Fast and Furious 7
Plot
After defeating Owen Shaw and his crew and securing amnesty for their past crimes, Dominic "Dom" 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, while Dom tries to help Letty Ortiz regain her memories. Meanwhile, Owen's older brother, Deckard Shaw, breaks into the secure hospital the comatose Owen is being held in and swears vengeance against Dom, before breaking into Luke Hobbs' DSS office to extract profiles of Dom's crew. After revealing his identity, Shaw 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. However, a bomb, disguised in a package sent from Tokyo, explodes and destroys the Toretto house just seconds after Han, a member of their team, is killed by Shaw in Tokyo. Dom later visits Hobbs in a 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 and races Sean Boswell, a friend of Han's, who gives him personal items found at Han's crash site.
Back at Han's funeral in Los Angeles, Dom notices a car observing and chases after the vehicle, driven by Shaw. Both prepare to fight, but Shaw slips away when a covert ops team arrives, led by Frank Petty. Petty says that he will assist Dom in stopping Shaw if he helps him obtain the God's Eye, a computer program that uses digital devices to track down a person, 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 in Azerbaijan, ambush Jakande's convoy, and rescue Ramsey. 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. With the God's Eye, the team manages to track down Shaw, who is waiting at a remote factory. Dom, Brian, Petty and his team attempt to capture Shaw, but are ambushed by Jakande and his militants, 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. Left with no other choice, the team decides to return to Los Angeles to fight Shaw, Jakande and his men on their home turf. Meanwhile, Brian promises Mia that once they deal with Shaw, he'll dedicate himself to their family full-time.
While Jakande pursues Brian and the rest of the team with a stealth helicopter and a drone, Ramsey attempts to hack into the God's Eye while sharing her mobile between their vehicles. Hobbs, seeing the team in trouble, breaks out of hospital and destroys the drone. Ramsey then regains control of the 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 defeated when part of the parking garage collapses beneath him. Dom then launches his vehicle at Jakande's helicopter, tossing a bag of grenades onto its skids, before injuring himself 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 wedding. Dom regains consciousness soon after, remarking, "It's about time".
Later, Shaw is taken into custody by Hobbs and locked away in a secret, high-security prison. Meanwhile, at a beach, Brian and Mia play with their son while Dom, Letty, Roman, Tej and Ramsey observe, acknowledging that Brian is better off retired with his family. Dom silently leaves, but Brian catches up with him at a crossroad. As Dom remembers the times that he had had with Brian, they bid each other farewell and drive off in separate directions.
Cast
For more details on the characters, see List of The Fast and the Furious characters.
Vin Diesel as Dominic Toretto, a former criminal and professional street racer who has retired and settled down with his wife, Letty.
Paul Walker as Brian O'Conner, a former FBI agent-turned-criminal and professional street racer who has retired and settled down with his partner, Mia, and their son, Jack.
Caleb and Cody Walker, Paul's younger brothers, were used among others as stand-ins to complete his remaining scenes following their brother's death in a single-vehicle accident on November 30, 2013.[10]
Dwayne Johnson as Luke Hobbs, a DSS agent who allied with Dom and his team after their outings in Rio de Janeiro and Europe. It is later revealed that he is also a father, to a young girl. Johnson initially said that if Universal Pictures pursued the accelerated development of a seventh film beginning in the summer, he would be unable to participate due to scheduling conflicts with filming on Hercules.[11] However, as production for the film would commence in September, he confirmed his return for the film, as Hercules would complete production in time to enable him to film a significant part.[12]
Michelle Rodriguez as Letty Ortiz, Dom's wife and a professional street racer, who was revealed to have suffered from amnesia after being presumed dead in Fast & Furious.
Tyrese Gibson as Roman Pearce, a member of Dom's team and a childhood friend of Brian.
Chris Bridges as Tej Parker, a mechanic and technician, and a friend of Brian and Roman's from Miami.
Jordana Brewster as Mia Toretto, Dom's younger sister and a former member of his team who has settled down with her partner, Brian, and their son, Jack.
Djimon Hounsou as Mose Jakande, a Somalian mercenary and terrorist who leads an a private military company that allies with Shaw and uses the God's Eye to track its creator and use her to track down his enemies.[13]
Kurt Russell as Frank Petty[14] (also known as "Mr Nobody"), the leader of a covert ops team who agrees to help Dom stop Shaw if he can help him prevent Jakande from obtaining a computer program called the God's Eye.
Jason Statham as Deckard Shaw, a rogue special forces assassin seeking to avenge his comatose younger brother after his demise at the hands of Dom and his team in Spain.
Nathalie Emmanuel as Ramsey, a British computer hacktivist and the creator of the God's Eye, who allies with Dom and his team after being saved from Jakande and helps them to regain control of her program.[13]
Tony Jaa as Kiet, a member of Jakande's team who possesses great agility, athleticism and fighting prowess. Thai martial arts actor Jaa was confirmed to have joined the cast in August 2013, making his Hollywood debut.[15][16]
Ronda Rousey as Kara, the Head of Security for an Abu Dhabi billionaire. Rousey's involvement was confirmed in August 2013. Having committed to The Expendables 3 at the same time (along with Russell, who later pulled out, and Statham), Rousey was forced to shoot both films back-to-back in order to allow herself 45 days to focus on training for her UFC championship rematch against Miesha Tate. Her participation in the film was similar to that of Gina Carano making the transition from mixed martial arts fighting to acting, following Carano's involvement in Fast & Furious 6.[17]
Lucas Black as Sean Boswell, a professional street racer and drifter based in Tokyo, who meets Dom when he travels to Tokyo to claim the body of Han, a mutual friend of theirs killed by Shaw. In September, it was confirmed that Black had signed on to reprise his role as Boswell for Furious 7 and two more installments.[18][19]
Elsa Pataky as Elena Neves, a DSS agent and former Rio police officer who moved to the United States to become Hobbs' new partner at the DSS.
Ali Fazal as Safar, a friend of Ramsey to whom she sent the God's Eye for safekeeping. It is Fazal's first appearance in an American film. He described his role as a cameo.[20]
John Brotherton as Sheppard, Petty's right-hand man.[13][21][22][23]
Noel Gugliemi reprises his role from the first film as Hector, a street race organizer. Luke Evans briefly reprises his role from the previous film as Owen Shaw, the comatose younger brother of the film's primary antagonist.[24] Sung Kang, Bow Wow and Nathalie Kelley appear in archive footage from The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift as Han, Twinkie and Neela, respectively. Gal Gadot appears as Gisele Yashar in a photograph and in archive footage from the previous three films. Tego Calderón and Don Omar appear as Leo and Santos, respectively, in archive footage from Fast Five. Australian rapper Iggy Azalea makes a cameo appearance in the film and contributed to the soundtrack.[25][26]
Production
Development
On October 21, 2011, the Los Angeles Times reported that Universal Studios was considering filming two sequels—Fast Six and Fast Seven—back-to-back with a single storyline running through both films. Both would be written by Chris Morgan and directed by Justin Lin, who had been the franchise's writer and director, respectively, since The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006).[27] On December 20, 2011, following the release of Fast Five, Vin Diesel stated that Fast Six would be split into two parts, with writing for the two films occurring simultaneously. On the decision, Diesel said:[28]
We have to pay off this story, we have to service all of these character relationships, and when we started mapping all that out it just went beyond 110 pages ... The studio said, 'You can't fit all that story in one damn movie!'[28]
However, in an interview on February 15, 2012, Dwayne Johnson stated that the two intended sequels would no longer be filmed simultaneously because of weather issues in filming locations, and that production on Fast Seven would only begin after the completion of Fast Six.[29]
In April 2013, during post-production of the retitled Fast & Furious 6, Lin announced that he would not return to direct a seventh film, as the studio wanted to produce the film on an accelerated schedule for release in summer 2014. This would have required Lin to begin pre-production on the sequel while performing post-production on Fast & Furious 6, which he considered would affect the quality of the final product. Despite the usual two-year gap between the previous installments, Universal chose to pursue a sequel quicker due to having fewer reliable franchises than its competitor studios.[30] However, subsequent interviews with Lin have suggested that the sixth film was always intended to be the final installment directed by him.[31]
In April 2013, Australian director James Wan, predominantly known for horror films, was announced as the sequel's director, with Neal H. Moritz and Michael Fottrell returning to produce and Morgan returning to write the script, his fifth in the franchise. On April 16, 2013, Diesel announced that the sequel would be released on July 11, 2014.[32] In May 2013, Diesel said that the sequel would feature Los Angeles, Tokyo and the Middle East as locations.[33][34]
Filming
Principal photography began in early September 2013 in Atlanta, Georgia, with a casting call issued.[35][36] Abu Dhabi was also a filming location;[37] the production crew chose it over Dubai, as they would benefit from the Emirate's 30% rebate scheme.[38] Pikes Peak Highway in Colorado was closed in September to film some driving sequences.[39]
On September 16, the production filmed with Paul Walker and the Kimsey twins, playing his son, Jack,[40] in front of an Atlanta elementary school.[41] Han's funeral scene was filmed at Oakland Cemetery,[42] with extras needed for the scene being "hot, hip and trendy cool types of all ethnicities between the ages of 18 and 45".[43] On the evening of September 19, Lucas Black joined the production[44] for his sole scene with Diesel, in an Atlanta parking garage. Separate scenes with Walker also shot in the same location on the same night,[45] including one half of a phone conversation between his character and Jordana Brewster's. The day after, Diesel posted a picture from the night shoot with Black on his Facebook page.[46]
On October 24, over a month into the film's production, Johnson tweeted he had started shooting for the film after wrapping up on Hercules.[47] Five days later, Diesel posted the first photo of Johnson on the set, in the hospital scene.[48]
On November 30, 2013, while on a break for the Thanksgiving holiday, Walker, who portrayed Brian O'Conner, died in a single-vehicle accident.[49][50] The next day, Universal announced that production would continue after a delay that would allow the filmmakers to rework the film.[51] On December 4, 2013, Universal put production on hold indefinitely.[52] Wan later confirmed that the film had not been cancelled.[53][54][55] On December 22, 2013, Diesel announced on his Facebook page that the film would be released on April 10, 2015.[56] On February 27, 2014, The Hollywood Reporter reported that filming would resume on April 1, and that the cast and crew had headed to Atlanta to prepare for about eight more weeks of shooting.[57] Principal photography ended on July 10, 2014.[7]
Stunts
A 58-year-old Lockheed C-130 Hercules[58] was used in the film to carry the vehicles that would drop from 12,000 feet high, above the Sonoran Desert, making cars plummet at a speed of about 130 to 140 miles per hour.
The "air drop" sequence was conceived by stunt coordinator, Spiro Razatos, who also supervised on the franchise's two previous installments; Fast Five and Fast & Furious 6.[61][62] Razatos told Business Insider that he wanted to rely more on real stunts rather than CGI because he wanted the whole sequence to "feel real" and fulfill audience's expectations.[61] The stunt took months of prep-solving problems. Cameras needed to be mounted onto cars in a way that they would not be destroyed when the cars landed, and the crew had to figure out a safe way to get the cars out of the plane. They performed a dry run with a single car falling out of a plane[61] and did this six times.[62] Cars were dropped from a Lockheed C-130 Hercules high above the Arizona desert, but close up shots that show the cars landing on a mountain road were filmed in Colorado.[62] There were two airplanes, flying at a height of 12,000 feet, each dropping two cars apiece.[61] BRS parachutes enabled with GPS were secured to each of the cars before dropping off the C-130 plane. At about 5,000 feet, the parachutes deployed.[62] Over 10 cameras were used for the sequence. In addition to cameras on the ground, there were cameras remotely operated inside the plane and another three mounted outside each car. Additional cameras were on a helicopter, where Razatos was stationed watching monitors. Three skydivers used in the shoot wore helmet cameras to help shoot the sequence from multiple angles. Sky divers would either jump out before cars or after them.[61] While all the cars landed on their drop zones, 70% landed perfectly and 30% didn't.[62] For the close-up scenes which shows the actors inside their cars, a giant gimbal with a 360-degree range of movement were attached to each of the cars and was filmed against a green screen to reproduce their tumble through the sky.[63] The last part of the scene, which shows the cars hitting the road was shot separately. To get that right, the team set up a pully system that had cars six to ten feet above the ground. When they were dropped from the cranes, the stuntmen who were sitting in the driver's seats raced their engines at about 35 to 40 miles per hour and slid to the ground at full speed. Those cranes were then later removed from the film with computers.[62][63] Razatos admits that the air drop sequence was "all real" and that it would be "hard to top".[61][62]
The scene featuring Brian jumping off a bus off a cliff was performed by a stuntman and was all done without any computer graphics.[64] The shooting for this particular sequence along with the scene in which Dom and his team are pursuing to rescue Ramsey almost didn't happen due to the absence of tax break in Colorado.[64] The studio originally wanted to shoot the sequence in Georgia which provides tax breaks for film productions, and then they'd add woods in the background later in post production to which Razatos denied saying, "the audience is going to know [it's CGI] and aren't going to feel good about it."[64] Shooting finally took place in Colorado.[64]
A total of 340 cars were used in the film,[63] and more than 230 cars were destroyed in the making of the film including several black Mercedes-Benz, a Ford Crown Victoria and a Mitsubishi Montero.[65] The mountain-highway chase scene on Colorado's Monarch Pass proved to be the most damaging sequence with over 40 vehicles being destroyed.[65][66] Only 10 percent of the action sequences in the film were computer-generated, and even then, much of the CGI was employed simply to erase the wires and other contraptions that were used to film real cars and drivers or to add a background.[63] It took more than 3,500 man-days to complete the various stunts of the film.[63] For safety reasons, stunt coordinator, Joel Kramer said that he doesn't let his drivers go above 50 miles per hour.[67]
Redevelopment of Walker's character
"When I first heard the news, I was shell-shocked like everyone, and it took me days to come to terms with it. And then after that, heartbreaks started sinking in and we realised that Paul [Walker] wasn’t going to be around with us anymore moving forward, and it was a really hard one. And finishing the movie was the last thing on my mind at that point. It was more the idea of... picking up the pieces, going back on set, rallying the team, the cast, and the crew, and as the director, having to put on the brave face and champion and push everyone along. The idea of that was very daunting for me, but it became very apparent to all of us that we needed to finish this movie to honour Paul’s legacy and to basically honour his memories... it was about making this movie for Paul."
—James Wan, director of Furious 7
In January 2014, Time reported that Walker's character, Brian O'Conner, would be retired instead of killed, and that new scenes would be developed in order to allow the franchise to continue without him.[69] In March 2014, the Daily News reported that the studio had hired four actors with bodies similar to Walker's physique, and that his face and voice would be computer-generated,[70] and in April 2014, Walker's brothers Caleb and Cody, both of whom closely resemble him, were chosen as stand-ins.[71] For scenes which required re-creating Walker's face and body, the team hired Peter Jackson's Weta Digital (which produced the imagery of Gollum in The Lord of the Rings franchise and Caesar in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes). The final film includes a combination of CGI and the use of carefully chosen camera angles and lighting using Walker's brothers to simulate his appearance.[72] Robin Shenfield, CEO of London's special effects studio, The Mill, noted that the redevelopment was similar to that of Oliver Reed's when his character had to be redeveloped the same way as a result of his death during filming of Gladiator.[73]
Music
Main articles: Furious 7 (soundtrack) and Furious 7 (score)
The musical score was composed by Brian Tyler, who scored the third, fourth, and fifth installments of the series.[74] "There's an emotional component to Fast & Furious 7 that is unique", said Tyler about his experience scoring. "I think people are really going to be amazed by it."[75] A soundtrack album to the film was released by Atlantic Records on March 17, 2015.[76]
Songs featured in the film include:
"Go Hard or Go Home" (Wiz Khalifa & Iggy Azalea)[77]
"Ride Out" (Kid Ink, Tyga, Wale, YG & Rich Homie Quan)[78]
"See You Again" (Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth)
"My Angel" (Prince Royce)
"Hamdulillah" (The Narcicyst feat. Shadia Mansour)
"Get Low" (Dillon Francis and DJ Snake)
"Ay Vamos" (J Balvin feat. Nicky Jam and French Montana)
Release
The film, which began principal photography in September 2013, was originally designed as a Summer 2014 release. It was put on hold following the fatal car crash that claimed Paul Walker's life on November 30, 2013. The production resumed in April 2014. In October 2014, Universal revealed that the film was officially titled Furious 7,[79] and that the debut trailer would be released during an interactive fan event over social media. In the days leading up to the event, seven-second, behind-the-scenes videos were released, titled "7 Seconds of 7".[79] On February 1, 2015, a new trailer featuring all-new footage debuted during Super Bowl XLIX.
The film was originally scheduled for release on April 10, 2015, but it was announced that the film's release date had been brought forward a week to April 3, 2015. The official announcement in change of date was made in July 2014.[80] Fast and Furious 7 premiered at the SXSW Film Festival at 12:07 a.m. at Austin's Paramount Theatre on March 16, 2015.[81] On March 27, 2015, a free standalone expansion for the video game Forza Horizon 2, titled Forza Horizon 2 Presents Fast & Furious, was released to help promote the film.[82] For its global premiere at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles on April 1, 2015, IMAX Corporation installed a new laser projection which was the first such installation in the U.S. and the second worldwide, following The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies, which opened at Scotiabank Theatre in Toronto in December 2014.[83]
Piracy
According to piracy tracking site Excipio, the film was downloaded illegally 2.59 million times in four days (April 2–6) through various torrent sites with India being the top country for piracy of the film with 578,000 downloads followed by Pakistan (321,000), China (289,000), the U.S. (251,000) and the UK (101,000).[84] A survey revealed that most Indians tended to resort to piracy due to lack of availability, pricing concerns, soaring internet costs and censorship.[85]
Home media
Furious 7 was released on 7th September 2015 in the UK and was released via DVD and Blu-ray on September 15, 2015 in other countries. The Blu-ray edition features an all new extended edition, deleted scenes, stunts, behind-the-scenes, and the music video for Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth's "See You Again". The Blu-ray and DVD version include behind-the-scene footage of the "Race Wars" scene including singer Iggy Azalea and making of the cars featured in the film.[86] In the U.S. and Canada, it sold roughly 2.5 million units on Blu-ray and DVD in its first week of release, making it the highest-selling home entertainment live-action film of 2015.[87]
Reception
Box office
As of July 14, 2015, Furious 7 has grossed $351 million in North America and $1.16 billion in other territories for a worldwide total of $1.511 billion, against its $190 million budget.[6] Worldwide, it is the fifth highest-grossing film of all time,[88] the second highest-grossing film of 2015 (behind Universal's own Jurassic World),[89] the highest-grossing film in The Fast and the Furious franchise and is the second highest-grossing Universal Pictures film.[90] It was also the fastest film to reach the $1 billion mark, doing so in 17 days (breaking the record previously set by The Avengers, Avatar and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, all 19 days);[91][92] however that record was broken two months later by Jurassic World, which accomplished the feat in 13 days.[93] It is also the 20th film to gross over $1 billion. It also became the first (and only) film to pass 1 million in 4DX admissions worldwide.
Worldwide, Furious 7 was released across 810 IMAX theaters, which is the largest worldwide rollout for any movie in IMAX's history.[95] Its worldwide opening of $397.6 million is the third-highest opening of all time.[96] The film had an IMAX opening weekend total of $20.8 million.[97] Furious 7 also became the first film distributed by Universal Pictures to earn more than $1 billion in its original run and the second overall (following Jurassic Park).
United States and Canada
In these countries, Furious 7 is the 30th highest-grossing film,[98] the third highest-grossing 2015 film,[99] and the fifth highest-grossing film distributed by Universal.[100] Predictions for the opening weekend of Furious 7 in the United States and Canada were continuously revised upwards, starting from $115 million to $150 million.[101][102] It opened on Friday, April 3, 2015, across 4,004 theaters, including 365 IMAX theaters, which made it Universal's widest opening release ever.[103][104][105] and earned $67.3 million, marking the tenth-biggest opening day.[106][107] The film's Friday gross included a $15.8 million late-night run (which began at 7 p.m.), from 3,069 theaters, marking Universal's highest late-night run (overtaken by Jurassic World), of which $2.2 million came from IMAX showings, marking the third largest IMAX preview gross ever, (behind Iron Man 3 and The Dark Knight Rises).[108][109] Based on pure Friday gross (with the omission of revenues from Thursday shows), it earned $51.5 million, marking the fifth-biggest of all time.[110][111] Through Sunday, April 5, it had an opening weekend total of $147.1 million, breaking the record for the biggest April opening,[112] the biggest opening in the Fast & Furious franchise, the biggest Easter opening,[113] the third-biggest opening of 2015 (behind Jurassic World and Avengers: Age of Ultron), the second biggest pre-summer opening ever, behind The Hunger Games ($152 million),[114] and the eleventh-biggest opening of all time.[115] It earned an IMAX opening weekend total of $13.3 million, marking the second-biggest of all time for a 2D movie (behind The Dark Knight Rises).[116][117] Premium large format comprised 8% ($11.5 million) of the total opening gross from 400 PLF screens, which is the biggest 2D PLF opening (previously held by The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1).[118] It is Universal's fastest film to reach the $200 million mark, doing so in eight days (overtaken by Jurassic World with 3 days).[119][120]
In its second weekend, the film expanded to 4,022 theaters, thereby breaking its own record of being the widest Universal Pictures release ever (overtaken by Jurassic World), and earned an estimated $59.6 million, declining by 60%, which is the third best second weekend holdover for a pre-summer film release, behind American Sniper ($64.6 million) and Alice in Wonderland ($62.7 million).[121][122] It became the highest-grossing film in the Fast & Furious franchise, doing so only in ten days (the previous record which was held by Fast & Furious 6 took fifteen weeks to reach its entire lifetime gross of $238.67 million).[121][123] It also set the record for the biggest second-weekend April gross (previously held by Captain America: The Winter Soldier with $41.3 million).[124] It topped the box office for four consecutive weekends,[125] becoming the first film to top the box office for four consecutive weekends since The Hunger Games in March 2012 and one of only 29 films since 1985 to have had four straight box office wins during their theatrical runs.[126][127]
Other territories
Outside the US and Canada, the film became the third highest-grossing film,[128] the highest-grossing Universal distributed film,[128] and the highest-grossing 2015 film.[129] On April 26, 2015, it became the third film in cinematic history to earn over $1 billion overseas, following James Cameron's Avatar and Titanic.[130] It opened on Wednesday, April 1, 2015, in 12 countries, earning $16.9 million (including previews from 22 countries).[131] It opened in 33 more countries on Thursday, April 2, for a total of 45 countries, earning $43 million from 8,407 screens, marking Universal Pictures overseas' highest-grossing Thursday ever, and for a two-day total of $60 million.[132] It added 20 more countries on Friday, April 3, earning $59.2 million from 9,935 screens in 63 countries, for a three-day total of $120.6 million.[133][134] The film set all-time opening-day records in 15 countries including Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, India, Indonesia, the Middle East and Thailand,[132][135][136][137][138] and opening day records for Universal Pictures in 40 countries including Australia, Brazil, Germany, Italy and Mexico.[133] Through Sunday, April 5, it earned a 4-day opening weekend total of $250.4 million from 10,683 screens in 64 countries, which is the fourth-highest international opening ever, in all which it reached first place at the box office[97][116][139][140] It earned an IMAX opening weekend total of $7.5 million from 175 IMAX screens, breaking the record for the biggest April IMAX gross, previously held by The Winter Soldier ($6.43 million).[97] It set opening weekend records in 29 countries including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Egypt, Malaysia, Mexico, Middle East, Romania, Taiwan, Thailand, Venezuela and Vietnam.[97][139] In its second weekend, it held the top spot and fell gradually by 20.4% to $198.7 million (including China's opening day gross) from 18,374 screens in 66 territories as a result of minor competition, and remaining at number one in all 63 territories where it was released the previous week. It added three new countries in its second weekend; China, Russia and Poland.[141] Earning $167.9 million in its third weekend, it topped the box office outside of North America for three consecutive weekends,[142] until surpassed by Avengers: Age of Ultron in its fourth weekend.[143]
The film was a massive box office hit in China. It opened there on April 12 and set an all-time midnight run record with $8.05 million (breaking Transformers: Age of Extinction 's $3.38–$3.5 million record)[141][144] and an opening day record with $68.8 million.[141][145] Its opening day included a record breaking $5 million from IMAX run (also breaking Transformers 4 's former record of $3.4 million).[141] Through its opening week (April 12–19), it earned $245.9 million.[142][146] For the weekend alone, it took in $88.7 million from 5,454 screens (Friday to Sunday) and $182.4 million (Monday to Sunday) at the Chinese box office, which if goes with the former will be the fourth-biggest debut and if for the latter will the biggest debut of all time. It grossed CN¥1 billion in five days—the fastest time in which that has been achieved—and immediately became the second highest-grossing film ever in China, behind Transformers 4.[142][146][147] In just 15 days, it surpassed Transformers 4 to become the highest-grossing film in China with $323 million,[148] surpassing its gross in Canada and the United States[149] and became the first (and only) film in China to make more than 2 billion renminbi.[150] While many other American films that reaped similar high grosses in China have included elements designed to appeal to the Chinese audience, Furious 7 did not. Its success has been credited to China Film Group Corporation, the state-owned film distributor, which had invested considerably in the film, reportedly taking a 10% stake.[151]
The largest openings outside North America and China occurred in Mexico ($21.5 million), the UK, Ireland and Malta ($18.7 million), Germany ($15.9 million), Russia and the CIS ($15.9 million), Brazil ($11.4 million), France ($11.4 million), Australia ($11.3 million), Taiwan ($10.3 million), Argentina ($9.3 millon), Korea ($8.9 million), India ($8.7 million), Italy ($8.2 million), Malaysia ($7.3 million), Spain ($6.3 million), Venezuela ($6 million), Thailand ($6 million), and Colombia ($5.2 million).[139][141] In the UAE, where parts of the film was shot, it opened with $4.8 million.[139] Out of the 68 countries it was released in, the only country not to open at number one was Japan (locally released with the title, Wild Speed: Skymission) where it earned $6.2 million in its opening weekend, behind Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F' ($7.6 million).[142] and Detective Conan: Sunflowers of Inferno ($7.4 million).[152] It became the highest-grossing film of all time in Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Africa, the UAE, Uruguay, Trinidad and Vietnam and Universal Pictures' highest-grossing film of all time in 29 countries including Argentina, China, Ecuador, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Thailand, Turkey, UAE and Vietnam.[142] In Latin America, it became the second highest-grossing film ($200 million), the first time Universal has reached the milestone and the second film in history to earn more than $200 million after The Avengers.[153] In total earnings, the largest countries outside the U.S. and Canada are China ($391.2 million), the UK, Ireland and Malta ($60 million), Mexico ($50.9 million), Brazil, ($46.5 million) and Germany ($40.3 million).[154][155][156]
Critical response
Furious 7 received mostly positive reviews, with critics praising the film's action sequences and its poignant tribute to Walker. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an 81% approval rating, based on 210 reviews, with an average rating of 6.7/10. The site's consensus reads, "Serving up a fresh round of over-the-top thrills while adding unexpected dramatic heft, Furious 7 keeps the franchise moving in more ways than one."[157] On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating, the film has a score of 67 out of 100, based on 44 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[158] In CinemaScore polls conducted during the opening weekend, cinema audiences gave Furious 7 an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.[159]
The film received highly positive reviews upon release at a secret screening at the 2015 SXSW Film Festival on March 16, 2015. Ramin Setoodeh of Variety noted that fans started lining up outside four hours before the film was scheduled to start. The film closed with a tribute to Walker, which left many in the theater "holding back tears".[160] Critic Dave Palmer gave the film 7/10, saying, "Furious 7 is the type of movie Michael Bay has spent his entire career trying to make: filled with shots of scantily clad women, fast cars, and clever one liners".[161]
A.O. Scott of The New York Times gave the film two and a half stars out of five and said, "Furious 7 extends its predecessors’ inclusive, stereotype-resistant ethic. Compared to almost any other large-scale, big-studio enterprise, the Furious brand practices a slick, no-big-deal multiculturalism, and nods to both feminism and domestic traditionalism."[162]
John DeFore of The Hollywood Reporter criticized the film however, describing it as "stupidly diverting", saying the running time was "overinflated"; he compared watching the film to a morbid game, in addition to criticizing the screenplay
After defeating Owen Shaw and his crew and securing amnesty for their past crimes, Dominic "Dom" 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, while Dom tries to help Letty Ortiz regain her memories. Meanwhile, Owen's older brother, Deckard Shaw, breaks into the secure hospital the comatose Owen is being held in and swears vengeance against Dom, before breaking into Luke Hobbs' DSS office to extract profiles of Dom's crew. After revealing his identity, Shaw 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. However, a bomb, disguised in a package sent from Tokyo, explodes and destroys the Toretto house just seconds after Han, a member of their team, is killed by Shaw in Tokyo. Dom later visits Hobbs in a 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 and races Sean Boswell, a friend of Han's, who gives him personal items found at Han's crash site.
Back at Han's funeral in Los Angeles, Dom notices a car observing and chases after the vehicle, driven by Shaw. Both prepare to fight, but Shaw slips away when a covert ops team arrives, led by Frank Petty. Petty says that he will assist Dom in stopping Shaw if he helps him obtain the God's Eye, a computer program that uses digital devices to track down a person, 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 in Azerbaijan, ambush Jakande's convoy, and rescue Ramsey. 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. With the God's Eye, the team manages to track down Shaw, who is waiting at a remote factory. Dom, Brian, Petty and his team attempt to capture Shaw, but are ambushed by Jakande and his militants, 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. Left with no other choice, the team decides to return to Los Angeles to fight Shaw, Jakande and his men on their home turf. Meanwhile, Brian promises Mia that once they deal with Shaw, he'll dedicate himself to their family full-time.
While Jakande pursues Brian and the rest of the team with a stealth helicopter and a drone, Ramsey attempts to hack into the God's Eye while sharing her mobile between their vehicles. Hobbs, seeing the team in trouble, breaks out of hospital and destroys the drone. Ramsey then regains control of the 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 defeated when part of the parking garage collapses beneath him. Dom then launches his vehicle at Jakande's helicopter, tossing a bag of grenades onto its skids, before injuring himself 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 wedding. Dom regains consciousness soon after, remarking, "It's about time".
Later, Shaw is taken into custody by Hobbs and locked away in a secret, high-security prison. Meanwhile, at a beach, Brian and Mia play with their son while Dom, Letty, Roman, Tej and Ramsey observe, acknowledging that Brian is better off retired with his family. Dom silently leaves, but Brian catches up with him at a crossroad. As Dom remembers the times that he had had with Brian, they bid each other farewell and drive off in separate directions.
Cast
For more details on the characters, see List of The Fast and the Furious characters.
Vin Diesel as Dominic Toretto, a former criminal and professional street racer who has retired and settled down with his wife, Letty.
Paul Walker as Brian O'Conner, a former FBI agent-turned-criminal and professional street racer who has retired and settled down with his partner, Mia, and their son, Jack.
Caleb and Cody Walker, Paul's younger brothers, were used among others as stand-ins to complete his remaining scenes following their brother's death in a single-vehicle accident on November 30, 2013.[10]
Dwayne Johnson as Luke Hobbs, a DSS agent who allied with Dom and his team after their outings in Rio de Janeiro and Europe. It is later revealed that he is also a father, to a young girl. Johnson initially said that if Universal Pictures pursued the accelerated development of a seventh film beginning in the summer, he would be unable to participate due to scheduling conflicts with filming on Hercules.[11] However, as production for the film would commence in September, he confirmed his return for the film, as Hercules would complete production in time to enable him to film a significant part.[12]
Michelle Rodriguez as Letty Ortiz, Dom's wife and a professional street racer, who was revealed to have suffered from amnesia after being presumed dead in Fast & Furious.
Tyrese Gibson as Roman Pearce, a member of Dom's team and a childhood friend of Brian.
Chris Bridges as Tej Parker, a mechanic and technician, and a friend of Brian and Roman's from Miami.
Jordana Brewster as Mia Toretto, Dom's younger sister and a former member of his team who has settled down with her partner, Brian, and their son, Jack.
Djimon Hounsou as Mose Jakande, a Somalian mercenary and terrorist who leads an a private military company that allies with Shaw and uses the God's Eye to track its creator and use her to track down his enemies.[13]
Kurt Russell as Frank Petty[14] (also known as "Mr Nobody"), the leader of a covert ops team who agrees to help Dom stop Shaw if he can help him prevent Jakande from obtaining a computer program called the God's Eye.
Jason Statham as Deckard Shaw, a rogue special forces assassin seeking to avenge his comatose younger brother after his demise at the hands of Dom and his team in Spain.
Nathalie Emmanuel as Ramsey, a British computer hacktivist and the creator of the God's Eye, who allies with Dom and his team after being saved from Jakande and helps them to regain control of her program.[13]
Tony Jaa as Kiet, a member of Jakande's team who possesses great agility, athleticism and fighting prowess. Thai martial arts actor Jaa was confirmed to have joined the cast in August 2013, making his Hollywood debut.[15][16]
Ronda Rousey as Kara, the Head of Security for an Abu Dhabi billionaire. Rousey's involvement was confirmed in August 2013. Having committed to The Expendables 3 at the same time (along with Russell, who later pulled out, and Statham), Rousey was forced to shoot both films back-to-back in order to allow herself 45 days to focus on training for her UFC championship rematch against Miesha Tate. Her participation in the film was similar to that of Gina Carano making the transition from mixed martial arts fighting to acting, following Carano's involvement in Fast & Furious 6.[17]
Lucas Black as Sean Boswell, a professional street racer and drifter based in Tokyo, who meets Dom when he travels to Tokyo to claim the body of Han, a mutual friend of theirs killed by Shaw. In September, it was confirmed that Black had signed on to reprise his role as Boswell for Furious 7 and two more installments.[18][19]
Elsa Pataky as Elena Neves, a DSS agent and former Rio police officer who moved to the United States to become Hobbs' new partner at the DSS.
Ali Fazal as Safar, a friend of Ramsey to whom she sent the God's Eye for safekeeping. It is Fazal's first appearance in an American film. He described his role as a cameo.[20]
John Brotherton as Sheppard, Petty's right-hand man.[13][21][22][23]
Noel Gugliemi reprises his role from the first film as Hector, a street race organizer. Luke Evans briefly reprises his role from the previous film as Owen Shaw, the comatose younger brother of the film's primary antagonist.[24] Sung Kang, Bow Wow and Nathalie Kelley appear in archive footage from The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift as Han, Twinkie and Neela, respectively. Gal Gadot appears as Gisele Yashar in a photograph and in archive footage from the previous three films. Tego Calderón and Don Omar appear as Leo and Santos, respectively, in archive footage from Fast Five. Australian rapper Iggy Azalea makes a cameo appearance in the film and contributed to the soundtrack.[25][26]
Production
Development
On October 21, 2011, the Los Angeles Times reported that Universal Studios was considering filming two sequels—Fast Six and Fast Seven—back-to-back with a single storyline running through both films. Both would be written by Chris Morgan and directed by Justin Lin, who had been the franchise's writer and director, respectively, since The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006).[27] On December 20, 2011, following the release of Fast Five, Vin Diesel stated that Fast Six would be split into two parts, with writing for the two films occurring simultaneously. On the decision, Diesel said:[28]
We have to pay off this story, we have to service all of these character relationships, and when we started mapping all that out it just went beyond 110 pages ... The studio said, 'You can't fit all that story in one damn movie!'[28]
However, in an interview on February 15, 2012, Dwayne Johnson stated that the two intended sequels would no longer be filmed simultaneously because of weather issues in filming locations, and that production on Fast Seven would only begin after the completion of Fast Six.[29]
In April 2013, during post-production of the retitled Fast & Furious 6, Lin announced that he would not return to direct a seventh film, as the studio wanted to produce the film on an accelerated schedule for release in summer 2014. This would have required Lin to begin pre-production on the sequel while performing post-production on Fast & Furious 6, which he considered would affect the quality of the final product. Despite the usual two-year gap between the previous installments, Universal chose to pursue a sequel quicker due to having fewer reliable franchises than its competitor studios.[30] However, subsequent interviews with Lin have suggested that the sixth film was always intended to be the final installment directed by him.[31]
In April 2013, Australian director James Wan, predominantly known for horror films, was announced as the sequel's director, with Neal H. Moritz and Michael Fottrell returning to produce and Morgan returning to write the script, his fifth in the franchise. On April 16, 2013, Diesel announced that the sequel would be released on July 11, 2014.[32] In May 2013, Diesel said that the sequel would feature Los Angeles, Tokyo and the Middle East as locations.[33][34]
Filming
Principal photography began in early September 2013 in Atlanta, Georgia, with a casting call issued.[35][36] Abu Dhabi was also a filming location;[37] the production crew chose it over Dubai, as they would benefit from the Emirate's 30% rebate scheme.[38] Pikes Peak Highway in Colorado was closed in September to film some driving sequences.[39]
On September 16, the production filmed with Paul Walker and the Kimsey twins, playing his son, Jack,[40] in front of an Atlanta elementary school.[41] Han's funeral scene was filmed at Oakland Cemetery,[42] with extras needed for the scene being "hot, hip and trendy cool types of all ethnicities between the ages of 18 and 45".[43] On the evening of September 19, Lucas Black joined the production[44] for his sole scene with Diesel, in an Atlanta parking garage. Separate scenes with Walker also shot in the same location on the same night,[45] including one half of a phone conversation between his character and Jordana Brewster's. The day after, Diesel posted a picture from the night shoot with Black on his Facebook page.[46]
On October 24, over a month into the film's production, Johnson tweeted he had started shooting for the film after wrapping up on Hercules.[47] Five days later, Diesel posted the first photo of Johnson on the set, in the hospital scene.[48]
On November 30, 2013, while on a break for the Thanksgiving holiday, Walker, who portrayed Brian O'Conner, died in a single-vehicle accident.[49][50] The next day, Universal announced that production would continue after a delay that would allow the filmmakers to rework the film.[51] On December 4, 2013, Universal put production on hold indefinitely.[52] Wan later confirmed that the film had not been cancelled.[53][54][55] On December 22, 2013, Diesel announced on his Facebook page that the film would be released on April 10, 2015.[56] On February 27, 2014, The Hollywood Reporter reported that filming would resume on April 1, and that the cast and crew had headed to Atlanta to prepare for about eight more weeks of shooting.[57] Principal photography ended on July 10, 2014.[7]
Stunts
A 58-year-old Lockheed C-130 Hercules[58] was used in the film to carry the vehicles that would drop from 12,000 feet high, above the Sonoran Desert, making cars plummet at a speed of about 130 to 140 miles per hour.
The "air drop" sequence was conceived by stunt coordinator, Spiro Razatos, who also supervised on the franchise's two previous installments; Fast Five and Fast & Furious 6.[61][62] Razatos told Business Insider that he wanted to rely more on real stunts rather than CGI because he wanted the whole sequence to "feel real" and fulfill audience's expectations.[61] The stunt took months of prep-solving problems. Cameras needed to be mounted onto cars in a way that they would not be destroyed when the cars landed, and the crew had to figure out a safe way to get the cars out of the plane. They performed a dry run with a single car falling out of a plane[61] and did this six times.[62] Cars were dropped from a Lockheed C-130 Hercules high above the Arizona desert, but close up shots that show the cars landing on a mountain road were filmed in Colorado.[62] There were two airplanes, flying at a height of 12,000 feet, each dropping two cars apiece.[61] BRS parachutes enabled with GPS were secured to each of the cars before dropping off the C-130 plane. At about 5,000 feet, the parachutes deployed.[62] Over 10 cameras were used for the sequence. In addition to cameras on the ground, there were cameras remotely operated inside the plane and another three mounted outside each car. Additional cameras were on a helicopter, where Razatos was stationed watching monitors. Three skydivers used in the shoot wore helmet cameras to help shoot the sequence from multiple angles. Sky divers would either jump out before cars or after them.[61] While all the cars landed on their drop zones, 70% landed perfectly and 30% didn't.[62] For the close-up scenes which shows the actors inside their cars, a giant gimbal with a 360-degree range of movement were attached to each of the cars and was filmed against a green screen to reproduce their tumble through the sky.[63] The last part of the scene, which shows the cars hitting the road was shot separately. To get that right, the team set up a pully system that had cars six to ten feet above the ground. When they were dropped from the cranes, the stuntmen who were sitting in the driver's seats raced their engines at about 35 to 40 miles per hour and slid to the ground at full speed. Those cranes were then later removed from the film with computers.[62][63] Razatos admits that the air drop sequence was "all real" and that it would be "hard to top".[61][62]
The scene featuring Brian jumping off a bus off a cliff was performed by a stuntman and was all done without any computer graphics.[64] The shooting for this particular sequence along with the scene in which Dom and his team are pursuing to rescue Ramsey almost didn't happen due to the absence of tax break in Colorado.[64] The studio originally wanted to shoot the sequence in Georgia which provides tax breaks for film productions, and then they'd add woods in the background later in post production to which Razatos denied saying, "the audience is going to know [it's CGI] and aren't going to feel good about it."[64] Shooting finally took place in Colorado.[64]
A total of 340 cars were used in the film,[63] and more than 230 cars were destroyed in the making of the film including several black Mercedes-Benz, a Ford Crown Victoria and a Mitsubishi Montero.[65] The mountain-highway chase scene on Colorado's Monarch Pass proved to be the most damaging sequence with over 40 vehicles being destroyed.[65][66] Only 10 percent of the action sequences in the film were computer-generated, and even then, much of the CGI was employed simply to erase the wires and other contraptions that were used to film real cars and drivers or to add a background.[63] It took more than 3,500 man-days to complete the various stunts of the film.[63] For safety reasons, stunt coordinator, Joel Kramer said that he doesn't let his drivers go above 50 miles per hour.[67]
Redevelopment of Walker's character
"When I first heard the news, I was shell-shocked like everyone, and it took me days to come to terms with it. And then after that, heartbreaks started sinking in and we realised that Paul [Walker] wasn’t going to be around with us anymore moving forward, and it was a really hard one. And finishing the movie was the last thing on my mind at that point. It was more the idea of... picking up the pieces, going back on set, rallying the team, the cast, and the crew, and as the director, having to put on the brave face and champion and push everyone along. The idea of that was very daunting for me, but it became very apparent to all of us that we needed to finish this movie to honour Paul’s legacy and to basically honour his memories... it was about making this movie for Paul."
—James Wan, director of Furious 7
In January 2014, Time reported that Walker's character, Brian O'Conner, would be retired instead of killed, and that new scenes would be developed in order to allow the franchise to continue without him.[69] In March 2014, the Daily News reported that the studio had hired four actors with bodies similar to Walker's physique, and that his face and voice would be computer-generated,[70] and in April 2014, Walker's brothers Caleb and Cody, both of whom closely resemble him, were chosen as stand-ins.[71] For scenes which required re-creating Walker's face and body, the team hired Peter Jackson's Weta Digital (which produced the imagery of Gollum in The Lord of the Rings franchise and Caesar in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes). The final film includes a combination of CGI and the use of carefully chosen camera angles and lighting using Walker's brothers to simulate his appearance.[72] Robin Shenfield, CEO of London's special effects studio, The Mill, noted that the redevelopment was similar to that of Oliver Reed's when his character had to be redeveloped the same way as a result of his death during filming of Gladiator.[73]
Music
Main articles: Furious 7 (soundtrack) and Furious 7 (score)
The musical score was composed by Brian Tyler, who scored the third, fourth, and fifth installments of the series.[74] "There's an emotional component to Fast & Furious 7 that is unique", said Tyler about his experience scoring. "I think people are really going to be amazed by it."[75] A soundtrack album to the film was released by Atlantic Records on March 17, 2015.[76]
Songs featured in the film include:
"Go Hard or Go Home" (Wiz Khalifa & Iggy Azalea)[77]
"Ride Out" (Kid Ink, Tyga, Wale, YG & Rich Homie Quan)[78]
"See You Again" (Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth)
"My Angel" (Prince Royce)
"Hamdulillah" (The Narcicyst feat. Shadia Mansour)
"Get Low" (Dillon Francis and DJ Snake)
"Ay Vamos" (J Balvin feat. Nicky Jam and French Montana)
Release
The film, which began principal photography in September 2013, was originally designed as a Summer 2014 release. It was put on hold following the fatal car crash that claimed Paul Walker's life on November 30, 2013. The production resumed in April 2014. In October 2014, Universal revealed that the film was officially titled Furious 7,[79] and that the debut trailer would be released during an interactive fan event over social media. In the days leading up to the event, seven-second, behind-the-scenes videos were released, titled "7 Seconds of 7".[79] On February 1, 2015, a new trailer featuring all-new footage debuted during Super Bowl XLIX.
The film was originally scheduled for release on April 10, 2015, but it was announced that the film's release date had been brought forward a week to April 3, 2015. The official announcement in change of date was made in July 2014.[80] Fast and Furious 7 premiered at the SXSW Film Festival at 12:07 a.m. at Austin's Paramount Theatre on March 16, 2015.[81] On March 27, 2015, a free standalone expansion for the video game Forza Horizon 2, titled Forza Horizon 2 Presents Fast & Furious, was released to help promote the film.[82] For its global premiere at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles on April 1, 2015, IMAX Corporation installed a new laser projection which was the first such installation in the U.S. and the second worldwide, following The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies, which opened at Scotiabank Theatre in Toronto in December 2014.[83]
Piracy
According to piracy tracking site Excipio, the film was downloaded illegally 2.59 million times in four days (April 2–6) through various torrent sites with India being the top country for piracy of the film with 578,000 downloads followed by Pakistan (321,000), China (289,000), the U.S. (251,000) and the UK (101,000).[84] A survey revealed that most Indians tended to resort to piracy due to lack of availability, pricing concerns, soaring internet costs and censorship.[85]
Home media
Furious 7 was released on 7th September 2015 in the UK and was released via DVD and Blu-ray on September 15, 2015 in other countries. The Blu-ray edition features an all new extended edition, deleted scenes, stunts, behind-the-scenes, and the music video for Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth's "See You Again". The Blu-ray and DVD version include behind-the-scene footage of the "Race Wars" scene including singer Iggy Azalea and making of the cars featured in the film.[86] In the U.S. and Canada, it sold roughly 2.5 million units on Blu-ray and DVD in its first week of release, making it the highest-selling home entertainment live-action film of 2015.[87]
Reception
Box office
As of July 14, 2015, Furious 7 has grossed $351 million in North America and $1.16 billion in other territories for a worldwide total of $1.511 billion, against its $190 million budget.[6] Worldwide, it is the fifth highest-grossing film of all time,[88] the second highest-grossing film of 2015 (behind Universal's own Jurassic World),[89] the highest-grossing film in The Fast and the Furious franchise and is the second highest-grossing Universal Pictures film.[90] It was also the fastest film to reach the $1 billion mark, doing so in 17 days (breaking the record previously set by The Avengers, Avatar and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, all 19 days);[91][92] however that record was broken two months later by Jurassic World, which accomplished the feat in 13 days.[93] It is also the 20th film to gross over $1 billion. It also became the first (and only) film to pass 1 million in 4DX admissions worldwide.
Worldwide, Furious 7 was released across 810 IMAX theaters, which is the largest worldwide rollout for any movie in IMAX's history.[95] Its worldwide opening of $397.6 million is the third-highest opening of all time.[96] The film had an IMAX opening weekend total of $20.8 million.[97] Furious 7 also became the first film distributed by Universal Pictures to earn more than $1 billion in its original run and the second overall (following Jurassic Park).
United States and Canada
In these countries, Furious 7 is the 30th highest-grossing film,[98] the third highest-grossing 2015 film,[99] and the fifth highest-grossing film distributed by Universal.[100] Predictions for the opening weekend of Furious 7 in the United States and Canada were continuously revised upwards, starting from $115 million to $150 million.[101][102] It opened on Friday, April 3, 2015, across 4,004 theaters, including 365 IMAX theaters, which made it Universal's widest opening release ever.[103][104][105] and earned $67.3 million, marking the tenth-biggest opening day.[106][107] The film's Friday gross included a $15.8 million late-night run (which began at 7 p.m.), from 3,069 theaters, marking Universal's highest late-night run (overtaken by Jurassic World), of which $2.2 million came from IMAX showings, marking the third largest IMAX preview gross ever, (behind Iron Man 3 and The Dark Knight Rises).[108][109] Based on pure Friday gross (with the omission of revenues from Thursday shows), it earned $51.5 million, marking the fifth-biggest of all time.[110][111] Through Sunday, April 5, it had an opening weekend total of $147.1 million, breaking the record for the biggest April opening,[112] the biggest opening in the Fast & Furious franchise, the biggest Easter opening,[113] the third-biggest opening of 2015 (behind Jurassic World and Avengers: Age of Ultron), the second biggest pre-summer opening ever, behind The Hunger Games ($152 million),[114] and the eleventh-biggest opening of all time.[115] It earned an IMAX opening weekend total of $13.3 million, marking the second-biggest of all time for a 2D movie (behind The Dark Knight Rises).[116][117] Premium large format comprised 8% ($11.5 million) of the total opening gross from 400 PLF screens, which is the biggest 2D PLF opening (previously held by The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1).[118] It is Universal's fastest film to reach the $200 million mark, doing so in eight days (overtaken by Jurassic World with 3 days).[119][120]
In its second weekend, the film expanded to 4,022 theaters, thereby breaking its own record of being the widest Universal Pictures release ever (overtaken by Jurassic World), and earned an estimated $59.6 million, declining by 60%, which is the third best second weekend holdover for a pre-summer film release, behind American Sniper ($64.6 million) and Alice in Wonderland ($62.7 million).[121][122] It became the highest-grossing film in the Fast & Furious franchise, doing so only in ten days (the previous record which was held by Fast & Furious 6 took fifteen weeks to reach its entire lifetime gross of $238.67 million).[121][123] It also set the record for the biggest second-weekend April gross (previously held by Captain America: The Winter Soldier with $41.3 million).[124] It topped the box office for four consecutive weekends,[125] becoming the first film to top the box office for four consecutive weekends since The Hunger Games in March 2012 and one of only 29 films since 1985 to have had four straight box office wins during their theatrical runs.[126][127]
Other territories
Outside the US and Canada, the film became the third highest-grossing film,[128] the highest-grossing Universal distributed film,[128] and the highest-grossing 2015 film.[129] On April 26, 2015, it became the third film in cinematic history to earn over $1 billion overseas, following James Cameron's Avatar and Titanic.[130] It opened on Wednesday, April 1, 2015, in 12 countries, earning $16.9 million (including previews from 22 countries).[131] It opened in 33 more countries on Thursday, April 2, for a total of 45 countries, earning $43 million from 8,407 screens, marking Universal Pictures overseas' highest-grossing Thursday ever, and for a two-day total of $60 million.[132] It added 20 more countries on Friday, April 3, earning $59.2 million from 9,935 screens in 63 countries, for a three-day total of $120.6 million.[133][134] The film set all-time opening-day records in 15 countries including Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, India, Indonesia, the Middle East and Thailand,[132][135][136][137][138] and opening day records for Universal Pictures in 40 countries including Australia, Brazil, Germany, Italy and Mexico.[133] Through Sunday, April 5, it earned a 4-day opening weekend total of $250.4 million from 10,683 screens in 64 countries, which is the fourth-highest international opening ever, in all which it reached first place at the box office[97][116][139][140] It earned an IMAX opening weekend total of $7.5 million from 175 IMAX screens, breaking the record for the biggest April IMAX gross, previously held by The Winter Soldier ($6.43 million).[97] It set opening weekend records in 29 countries including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Egypt, Malaysia, Mexico, Middle East, Romania, Taiwan, Thailand, Venezuela and Vietnam.[97][139] In its second weekend, it held the top spot and fell gradually by 20.4% to $198.7 million (including China's opening day gross) from 18,374 screens in 66 territories as a result of minor competition, and remaining at number one in all 63 territories where it was released the previous week. It added three new countries in its second weekend; China, Russia and Poland.[141] Earning $167.9 million in its third weekend, it topped the box office outside of North America for three consecutive weekends,[142] until surpassed by Avengers: Age of Ultron in its fourth weekend.[143]
The film was a massive box office hit in China. It opened there on April 12 and set an all-time midnight run record with $8.05 million (breaking Transformers: Age of Extinction 's $3.38–$3.5 million record)[141][144] and an opening day record with $68.8 million.[141][145] Its opening day included a record breaking $5 million from IMAX run (also breaking Transformers 4 's former record of $3.4 million).[141] Through its opening week (April 12–19), it earned $245.9 million.[142][146] For the weekend alone, it took in $88.7 million from 5,454 screens (Friday to Sunday) and $182.4 million (Monday to Sunday) at the Chinese box office, which if goes with the former will be the fourth-biggest debut and if for the latter will the biggest debut of all time. It grossed CN¥1 billion in five days—the fastest time in which that has been achieved—and immediately became the second highest-grossing film ever in China, behind Transformers 4.[142][146][147] In just 15 days, it surpassed Transformers 4 to become the highest-grossing film in China with $323 million,[148] surpassing its gross in Canada and the United States[149] and became the first (and only) film in China to make more than 2 billion renminbi.[150] While many other American films that reaped similar high grosses in China have included elements designed to appeal to the Chinese audience, Furious 7 did not. Its success has been credited to China Film Group Corporation, the state-owned film distributor, which had invested considerably in the film, reportedly taking a 10% stake.[151]
The largest openings outside North America and China occurred in Mexico ($21.5 million), the UK, Ireland and Malta ($18.7 million), Germany ($15.9 million), Russia and the CIS ($15.9 million), Brazil ($11.4 million), France ($11.4 million), Australia ($11.3 million), Taiwan ($10.3 million), Argentina ($9.3 millon), Korea ($8.9 million), India ($8.7 million), Italy ($8.2 million), Malaysia ($7.3 million), Spain ($6.3 million), Venezuela ($6 million), Thailand ($6 million), and Colombia ($5.2 million).[139][141] In the UAE, where parts of the film was shot, it opened with $4.8 million.[139] Out of the 68 countries it was released in, the only country not to open at number one was Japan (locally released with the title, Wild Speed: Skymission) where it earned $6.2 million in its opening weekend, behind Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F' ($7.6 million).[142] and Detective Conan: Sunflowers of Inferno ($7.4 million).[152] It became the highest-grossing film of all time in Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Africa, the UAE, Uruguay, Trinidad and Vietnam and Universal Pictures' highest-grossing film of all time in 29 countries including Argentina, China, Ecuador, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Thailand, Turkey, UAE and Vietnam.[142] In Latin America, it became the second highest-grossing film ($200 million), the first time Universal has reached the milestone and the second film in history to earn more than $200 million after The Avengers.[153] In total earnings, the largest countries outside the U.S. and Canada are China ($391.2 million), the UK, Ireland and Malta ($60 million), Mexico ($50.9 million), Brazil, ($46.5 million) and Germany ($40.3 million).[154][155][156]
Critical response
Furious 7 received mostly positive reviews, with critics praising the film's action sequences and its poignant tribute to Walker. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an 81% approval rating, based on 210 reviews, with an average rating of 6.7/10. The site's consensus reads, "Serving up a fresh round of over-the-top thrills while adding unexpected dramatic heft, Furious 7 keeps the franchise moving in more ways than one."[157] On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating, the film has a score of 67 out of 100, based on 44 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[158] In CinemaScore polls conducted during the opening weekend, cinema audiences gave Furious 7 an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.[159]
The film received highly positive reviews upon release at a secret screening at the 2015 SXSW Film Festival on March 16, 2015. Ramin Setoodeh of Variety noted that fans started lining up outside four hours before the film was scheduled to start. The film closed with a tribute to Walker, which left many in the theater "holding back tears".[160] Critic Dave Palmer gave the film 7/10, saying, "Furious 7 is the type of movie Michael Bay has spent his entire career trying to make: filled with shots of scantily clad women, fast cars, and clever one liners".[161]
A.O. Scott of The New York Times gave the film two and a half stars out of five and said, "Furious 7 extends its predecessors’ inclusive, stereotype-resistant ethic. Compared to almost any other large-scale, big-studio enterprise, the Furious brand practices a slick, no-big-deal multiculturalism, and nods to both feminism and domestic traditionalism."[162]
John DeFore of The Hollywood Reporter criticized the film however, describing it as "stupidly diverting", saying the running time was "overinflated"; he compared watching the film to a morbid game, in addition to criticizing the screenplay
Fast and Furious 7
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