“Fast & Furious 7” is undoubtedly the most touching opus of the license, in particular because of the untimely death of Paul Walker. However, the feature film still has its dose of action sequences. Did you know, for example, that the scene where cars jump into the void of a cargo plane is performed without special effects?
Fast and Furious 7 : homage to Paul Walker
We are in 2015, Fast and Furious 7 comes out on the screens. A rather special episode since Paul Walker dies shortly before filming ends, forcing James Wan to adapt to complete the film. You probably know the story. Paul Walker dies in terrible car crash while filming Fast and Furious 7. James Wan then appealed to Caleb and Cody Walker to take their late brother’s place as Bryan O’Conner. Indeed, some scenes of the film were not yet fully finalized (including the famous scene from which the image below is taken).
Despite this perilous situation, James Wan did it royally. The filmmaker offered a touching tribute to the memory of Paul Walker, while allowing his character, Brian O’Conner, to remain in the license. He concludes his work with Paul Walker and Vin Diesel’s heartbreaking farewells on a crossroads. A touching goodbye, very heavy with meaning, which left a lasting mark on the minds of spectators. Finally, despite all these problems, Fast and Furious 7 received mostly positive feedback, and above all reported more than $ 1.5 billion in box office revenue. A record for the franchise.
A delusional sequence produced without special effects
Fast and Furious 7 does not rely solely on emotional springs. Obviously, like all episodes of the saga, this seventh chapter has some absolutely stunning action sequences. As usual, the Universal production has gone all out to offer viewers some wacky action scenes. You probably remember the scene where the Dom’s Family decides to jump from a plane at full altitude in their cars, equipped with a parachute? Well this hallucinating sequence was performed without special effects. Vehicles were actually launched from a cargo plane to 3600 meters of altitude for a descent at 220km / h. Shot in real conditions this scene required the requisition of a widebody, the Hercules C-130.
Cameramen specializing in free fall footage were employed to shoot these sublime images of Fast and Furious 7. The latter jumped from the Hercules C-130 with the sports cars to shoot as many images as possible. An extremely dangerous activity but also very exciting as they tell behind the scenes of the film. Cameras were also attached to the vehicles themselves, while that a team also shot some shots from a helicopter.
This cascade has been masterfully resolved. As explained in the video below, this experience is a first for the technical team. She had to compose according to the unpredictable movements of vehicles in the air. Obviously, this sequence was shot over a desert, so that there is no collateral damage when vehicles arrive on dry land. We leave you the making-of of this incredible scene, proposed by Universal:
