Every Fast and the Furious movie has included at least one (sometimes multiple) incredible action sequence involving actual vehicles and practical effects; recent examples include the Rio de Janeiro vault heist and the plane runway chase during the climaxes of Fast Five and Furious 6, respectively. The upcoming Furious 7, however, looks to include perhaps its craziest scene earlier in the film: a scene where cars are dropped from a flying cargo plane.
The “plane drop” sequence in Furious 7 – where Dom (Vin Diesel) and his crew/family all go sky-diving in their vehicles of preference – has been featured heavily throughout the film’s marketing campaign to date. Today, we can offer a behind the scenes look at what was required to pull that stunt off – a task that made use of a real plane, real cars, and a team of sky-diving stuntmen putting their lives on the line, among other things.
James Wan (Insidious, The Conjuring) took over as director on the Fast and the Furious franchise with Furious 7, following Justin Lin having served as helmsman on the previous four installments. So far, though, Wan appears to have done his job well (with a lot of assistance, naturally): delivering off-the-wall stunts and set pieces that (somehow) manage to eclipse the insane action scenes that this series has featured in the past. And that’s all while he and his talented crew dealt with the unanticipated challenges presented by the tragic death of star Paul Walker mid-production.
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Furious 7 was scripted by the franchise’s trusted scribe Chris Morgan. The plot (outlined in the TV trailer above) not only builds on the events in Furious 6 – wherein Dom and his team took down terrorist-for-profit Owen Shaw (Luke Evans) – but also brings the series back full-circle to Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. That is, as revealed during Furious 6‘s mid-credits scene, Han’s (Sun Kang) death was caused by none other than Shaw’s vengeance-seeking, ex-special forces operative brother (Jason Statham).
It’s not just action sequences involving extremely-fast vehicles; Furious 7 promises to also deliver the franchise’s best one-on-one showdowns to date. That includes, a brutal fist-fight between Statham and Dwayne Johnson as Agent Hobbs; a fierce brawl between Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) and a mysterious character named Kara, played by real-life MMA expert Ronda Rousey; and, something only glimpsed in the film’s trailers so far: a fight to the death between Statham and Diesel’s characters.
Suffice is to say, the Fast and the Furious franchise is never going to be everyone’s cup of tea. However, for its many fans out there (us included), it doesn’t get much better than all that.
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Furious 7 opens in U.S. theaters on April 3rd, 2015.
