Plot
Five years after the events of The Fast and the Furious, Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his new crew, Leticia "Letty" Ortiz (Michelle Rodriguez), Tego "Teddy" (Tego Calderón), Omar Santos (Don Omar), Cara Mirtha (Mirtha Michelle) and Han Seoul-Oh (Sung Kang), are hijacking fuel tankers in the Dominican Republic. Dominic begins to suspect the trail is too hot and leaves Leticia behind in order to protect her from harm. Several weeks later, in Panama City, Dominic gets a call from his sister, Mia Toretto (Jordana Brewster), who tells him that Leticia has been murdered by Fenix Calderon (Laz Alonzo), after getting into a near fatal car accident. Dominic heads back to Los Angeles to examine Leticia's crash and finds traces of nitromethane. He then goes to the only car mechanic that uses nitromethane and coerces him into giving him the name David Park (Ron Yuan), the man who ordered the fuel.

Meanwhile, F.B.I. agent Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker) is trying to track down a drug dealer named Arturo Braga (John Ortiz). His search leads him to David Park. Dominic arrives at Park's apartment first and hangs him out of the window by his ankles before letting go. Brian, who was also on his way to Park's place, saves Park and Park becomes the FBI's new informant. Park gets Brian into a street race through Los Angeles. Brian selects a modified Nissan Skyline GT-R R34 from the Impound Lot. Dominic also shows up to race in his modified 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle. Gisele Yashar (Gal Gadot), the liaison for Braga, reveals that the winner will become the last driver on a team that traffics heroin between the Mexico–United States border. Dominic wins by bumping Brian's car, making him lose control. Brian uses his power as an FBI agent to arrest another driver, Dwight Mueller (Greg Cipes), and takes his place on the team.

The following day, the team meets one of Braga's men. They drive across the border using underground tunnels to avoid detection. Brian had prior knowledge that, after the heroin was delivered, Braga ordered the drivers to be killed. However it was revealed to Dominic from Fenix that he killed Leticia and after a tense stand-off, Dominic detonates his car with nitrous to distract Braga's men and Brian hijacks a Hummer with $60 million worth of heroin. Both Dominic and Brian drive back to Los Angeles and hide the heroin in a police impound lot where Brian picks up a modified Subaru Impreza WRX STI. Later on, Dominic finds out Brian was the last person to contact Leticia, which results in him being attacked by Dominic before he could explain to him until he learns Leticia was working undercover for Brian, tracking down Braga in exchange for clearing Dominic's name. Brian tells his superiors that in exchange for Dominic's pardon, he will lure Braga into a trap, forcing him to personally show up to exchange money for the heroin. At the drop site, however, Ramon Campos (Robert Miano), the man who claims to be "Braga", is revealed as a decoy, and "Campos", the real Braga, escapes and flees to Mexico.

Brian and Dominic travel to Mexico on their own to catch Braga. They find him at a church and apprehend him. As Braga's henchmen try to rescue Braga, Brian and Dominic drive through the underground tunnels back to the United States. Brian crashes his car after taking fire from Braga's men. He is then injured after being T-boned by Fenix at the end of the tunnel. Before Fenix can kill Brian, Dominic drives into and kills Fenix. As police and helicopters start approaching the crash site on the American side of the border, Brian tells Dominic to leave, but Dominic refuses saying that he is tired of running. Despite Brian's request for clemency, the judge sentences Dominic to 25 years to life while Brian resigns from the FBI. Dominic boards a prison bus that will transport him to Lompoc penitentiary. As the bus drives down the road, Brian, Mia, Leo, and Santos arrive in their cars to intercept it, leading to the events of Fast Five.

Critical response
Fast & Furious has received mixed to negative reviews from professional critics. The film is rated at 27% (the lowest in the film franchise) based on 171 reviews collected on the Rotten Tomatoes website and 45 on Metacritic based on 27 reviews.

Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly gives the film a B+, saying, "Fast & Furious is still no Point Break. But it's perfectly aware of its limited dramatic mission...and...it offers an attractive getaway route from self-importance, snark, and chatty comedies about male bonding." Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter thought this movie was the first real sequel to the first and also gave it a positive review, writing, "Fast & Furious is the first true sequel of the bunch. By reuniting the two male stars from the original and...continuing the story from the first film, this new film should re-ignite the franchise." Betsy Sharkey of the Los Angeles Times gave it a positive review, providing viewers were car fans, writing, "If you're a lover of stomach-clenching speed that turns the world into a neon blur...then Fast & Furious, the fourth edition of that metal-twisting series, should leave you exhausted and satiated for a very long time."

Roger Ebert, who gave positive reviews to the previous films, gave an unfavorable review of the film, writing, "I admire the craft involved, but the movie leaves me profoundly indifferent. After three earlier movies in the series, which have been transmuted into video games, why do we need a fourth one? Oh. I just answered my own question."

Box office
On its first day of release the movie grossed $30.5 million, and peaked at the top spot of the weekend box office with $70,950,500, which is more than Tokyo Drift earned in its entire domestic run. The film had the sixth biggest opening weekend of 2009 and was double what most industry observers expected. It also held the record for the highest-grossing opening weekend in April and of any car-oriented film, the record having been previously held by Cars, which grossed $60.1 million. Both of these records were broken two years later by Fast Five, which grossed $86.2 million. Fast & Furious also held the record for the highest opening weekend for a Spring release, until it was broken by Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. It's worldwide gross in its opening weekend stands at $102.6 million with $7.2 million coming from the U.K., $8.6 million from Russia, $6 million in France and $3 million from Germany. As of July 27, 2011 the film has grossed a total of $155,064,265 in the United States and $363,164,265 worldwide (making it the second most successful film in the franchise behind Fast Five) and is the third highest-grossing film in the car genre, behind Fast Five and Cars.