Domenic Toretto (Vin Diesel) is the leader of a street gang that is under suspicion of stealing expensive electronic equipment, hijacking trucks in black Honda Civics. The FBI sends LAPD officer Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker) undercover into Los Angeles's street racing circuit to attempt to find out who exactly is stealing the equipment.

While Brian is having lunch at the stand of Dominic’s younger sister Mia (Jordana Brewster), Dominic’s friends Vince (Matt Shulze) Letty (Michelle Rodriguez)  Leon (Johnny Strong) and Jesse (Chad Lindberg) arrived. Vince start a fight with Brian, and Mia ask Dominc to stop them. Dominc stops the fight and tells Brian to leave. At night, Brian goes to a street race, and he bets his cars on a race with Toretto and Edwin (Ja Rule). Brian uses the NOS system too soon, and he almost blow out is car, so Toretto win the race. Police arrive, Toretto hide his ride on a garage, trying to escape on feet, but police notice him, only with the help of Brian he could fly away. During the ride, they’re reached by Jonny Tran (Rick Yuni)’s gang, wich lead them on the park of a chinese’s restaurant, ‘cause, escaping, they run into his zone, and they blow out Brian’s car. They come back to Dominic’s home by taxi, and he invite Brian to the party in his house, in fact introducing him into his crew, even if Vince is still suspicious of Brian.

Brian owes Dominic a ten-second car. He gives him a burned out Toyota Supra with a good engine, so Dominc tells Brian that he could pay his bet working with him on that car, and driving for him in the next Race Wars. Brian still attemp to find out who are the stealers, so he investigates the other street racer Hector’s garage, who’s preparing 3 Honda Civic, same drived in the hijackings.  But he’s caught by Dominic and Vince, who suggests he’s an undercover cop. Brian lies telling them he just want to win the Races, and he was only curious about other racers’s rides. Dominic and Vince push him to control Jonny Tran’s garage too, but when they’re inside, Jonny’s gang arrive, with a man, who’s tortured to find out where are some missing engines. In the garage Brian notice some electronic equipment, he report to his boss Agent Bilkins (Thom Barry), and FBI make a raid on Jonny’s gang, but finding him clean.

Meanwhile Brian gets involved with Mia. FBI’ s sure that Toretto is the man they’re looking for, but Brian seems to think he’s innocent. Testing the brand new car, Brian ask Dominic how he could make money fast. Toretto answer him that they’ll talk about it after the Race Wars.  At the Race Wars, Jesse bet his father’s Jetta in a race with Jonny Tran, loosing the race and escaping, making Jonny very angry. At night, Brian notice that Dominic, Letty, and Vince are leave the area, to make the last hijack. He reveals to Mia he’s a cop, and they try to stop Dominic before it’s too late. The truck driver’s got a weapon, and when Brian and Mia found Dominic’s gang, Letty’s car’s was crashed, Leon’s stopped to take care of her, Dominic’s car is damaged and Vince is injured and hanged on the truck. Brian jump on the truk and bring him down. When he calls for a medical support, Dominic understand he’s a cop, and escapes with the others. Brian meets him at his house, but Jesse arrive right in that moment, suddendly followed by 2 Jonny’s bikers, shooting and killing Jesse.

Brian and Dominic run after the bikers, stopping them both. Brian and Dominc meet again at a set of lights, right a quarter mile from a closed grade crossing. They start a race, passing the crossing before the incoming train, but Dominic’s car crash into an approching truck, stopping his getaway.

The Fast & The Furious is loosely based on an article in a magazine about street clubs that race Japanese cars late at night.

Early on, the script drew criticism from die hard tuner enthusiasts for a variety of reasons, mostly technical inaccuracies and for its use of the word "NAWWWS" (aka "NOS", Nitrous Oxide System) - a registered trademark of Holley Performance Products - to refer generically to various forms of nitrous oxide injection: in various scenes of the film, both Holley's NOS and Nitrous Express's NX systems are displayed prominently. This gaffe was corrected in the sequel, 2 Fast 2 Furious, wherein nitrous oxide injection systems were referred to by the more generic (and proper) designation "nitrous," a move which disappointed fans of the original movie who had become fond of the less generic (and proper) designation "NAWWWS."

The movie spawned video games, two sequels, and a top selling DVD, all with the faithful chord-striking engine sound. The branded franchise is estimated to be worth $500M to $1 billion dollars for Universal Pictures.

At the time of the DVD release, it was one of the best selling DVDs of all time. After the credits end, you can see a little sequence about Toretto’new life in Mexico.

The movie was filmed under the working-title "Redline" and it was not until months after wrapping was the title officially set. The wrap party was held in the grand ballroom of the Hotel Tropicalia, catered by area craft services firm "LA Snax".

The house used as headquarters for the FBI and LAPD undercover investigation is the same house that was used as Walter Matthau's house in Hanging Up (2000).

Paul Walker and Matt Schulze carefully choreographed the fight scene outside the grocery store, but when it came time to shoot, it didn't feel right. In the end they just improvised.

The movie that Dom's gang is watching after the BBQ is Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993), also directed by Rob Cohen.

Neither Michelle Rodriguez nor Jordana Brewster had driver's licenses or even learner's permits before production of the film.

The Volkswagen Jetta that Jesse drives in the movie was later purchased by Frankie Muniz.

The guy in the black Ferrari, credited as 'Ferrari guy', is Neal H. Moritz, one of the producers

Director Rob Cohen made a cameo as the pizza delivery man who is blocked by the first race.

The street where Vin Diesel crashes his car at the end of the film is the same location as the first narcotics bust in Training Day (2001), which was also written by David Ayer.

Dominic's RX-7 originally had a roll cage. It was removed to accommodate Vin Diesel's physique.

The title rights, not the story rights, to the film The Fast and the Furious (1955), were purchased so that the title could be used on this project, another film about racing. The original film was shown in a theater owned by the grandfather of producer Neal H. Moritz.

There are over 15,000 individual sound effects in the first street race.

At the house party, Vin Diesel says to Paul Walker, "You can have any beer you want, as long as it's a Corona." This is a reference to automobile innovator Henry Ford. Although he probably never said, "You can have any color you want, as long as it's black," and although the Model T to which he was supposedly referring was made in several colors (including a couple of shades of green and red as well as gray, blue, and several others), the phrase has long been attributed to him.

Vin Diesel accidentally broke a stuntman's nose.

During the Race Wars, real race cars with their real drivers came to participate in the huge scene. Over 1,500 cars were at the Race Wars.

When first submitted to the MPAA, the film received an R-rating. Some shots from the final robbery showing Vince's mutilated arm were cut.

Matt Schulze (Vince) is a guitarist and was really playing in the film. 

Film-makers asked owners of houses in backgrounds to re-paint their houses with more muted colors to show off the colorful cars.

The classic car in the garage is a 1970 Dodge Charger with a 540ci supercharged Hemi and four speed transmission with a wratchet shift kit.