As reported in Variety , Furious 7 , the latest in the Fast and Furious franchise, debuted to a massive $143.6 million in domestic sales while generating over $100 million in foreign sales. It became one of the top 10 highest grossing openings in the United States and cost over $190 million to make. As the final movie in the series starring the late actor Paul Walker, who was killed in car crash halfway through filming in 2013, it is the highest-grossing debut of all the Fast and Furious movies.
Jason Statham stars as the latest Fast and Furious villain. In the previous installment, the crew defeated Owen Shaw and then secured their amnesty. Statham, as Deckard Shaw, vows revenge against the Furious 7 crew for the death of his younger brother. Kurt Russell also makes an appearance as a mysterious government agent named Mr. Nobody. As reported in the International Business Times , Russell may be used to fill the void in future films that was left by Paul Walker.
“I got an idea, a sense of what Vin maybe wants to do in the future that this character could be a good part of. We created somebody that I think is, you know, he’s a mystery man, he’s ‘Mr. Nobody’ we never know his name and you never know quite what world he’s in and I think that’s what’s fun and exciting about it,’ Russell said to Kimmel, sporting an outrageous mustache for his new movie. ‘If they do more and if it goes on, we’ll try to do something to top this, which I’ll tell you is going to be pretty hard to do.’”
Furious 7 promises a lot of fast cars for those who love cars. Reportedly 230 were used to make the film, and they did everything from racing off ramps to parachuting out of airplanes. Many of the cars were driven into each other head on.
The cars are modified by Dennis McCarthy. McCarthy gives each of the cars 500 horsepower and a three-speed gear shift. Cars included the Lykan Hypersport, a Middle Eastern supercar made in Beirut. It runs at 240 mph, goes from 0 to 60 in three seconds, and costs £2.3 million. There are only seven models of this car in the world.
Dominic’s 1970 black charger is also back in Furious 7 . It was used in one of the scenes where it is was dropped from a C-130 Hercules plane into the Arizona desert.
Vin Diesel said the movie deserves to win the Oscar. Deadline reporter Peter Hammond said that although the movie probably wouldn’t get the Oscar, it was time to add a new category to the Oscar for stunt coordination because of the stunts performed in Furious 7 . Even though Paul Walker died half way through filming, only 10 percent of the stunts performed in the movie were done using computer generation.
Sadly, Furious 7 also said goodbye to Paul Walker . In a touching tribute that went viral on YouTube, it included a race between Dominic and Brian with a montage of Walker’s appearances in previous Fast and Furious movies. The film also stars Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Ludacris, and Dwayne Johnson.
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