Tyrese Gibson, Michelle Rodriguez, Paul Walker and Lidacris reprise their roles in “Furious 7”. Photo by Scott Garfield.
Whether you love or hate the The Fast and the Furious movies, there’s no denying their box office success and escapist appeal. I honestly never had much interest in the franchise until WWE superstar The Rock became a fixture with 2011’s Fast Five. Even then, I recognized that these are still big dumb action movies that require more than a reasonable suspension of disbelief and offer little more than a bunch of crazy stunts and spectacular fight scenes. When I found out Furious 7 would be directed by James Wan, better known for directing cerebral horror films like Saw and Insidious, I was more than curious to see how this latest sequel would turn out.
Wan puts the proverbial pedal to the metal early on as government agent Luke Hobbs (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) meets Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), who seeks revenge for the death of his younger brother Owen Shaw (Luke Evans) in Fast & Furious 6. The result of this meeting is an amazing fight sequence that results in Hobbs plummeting several stories, landing on top of a car and ending up in the hospital with a broken arm and other injuries.
Kurt Russell (right) plays the secretive government agent that recruits Dominic (Vin Diesel, left) and his crew in “Furious 7”. Photo by Scott Garfield.
Dominic (Vin Diesel) and his crew of car-racing criminals become Shaw’s next target, and it doesn’t take long for them to figure out they’re being hunted. After Dom gives chase, resulting in a brutal head-on collision between him and Shaw, in steps Kurt Russell as a mysterious government agent who recruits Dom for a covert operation. In exchange for rescuing a hacker named Ramsey, creator of a Big Brother-esque program known as God’s Eye that allows one to hack into any surveillance system on the planet, from her overseas kidnappers, Dom will be allowed to use this program to track Shaw and stop him before he takes out his entire crew.
The globetrotting adventures commence with cars parachuting onto mountain roads from a plane and a chase scene that is choreographed much like a battle royal, with Roman (Tyrese Gibson) being taken out early on only to return at the perfect moment to save the day. Brian (Paul Walker) fights Kiet (Muay Thai star Tony Jaa) on a Road Warrior-esque bus that eventually slides to the edge of a cliff, forcing Brian to climb out and race up the side of the bus as it slides over the cliff. Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) arrives just in time for Brian to grab the spoiler of her car, preventing him from toppling over the cliff with the bus.
After rescuing the surprisingly beautiful Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel), the race moves to the Middle East, where Dom is forced to drive an incredibly expensive car out the window of one skyscraper, into the window of another skyscraper, out another window and into another skyscraper before he and Brian jump from the car, allowing it to crash below (thankfully there were no pedestrians around). Meanwhile, Letty and Kara (Ultimate Fighting Championship Women’s Bantamweight Champion “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey) have an impressive bout. Unfortunately Rousey and The Rock don’t share any screen time, despite their recent interaction at WrestleMania.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson channels Jesse “The Body” Ventura in this climactic scene from “Furious 7”. Photo by Scott Garfield.
Later, back in Los Angeles, Ramsey and Tej (Ludacris) try to hack God’s Eye and regain control of it. Jakande (Djimon Hounsou), using the God’s Eye to track them, is hot on their trail in a helicopter. In order to stay one step ahead of Jakande, Ramsey is forced to jump from one car to the next as they race past each other. From his hospital bed, Hobbs sees what is happening and, after powering out of his full-arm cast and stealing an ambulance, comes to the rescue. In a scene reminiscent of fellow wrestler-turned-actor Jesse “The Body” Ventura in Predator, The Rock then tears a machine gun off a downed drone and opens fire on the pursuing helicopter. I’m mentioning these sequences not as spoilers, but to point out that the action in Furious 7 is just as ridiculous as its predecessors. However, Wan is able to portray these scenes in such a way that they seem possible, no matter how implausible they might actually be.
Furious 7 also revs up the drama just enough to make it more compelling than the previous films. The fact that Walker died (in a car accident no less) during a break in the filming of this movie probably adds to that dramatic quotient a good bit. It’s easy to suspect that each time his character is in danger he might be the next one killed off. But Wan finds a much more tasteful way to explain why Brian won’t be in any future installments of this franchise, also serving as an emotional homage to Walker’s contributions to this series.
Other than that, there seem to be more closeups of shapely female body parts and other gratuitous sexuality than I recall in previous installments (no complaints here). The Rock says “sumbitch” far fewer times than he did in Fast & Furious 6, which is a good thing. There’s also a cameo by Iggy Azalea, which is kind of funny. Though I do feel Wan offers a little more humanity and believability, I’m not certain I would have noticed these differences had I not, as a Wan fan, been looking for them. But I will say that Furious 7 is, by far, the best Fast & Furious film I’ve seen (which isn’t many), and I am looking forward to seeing what else he might do with this franchise.