The Fast and Furious franchise is among the highest-grossing of all times. With action-packed scenes to thrilling car chases, it is a full package in terms of an amazing cinematic experience. The one aspect that appeals to the fans most is the franchise’s stunts. And this time it was Dwayne Johnson’s debut movie that has garnered attention for its real-life stunt scene.
Fast and Furious could not have gotten more exciting with Johnson’s entrance into the cast in the seventh installment. While many fans appreciated and admired the Rock’s entrance, it was a 10-min long stunt sequence that stole the fancy of many.
Fast and Furious‘ Epic Stunt Sequence
Remember when Dom Toretto and Brian O’Connor stole a 4000 kg safe and cruised along the streets in their Dodge Chargers on the streets of Rio de Janeiro? Well, you probably do, because that one stunt raised the bar in the action genre universe. Here are some fan reactions to the epic stunt scene.
With custom designed vault, created especially for the scene, the 10-minute-long Fast and Furious action sequence left fans imagining how could they have pulled it off. The director, Justin Lin recalls how they came up with the idea.
“At one point we were going to start the movie off with the vault heist. And of course there’s the discussion about, ‘How are you going to do it? ‘We should just do it CG.’ And I was like, ‘No, no, no. Let’s just build what a vault would look like and then just go out and tow it around and see what happens.’”
And then off they went creating custom designs, and steerable vaults, and with a little bit of CGI here and there, the scene turned out to be one of the most exciting and memorable pieces of stunt sequence in the history of action movies.
How Was The Fast and Furious Stunt Planned And Executed?
Dwayne Johnson‘s entry into the franchise was overshadowed by this 10-minute-long stunt, but how was it even shot? The stunt coordinator Jack Gill explained that they had to meticulously plan down to the last bit. They built up 5 vaults for different kinds of shots. For one of the shots, they had a fake vault with a car hidden inside. The stunt driver had dry ice surrounding him, with him breathing through a hose!
For the main street scene, the crew converted a large parking lot into a main street, with a bank especially constructed for the scene. Other than a 6-second long scene, the entire Fast and Furious stunt is a real deal. Even the bridge scene on the Ponte Rio-Niterói was shot in real-time with actual cars. And hence with a budget of $125 million and out-of-the-world stunts, Dwayne Johnson’s debut movie went on to earn a whopping $626M worldwide.
