The Fast & Furious film franchise is loaded with cool cars, epic stunts, and melodramatic plot twists, but its most important ingredient is the one Vin Diesel never stops yapping about: Family. Though it started with just a few key characters hanging out in a run-down California market, Dominic Toretto’s crew – which serves as his de facto fam -- has done nothing but grow as the series has evolved from a simple story about street-racing thieves into a globe-spanning action epic.

With F9, the ninth film in the main series, already out internationally and set to hit U.S. theaters later this month, we thought it might be fun to take a look at all the members of Dom’s crew, past and present, and rank them into categories by considering their importance to the saga as well as their general audience appeal. To do so, we’re putting everyone into one of four categories: Indispensable – the best of the best, and it’s hard to imagine this series without them; Honorable – characters whose presence has proven to be an overall positive for the franchise; Tolerable – we don’t necessarily hate having them around, but their contributions haven’t been what you would call crucial; and Expendable – family members who would not be missed if they happened to get stuck inside an exploding car.

A few rules: Everyone on this list had to have appeared in at least two Fast & Furious films and been on the side of the angels for at least one. (Meaning villains and other anti-Dom antagonists are allowed, but only if they reformed and ended up scoring an invite to one of Dom’s family barbecues.) Also, some of these characters are currently dead, but since death never seems permanent in the Fast universe, we’re including them anyway. We are not including Dom himself, because obviously there’s no franchise without Diesel at this point. Nor are we including Brian O’Conner, who rode off into the sunset after Paul Walker’s tragic real-life passing. Just assume Brian is a legacy F&F hall-of-famer. Lastly, we’re not taking the events of F9 into consideration, because a lot of fans haven't seen it yet. It’s conceivable that someone’s actions in that film could bump them up or down a category.

Okay, with all of that out of the way, grab yourself a Corona and settle in for a full family evaluation …

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INDISPENSABLE

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LETTY ORTIZ (MICHELLE RODRIGUEZ) – The love of Dom’s life has been through a lot. Part of the original cast, Letty was presumed dead in film four, brought back to life in film six, dealt with a bout of amnesia for a bit, and then finally found her way back into Dom’s arms. Through it all she’s been the most consistently badass female presence in the saga, a testament to Rodriguez’s feisty demeaner and take-no-prisoners attitude. Don’t ever die again, Letty.

HAN LUE a.k.a. HAN SEOUL-OH (SUNG KANG) – Know how I know Han is indispensable? Because after he died in Tokyo Drift, director Justin Lin still brought him back for three more movies. And when the timeline righted itself and Han was dead once again, the fanbase didn't stop bitching about it until Vin, Lin, and the powers-that-be decided to bring him back for F9. That’s how vital Han is to this universe, which needs him eating chips and exuding effortless cool at all times, if possible.

ROMAN PEARCE (TYRESE GIBSON) – Initially, Roman was going to be somewhere down in the next rank. But upon consideration, there is one invaluable thing Roman brings to the franchise that nobody else does: He’s the audience surrogate, constantly calling out the batshit antics unfolding on screen. Every character in these movies should have died 10 times over by now, but it seems like Roman is the only person who understands this. While the rest of the fam treats battling nuclear submarines and jumping cars out of airplanes as their 9-to-5 job, Roman is scared to death every single time Dom and company come up with some crazy new plan. It’s that one big difference that makes Roman essential.

HONORABLE

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Image via Universal Pictures

LUKE HOBBS (DWAYNE JOHNSON) – I’m sure some of you expected him to be in the top rank, but I can’t in good faith put him above tier two. Look, there is no doubt that Hobbs’s arrival in Fast Five energized the whole series, and for a short while his contributions seemed crucial to the growth of the franchise. But Johnson’s off-screen disagreements with Diesel ended up affecting the on-screen action, as Hobbs felt more and more like he was off having his own stand-alone adventure as the series went along until he eventually departed for the spinoff Hobbs & Shaw. In a perfect world, Johnson and Diesel will become friends again, and Johnson will return to the main series in an integral role that doesn’t throw everything off-balance. But I’m not holding my breath, so until that happens, putting him in this second tier is the best I can do.

MIA TORETTO (JORDANA BREWSTER) – An original cast member, Dom’s sister has unfortunately never been able to stand out quite as much as the others. It’s not Brewster’s fault. She’s sweet and charming in the role, and has shown glimpses of being able to offer more (like when she helps break Dom out of the prison bus at the beginning of Fast Five). But the series has always treated her as the least important of the original four, and, considering she ended up marrying Brian and giving birth to two of his children, Walker’s real-life death obviously impacted how the series could use her going forward. She does return for F9, so we’re going to give her the benefit of the doubt as a Toretto by blood and hope for some good Mia action in the films ahead.

DECKARD SHAW (JASON STATHAM) – Probably a controversial choice, as there are those who believe that Shaw, who was revealed to have killed Han (or, at least, we thought he did), should never have been invited to a Toretto family barbecue in the first place. But there he is at the end of The Fate of the Furious, dropping off Dom’s son, Brian, and sharing a rooftop smile. I’m ranking Shaw this high for one reason: he single-handedly makes Fate a good movie. With the franchise in a state of flux after Walker’s death and many of its key components running on fumes in this installment, it’s Shaw who saves the day by battling an entire airplane full of bad guys all while baby-sitting Dom’s kid in the film’s most entertaining sequence. He came through right when this series might have needed it the most. He probably still deserves his eventual comeuppance though. #JusticeForHan

SEAN BOSWELL (LUCAS BLACK) – Haha, you didn’t think Sean would be this high, did you? Well you should have, because Tokyo Drift is secretly one of the most important films in the franchise. Let’s just say that Sean is one of the few characters to headline a Fast & Furious movie, and that counts for something. I’m not the only one looking out for him, as Black finally made his grand return to the franchise in Furious 7 and will appear in F9. DRIFT KING REPRESENT.

TOLERABLE

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Image via Universal

TEJ PARKER (CHRIS “LUDACRIS” BRIDGES) – Tej often gets paired up with Roman in these movies, and you could make the argument that Bridges is a more engaging performer than Gibson. (He’s certainly more subtle.) But the fact is there’s just a lot less going on with Tej as a character. The movies often struggle to find a role for him: he’s mostly the team’s chief mechanic, but he also works on their weaponry and even handled the computer hacking until Ramsey came along. He’s fine, but as one of the stars of the Walker-led 2 Fast 2 Furious, his biggest asset might be his tight connection to Brian, which helps keep O’Conner’s (and thus Walker’s) memory alive.

RAMSEY (NATHALIE EMMANUAL) – I like Emmanual – she was great in Game of Thrones – but they need to give her expert hacker more to do in these movies. Positioning her as a sexual object for Roman and Tej to fight over has not been a great look. The trailer for F9 reveals that she can’t drive, which would actually be a nice little character quirk for someone in this series. Let’s hope it points to batter material for Ramsey ahead.

MR. NOBODY (KURT RUSSELL) – A mysterious government operative, Mr. Nobody is basically the Basil Exposition of the latter-day Fast & Furious films. He would be in the bottom tier except for the fact that he’s played by Kurt Russell. I’m not ever putting Kurt Russell in the bottom tier of anything. Would you?

EXPENDABLE

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Image via Universal Pictures

GISELE YASHAR (GAL GADOT) – Gisele was added to the series in film four largely to serve as eye candy. Unfortunately, Gisele was never able to evolve much past that, and she eventually settled into just being Han’s love interest before she died in Fast & Furious 6. Producers have probably been cursing that decision ever since Gadot’s career hit the stratosphere after being cast as Wonder Woman, although I suppose anything is possible down the road, because nobody stays dead in this series for long.

ELENA NEVES (ELSA PATAKY) – Yet another female character by whom this series hasn’t done right. Neves started out as Hobbs’s partner before becoming a love interest for Dom while Letty was presumed dead. She later is turned into a plot device to give Dom a son and then is promptly murdered. She deserved better.

VINCE (MATT SCHULZE) – Remember this guy? Actually, no, of course you don’t. Vince is a member of Dom’s crew in the original film who doesn’t much take to Brian. He pops back up in Fast Five and briefly fights alongside Dom in Rio de Janeiro before dying. The one nice thing I can say about him is that he is proof positive that this series will never leave a character behind.

TEGO CALDERÓN (TEGO LEO) AND RICO SANTOS (DON OMAR) – These two knuckleheads are always paired together and palled around with the crew in films four and five before returning for a brief cameo in film eight. While these characters are largely forgettable, Omar is actually a popular Puerto Rican singer and recorded the song “Danza Kuduro” which plays over the closing scenes of Fast Five and is one of the series catchiest tunes. We’ll give him props for that.

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