May 16, 2015

 

*Contains spoilers*

 

This seventh installment of the Fast & Furious franchise is great fun, action-packed and a great tribute film to Paul Walker. It picks up somewhere in the middle and end of Tokyo Drift, as well as the end of Fast & Furious 6. The chase, fight and stunts pulled off in this one are pretty impressive and the plot moves the storyline along pretty nicely, tying up loose ends and that question of whether or not Han is actually dead.

 

After defeating Owen Shaw, Dom Toretto (Vin Disel), Brian O’Connor (Walker) and the team are living as free citizens in the United States again. Brian is getting used to suburban life with his wife, Mia (Jordana Brewster), while Dom is trying to get Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) to regain her memories. Meanwhile, Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), a trained assassin, visits his comatose brother in the hospital and wants revenge on those responsible. He pays a visit to Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) to get information on Dom and his team and manages to put him in the hospital with a broken arm and leg. Shaw then heads to Tokyo, where he claims responsibility for Han’s death. When he calls Dom to warn him, a bomb he sent to the home blows up.

 

Dom visits Hobs in the hospital to gain information on what’s going on. Hobbs gives him his unofficial permission to go after Shaw and ‘make sure he doesn’t miss.’ After sending Mia, who is pregnant again, to a friend in the Dominican Republic to keep her safe, Dom heads to Tokyo to retrieve Han’s body and belongings. At Han’s funeral, the team gathers again and Dom goes after Shaw. However, Shaw gets away when a secret government team moves in. The group is led by Frank Petty (Kurt Russell). Petty explains that he was sent by Hobbs to recruit Dom and his team for another mission. This time, the crew has to track down a kidnapped hacker Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuael), who holds a program called God’s Eye, which is a human tracking program for anyone in the entire world based on technology. The group that kidnapped her obviously doesn’t want to use it for good. Petty promises Dom that if they can get their hands on Ramsey and God’s Eye, he can use the program to track Shaw and destroy him. Petty has even assembled his team, Brian, Roman (Tyrese Gibson), Taj (Ludacris) and Letty. They work with Petty’s group to get Ramsey back.

 

After a ridiculous sky-dive with cars, they do manage to get Ramsey. They then have to go find the program, which Ramsey sent to a friend in Abu Dhabi. There, they retrieve the program, which the friend sold to a prince. That prince, of course, installed it in a really expensive fancy car. Dom and Brian end up just stealing the car when time runs out to get the flash drive with the program. They then manage to fly from building to building to get away from the bad guys. Petty stays true to his word and allows Dom to use God’s Eye to track Shaw, who of course is expecting an ambush. He even managed to team up with the Ramsey kidnappers for support.

 

Dom and crew lose the program and Shaw. Back in Los Angeles, they come up with a plan to run the streets, trying to keep a safe distance from the bad guys so they can hack back into God’s Eye. It becomes a huge chase scene, complete with a drone with missiles blowing up various streets and buildings as they try to keep Ramsey safe. Dom goes off on his own to find Shaw, where they fight on a parking garage roof. And just when you think things are going to end badly for everyone, Hobbs breaks free of his cast, literally, and heads out to help.

 

Of course, they manage to take down the bad guys, and capture Shaw. Dom is injured, and when Letty tries to revive him, she reveals that she has remembered everything, especially when they got married in the Dominican years ago. The group reunites on a beach where Brian is embracing his family life and retiring from his life of racing and chasing bad guys. Meanwhile, Shaw promises that he’ll somehow find a way out of the secure prison Hobbs put him in.

 

When Tokyo Drift was released, I don’t really think the actors or producers excepted the franchise to keep going and blow up as much as it did, which is why Han was mysteriously back in the fourth, fifth and sixth films. I thought the storyline was pretty good. It was a nice way to tie everything up, but left it with an opening to keep going.

 

And I have to say I kind of missed Han, as well as Giselle. But, the group still held together well, with Gibson taking on a little bigger role and even joking in character how he should be an equal in the planning of the missions. He definitely provided that comedic relief. For a film about car racing and a group of criminals, it’s still one of the most fun series I really enjoy watching on the big screen.

 

The final scene is a tribute to Walker. He takes one final ride along with Dom as Disel narrates over a montage of the previous films. It’s a fitting end and I’d be happy if the franchise is over. But I know they are making another film. I guess they are just going to have to add more people to the team.

 

Try and see this in the theater if you can, while it’s still out.

 

Oh and if you need a cheat of how to watch the films, if you've never seen them before, here's a brief rundown:

 

The Fast and The Furious
2 Fast, 2 Furious

Fast & Furious (fourth film)

Fast Five

Fast & Furious 6 (but don't watch the scene in the credits)
The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift (third film - but stop it after Han dies)

Furious Seven (but stop it after Dom says, 'I'm bringing Han home')
Finish Tokyo Drift
Finish Furious Seven