Furious 7

Furious 7
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	James Wan
Screenplay by	Chris Morgan
Produced by	Neal H. Moritz Vin Diesel Michael Fottrell
Starring	Vin Diesel Paul Walker Dwayne Johnson Michelle Rodriguez Jordana Brewster Tyrese Gibson Chris Bridges Kurt Russell Jason Statham
Cinematography	Stephen F. Windon Marc Spicer
Edited by	Christian Wagner Leigh Folsim Boyd Dylan Highsmith Kirk M. Morri
Music by	Brian Tyler
Production companies	Original Film One Race Films Media Rights Capital
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release dates	March 16, 2015 (2015-03-16) (SXSW) April 3, 2015 (2015-04-03) (United States)
Running time	137 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$190 million
Box office	$507.9 million

Furious 7 (alternatively known as Furious Seven and Fast & Furious 7) is a 2015 American action film. It is the sequel to the 2013 film Fast & Furious 6 and the seventh installment in the Fast & Furious film series. The film was written by Chris Morgan and directed by James Wan. It stars Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Chris Bridges, Kurt Russell and Jason Statham. With the previous three installments being set between 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003) and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006), Furious 7 is the first film of the series to mostly take place after Tokyo Drift.

The film marks the final film appearance of Paul Walker, who died on November 30, 2013, with filming only half-completed. After Walker's death, filming was delayed for script re-writes and his brothers Caleb and Cody were used as stand-ins to complete his remaining scenes. Furious 7 was released first in Australia, Mexico and Puerto Rico on April 2, 2015, and then in the United States on April 3, 2015, and was released in 3D internationally, a first for the series.

Upon release, the film became a critical and commercial success. Critics praised the film for its action sequences and its tribute to Paul Walker. It made $392 million in its first three days of release worldwide, which is the fourth-highest opening of all time. It has grossed over $500 million at the box office, making it the second highest-grossing film of 2015 as of April.

Plot

After defeating Owen Shaw and his crew and securing their amnesties, Dominic Toretto, Brian O'Conner, and the rest of the crew are able to return to the United States and live normal lives again. Brian begins to accustom himself to life as a father, while Dom tries to help Letty regain her memories by taking her back to Race Wars and to her old grave. Meanwhile, Owen's older brother, Deckard, breaks into the secure hospital the comatose Owen is being held in and swears vengeance against Dom. Shaw breaks into Luke Hobbs' DSS office to extract profiles of Dom's crew. After revealing his identity, Shaw engages Hobbs in a fight, and escapes when he detonates a bomb that sends Hobbs and his partner, Elena Neves, flying from the building and onto the roof of a car. Severely injured, Hobbs is rushed to the hospital by Elena. Dom later learns from his sister Mia that she is pregnant again and convinces her to tell Brian about it, despite her objections. However, a bomb, disguised in a package sent from Tokyo, explodes and destroys the Toretto house just seconds after Han, one of their crew, is killed by Shaw in Tokyo. Dom later visits Hobbs in hospital, where he learns that Shaw is a rogue special forces assassin seeking to avenge his brother. Dom then travels to Tokyo to claim Han's body, where he meets Sean Boswell, a friend of Han's, who gives him personal items found at Han's crash, among them a cross necklace that Dom had attempted to find for Letty.

Back at Han's funeral in Los Angeles, Dom notices a car observing and chases after the vehicle, driven by Shaw. After a head-on collision in a game of chicken, both prepare to fight but Shaw slips away when a covert ops team arrives, led by Frank Petty. Petty informs Dom that he will assist him in stopping Shaw if he helps him prevent a mercenary named Jakande from obtaining God's Eye, a computer program that can use digital devices to track a specific person, and save its creator, a hacker named Ramsey, from Jakande's men. Dom recruits Brian, Letty, Roman Pearce and Tej Parker to help him. However, Brian makes a promise to Mia that after Shaw is dealt with, he will dedicate himself to raising their son full-time. To rescue Ramsey, the team airdrops their cars over the Caucasus Mountains, ambushes Jakande's convoy and rescues Ramsey. They then head to Abu Dhabi, where a billionaire has acquired the flash drive containing God's Eye. At the Etihad Towers, the team breaks into his penthouse and manages to steal the flash drive. On both occasions, the team is pursued by Shaw, who engages in combat with Dom, and the team barely manages to escape alive. With God's Eye, the team manages to track down Shaw, who is waiting at a remote factory. Dom, Brian, Petty and his covert ops unit attempt to capture Shaw but are ambushed by Jakande and his militants, who have allied with Shaw. In the ensuing battle, Petty's men are killed and Petty is injured, though he manages to escape with Dom and Brian while Jakande obtains God's Eye from one of Petty's men, and is eventually evacuated by helicopter. Left with no other choice, the team decides to return to Los Angeles to fight Shaw, Jakande and his men on their home turf. Dom plans to confront Shaw alone while Brian and the rest of the crew prepare to deal with Jakande and regain control of God's Eye. At the same time, Mia reveals to Brian that she is pregnant with their second child, a girl.

While Jakande pursues Brian and the rest of the crew with a stealth attack helicopter and unmanned aerial vehicle, using God's Eye to track down Ramsey, the team uses Ramsey to hack into God's Eye while sharing her mobile between their vehicles. Hobbs, seeing the team in trouble, breaks out of the hospital and destroys the UAV by ramming it with an ambulance. After Brian manages to manually reroute the program's signal, Ramsey successfully completes the hack, regains control of God's Eye and shuts it down. Meanwhile, Dom and Shaw engage in a one-on-one brawl on a parking garage, before Jakande intervenes and attacks them both, and Shaw is apprehended when part of the parking garage collapses on him. Dom then engages in battle with Jakande and launches his vehicle at his helicopter with him in it, narrowly missing, but successfully manages to toss a bag of grenades on board, before getting himself injured when his car lands and crashes. Hobbs then shoots the bag of grenades from ground level, destroying the helicopter and killing Jakande. When Dom remains unconscious, the team fears that he is dead. As Letty cradles Dom's body in her arms, she reveals that she has regained her memories. Dom regains consciousness soon after, remarking, "It's about time".

Later, Shaw is taken into custody by Hobbs and locked away in a secret, high-security CIA prison. Meanwhile, at a beach, Brian and Mia play with their son while Dom, Letty, Roman and Tej observe, appreciating their happiness and acknowledging that Brian is better off retired with his family. Dom silently leaves, and Brian catches up to him at a stop sign. As Dom remembers the times that he has had with Brian, they bid each other farewell and drive off in separate directions.

Cast

Main article: List of The Fast and the Furious characters

• Vin Diesel as Dominic Toretto
• Paul Walker as Brian O'Conner
• Dwayne Johnson as Luke Hobbs
• Michelle Rodriguez as Letty Ortiz
• Tyrese Gibson as Roman Pearce
• Chris Bridges as Tej Parker
• Jordana Brewster as Mia Toretto
• Djimon Hounsou as Mose Jakande
• Tony Jaa as Kiet
• Ronda Rousey as Kara
• Nathalie Emmanuel as Megan Ramsey
• Kurt Russell as Frank Petty
• Jason Statham as Deckard Shaw
• Elsa Pataky as Elena Neves
• John Brotherton as Sheppard
• Ali Fazal as Zafar

Noel Gugliemi reprises his role from the first film as Hector, a street race organizer. Luke Evans and Lucas Black briefly reprise their roles from previous films as Owen Shaw and Sean Boswell, respectively. Sung Kang, Gal Gadot, Bow Wow and Nathalie Kelley appear in archive footage as Han Seoul-Oh, Gisele Yashar, Twinkie and Neela, respectively. Iggy Azalea makes a cameo appearance in the film and contributed to the soundtrack. Bachata singer Romeo Santos also appears as Armando in a cameo role.

Production

Development

On April 4, 2013, Justin Lin, the franchise's director since The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006), announced that he would not return to direct a seventh film, as the studio wanted to produce the film on an accelerated schedule for release in summer 2014. This would have required Lin to begin pre-production on the sequel while performing post-production on Fast & Furious 6, which he considered would affect the quality of the final product. Despite the usual two-to-three-year gap between the previous installments, Universal chose to pursue a sequel quicker due to having fewer reliable franchises than its competitor studios. However, subsequent interviews with Lin have suggested that the sixth installment was always intended to be the final entry directed by him. In April 2013, James Wan, predominantly known for horror films, was announced as the sequel's director, with Neal H. Moritz returning to produce and Chris Morgan returning to write the script, his fifth in the series. On April 16, 2013, Vin Diesel announced that the sequel would be released on July 11, 2014. In May 2013, Diesel said that the sequel would feature Los Angeles, Tokyo and the Middle East as locations.

Casting

Diesel and Paul Walker were the first confirmed to return. Dwayne Johnson initially said that if Universal pursued the accelerated development of a seventh film with a summer start date, he would be unable to participate due to scheduling conflicts with filming on Hercules. However, as production for the film commenced in September, he confirmed his return for the film, as Hercules completed production in time for him to film a significant part. In August 2013, Kurt Russell was confirmed to be in talks to join the film. Diesel confirmed his involvement through a production photo on his Facebook page, in September 2013. In August 2013, mixed martial artist Ronda Rousey was confirmed to be in negotiations to join the cast, and Thai martial arts actor Tony Jaa was also confirmed to have joined the cast, making his Hollywood debut. In the same month, it was reported that Denzel Washington had turned down a role in the film, and that Universal was looking for another big star to take the part, which would play a larger role in an eighth film. It was also confirmed that Lucas Black had signed on to reprise his role as Sean Boswell for Furious 7, and two more installments.

Filming

Principal photography began in early September 2013 in Atlanta, Georgia, with a casting call issued. Abu Dhabi was also a filming location, as the production crew chose it over Dubai; they benefitted from the Emirate's 30% rebate scheme. Pikes Peak Highway in Colorado was closed in September to film some driving sequences.

On November 30, 2013, while on a break for the Thanksgiving holiday, Walker, who portrayed Brian O'Conner, died in a single-vehicle accident. The next day, Universal announced that production would continue after a delay that would allow the filmmakers to rework the film. On December 4, 2013, Universal Pictures put production on hold indefinitely. Wan later confirmed that the film had not been cancelled. On December 22, 2013, Diesel posted on his Facebook page that the film would be released on April 10, 2015. On February 27, 2014, The Hollywood Reporter reported that filming would resume on April 1, and that the cast and crew had headed to Atlanta to prepare for about eight more weeks of shooting. Principal photography ended on July 10, 2014.

Stunts

A 58 years old Lockheed C-130 Hercules was used in the film to carry the vehicles that would drop from 12,000 feet high, above the Sonoran Desert, making cars plummet at a speed of about 130 to 140 miles per hour.

The "air drop" sequence was conceived by stunt coordinator, Spiro Razatos, who also supervised on the franchise's two previous installments; Fast Five and Fast & Furious 6. Razatos told Business Insider that he wanted to rely more on real stunts rather than CGI because he wanted the whole sequence to "feel real" and fullfill audience's expectations. The stunt took months of prep-solving problems. Cameras needed to be mounted onto cars in a way that they would not be destroyed when the cars landed, and the crew had to figure out a safe way to get the cars out of the plane. They performed a dry run with a single car falling out of a plane and did this six times. Cars were dropped from a Lockheed C-130 Hercules high above the Arizona desert, but close up shots that show the cars landing on a mountain road were filmed in Colorado. There were two airplanes, flying at a height of 12,000 feet, each dropping two cars apiece. BRS parachutes enabled with GPS were secured to each of the cars before dropping off the C-130 plane. At about 5,000 feet, the parachutes deployed. Over 10 cameras were used for the sequence. In addition to cameras on the ground, there were cameras remotely operated inside the plane and another three mounted outside each car. Additional cameras were on a helicopter, where Razatos was stationed watching monitors. Three skydivers used in the shoot wore helmet cameras to help shoot the sequence from multiple angles. Sky divers would either jump out before cars or after them. While all the cars landed on their drop zones, 70% landed perfectly and 30% didn't. For the close-up scenes which shows the actors inside their cars, a giant gimbal with a 360-degree range of movement were attached to each of the cars and was filmed against a green screen to reproduce their tumble through the sky. The last part of the scene, which shows the cars hitting the road was shot separately. To get that right, the team set up a pully sytem that had cars six to ten feet above the ground. When they were dropped from the cranes, the stuntmen who were sitting in the driver's seats raced their engines at about 35 to 40 miles per hour and slid to the ground at full speed. Those cranes were then later removed from the film with computers. Razatos admits that the air drop sequence was "all real" and that it would be "hard to top."

The scene featuring Brian jumping off a bus off a cliff was performed by a stuntman and was all done without any computer graphics. The shooting for this particular sequence along with the scene in which Dom and his team are pursuing to rescue Ramsey almost didn't happen due to the absence of tax break in Colorado. The studio originally wanted to shoot the sequence in Georgia which provides tax breaks for film productions, and then they'd add woods in the background later in post production to which Razatos denied saying, "the audience is going to know [it's CGI] and aren't going to feel good about it." Shooting finally took place in Colorado.

A total of 340 cars were used in the film, and more than 230 cars were destroyed in the making of the film including several black Mercedes-Benz, a Ford Crown Victoria and a Mitsubishi Montero. The mountain-highway chase scene on Colorado's Monarch Pass proved to be the most damaging sequence where over 40 vehicles were destroyed. Only 10 percent of the action sequences in the film were computer-generated, and even then, much of the CGI was employed simply to erase the wires and other contraptions that were used to film real cars and drivers or to add a background. It took more than 3,500 man-days to complete the various stunts of the film.

Redevelopment of Walker's character

"When I first heard the news, I was shell-shocked like everyone, and it took me days to come to terms with it. And then after that, heartbreaks started sinking in and we realised that Paul [Walker] wasn’t going to be around with us anymore moving forward. And it was a really hard one. And finishing the movie was the last thing on my mind at that point. It was more the idea of you know, picking up the pieces, going back on set, you know rallying the team, the cast, and the crew, and as the director having to put on the brave face and sort of like champion and push everyone along, the idea of that was very daunting for me. But it became very apparent to all of us that we needed to finish this movie to honour Paul’s legacy and to basically honour his memories, and moving forward that became our number one goal. Like nothing else mattered, it was about making this movie for Paul."

—James Wan, director of Furious 7, about the need to alter the film's ending due to Walker's death.

In January 2014, Time reported that Walker's character would retire instead of being killed, and that new scenes would be developed for this, allowing the franchise to continue without him. In March 2014, the New York paper Daily News reported that the studio had hired four actors with bodies very similar to Walker's physique, and that CGI would be used for his face and voice, and in April 2014, Walker's brothers Caleb and Cody – both of whom resemble him – were chosen as stand-ins. For scenes which required re-creating Walker's face and body, the team hired Peter Jackson's Weta Digital (which produced the imagery of Gollum in The Lord of the Rings franchise and Caesar in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes). The final film includes a combination of CGI and the use of carefully chosen camera angles and lighting using Walker's brothers to simulate his appearance. Robin Shenfield, CEO of London's special effects studio, The Mill said that the redevelopment was similar to that of Oliver Reed when his character had to be redeveped the same way when he suffered a fatal heart attack during filming of Gladiator.

Music

Main article: Furious 7 (soundtrack)

The musical score was composed by Brian Tyler, who scored the third, fourth, and fifth installments of the series. "There's an emotional component to Fast & Furious 7 that is unique," said Tyler about his experience scoring. "I think people are really going to be amazed by it." A soundtrack album to the film was released by Atlantic Records on March 17, 2015.

Songs featured in the film include:

• "Go Hard or Go Home" (Wiz Khalifa & Iggy Azalea)
• "Ride Out" (Kid Ink, Tyga, Wale, YG & Rich Homie Quan)
• "My Angel" (Prince Royce)
• "Get Low" (Dillon Francis and DJ Snake)
• "See You Again" (Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth)
• "Ay Vamos" (J Balvin feat. Nicky Jam and French Montana)

Release

The film, which began principal photography in September 2013, was originally designed as a Summer 2014 release. It was put on hold following the fatal car crash that claimed Paul Walker's life on November 30, 2013. The production resumed in April 2014.

In October 2014, Universal revealed that the film was officially titled Furious 7, and that the debut trailer would be released during an interactive fan event over social media. In the days leading up to the event, seven-second, behind-the-scenes videos were released, titled "7 Seconds of 7". On February 1, 2015, a new trailer featuring all-new footage debuted during Super Bowl XLIX.

The film was originally scheduled for release on April 10, 2015, but it was announced that the film's release date had been brought forward a week to April 3, 2015. The official announcement in change of date was made in July 2014. Fast and Furious 7 premiered at the SXSW Film Festival at 12:07 a.m. at Austin's Paramount Theatre on March 16, 2015. It is scheduled to release in China on April 12, 2015.

On March 27, 2015, a free standalone expansion for the video game Forza Horizon 2, titled Forza Horizon 2 Presents Fast & Furious, was released to help promote the film.

Piracy

According to piracy tracking site Excipio, the film was downloaded illegally 2.59 million times in four days (April 2-6) through various torrent sites with India being the top country for piracy of the film with 578,000 downloads followed by Pakistan (321,000 downloads), China (289,000 downloads), the U.S. (251,000 downloads) and the U.K. (101,000 downloads).

Reception

Box office

As of April 9, 2015, Furious 7 has grossed $191.9 million in North America and $316 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $507.9 million. Worldwide, Furious 7 was released across 810 IMAX theaters – the largest worldwide rollout for any movie in IMAX's history and the largest for Universal. Its worldwide opening of $392.2 million is the fourth-highest ever. It had an IMAX opening weekend total of $20.8 million. The film, according to RelishMix, surpassed The Hunger Games to become the most social movie franchise in the history of social media.

Predictions for the opening weekend of Furious 7 in North America were continuously revised upwards, starting from $115 million to $150 million. It opened on Friday, April 3, 2015, across 4,004 theaters, including 365 IMAX theaters, which made it Universal's widest opening release ever (breaking Despicable Me 2's record), and earned $67.3 million, marking the tenth-biggest opening day. The film's Friday gross included a $15.8 million late-night run (which began at 7 p.m.), from 3,069 theaters, marking Universal's highest late-night run (breaking Fifty Shades of Grey's record), of which $2.2 million came from IMAX showings, marking the third largest IMAX preview gross ever, (behind Iron Man 3 and The Dark Knight Rises). Based on pure Friday gross (with the ommision of revenues from Thursday shows), it earned $51.5 million, marking the third-biggest of all time, behind The Avengers ($61 million) and Iron Man 3 ($53 million). Through Sunday, April 5, it had an opening weekend total of $147.1 million, breaking the record for the biggest April opening, the biggest opening in the Fast & Furious franchise, the biggest Easter opening, the biggest opening of 2015, the second biggest pre-summer opening ever, behind The Hunger Games ($152 million), and the ninth-biggest opening of all time. It earned an IMAX opening weekend total of $13.3 million, marking the second-biggest of all time for a 2D movie (behind The Dark Knight Rises). Premium large format comprised 8% ($11.5 million) of the total opening gross from 400 PLF screens, which is the biggest PLF opening (previously held by The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1).

Outside North America, it opened Wednesday, April 1, 2015, in 12 countries, earning $16.9 million (including previews from 22 countries). It opened in 33 more countries on Thursday, April 2, for a total of 45 countries, earning $43 million from 8,407 screens, marking Universal Pictures overseas' highest-grossing Thursday ever (breaking Fast & Furious 6's record), and for a two day total of $60 million. It added 20 more countries on Friday, April 3, earning $59.2 million from 9,935 screens in 63 countries, for a three day total of $120.6 million. The film set all time opening-day records in 15 countries including Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, India, Indonesia, the Middle East and Thailand, and opening day records for Universal Pictures in 40 countries including Australia, Brazil, Germany, Italy and Mexico. Through Sunday, April 5, it earned a 4-day opening weekend total of $245.05 million from 10,683 screens in 64 countries, which is the third-highest international opening ever, behind Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 ($314 million) and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides ($260.4 million), in all which it reached first place at the box office It earned an IMAX opening weekend total of $7.5 million from 175 IMAX screens, breaking the record for the biggest April IMAX gross, previously held by The Winter Soldier ($6.43 million). It set opening weekend records in 29 countries including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Egypt, Malaysia, Mexico, Middle East, Romania, Taiwan, Thailand, Venezuela and Vietnam.

The largest openings occurred in Mexico ($21.5 million), the UK, Ireland and Malta ($18.7 million), Germany ($15.9 million), Brazil ($11.4 million), France ($11.4 million), Australia ($11.3 million), Taiwan ($10.3 million), Argentina ($9.3 millon), Korea ($8.9 million), Italy ($8.2 million), Malaysia ($7.3 million), Spain ($6.3 million), Venezuela ($6 million), Thailand ($6 million), Colombia ($5.2 million). In the UAE, where parts of the film was shot, it opened with $4.8 million. Its four day opening weekend of $7.5 million (and three day opening of $5.5 million) in India is the biggest for a Hollywood title ever (previously held by The Amazing Spider-Man 2).

Critical response

The Los Angeles Times reported that reviews for Furious 7 have been "generally positive" with critics praising the film's action sequences and for its poignant tribute to Walker. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an 83% approval rating with an average rating of 6.7/10 based on 183 reviews. The site's consensus reads, "Serving up a fresh round of over-the-top thrills while adding unexpected dramatic heft, Furious 7 keeps the franchise moving in more ways than one." On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating, the film has a score of 67 out of 100, based on 44 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". In CinemaScore polls conducted during the opening weekend, cinema audiences gave Furious 7 an average grade of A on an A+ to F scale.

The film received highly positive reviews upon release at a secret screening at the 2015 SXSW Film Festival on March 16, 2015. Ramin Setoodeh of Variety noted that fans started lining up outside four hours before the film was scheduled to start. The film closed with a touching tribute to Walker, which left many in the theater "holding back tears". Critic Dave Palmer gave the film 7/10, saying, "Furious 7 is the type of movie Michael Bay has spent his entire career trying to make: filled with shots of scantily clad women, fast cars, and clever one liners".

A.O. Scott of The New York Times gave the film two and a half stars out of five and said, "Furious 7 extends its predecessors’ inclusive, stereotype-resistant ethic. Compared to almost any other large-scale, big-studio enterprise, the Furious brand practices a slick, no-big-deal multiculturalism, and nods to both feminism and domestic traditionalism.

John DeFore of The Hollywood Reporter criticized the film however, describing it as "stupidly diverting", saying the running time was "overinflated"; he compared watching the film to a morbid game, in addition to criticizing the screenplay.

See also

• List of films featuring drones

External links

• Official website
• Furious 7 at IMDb
• Furious 7 at Rotten Tomatoes
• Furious 7 at AllMovie
• Furious 7 at Box Office Mojo
• Furious 7 at Metacritic