(For the full version of my Furious 7 review, click here. This is just the list.)
If you clicked on this post, you probably don’t need seven reasons to go see Furious 7, but for any of you who are still not sure, yes, the movie is awesome. In fact, (by a purely subjective scale), it reaches the 7th level of awesome with 7 different stakes-raising scenes. (Look out for spoilers.)
1. Sawed-Off Shotgun
Near the end of the movie, Dom actually gears up and saws off the end of his shotgun. There’s something inherently badass (and furious) about that, and it’s even cooler when he brandishes it at Shaw and asks “Did you think this was gonna be a street fight?”
2. Impractical Parkour Guy
Tony Jaa I presume? Tony Jaa is furiously fast, regardless of his terrain. I didn’t know the actor or character’s name, but when I saw him running over, through, under, beside, and on all kinds of surfaces in attempt to kill Brian, I opted to call him Impractical Parkour Guy. They were going up (and riding down) the stairs of some kind of concrete industrial tower and sacrificing safety for speed everywhere. And once again the camera work was amazing.
3. “Daddy’s Gotta Go to Work”
Okay, I’m going to cheat on this one, because it’s a two-parter. And there are SPOILERS! Hobbs was put into the hospital early in the film, but when he sees on the news that a drone is flying around the city and shooting missiles at very fast cars, he gets furious, and breaks out of his cast. Yep, arm cast, broken bones, but giant flexing moment, and he is free to go. Naturally he tells his daughter “Daddy’s gotta go to work,” and then proceeds to steal commandeer an ambulance, which he drives off of an overpass and lands on the drone, killing it dead. He emerges from the wreckage holding a giant frickin machine gun. I am not making this up. Daddy went to work.
4. Passenger Exchange
There have been a lot of cool jump out of, off of, onto, and into cars in the Fast and Furious franchise. One of them near the climax of Furious 7 takes the cake. So the gang is driving all over LA, trying to elude the same predator drone that is tracking and firing missiles at Ramsey so that she doesn’t hack the bad guys’ system. To give the drone the slip, Brian’s car (carrying Ramsey) and Roman’s car pass by and drift around one another, lining up their windows so that Ramsey can jump out of Brian’s car and into Roman’s; and this happens in like a second, so they have to move fast. One of the characters remarks that they can’t believe that actually worked… I can’t either, but it was awesome.
5. Running Up the Falling Truck
Remember The Lost World? Like the Jurassic Park sequel with Jeff Goldblum, Vince Vaughn, and Julianne Moore–well, you remember the best scene, when the camper was hanging off the edge of the cliff and they were in it? Okay, so start there.
There’s a big truck (not camper), falling off a cliff, with Brian O’Conner inside–trapped inside by Impractical Parkour Guy, so the only exit is in the front. He has to climb out and then up the truck, and then run (fast) across it as it’s falling, and finally jump to the edge, which might not be close enough to reach… (I’ll use pictures.)
And if that completely failed to upload, check here. (Also, you can find a cast-breaking gif.)
6. Not Two But Three Buildings
There’s this car, right? Some kind of super special, multi-million dollar, only seven in the world investment, and they drive it between two buildings. The situation was, they were in a very high building, they had to get out quickly, and they needed something in the car. There was no easy way to covertly get to the service elevate, but luckily, there was a big open window and a nearby building.
Unluckily, once they get there, they find that their brakes aren’t working. But wait! Someone had the foresight to install a third building. It is one of the most intense moments I have ever experienced watching a movie, because–along with the awesome–there is definite peril for the characters. And, yeah, they went really, really fast.
7. Paul Walker Montage (and the end of the movie)
This might seem like a cop-out seventh-level awesome, but I found the way they ended the film incredibly moving.
**SPOILERS AHEAD**
People who have any interest in F7 are probably also the kinds of people who know that Paul Walker passed away–no, that’s not a spoiler. Some of you, like me, probably thought that the announcement of his death was a hoax, because he was working on a movie about car explosions, and he died in a car accident–which really sucks. I don’t have a good way of expressing how much it sucks. Paul Walker was a great actor, and–from the little I know about his personal life–a great person in general. I felt that this film showed incredible support and love for him.
I was really relieved that Paul’s character, Brian, did not die in the movie. They finished the film with some CG and double work, but they kept Brian alive. And in the end, when they were wrapping up the movie, they showed a montage of Brian’s journey through the films, starting the the young, bright-eyed, fresh out of Pleasantville Paul Walker, smiling and meeting Vin Diesel on screen. Before breaking for credits, the film shows Brian and Dom separating at a fork in the road, and then flashes the words “For Paul.” Incredibly moving, and the seventh level of awesome for Furious 7.
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You might be wondering why I didn’t include the fight scenes with Jason Statham or the parachuting cars out of a plane. If you think they too are awesome, then you are right! The fact is that there are so many awesome moments in Furious 7, that I just didn’t have space for them. If you disagree with my list, say so! I enjoy feedback and commentary.
Also, if you like what I write, check out my facebook page for Mike Jack Stoumbos (Author) or the link to my novel The Baron Would Be Proud.