Movie Review – Furious 7 (2015)

Released this weekend is Furious 7, the seventh and what might actually be the final film in The Fast and the Furious franchise.

Furious 7 received a ton of attention two years ago when actor Paul Walker was killed in an auto accident not related to the filming of the movie.  At that point the movie itself was about halfway finished being filmed.  The rest of the filming was delayed and parts of the script were re-written to accommodate his loss.  Through the use of look-alikes and the magic of CGI effects, Paul Walker’s character is still featured throughout the final version of Furious 7.

Furious 7 follows the stories in Fast & Furious 6 and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.  Owen Shaw is badly injured from the events at the end of Fast & Furious 6, and his brother, Deckard Shaw, seeks revenge against Dominic Toretto and his crew of drivers.  The driving crew is assembled for one final mission to help a covert agency acquire a key piece of technology that will allow the drivers to track Deckard Shaw and stop him from his personal vendetta.

Directed by James Wan, Furious 7 stars Vin Diesel and Paul Walker in their respective roles of Dominic Toretto and Brian O’Conner.  Supporting them are the usual team of actors including Michelle Rodriguez as Letty Ortiz, Tyrese Gibson as Roman Pearce, Ludacris as Tej Parker, Jordana Brewster as Mia Toretto, and Dwayne Johnson as Luke Hobbs.

New faces this time around include Jason Statham as Deckard Shaw, Kurt Russell as Frank Petty, Nathalie Emmanuel as Megan Ramsey, and Djimon Hounsou as a terrorist named Jakande.

Furious 7 begins with Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) visiting his badly injured brother, Owen Shaw (Luke Evans), in the hospital.  He swears to his brother that he’ll get his revenge to those who nearly killed him.  As Deckard leaves the hospital, we see that he has left a trail of wreckage and carnage, with many dead police officers and hospital workers.

Over in California, Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) takes Letty Ortiz (Michelle Rodriguez) to Race Wars in hopes of finding something to help Letty regain her memory.  Letty is still suffering from amnesia.  She follows Dominic’s advice and easily beats her opponent at Race Wars.  However, when the crowd is celebrating with Letty, she’s overcome with anxiety, punches Hector (Noel Gugliemi) by accident, and flees from Race Wars.

Later, Dominic finds Letty at the grave where “she” was buried years ago.  Dominic wants to use a sledgehammer to break the gravestone, but Letty stops him.  She sees the grave as a transition point where her old self died and this new version with amnesia was born.

At the U.S. Diplomatic Security Service office, Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) catches Deckard Shaw illegally using his personal computer.  Luke tries to arrest him, but Deckard refuses and the two of them have a lengthy fight sequence.  The fight ends when Deckard uses a hand grenade to effectively “blast” Luke and his partner out of an elevated window.  The two officers fall several stories and crash land on top of a car.  The landing seriously injures Luke, and he’s taken to a hospital for treatment.  Although most of Luke’s office has been destroyed, we see that Deckard was able to learn the name of one of Dominic Toretto’s accomplices —- Han Seoul-Oh.

Dominic visits Luke in the hospital, and he learns that Deckard is out for revenge.

Remember Han’s fatal car accident in Tokyo, Japan?

The accident was really caused by Deckard Shaw.  It’s one step closer to getting his revenge against Dominic’s crew.

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) is adjusting to domestic life as a father to a young boy, Jack.  He lives with girlfriend Mia Toretto (Jordana Brewster) at Dominic’s house, and these days he’s driving a minivan of all vehicles.  Mia is concerned about Brian’s happiness as he seems to be missing his old life of dodging bullets and racing fast cars through the city.

As Brian is tending to Jack in the minivan, Dominic notices that they received a package from Tokyo.  He figures that Han is trying to get them to try a new part for their car.  When Dominic steps away from the house he receives a phone call from Han.  Only it’s not Han.  It’s Deckard, and he’s swearing his revenge against them.  He’s calling Dominic while standing next to Han’s wrecked car.  Suddenly the package from Tokyo explodes, destroying Dominic’s house.  Thankfully, nobody was injured in the explosion, but the message was clear.

Dominic goes to Tokyo to retrieve Han’s body and return him to the U.S.  While there he briefly meets with Sean Boswell (Lucas Black) and retrieves some of Han’s personal items.  The items include a photograph of Gisele along with a silver cross on a necklace that was found at the scene of the crash.

Han’s body is returned to the U.S. and there’s a funeral for him in Los Angeles.  Everybody is in attendance for the funeral including Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson) and Tej Parker (Ludacris).  After the funeral service, Dominic spots a Maserati off in the distance.  He realizes that it’s Deckard, and Dominic jumps into his car and gives chase.  The two cars race through the city before they both end up in an underground garage.  Both of the drivers face off and play chicken, and neither of them swerve.  The two cars smash into each other in a brutal crash.

Neither Dominic or Deckard are seriously injured in the crash.  Dominic tries to use a sledgehammer to fight Deckard, but Deckard pulls out a gun.  Before Deckard can shoot, a bunch of soldiers descend from the ceiling on ropes and shoot at Deckard, making him flee from the area.  The soldiers are led by a mysterious man named Frank Petty (Kurt Russell).

It turns out that Frank works for one of the shadow organizations out there in the world.  He’s not upset that Deckard got away as he has a program called God’s Eye that can be used for tracking any person on the planet.  That is, he’s only aware of God’s Eye as its programmer, somebody named “RAMSEY,” has recently been captured by a terrorist named Jakande (Djimon Hounsou).  If Dominic’s crew can rescue RAMSEY before Jakande can hand RAMSEY over to Deckard, then Frank Petty will allow him to use God’s Eye to track Deckard.

The only problem is that Jakande is in a mountainous area and accessing it is nearly impossible.

Dominic’s crew is assembled and they meet at Frank’s facility.  There they plan their attack and modify their cars for the rugged terrain and the expected hostile encounter.

The mission begins with the cars loaded inside of a C-17 Globemaster III transport aircraft.  When they’re over their drop zone, the C-17’s rear cargo hatch opens and the cars drive in reverse and freefall.  That is, except for Roman Pearce.  He gets cold feet and refuses to drive his car backwards.  Tej had anticipated that, and he uses a remote to activate a small drag chute to pull Roman’s car out of the aircraft.

When the cars approach the ground, each driver activates a parachute.  The parachutes are then guided by GPS to land on a mountain road.  It works for most of them (except for Roman Pearce as he lands well off-target).  The drivers then race to a small convoy that’s transporting RAMSEY.  They quickly discover that it’s a heavily armored convoy, and mercenaries are defending it with machine guns.  The drivers use Tej’s jeep (it’s the only one with bulletproof armor) to knock out some of the mercenaries and create a path to the bus transporting RAMSEY.

Brian then climbs onto the roof of his car and then jumps into the back of the bus.  He fights several of the mercenaries and frees RAMSEY.  He’s surprised to discover that the programmer of God’s Eye is really a woman — Megan Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel).  Brian helps Ramsey jump onto Dominic’s car, but he’s stopped by one of the mercenaries before he can flee.

What follows is a wild sequence where Brian fights a martial arts expert on a bus, the bus driver is accidentally killed from a gunshot, and the bus drives straight to a cliff.  Brian barely escapes before the bus falls off the cliff.  While that is happening, Deckard is driving a car and chasing Dominic on and off the roads.  Roman eventually appears and stops Deckard, but Dominic is later cornered by Jakande.  Knowing that Jakande is going to kill him, Dominic drives his car off a cliff to escape.

The driving crew escapes and Ramsey is safe as well.

But she doesn’t have a the God’s Eye microchip in her possession.  She gave it to a friend in Abu Dhabi.  Off they go to the Middle East with the help of Frank’s covert ops team.

In Abu Dhabi, Ramsey meets with her friend, but her friend doesn’t have the microchip.  He had hidden it inside of a high-end supercar that was recently sold to a wealthy prince.  That car is stored inside of a vault in the prince’s vast penthouse on the top floor of a skyscraper.

The gang dons their formal wear and they attend one of many of the prince’s parties.  Roman provides a distraction while Tej and Ramsey hack into the building’s security system.  Letty helps Tej and Ramsey gain access to the security, but she’s spotted and gets into a fight with several security guards.  While that is happening, Tej helps Dominic and Brian access the vault, and they try to get the microchip out of the car.

Everybody runs out of time when the prince’s security team cracks down on the party.  Brian climbs into the car and Dominic drives it through a wall and into the main party room.  They ultimately escape by driving out of a window and making a crash landing into a neighboring skyscraper.  The car is still going fast and they end up driving out of a window and landing inside of a third building.  Brian is able to retrieve the computer chip and he and Dominic escape from the car before it (the car had no braking control at this point) crashes through yet another window and makes its fatal plunge to the ground below.

Now that they have the control to God’s Eye, Frank stays true to his word and allows for Dominic’s crew to use it to track the location of Deckard.  They use the system and find him in a warehouse building in Abu Dhabi.  It seems to be too easy when Frank Petty’s covert ops team and Dominic’s crew enter the building and surround Deckard.

It’s a trap.

Jakande’s mercenaries ambush the covert ops team, and a massive gun battle commences.  Deckard and Jakande both escape from the building, and they also steal the God’s Eye program.  Frank is seriously wounded in the battle.  He’s dropped on the side of the road so that a special forces helicopter can land and give him medical attention.  It’s implied that Frank survives his gunshot wound.

Knowing that Deckard is going to attack them again, Dominic decides to take his crew back to Los Angeles.  They have knowledge of the streets and can use them to their advantage.  The gang then prepares for the upcoming battle in their own ways.

During this time, Mia had been relocated to a safe house in the Dominican Republic, where she’s been staying and watching over Jack.  When Brian calls her to tell her what’s about to happen, she informs him that she is pregnant with their second child.  She knows that it’s going to be a girl this time.  Brian basically tells her farewell over the phone, but this makes her upset as it sounds like he’s not going to return.

The plan for battle is to use their cars to keep Ramsey mobile and always moving.  She’s going to hack into the God’s Eye and disable it, but to do so she’ll have to be within a couple of miles from the device.  Therefore they’re going to have to keep Ramsey close but not too close while she tries to hack into the God’s Eye.  Easier said than done.  In the meantime, Dominic is going to take on Deckard and end this once and for all.

That night, Deckard and Jakande attack Dominic’s crew in Los Angeles.  Jakande stays above the city and uses a helicopter to track and attack Ramsey, and Dereck and Dominic face off in their cars.  It’s a cat-and-mouse game as Brian and Roman use their cars to outmaneuver Jakande’s aerial drone and to keep Ramsey on the move.

At one point the broadcast tower that Ramsey is using is destroyed by a missile.  Brian has to access an alternate tower and activate it for Ramsey’s use.  To get to the access point, he has to fight his way past several of Jakande’s mercenaries, including one that tried to kill him in the bus in the mountains.  This time Brian gets the upper hand and kills the mercenary, and then he activates the tower for Ramsey.

Luke Hobbs witnesses an explosion in downtown Los Angeles from his hospital bed.  He climbs out out of bed, breaks free of his cast, and goes to help Dominic.  Luke later appears when he drives an ambulance off a small bridge and crashes into the aerial drone, destroying it.  He then approaches the drone’s camera and does a “double tap” into it with his pistol, signifying a professional kill.  Luke then takes the drone’s machine gun and fires it against Jakande’s helicopter, damaging but not destroying it.

While that is taking place, Dominic and Deckard ultimately end up on top of a parking deck.  After crashing their vehicles into each other *again*, the two of them have a lengthy hand-to-hand fight in the parking deck.  Jakande later turns on Deckard and fires a missile at him in the parking deck.  The explosion causes the parking deck to break, and Deckard falls into a hole and gets knocked out.  When Dominic sees that Letty is in trouble and pinned down by Jakande’s helicopter, he uses his car to race up a ramp (created by the broken slabs of concrete), fly in the air, and then toss a bag of hand grenades into the helicopter.

Luke Hobbs spots the bag of explosives and he shoots at it with his pistol.  The bag detonates and the helicopter is destroyed.

Everybody then races to Dominic side as he was badly injured when his car crashed after flying through the air.  Brian tries to give him CPR, but it doesn’t appear to do any good.  Letty then talks to Dominic and tells him that she remembers everything now.  A little while ago her memory returned.  She tells Dominic that she remembers their times together and when they were married in the Dominican Republic (apparently the marriage happened before the events in Fast & Furious).  It was an impromptu ceremony, and instead of giving her a wedding ring, Dominic gave Letty a silver cross on a chain.

Dominic regains consciousness when Letty tells him the story of them getting married.  He makes a full recovery from his injuries.

A little while later, the gang goes to the Dominican Republic and spend some time on the beach.  They sit back and watch as Brian and Mia play with Jack near the water.  They appreciate his happiness with Mia and their son, and they know that he’s better off “retired” with his family.

Dominic Toretto silently leaves the group and goes for a drive.  At a stop sign a second car pulls up beside him.  He looks over and sees that it’s Brian.  They both drive forward together on the road.

Furious 7 ends with a small tribute to Brian O’Conner / Paul Walker.  Dominic tells Brian that he’ll always be his brother.  The two cars then separate and drive off in different directions.

FINAL THOUGHTS

So is Furious 7 a good movie?

Fans of The Fast and the Furious series will most likely love Furious 7.  The story is decent, the action scenes are good, and, of course, this is the final appearance of Paul Walker.  That alone is going to drive up the ticket sales, especially once people learn of the tribute at the end of the movie.

In a way, Paul’s death in real life was a distraction while watching the movie.  It was well published that the movie was only about halfway finished being shot when he was in the fatal car accident.  It was also published that the producers were going to continue with the movie and keep using the character Brian O’Conner through the usage of look-alikes and CGI.  Even though Paul Walker died, Brian O’Conner was still going to be in scenes that were not yet filmed.

Because of that, I found myself focusing on his character and trying to find the scenes that were filmed with a double, or when CGI was used to create his face.  One of the more noticeable moments where the actor didn’t look right was the final scene where Dominic looked at the car next to him and saw Brian’s smiling face.  Was that supposed to represent Dominic’s memory of his friend and therefore be a little bit off, or was there another reason for the fairly obvious difference in faces?

Otherwise, apart from having an overall lack of dialogue for Brian O’Conner, it was pretty difficult to know for a fact whether we were really seeing Paul Walker on screen, or if it was a double or camera trick.

As far as the story goes, Furious 7 was a pretty good movie, but not a great one.  The sequence of driving the supercar between buildings in Abu Dhabi was cheesy, and it’s not explained how Roman, Tej, Letty and Ramsey actually escape from the prince’s penthouse considering the high level of security.  The end of that sequence focuses on Dominic and Brian in the car, and not their friends still trapped in the penthouse.

The end sequence in the city had some issues as well.  For starters, it looks like Ramsey could have just worn a mask to cover her face and basically shield herself from the God’s Eye system.  All of the drivers could have done that along with driving cars that were not registered to them in any way.  They would then be mostly untraceable and significantly harder to track.

Second, considering all of the carnage along with the helicopter and the aerial drone, there was basically no response from the city’s police department.  We see a couple of cop cars, and later there are a few F-16s flying to intercept the helicopter, but that’s it.  It’s Dominic and Luke who finally destroy the helicopter, and not the Air Force fighters.

It also seemed a little bit odd that Sean Boswell was basically not used in this film.  Lucas Black’s role was more of a cameo than as a character in the series.  I was expecting Dominic to recruit Sean (or Sean insist on helping) as Sean was a good friend of Han, and they could have used his help in fighting Deckard.  But the story didn’t go that way and Sean Boswell remained behind in Tokyo as the current “Drift King.”

Of course, none of these The Fast and the Furious films are to be taken seriously.  These are action films plain and simple, and they’re really good ones at that.  It’s just annoying when some of the movies have glaring plot holes.

One of the strongest points of Furious 7 is its emotional level surrounding Brian O’Conner.  There are some touching moments in the film, and the audience responded as such.  When the last image had the words “For Paul,” the audience cheered out loud.

Furious 7 (2015) – movie trailer

In the end, Furious 7 was a good film that was made into a powerful one because of the death of a starring actor and the way that his companions honored him on the screen.  It’s clear that Vin Diesel and Paul Walker were close friends in real life.