Fast & Furious saying goodbye to Paul Walker

Fast & Furious is one of the most dominating franchises in the movie world in the last 20 years. With the first movie coming out in 2001 and just recently the 7^th movie in 2015, people have fell in love with the series. Fast & furious 7 was one of the best films in the franchise history but is one of the sadder films as well. The Fast & Furious franchise has no intention of stopping as Fast 8 is in production despite losing one of the most iconic figures of the series, Paul Walker. He will be missed as the film has expressed great condolences towards his loss in references to both the actor and the character that he plays.

The movie overall was an exceptionally entertaining movie. From the start of the movie it was dense with action scenes that showcased the special effects of hand –to- hand combat moves. These special effects had an interesting technique that was used as the Fast & Furious movies are known for utilizing fast muscle type cars instead of having a focus on hand to hand combat. The technique used added a different impression that allowed the movie to focus on the drivers in the cars rather then on the cars. Secondly, the movie’s story was interesting as it is the link between Fast & Furious 6 and Tokyo Drift. In completing the link as a viewer and a fan of the franchise we are exposed to who has killed Hans, which has been a question since Tokyo Drift was released. Seeing who killed him, along with the reaction of Dom and his family and what you do for family, is an interesting story to tell as people can relate to that idea. Furthermore, with this story the message that is conveyed throughout the entire movie is the idea of how far people are willing to go for justice for a family member.

The ending scenes of the movie are very powerful and well done on many levels. The ending scenes showed Paul Walkers’s character, Brian, playing with his son while Dom was leaving. The rest of the Fast & Furious crew then began to talk about how things were going to be different as Brian is home playing with his son. They were implying two things, one in real life the other in the story. The story was implying that Brian had one last mission to do and is now a family man and is effectively written out of the story. The second implication was that when Tyrese Gibson, who is a close friend of Paul Walker, said things are going to be different he was implying that the franchise will not be the same without Paul Walker in the next movies.

The other scene saw Dom sneaking away in his car and stopping at an intersection. As he stopped another car pulled up next to him and in that car was Brian. Brian said to Dom “thought you could leave without saying goodbye to me?” They then both drive off simultaneously, similar to the ending in Fast Five, until there is a fork in the road where they split on to separate paths. This is symbolic, as the cast did not get the opportunity to say good-bye to their fallen co-star so in this scene they are saying good-bye to the character of Brian. Secondly, the fork in the road was extremely symbolic of the two paths they are taking in the story itself, but also in life as Vin Diesel is still live and Paul Walkers has perished. The two paths show that they are in different places now. Finally, in the ending scene Vin Diesel states that this is not goodbye but rather, till I see you again, meaning that Vin Diesel will see Paul Walker again. The movie then played a series of clips that showed what Paul Walker had added to the films franchise, which further showed how he will be missed.

The movie was a great movie that told a story about how far people are willing to go for family. In this case, it was about getting justice for a family member who was murder. Furthermore, in getting justice it was about protecting the current family that is with you if it means letting them not being able to be part of your crew anymore. They have their own family to build and protect despite the pain that it caused to let them go. Fast & Furious 7 captured this through so many outlets that it transcended the fast pace muscle car mentality and has become a different type of movie with hints of the fast paced lifestyle that began the franchise.

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