It was in 2001 that The Fast And The Furious was released, an action film focusing on street racing and heists. Six sequels — the latest being Furious 7 that releases this Thursday in the UAE — have been generated in the big-budget franchise in the last 13 years. We take a look at them.

2001: The Fast and the Furious

Paul Walker plays Brian O’Conner, an undercover cop who needs to stop a hijacking led by Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel). He instead decides to jump ship and become friends with the enemy and the fiefdom of racing.

Walker was a real-life street racing buff who owned several racing cars including a Nissan Skyline that was specially customised for the film, which he drove in 2 Fast 2 Furious. He even performed many of his own stunts. On the other hand, Jordana Brewster, who plays Mia Toretto, and Michelle Rodriguez, who plays Letitia “Letty” Ortiz, had to take driving lessons during the production as neither possessed driver’s licenses.

2003: 2 Fast 2 Furious

O’Conner is arrested but successfully helps Toretto escape. To avoid serving time he must help the police arrest a local drug exporter, Carter Verone.

Two scripts were created for this film as the studio wasn’t sure if Diesel would be available. One had Toretto as the main character and the other didn’t feature him at all. Ultimately, the new character — Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson) — was introduced in Diesel’s place as O’Conner’s friend, a character which became an important player in the other sequels too.

2006: The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift

Alabama teenager Sean Boswell (Lucas Black) decides to avoid a jail sentence for illegal street racing in the US, by moving in with his father, a military man in Tokyo, only to discover a fun but dangerous form of street racing, called drift racing, in the Tokyo underworld.

Racing legend and real-life drift pioneer Keiichi Tsuchiya can be seen in a cameo as an unimpressed fisherman. Due to his expertise, he also served as a stunt coordinator and stuntman for the film. The AE86 Sprinter Trueno that can be seen in the garage race scene is a car that Tsuchiya made famous.

The story of Tokyo Drift chronically falls as the sixth in the series, with Fast & Furious, Fast Five and Fast & Furious 6 providing a back story to this film.

2009: Fast & Furious

Filmmaker Justin Lin and writer Chris Morgan decided to bring back O’Conner and Toretto in this franchise with the original cast of Diesel, Walker, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster and Sung Kang. O’Conner is now an FBI agent in LA teams up with his friend to bring down a heroin importer Arturo Braga (John Ortiz) by infiltrating his operation.

2011: Fast Five

Fast Five sees Toretto, O’Conner and Mia, Toretto’s sister, plan a heist to steal $100 million (Dh367 million) from corrupt businessman Hernan Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida) in Rio, while being pursued by federal agent Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson).

How Johnson got on board is an interesting story. Rumour has it a fan of Diesel’s commented on his Facebook page how sweet it’d be to see the actor go toe-to-toe with Dwayne Johnson on the big screen. This inspired Diesel and Lin to bring in Johnson as Hobbs.

The fifth instalment also marked a transition in the series as the producers kept away from the street racing theme of the previous films, featuring only one car race.

2013: Fast & Furious 6

Toretto and his gang are leading a retired life after the heist in Fast Five but cannot return home. Agent Hobbs offers to clear their criminal records if they agree to help him take down a skilled mercenary organisation led by Owen Shaw (Luke Evans). Once again the racing theme was kept to a minimum to increase audience reach.

2015: Furious 7

Hobbs keeps his promise and Toretto and the gang return to the US in the final instalment, only to be pursued by mercenary Shaw’s brother Deckard (Jason Statham) who is seeking revenge for his brother’s death.

Walker died in a tragic car accident, though he was not in the driver’s seat. Furious 7, the final instalment in the series, was being filmed at the time and marks the last on-screen appearance of the actor. Director James Wan completed the shoot using Walker’s brothers, Caleb and Cody as stand-ins.