Bang!Bang!Bang! That’s how crazy the expensive cars go Kaboom! (230 cars in total) In the latest instalment to the fastest franchise on-screen, Fast and Furious 7. Racing through our veins, The Fast and The Furious franchise has entertained us for over 14 years, with its lead characters Dominic Torretto (Vin Diesel), Brian O’Conner (Late Paul Walker), Mia (Jordana Brewster) and Letty Ortiz (Michelle Rodriguez). Over the years, also joining this bandwagon of elite street-racers were some additions including Brian’s homey Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson), geeky hacker, Tej Parker (Chris Bridges) and the hulking Special Ops agent Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson).
The latest Furious 7 kick-starts directly following the events of two of its prequels, Fast & Furious: Tokyo Drift and Fast & Furious 6. So when Fast 6’s baddie Owen Shaw is left crippled by our league of racers, his big bad brother, Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) returns for vengeance upon Dom’s family and we do have the first casualty Hang Lue (Sung Kang). Time for payback!
Taking the reins from Justin Lin, James Wan (The Conjuring, Saw) took over the director’s chair bringing in his flavour to the franchise. (However we did miss the post-credits’ teaser scenes that Justin brought into the series). In the attempt to weave together a strong connection between the instalments the first-half of Furious 7 tries to put all the pieces of the puzzle together, however the second-half pushes you right off your seats with its over-the-top action sequences, ridiculed physics defying stunts with cars (cars don’t fly….) and some great pumped-up fight-sequences (though not as hyped as Dwayne Johnson and Vin Diesel’s lethal fist-fight in Fast Five). The movie’s $250 million budget is gloriously spilled across with awe-inspiring visual-effects delivered mainly by Weta Digital along with five other studios and a powerful star-studded cast in some great locations like Abu Dhabi and Los Angeles.
If you still haven’t got behind the wheel and watched Furious 7, here are7 reasons that will push you to the nearest theatres. (Spoilers Alert!)
Tribute to Paul Walker – Let’s just start by saying that Furious 7 isn’t just an add-on to the popular street-racing franchise, The Fast and the Furious, but an honourable tribute to the late Paul Walker whose unexpected death in a car crash left the world aghast. James Wan does justice in paying the actor a perfect homage towards the end of the movie with a string of footages of Paul’s character Brian O’Conner from the previous parts outlining the character’s arc brilliantly. Furious 7 manages in giving the character a deserving send off rather than abruptly cutting him lose with Paul’s character retiring as the paternal Brian who would choose family over bullets and cars. Tweaking its production value a bit, the makers completed Paul’s role using his brothers (Cody and Caleb Walker) as stand-ins coupled with the use of CGI.
Camaraderie between the characters – The strong camaraderie between the characters is an inspiring and entertaining reason to watch Furious 7 as Dom’s ‘Family’ which greatly governs the entire movie’s plot. Where at one end we see the bromance between Dom and Brian notching up the dramatic heft, we do get Roman and Tej’s love-hate bonding lightning up the mood. Also from kicking each other’s butts in Fast Five to having a ‘brother-to-brother talk’ Toretto and Hobbs take it upon them to save each other’s back.
Adrenaline-soaked combat sequences – No matter where Furious 7 takes you with its great production value, James Wan brings you back to the streets with some serious street-fighting. Yes! This time its Vin Diesel unloading on Jason Statham, but perhaps Statham too has some sleek-moves up his sleeve, for he is an ex-Special Forces gone rogue. And has managed doing some serious damage on our favourite wrestler inspite of the Rock-Bottom. For those who think Furious 7 might humour only the male-clan, females can take cue from the franchise’s signature cat-fight, not with paws and scratches but one with fists and bruises. One of the greatest action- females from Hollywood, Michelle does look good cracking some neck in that sexy gown of hers!
Vehicular Warfare – With each of the instalments pushing up the production cost with crazy stunts and mind-boggling action sequences, the crux of the plot keeps getting crazier. From Illegal Street racing to heists to catching the bad guys, The Fast and the Furious has shown it all. Guided by vengeance, Furious 7 also gets Dom entangled with US Government’s some serious hardware (God’s eye). If techie-junkies loved Captain America – The Winter Soldier’s Project Insight (Spying software targeting everyone across the globe) then Furious 7 offers a delightful delicacy with superficial man-hunting software, God’s Eye. Also quoting our humouring joker, Roman Pearce, Furious 7 does notch up the stakes here “…..from tanks, planes to spaceships…(it’s a drone called ‘Predator)” that literally tears down half of LA chasing a valuable hottie-cum-hacker (which could have been Miss Padukone).
Testosterone-pumped star-cast – 14 years is a long way and still, the action-packed franchise, brings in a fresh package loaded with some great star-cast. While critics and fans certainly acknowledge Dwayne Johnson spitting some nitrous-oxide in the Fast and Furious engines, Furious 7 is packed with a few more boosts. To start with, we have the Jason Statham playing the antagonist, Deckard Shaw. Unfortunately Statham’s name is bigger than his role in the movie and disappointingly we get just a few dialogues from the Transporter guy. Another big-shot Kurt Russell (Mr. Nobody) sprinkles about in a few sequences basically narrating why Dom’s family needs to come together for the One Last Ride. Speaking about action sequences, Furious 7 has the Thai martial artist Tony Jaa challenging Brian’s ego. (some sweet-slick action here). Also getting you at the edge of your seat is the hardest girl in the world, Ronda Rousey an MMA champion kicking-in some great fight.
Gravity-defying stunts – For the plot-hungry movie buffs, Furious 7 may not bring something new on the roads, but surely it compensates with a dose full of gravity-defying stunts. Seriously, Vin Diesel surpasses Die Hard’s Bruce Willis here! We all know that cars don’t fly, but for Dom (Diesel) here who breaks all barriers, jumping off from Abu Dhabi’s one sky-scraper to another in the most expensive car, Lykan HyperSport (Ł2.3 million) is not the limit. James Wan realistically pulls off some of the most bizarre and unreal stunts including cars jumping off the planes at 3000 feet with a parachute, or Paul Walker’s stunt as he runs across the side of a bus falling off the cliff only to be saved by Letty pulling-off a crazy drift or even Diesel kissing the helicopter with his American muscle. We have Diesel standing up each time even if jumps off the cliff (without the parachute) craning his neck and muttering his punch-line. From Pacifier to Car-flier, way to go Diesel!
For the love of the franchise – Finally the ultimate reason you would want to hit the road with Furious 7 is simply for the love of the franchise. Race-wars spinning the RPM to over 9000, fast cars with nitrous under their hood, angled camera shots on the bikini-clad curves (even in the middle-east) and our heroes behind the wheels saving the day. Loosely based on a magazine article, titled ‘Racer X’, Fast and Furious has spun out as an unexpected success making Furious 7, Universal Studio’s biggest release till date. Grossing over $2.3 billion world-wide, the franchise has raced across millions of hearts. Although we don’t get a tid-bit of the next instalment, Diesel has spilled the beans stating that the 8th instalment to the series will be based in New York, departing from its deep-roots in LA. Rumours are in that Lucas Black (Tokyo Drift’s Sean Boswell) could be roped in to fill-in-the shoes of Paul’s character, Brian, but we all will still miss the blue-eyed ex-FBI agent Brian O’conner. RIP Paul!