled by this beast called the ‘flip car.' Surprisingly, that car was designed and built from scratch as a four-wheeler. However, beforehand, some tests were done on other cars.

After the tests, it was time to hit the road. The product of the car speeding and colliding with opponent cars was just breathtaking, and it drew the attention of everybody, including the producers who were very shocked.

Sources: Youtube.com, digitalspy.com, cinemablend.com