Physicist Rates 11 'Fast And Furious' Movie Stunts | How Real Is It? | Insider

Diandra Leslie-Pelecky takes a closer look at the physics of the "Fast and Furious" franchise. Here she reacts to 11 memorable scenes from the popular movie series and rates them based on their accuracy.
Leslie-Pelecky addresses physical feats of the "Fast and Furious" crew, including stunts by Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel), Luke Hobbs (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson), Letty Ortiz (Michelle Rodriguez), Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker), Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson) and Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham). The franchise is known for its mind-bending physical feats utilizing cars, boats, trucks, tanks, planes, and even a submarine.
Could you launch a 1969 Chevrolet Camaro onto the deck of a boat? Can you roll a 1987 Buick Grand National under an oil tanker? Can you use a bank vault as a catapult? Could a multimillion-dollar sports car jump from one skyscraper to another? Would a 2012 Dodge Charger SRT-8 be able to smash through the nose of an airplane? And could someone flex so hard that they break a plaster cast? Leslie-Pelecky breaks down the science behind some of the franchise's most iconic scenes.
Leslie-Pelecky is a motorsports writer and blogger and the author of "The Physics of NASCAR." Her blog, Building Speed, focuses on the science of motorsports. She was an associate professor of physics at the University of Nebraska and received her PhD from the University of Michigan.
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Physicist Rates 11 'Fast And Furious' Movie Stunts | How Real Is It?

[@notquitemytempo1353]

With all her little calculations and her fancy math deeming some of these implausible, apparently she forgot to take into account the power of FAMILY

[@Dunning.Kruger]

Fancy math ? are you that much of as scrub ?

[@notquitemytempo1353]

@@Dunning.Kruger I guess you're not that familiar with the concept of a joke

[@eternalbeing3339]

Lol thats all that matters in a fast & the furious movie

[@ryanfenton4200]

Best comment lol

[@gregoryhost5188]

😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@yoshiatsamo]

She’s talking about Dom like he doesn’t live on another Earth in a dimension where physics works based on how strong your familial bonds are.

[@dapivimu]

Lmao

[@damianstarks3338]

😂🤣

[@wingerding]

I believe physics are meant to stay constant through various dimensions.

[@Aryan-ck9lv]

“Hollywood has its own Physics” Action movies explained in a sentence

[@harshasewlani5312]

The story of action

[@bananafartman_6935]

Nothing beats the physics of South indian movies

[@JohnP587]

@@bananafartman_6935 ong

[@noelv1976]

She hasn’t seen Bollywood flicks

[@dmqn3135]

@@noelv1976 not all Bollywood flicks break physics

[@arunkhanna2496]

“Maybe Dom has rescued enough people who are flying through the air that he understands how to do it.” 😆👏🏽

[@toxinwings2893]

😅😅

[@chaeyoungie9232]

"Hollywood has it's own Physics".. Wait till you see Bollywood Physics..

[@Superzesh101]

Wait till you see African filmmakers physics!

[@mrx1333]

I prefer Bollywood physics over Hollywood physics! 😊

[@rodrickchiwundura2588]

🤣🤣🤣

[@luciferparker5063]

@@mrx1333 please tell me you're trolling.

[@mrx1333]

@@luciferparker5063 i never troll! I love a good Bollywood movie!

[@bluecomet1109]

"You can't do that in that tiny little tower" Arabian prince: "TINY?!"

[@DjDMA]

And then she rates that scene 8/10. Like, wtf.

[@Aryan-ck9lv]

Ngl she was pretty generous in giving scores

[@Uk-ct3zm]

Very true..The way she explained the situations I thought half of the scenes gonna get 2,3 rating.

[@thatguyshaq7053]

Lol she judged with some leeway probably couldn't bring herself to think of it as anything more than movie magic.

[@cole5121]

When she gave Dom catching Letty in air a 3/10, that just sets the bar at "won't go under 3" when I was watching. Then she gave a 1/10 to Dom driving out of the plane and I don't know what's real anymore.

[@AnuragSharma-ey8qh]

Very true

[@l.riggins1857]

Yes. I'm not even sure what her criteria was in the rating. Even when she calculated it being nearly impossible she'd give high ratings. I'd also say she didn't always address all the major issues in play. It's fun to analyze these things, but while watching movies like this, you have to shut down and go in to fantasy mode.

[@SAFFY7411]

tl;dw: Dom also has a PhD in physics.

[@pankajranga7611]

He won that PhD in the race

[@andreaperez8888]

Dom's dad was a racecar driver, so it's possible that Mr. Toretto taught Dom about physics before he died.

[@isurusenanayaka6636]

Dom descended from Einstein's FAMILY

[@mazinmansoormohammad2006]

Nope, Dom has a Family😎

[@sweepingtime]

Basically he should have been The Protagonist's partner in Tenet.

[@Thylonicus]

Regarding "The Fast and the Furious 3: Tokyo Drift", it actually didn't take many takes to get the shot of the drift up the top level. They got Keiichi Tsuchiya, who's effectively the father of drifting, to do it. He can drift anything with wheels on it, and it was actually his idea to do that shot practically when they thought about using special effects. He knew he could do it, and he did.

[@GuruBahasaInggris]

Wow, I didn't know that. Thanks for telling this.

[@aquila121]

While they did have Tsuchiya do some driving, it was for the touge montage in the Evo IX. Rhys Millen was the stunt driver to do the ramp sequence in the parking garage they reference, and you are correct that it was done 100% practically for several takes.

[@Thylonicus]

@@aquila121 Hrm. Are you sure? I thought I recalled Tsuchiya doing it in the special features of the DVD. In full disclosure, it *has* been a while since I saw the movie.

[@jfletcher1029]

The only thing I can drift with four wheels is a supermarket trolley

[@ALVIN1920]

@@Thylonicus Yep, it was Rhys Millen, and he performed that stunt a Lot of times in a parking Lot in LA. There were also other drift drivers for that movie like Tanner Foust, for example

[@joekbaron1205]

I like her. She’s smart, she knows a lot about cars and she doesn’t regard the franchise as a joke

[@jeanjim4548]

Ikr

[@mustafakeblawi6450]

But she uses pounds

[@chadjackson4786]

lol that boat isnt going 90mph. Professional bass boats only hit 70. Boat might be at 40mph at best

[@Ger.bogado]

clearly she's not that smart... if the boat is going 78 mph (retard units lol) and a car going 110 hit it from behind, the force of the collision is equal to the car hiting the floor at 32 mph and NOT 105 as she said....

[@hansajpandya]

@@Ger.bogado yeah, sure.

[@MatiZ815]

It's good to keep in mind that she's not rating the odds of something like this happening but whether it is even possible to happen within the rules of our world. So physics.

[@smartmonke1604]

Anything is possible when you have Family. Edit: thanks for so many likes, never had this much before 😌

[@WilliamButtlicker]

Family should be the name of a drug

[@bvachowiak9235]

Ko

[@SauloPMB]

I read that in Dom's voice

[@nateswell9797]

Lololilololol!!😆🤣

[@shayzadg]

U sound pathetic when you thank likes...please dont

[@djcloudy]

I wish she was my physics teacher in school with all those generous scores.

[@alfinjohn7008]

Small correction that vault scene, the vault actually doesn't have any cash in it

[@mrunnizuttan3973]

😂 offcourse she is screwed

[@yajson]

Hahahahaha. It doesn't matter with or without money a car can't drag that huge vault.

[@Lucivius27]

@@yajson Yeah making the vault just 6 times heavier will make no difference when it is 7 times heavier.

[@Peter_Cordes]

​@Kishor Sebastian - HP is a measure of power; force times speed. But dragging something with a lot of friction requires a lot of force, regardless of what speed you can get up to. If your tires can't grip the ground better than the safe "grips" the ground, you can't move it. (Except in jerks by building up speed with slack in the cable). I'm assuming the engine / gearbox has enough torque at low revs to max out the tires' grip, although knowing that the motor can put out 5000hp (at some unknown high RPM) doesn't tell you that for sure.

[@Jack_S_]

@@Lucivius27 Except the vault wasn't 7 times heavier. The scene said it was 10,000lbs, 12,000lbs even with the money. The car weighs about 4500lbs with Dom and the nitrous system installed, maybe a little more with the crash bars. That's still a huge weight difference, but not the 7 times heavier she repeated over and over. Granted, she may have fubar'd the numbers a bit, but she's right on principles.

[@Lolmeep]

Me: no way in hell anything in F8 gets anything higher than a 1 Her: 10/10

[@canebro1]

She didn't rate 10 seconds later, when cars blocked an explosion..

[@mohammedalzoubi9275]

@@canebro1 is that possible tho?

[@canebro1]

@@mohammedalzoubi9275 Not even remotely. At least not the explosion depicted in the movie. Second, most explosions are unexpected, so you wouldn't have time to hide or get behind cover. The only thing maybe possible is to hide behind a wheel to block shrapnel. But you really have no defense against the pressure wave or shrapnel coming from above or behind.

[@shumerman4516]

@@canebro1 She didn't go that far in the stunt as my memory serves, dont know about yours

[@prashant1658]

Alternative title: Car expert rates 11 Fast and Furious cars

[@noelv1976]

See, if a physics nerd can sit back and enjoy these movies for what they are, so can we. Good stuff

[@dranreb4362]

imagine if schools made problems and homework around action movies to prove the probability of these scenes

[@shubhankarjayee604]

Physicist: I don't know how it is possible for all of those things to happen for Dom to catch Letty. Dom: Because I have the power of FAMILY!!!!!

[@smowfowk2461]

MOVIE NO NEED TO BE REAL PHYSIC...

[@nickvidz3887]

@@smowfowk2461 family

[@namankhan8715]

Hollywood has it's own physics. Captain America's shield has it's own.

[@Jr.hyde23]

Lool, I tried finding some kinda "plausible" explanation for it but all I found is that Cap is actually the one reading all the angles in real-time and predicting EXACTLY where it's going to go 😂😂 Gotta love Marvel 🤷🏾‍♂️

[@luciferparker5063]

@@Jr.hyde23 he's got that hunk of man-meat power.

[@haveyouhuggedyourreptiletoday]

@@Jr.hyde23 I hate commenting on old comments, but if you read about the original origins of captain america the super soldier formula made him 5 times stronger and more agile than an average man and boosted his already high intelligence by 3 times. I actually hate the fact that they never go into how smart he really should be and focus just on the physical side of it.

[@AdrienSchmitz]

I love this channel. I learn a lot of things here. But what if, you guys, put a small tag, maybe in the bottom of the screen, with metric system? :)

[@samadMahmoodi]

I can't trust scientist who use imperial system

[@douglaskalberg8899]

She's very generous with her scores, I'd give most of them 0/10.

[@alwaysdisputin9930]

Yep. The other physicist gave Superman flying around Earth at 1.5 times the speed of light thus causing time to flow backwards a realism rating of 5/10

[@tylrrrrrrrrrr4767]

Considering this person has a PhD in physics and actually knows what she’s talking about I’m going to trust her and her ratings. Not a random comment. Absolutely everyone says these stunts in the F&F franchise are unrealistic but surprise surprise they are doable. They are just rare to survive.

[@shumerman4516]

Sounds pretty stupid. Lack of brain cells i think.

[@Michael_the_Drunkard]

Cope and seethe, FF-hater.

[@ayewarren]

maybe Dom has rescued enuff people flying in the air that he understands how to do it.....😂 most people don't drive cars in their apartment buildings 😂😂😂.... i love her

[@chris95review43]

I remember when fast and the furious was about racing now it looks more like a mission impossible

[@harshasewlani5312]

But we still watch it!

[@chris95review43]

I stopped watching After part 4. I would see clips of the other movies but I personally like the first 3 Movies. Just my opinion

[@doggo_87__60]

FF V is the best for me, the rest of it is too much. People joking about how Dom will join an Intergalactic Race to save the earth at one point, and by looking at the latest of this franchise.. I can say the joke becomes possible

[@Bamdira]

I'm impressed by the fact that she could resist giving every scene here a 1/10.

[@Michael_the_Drunkard]

Why should she? She's a physicist and you are an FF hater. I trust the former more.

[@wileycayote23]

There is no way that boat has a hull speed of 100 mph.

[@jesus4.079]

thats what i thought......it would either sink or go flying....

[@johnmarc1986]

Be lucky to be going half that.

[@calebwaln533]

I was hoping someone said this

[@ZagorTeNay80]

Yea, Id be surprised if it can make over 40, being a yacht and not a speedboat

[@tarzaan2603]

Yeah the hull speed (displacement speed) is more like 8knots,

[@isaacyoung2709]

I love the fact that she seems to be actually into cars.👍

[@rohverwesleydionizio2870]

Please, do next... Therapist Rates 11 'Fast And Furious' Family Drama | How Real Is It?

[@Only_God_Is_Allah_SWT]

The guy gets blasted in his car by a HEAT missile according to the size of explosion; uses to move 5+ ton steel box on the asphalt with the racing car and has a car which has design from 80's but has 5000 horsepower and is equally as fast as most streamlined super car and all she says: "It's believable."

[@tylrrrrrrrrrr4767]

The scene in Fast Five with them towing a 9 ton vault is real they actually did do that you can look it up, Dom doesn’t get blasted by a heat seeking missile he makes it hit the submarine and he crashes within the flames do too the way he landed the car, and a car with 5000HP is a very undrivable car and that 80’s style car is a 1972 Plymouth GTX. But yeah I still see what you mean LOL I was just correcting you on certain things

[@KS-of8ik]

For anyone that has taken physics in high school or university, seeing her do all this in her head is impressive.

[@paulina1574]

I could watch this all day,i really enjoy her explanations.

[@gpcbr1000]

She did a fantastic job! This was one of the best breakdown/how real is it videos

[@gracee1321]

When recommendation is faster than notification 😂😂

[@renatodanielcastroterrero7294]

Yes!

[@flamespear86]

The deadpan "Most people do not drive cars in their apartment buildings" gave me a chuckle. Please please please analyze the scene in FF8 where Dom drive up the ramp of a flying airplane going like 200mph and comes to an instant stop inside the tiny cargo bay!

[@porscheG56]

I like this lady. Her knowledge of cars and how detailed she is

[@GiraffreyG]

I remember rewatching and timing the airport scenes in 6, and including the landing and re-takeoff, it was just under 14 minutes of runway.

[@karelsudrich5258]

Thanks , very informative

[@izaanmohamed2122]

A 10/10 for a Fast and Furious movie's stunts????? Never thought this was gonna happen😂

[@DevonVH]

This was great, I could listen to her all day long!

[@sandwitht6264]

man, the amount of sarcasm in this lady, i love it.

[@rylter]

I belive Dom is a distant relative to Rico Rodriguez. And Rico and all his kin are imune to physics.

[@qazwery]

I would love to see a remake where all stunts fail. I was really giggling when I saw Don flying past Letty

[@Gwapkid90]

The maths is great, however she didn’t account for the vault in that scene was actually empty on the high way because they swapped it. All in all Really insightful

[@bahadorshojaee8915]

Interesting but the vault was 2000 lbs lighter since there was no money in the vault, and she made a mistake in comparing the car+dom's weight (4200 lbs) vs. the vault's (~12000lbs) in the fast five sequence.

[@eddykagia4212]

I feel like she keeps being unintentionally funny 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@manojsreekantam7277]

Great job Insider! Very interesting collection of videos. Reviewing movie scenes with field expert.

[@aryanduggal8514]

She said " it's really great to watch something knowing the good guys are gonna win the end ". It makes me happy that simple people still exist.

[@paralellordgram7620]

"Hollywood has it's own physics." Yeah, Cap's shield too, the way it ricochet perfectly back to him.

[@kyrrilcrepeele1353]

Well, Cap actually calculates the angles at which he hits his targets, to ricochet it back to him. Like professional pool.

[@mohammedalzoubi9275]

@@kyrrilcrepeele1353 bruh, a marvel geek

[@sandhanisk1663]

Mind blowing vfx shots

[@HandoDeezNutz]

Her audio made me think i was in a zoom call

[@dinho890i]

METRIC SYSTEM PLEASE for god sake

[@MrKodiakAttack]

American films, go break down Snatch or Cuties and use all the European, commie measurements you want. P.s. (This is a joke, don't be mad, sincerely a Canadian who uses the metric and imperial systems).

[@Germfish]

Move to a better country please.

[@Ohmega330]

Be smarter and learn both like the rest of us.

[@Peter_Cordes]

The first scene was pretty clearly falling in slo-mo (and/or showing parts of the time over again from another angle), but she took all of it as real-time to calculate falling speed and vertical distance :/ Might have been better to just look at the height of the bridge and extrapolate the fall speed from known gravity and air resistance.

[@richardlandgraf1953]

I don't think how long the fall lasted affected much since she covered smaller jumps and much smaller speeds that were still almost impossible to survive, so regardless of how long they were falling, they wouldn't have survived.

[@shubham-pawar]

Waiting for the next fast and furious film where Dom jumps his charger from SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and crashes it into the international space station ISS, all because aliens kidnapped Letty. 🤓

[@thodorosxanthopoulos]

I expected her to analyze whether the car can even star pulling the vault, much less accelerate at the speeds shown in the movie. I mean it is so many tons without wheels and this is a car not a truck, I would expect to see wheels spinning in place.

[@brose2323]

Thanks for the analysis. I always viewed Fast n Furious with some scepticism. It's right up there with the Friday the 13th series.

[@Bi0Hazardfr]

how hard was it to send her an audio recorder ? Too hard i guess 😂

[@charlesthomas4032]

like i'm in a conference call.

[@SMEARGLEX75]

Honestly, The Fast and the Furious is more of a guilty pleasure now. Stan Nissan SkyLine GT-R/GT-R.

[@rourkebar1062]

You don’t need physics when you have FAMILY

[@TheKunnche]

So basically she's saying that every F&F character is also a theoretical physicist - making crazy calculations to perform insane stunts. Now it all makes sense 🤣

[@manaskumar7452]

amazing analysis..love FROM INDIA

[@harshithsadhana7475]

thank you so much Hollywood must consult you for physics for every movie.

[@prestonlife3239]

I can’t be the only one wanting a person who study’s animals to react to monster hunter monsters.

[@Lookatmyhandle]

Man this whole video was hilarious 🤣

[@benishpokhrel4804]

Well i like how much positively she has explained

[@matrixdukenukem000]

IF you're thinking do we really need this video? The answer is YES. Yes we do!!

[@metroidfan220]

"That's going to melt the ice and make it much harder to get traction." Understatement of the year

[@snehasishbiswas8759]

A video no one asked for but everyone needed amen

[@bluex610]

I'm that person in the theater scoffing at all the bogus physics 😆

[@elio8669]

There was sooo much maths and physics in this video, my head is spinning! But I think it was really fascinating how she broke everything down to maths, proving that our world is totally calculable.

[@Lindani_Mvano]

This takes me back to high school 😂🤣😅😅🤣😂

[@TheStudioTech]

luv this..

[@lo9987]

Somehow I didn’t need a physicist to know that this series does not abide by physics

[@thesnail4671]

I don't know if they would survive that first scenario or not but the car landing in the water first would break the surface tension of the water before the 2 people hit reducing the impact. I would have thought a physicist would know that.

[@SurajV320]

Tryna keep a straight face while she says that Dom could do some of those wild stunts for real with a scientific explanation is difficult. Not gonna lie.

[@aloron1174]

That moment when the question I kept asking in high school gets answered 8 years later... When will I use this in life?

[@antoniog9814]

6:01 "Hollywood has its own physics." Best quote said here!

[@hannahhester8376]

Yes!! Fast and Furious!! One of the best movie franchises EVER!!

[@EdwardChan.999]

9:12 If something is easier to start moving, it is *more difficult* to stop moving, I think she had misspoken that line

[@ibrahimalemam4276]

7:26 there was no money in the safe 😂

[@samiel992]

She knows she cars.... PERFECTION!!

[@ameelm.u.v7919]

Theres no money in that safe - Fast Five

[@LiveAmplifiedshow]

1988 Buick LeSabre Was My first car as well!

[@CodyMTavares]

This is the best guest they've ever had.

[@martinkuliza]

5:50 it may be possible THAT DOM HAS RESCUED ENOUGH PEOPLE FLYING THROUGH THE AIR to know how to do it LMFAO ROFL HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[@hosbearanda889]

She’s very generous with her 10’s

[@Michael_the_Drunkard]

She knows better than you

[@Climax85]

When that car hits the water, doesn't break the surface tension somewhat? I'd be interested in learning if that can "soften" the blow of hitting the water.

[@Crest28]

Physics- You took EVERYTHING from me FF- I don't even know who you are

[@Ankan2050]

"Most people do not drive cars in their apartment buildings" - that's the understatement of the decade :P :P

[@makeda6530]

Ah yes, this is how you do it, I wondered if you could enjoy them without your head exploding lol This lady really knows stunts and cars, so dope

[@ejkk9513]

That Yacht in 2 fast 2 furious probably tops out at 30-40 knots. Speed boats that are built to be as light and as powerful as possible can maybe get to 90 knots.

[@madlark8458]

I love the fact that she actually managed to keep a straight face through all this =)

[@mathewomolo]

FF doesn't even deserve an actual physicist but I'm glad we got one

[@justtrollinalong977]

Anybody who has towed a horse trailer knows the safe scene is pure Hollywood.

[@barnacleboiii7181]

Small fact check on the charger with the safe lol. More than 425hp there cause i used the nos. Also in that bridge scene, the safe was empty and no longer had the money. Other than that loved the video and in depth breakdown here

[@daviddaviscrawford3669]

Just binge watch all these and the 2 mini movies

[@abhijeetjadhav2961]

*I need so many things from her!* 1. just 1% of her mathematics abilities! 2. to roast the scenes in such a inoffensive way, totally enjoyable! 3. Her knowledge about cars and engines!

[@retsofsivartnetloc9012]

They did build the vault and drove it for some of the shots. Yes it was empty and probably not the same weight. It was done

[@loganthesaint]

I actually have a pretty good intuitive geometry sense. Playing dodge ball... it’s nothing for me to hit a ball out of the air with another ball. I think the bridge scene where he jumps bridges and catches the girl is possible. But highly improbable.

[@MinistryOfMagic_DoM]

Lol this lady was way too nice to these impossible stunts.

[@Michael_the_Drunkard]

I think she knows better than you and also she has proven they are possible but hard to perform.

[@recronn6034]

Dom: I don’t got physics, I got family