This 4-Second Fast & Furious 9 Stunt Took Eight Months To Film

Fast & Furious 9 has been a long time coming. The ninth film in the Fast saga was originally going to be released in theaters last May, but the global pandemic delayed it for an entire year. Twelve months after the first action-packed trailer dropped, a 30-second TV spot aired during the Super Bowl LV commercial break showing new footage.

Despite only lasting 30 seconds, there was no shortage of automotive action to whet our appetite. Cop cars pile up, a building collapses, and we finally get to see Helen Mirren’s character get behind the wheel as she does a reverse 180 in a Noble M600. However, the standout stunt was saved until the end of the trailer.

In the final scene, a Toyota 86 flips onto its side, smashes through a shop window, and continues flying through the building on its side before slamming into a moving truck in one continuous shot. We were convinced the stunt was fake as the physics didn’t look right. Then again, the Fast & Furious franchise isn’t renowned for its realistic stunts.

However, director Justin Lin has shared a behind the scenes video on Twitter confirming the stunt was actually done for real. Despite only lasting four seconds, the spectacular stunt took eight months to prepare, four days to shoot, and required over one hundred crew members to pull off. Three Toyota 86 sports cars were also sacrificed.

We don’t know the context of the scene, but the editing of the trailer suggests Dominic Toretto and his crew activate an electromagnet that pushes the car into the building. While the stunt was done as realistically as possible, there are still some CGI enhancements. The surrounding buildings were added digitally, more building debris is added to enhance the spectacle, and the truck tips onto two wheels on impact in the film, which didn’t happen in reality.

Since the stunt was done in two separate shots, the editing is jarring. In the first take, the Toyota 86 lands on all four wheels inside the shop, but the car remains on its side throughout the final scene. Unless the film gets delayed again in these unprecedented times, Fast & Furious 9 is on track for a theatrical release on May 28.