FURIOUS 7!!!
That's right! The latest installment in the Fast & Furious franchise, and the late Paul Walker's swan song! Here's the full plot:
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After defeating Owen Shaw and his crew and securing their amnesties in the previous film, Dominic Toretto, Brian O'Conner, and the rest of their team have returned to the United States to live normal lives again.
Brian begins to accustom himself to life as a father though not without some struggles, as he still is trying to get used to life without the action, fast cars, and bullet dodging, which Mia can clearly observe.
Dom, meanwhile, tries to help Letty regain her memories by taking her back to Race Wars and to her old grave. This, however, leaves her feeling lost about who she is, and she decides to leave to find herself again.
Meanwhile, Owen's older brother, Deckard Shaw, breaks into the secure hospital the comatose Owen is being held in and swears vengeance against Dom. He then breaks into Luke Hobbs' Diplomatic Security Service office to extract profiles of Dom's crew. After revealing his identity, Deckard engages Hobbs in a fight, and escapes when he detonates a bomb that severely injures Hobbs.
Dom later learns from his sister Mia that she is pregnant again and convinces her to tell Brian about it. However, a bomb, disguised in a package sent from Tokyo, explodes and destroys the Toretto house just seconds after Deckard kills Han, one of their crew, 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 which include a picture of Gisele Yashar (Han's girlfriend at the time of her death in the previous film) and Letty's cross necklace.
Back at Han's funeral in Los Angeles, the remaining crew agree that they can't take another death and vow to hunt Deckard down before he can take them out too. Dom then notices a car observing and chases after the vehicle, driven by Deckard. Both prepare to fight but Deckard slips away when a covert ops team arrives, led by Frank Petty, a man who refers to himself as "Mr Nobody".
Petty informs Dom that he will assist him in stopping Deckard if he helps him obtain the God's Eye, a computer program that uses digital devices to track specific people, and save its creator, a hacker named Ramsey, from a mercenary named Jakande. Dom, Brian, Letty, Roman Pearce and Tej Parker then airdrop their cars over the Caucasus Mountains, ambush Jakande's convoy and rescue Ramsey, who is revealed to be a woman. The team then heads to Abu Dhabi, where a billionaire has acquired the flash drive containing the God's Eye, and manages to steal it. On both occasions, the team is pursued by Shaw, who engages in combat with Dom, and the team barely manages to escape alive. With the God's Eye, the team manages to track down Shaw, who is waiting at a remote factory. Dom, Brian, Petty and his covert ops team attempt to capture Shaw, but are ambushed by Jakande and his militants, who have allied with Shaw, and they are forced to flee while Jakande obtains the God's Eye. At his own request, Petty is then left to be evacuated by helicopter, while the team escapes.
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. While preparing, Brian calls Mia, who finally reveals to him that she is pregnant with their second child, a girl. This seems to inspire him to return home alive, and then retire to raise his family.
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, and that she remembers their marriage ceremony, which happened unbeknownst to the rest of the crew. Dom regains consciousness soon after, remarking, "It's about time".
Shaw is taken into custody by Hobbs and locked away in a secret, high-security prison, vowing to eventually escape and resume his vengeance. 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 in a montage of the previous films' events, they drive together for a stretch before arriving at an intersection, where Brian exits the main road and drives off into the distance, as Dom gives his closing lines; "You'll always be with me. And you'll always be my brother."
A final title card says, "For Paul".
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The film keeps the theme of family from the previous films, and also incorporates the theme of saying goodbye, in regards to Paul Walker and his character of Brian O'Connor.
In the regards to family, Dom's team find themselves under siege by Deckard Shaw, who is out for revenge in regards to what they did to his family–specifically his little brother Owen from the last film. At Han's funeral, the team decides they can't do anymore funerals, which makes them all the more determined to get Deckard.
This seems to be a recurring theme that nearly every film features the death (or presumed death) of one of Dom's crew:
1. In the first film, Jesse, the youngest of Dom's original crew, was killed in a drive-by shooting by Johnny Tran.
2. In the fourth film, Letty was presumed killed by Arturo Braga while working with the FBI to clear Dom's record (though it was revealed she survived and was rescued by Owen Shaw)
3. In the fifth film, Vince, another member of Dom's original crew and his childhood friend, is fatally shot in an ambush by Hernan Reyes' men.
4. In the sixth film, Gisele was killed after falling out of a plane saving her boyfriend, Han from Owen Shaw's men.
5. In the seventh film, Han is killed via a car accident and grenade, both courtesy of Deckard Shaw.
So, in all, I am glad that following Paul Walker's tragic, unexpected (and utterly ironic) death on November 30, 2013, the filmmakers and studio decided to retire his character rather than kill him off, because that would have been "utterly tasteless" and demeaning to the legacy of both actor and character.
Which brings me to the second big theme: saying goodbye.
With Brian and Mia having become family folk, in the film Mia is doing well with domesticated life, while Brian is still trying to get used to it. Mia is also pregnant with kid number 2, a girl. She initially wants to tell him about it at the beginning, but after Deckard kills Han and destroys the Toretto family house, she holds off until near the end, knowing that Brian needed to help Dom hunt Deckard, but also gets him to promise it will be the last mission.
Dom, Letty, Roman, and Tej also realizes that the time has come for their friend to retire, which they all acknowledge while watching him at the beach with his family. And Dom and Brian have a great final exchange with each other before the latter literally drives off into the sunset and into retirement.
In regards to the acting, each actor gives an excellent performance that I know have captivated the audience to no end. Kurt Russell gives a witty performance as government agent Frank Petty, aka Mr. Nobody, who agrees help Dom's team. Jason Statham thrills as Owen Shaw's big, bad vengeful big brother, Deckard. And Djimon Hunsou kills as secondary villain, mercenary Mose Jakande.
But the ones who deserve the biggest applause are Paul Walker's little bros, Caleb and Cody, who stood in and helped to finish his remaining scenes after his death. This had gained them so much praise that Cody is fixing to start a Hollywood career. Maybe we might see him in Fast and Furious 8, maybe as a relative of Brian...who knows?
And finally, to point my personal favorite part, the scene where Brian is forced run and jump off a bus before it goes over a cliff. This was one of the scenes filmed by Walker before his death. I feel this was one of the biggest, tension-filled, scenes in the movie, and makes me wish the Oscars had a Best Stunts category.
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Anyhow, in all knowing this is the last time we'll ever see Paul/Brian in the franchise (or in any film for that matter) really breaks my heart, because they were one of my favorite actors and characters ever. But the length the cast and crew went to honor his legacy and have O'Connor go out with a non-fatal, and sentimental end, has helped the film gross over $1 billion worldwide in just three weeks, and hopefully garner some Oscar nominations.
In all I give this film a 10/10 and highly, to the best of my power, recommend that you...SEE IT, SEE IT, SEEEEEEEE IT!!
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In memory of Paul William Walker IV
September 12, 1973–November 30, 2013
