
After a successful run at hijacking fuel tanks on the highways of the Dominican Republic, Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) leaves his girlfriend Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) and his gang, as he is now an international criminal. Eventually, Dominic’s partner Han (Sung Kang) flees to Tokyo, causing Dominic to also flee. One day, in Panama, Dominic receives a phone call from his sister Mia (Jordana Brewster), who tells him that Letty was just murdered. Dominic returns to Los Angeles, California, to find out who murdered Letty. After Letty’s funeral, Dominic asks his sister to take him to the site where Letty’s accident occurred. At the scene, Dom finds traces of nitromethane residue that can only be purchased at one body shop in L.A.. At the body shop, he finds one of his old racing counterparts that, after being coerced, leads him to a man named David Park. Dominic finds Park and hangs him out of a window threatening to drop him and vowing to kill anyone that stands in his way of avenging Letty. He receives the information that only through a street race, arranged by Ramon Campos, can he gain access to the man responsible for Letty’s death.
Meanwhile, Brian O’Connor (Paul Walker)now an FBI agent, is assigned to track down a notorious drug lord named Arturo Braga. Brian, after chasing down a criminal on foot, receives information also leading to David Park. Both Dominic and Brian, having received the same information are led to the underground entrance race that guarantees them a spot on the team that traffics heroin across the United States-Mexico border. During the race, Dominic and Brian outlast all of their competitors until the two of them remain and head towards the finish line neck and neck, Dominic sideswipes Brian’s car ensuring that he comes in first, securing his spot on the team so that he can seek justice on Letty’s behalf. Having lost the race, Brian uses his influence at the FBI to ensure that one of the other members on Braga’s team, Dwight Mueller, gets arrested for “distribution of methamphetamine,” in order to usurp his spot of the team. At a party, Ramon Campos, Braga’s right hand man, welcomes them to the team and gives them a GPS that will alert them to where they will begin their race. Dominic ends up in a confrontation with a racer identified as Fenix, the driver of the car that collided with Letty before firing the shot that killed her.