Watch The Fast & Furious Prequel You Forgot About

After Tokyo Drift's release, the timeline of Fast & Furious gets a little confusing to keep track of. The fourth film, 2009’s Fast & Furious, is supposed to serve as a direct sequel to 2 Fast 2 Furious, placing it earlier than the events of Tokyo Drift, a gap then further filled by Fast Five and Fast & Furious 6… with every film from then on canonically set after the third film.

It’s a little bit messy to keep track of if you’re not paying a great deal of attention, which let’s be real, is likely most of us casually watching any Fast film.

That’s made even harder by the fact that the events between 2 Fast 2 Furious and Fast & Furious are never directly addressed in the full-length films, which then leaves you to wonder how Dom Torreto met Han – something alluded to at the end of Tokyo Drift.

Still with us? Good, because we’re here to remind you there is a prequel to 2009’s Fast & Furious that helps bridge that gap, and you’ve probably never seen it.

Los Bandoleros was included alongside Fast & Furious’ Blu-Ray release shortly after its cinema run, and has never been officially published in any other format. It’s the second short, home-release film in the Fast franchise after Turbo-Charged Prelude which bridged the gap between the first two.

Finding Los Bandoleros by err, legal means, isn’t the easiest of tasks. You could of course buy a copy of the fourth film on disc and have it included, or resort to YouTube – where 15 years ago, one unsung hero uploaded half of it in… 360p. You may have to do some sailing elsewhere to see the rest.

We won’t spoil the whole story for you. In summary though, it explains where Dom has been hiding since the events of the first film, how he meets Han and the rekindling of his relationship with Letty.

Is it a must-watch? Probably not, truthfully. But if you’re neck-deep in Fast & Furious lore, it helps connect a few dots.