By: Kyle Davidson
Furious 7, the 7th film in the The Fast and
the Furious series, comes out April 3rd. Since I haven’t heard of many of
the films coming out this month, I will regale you, the reader, with an
overview of the entire series. Enjoy!
The core characters
are Dom (Vin Diesel), Brian (Paul Walker), Mia (Jordana Brewster) and Letty
(Michelle Rodreguez). Side characters are Roman (Tyrese Gibson), Tej
(Ludacris), Han (Sung Kang), Sean (Lucas Black) and Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson).
The Fast and the
Furious series started out with a simple Point Break premise. F.B.I. agent
Brian O’Conner infiltrates a group of street racers in L.A., led by Dom Toretto and gets in too deep. His
assignment is to uncover which group of racers is responsible for a string of dangerous
highway robberies that only maniacal drivers could pull off. While undercover
Brian falls for Mia, Dom’s sister, and befriends Domwho comes off as a family
man. He may have a criminal record, but he comes off as a family man who takes
care of his friends. When Brian realizes that it is Dom, his girlfriend Letty
and their friends who are pulling these robberies, Brian can’t make the arrest
and he lets Dom go. I love this movie but it is quite tame for how crazy the
series gets.
The stunts also
start our pretty simple. The biggest moments in the film feature a car driving
under a semi-truck during a robbery and in the end, Brian and Dom nearly get
hit by a train while racing.
The series showed
early signs of spiraling out of control with 2 Fast 2 Furious and its
Miami Vice plot. Brian, hiding from the law, has found a home in Miami and is
winning races set by Tej. Brian gets caught and is forced to go undercover as a
courier to catch a Miami money launderer. He gets an old friend and current
parolee, Roman, involved and the two wreck Miami with their car mayhem trying
to nab the criminal. They are successful in doing so and the two walk away free
men. I cannot stress enough that this movie is a ridiculous mess, but it made money
so the series continued.
The big stunts in
this film feature cars jumping an open draw bridge and a scene in the end where
Brian and Roman jump a car onto a boat.
The series takes a
different turn and introduces a new cast with the fish out of water story of Tokyo
Drift. Sean is a young American racer who gets into so much trouble he is
sent to Tokyo to live with his Army dad stationed there. There he befriends Han
and discovers the world of drift racing, which is where cars pull turns at
crazy angles with some fancy driving. Soon he gets himself in trouble with the
Yakuza and Han gets killed by a random driver while running. To get himself out
of trouble, he supes up his dad’s old car and suggests to the Yakuza they
settle things with a race. He wins the race and during the happy ending Sean
meets Dom who tells him that Han was like family. This film was a theatrical
bomb, but most Fast fans really appreciate it since it has a similar vibe to
the first one.
The stunt scenes
here show cars crashing through an under construction housing development and,
in the end, cars are drifting down a mountain narrowly missing people and other
cars.
Now
stay with me here because things might get confusing. The fourth film is called
Fast and Furious and it is a redemption story that, along with 5 and 6,
takes place before the events of Tokyo Drift. Dom, Han and Letty are
pulling good will crimes in South America to give oil to the poor - don’t think
too hard about it. After this job, Dom leaves to hide out for a while on his
own because he is the one the cops really want. Brian is now back in the F.B.I.
and Letty goes to him to clear Dom’s name. She goes undercover as a driver for
a drug runner and gets killed in the process. Her death brings Dom back to L.A.
and he and Bryan reluctantly team up to take down the dealer while Bryan
rekindles his relationship with Mia. After the successful bust, Dom gets
arrested and sent to prison - that whole name clearing thing did not work out.
Bryan, throwing away his badge once again, and Mia break Dom free. This film
has a darker tone and lacks the fun of the previous ones, but it does bring the
gang back together.
The
big stunt has an oil tanker, exploding and barreling towards our anti-heroes
and there is a cool chase in underground tunnels between Mexico and U.S.
Fast
5 wonderfully
utilizes a formula similar to Oceans 11. While hiding from the authorities in
Brazil, Bryan, Dom and Mia are pulling jobs just to get by. One job gets out of
control and they get set up after a crime lord’s thugs kill D.E.A. agents. This
not only gets the crime lords thugs
after
them, but also Agent Hobbs, who has worldwide jurisdiction and a crew of Call
of Duty inspired soldiers. With everyone chasing them, they rope together their
crew from previous films, including Roman, Han and Tej, and pull off a crazy
heist with the help of Hobbs, who joins them after the crime lord kills his whole
team. The team splits up the money and goes on to live the high life, Hobbs
goes back to his government job and is informed that Letty is still alive!
This movie is awesome, once it starts it never slows down. There are so many
call backs to previous films, but anyone can sit down and enjoy it.
The
stunts are bigger than ever. There is a car flying off a cliff after a high
speed train robbery, with the lead characters still in it and the end features
a massive safe attached to the back of a car that destroys many buildings in
Brazil while evading dozens of cop cars.
We
find ourselves in James Bond territory with Fast and Furious 6. Everyone
who benefitted from the heist is living the good life, but they are still
criminals and can’t go home. One day Hobbs comes knocking and informs Dom,
Brian and Mia that Letty is still alive and has been running jobs with a group
of mercenaries. Her most recent job has her and crew stealing something Hobbs
needs and he offers to clear everyone’s name if they help. The crew comes back
together and they go beyond the levels of plausibility trying to catch the
villain Letty is working with. In the end they finally catch him, Dom saves
Letty from him and everyone is happy and free and back in L.A. Han decides it’s
time for him to go to Tokyo. Then we cut to Han in Tokyo, it’s the moment right
before he dies. We learn that it wasn’t a random driver that took him out after
all. It was Jason Statham, portraying the brother of the mercenary Letty was
working with! I love this movie, when I saw it in theaters the whole place
began cheering and clapping at the reveal in the finale. It’s just that good.
The
stunts are crazy! There’s a car chase with a tank and in the end we have cars
attempting to stop a plane from taking off on the longest runway
imaginable.
And the
seventh one? Well I know a little about the plot, but very little about the car
action because I have avoided watching the trailers. These films tend to
overload the trailers with spoilers of the ending scene and I don’t want to
ruin it for myself. What I do know is that the brother of the man they took out
in the 6th one is out for revenge and intends to take down Dom and family. We
are miles away from a bunch of young kids ripping off delivery trucks and I
could not be happier. I already have my tickets.
