Fast And Furious 7’s Original Ending Could Have Changed The Trajectory Of The Franchise

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The “Fast and Furious” team had an impossible part when Paul Walker died in a tragic car accident in 2013, leaving them essentially without one of the founding actors of the series. The stunning loss, which took place while “Furious 7” was still in production, essentially caused everyone to take a step back and figure out how they were going to save the film. In addition to the Walker brothers and Wētā FX people work together to complete its scenesthe third act has been restructured enough to compensate for its unfortunate absence. The ending of “Furious 7” was ultimately a touching and sentimental ode to Walker that made just about everyone cry, with Dom (Vin Diesel) and Brian going their separate ways. This sparked curiosity as to what the original ending of the film would have been like. Thanks to Barry Hertz for “Welcome to the Family: The Explosive Story Behind Fast & Furious, the Blockbusters That Supercharged the World“, we know it would have brought Dom and Brian back to their roots.

According to Hertz, the initial ending of “Furious 7” would have seen the “Fast” team take a much-deserved victory lap at Neptune’s Net, also known as the Malibu seafood restaurant featured in the first film (via ComicsFilm). Kurt Russell’s Mr. Nobody would have given everyone a congressional commendation for their work in taking down Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) and recovering the God’s Eye technology. Instead of returning him to the Agency, Dom allegedly stomped on him with his boot, citing his immense technological power as being far too great for a single person to wield. What makes this ending so interesting is that the destruction of the Eye of God would have set a much different path for future “Fast and Furious” sequels.

The Eye of God was first introduced in “Furious 7” as a Macguffin that the “Fast” crew needed to find before it ended up in the wrong hands. Created by hacker Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel), God’s Eye was essentially an evolutionary step in mass surveillance technology. It possesses the ability to find just about anyone in the world within minutes, as long as they are caught on camera first. The technology initially depended on it being a physical device, but it could ultimately be hacked if a sufficiently skilled hacker was near its presence. This series is still playing fast and loose when it comes to physicsso it makes sense that it does this with literal plot devices as well.

After defeating Mose Jakande (Djimon Hounsou) in the climax of “Furious 7”, God’s Eye inevitably finds himself in the hands of Mr. Nobody. The Agency continues to use it in “The Fate of the Furious” to track down a rogue Dom, that is, before Cipher (Charlize Theron) steals him for herself. However, his defeat once again brings the Eye of God back under Agency control. “Fast even if he doesn’t take full advantage of his power. It’s basically a big game of hot potato with surveillance technologies.

As we can see, God’s Eye went from a side mission in “Furious 7” to a key player in the “Fast” sequels that followed. Bidding farewell to Walker’s meta was definitely the right move for that movie to that at one point, but it makes me wonder if there would have been another place to retain some of the intent of the original ending. This showed that Dom only had SO a lot of patience for a device that almost led to his death and that of his friends, even if it is in the hands of the “right” people. Starting with “The Fate of the Furious”, God’s Eye keeps coming back to bite everyone in the butt. Dom is shocked when Tess tells him about it in “Fast X”, because he thought it was locked in a safe somewhere. This is ridiculous considering Dom, of all people, knows that a safe can easily be broken into.

Part of what I find fascinating about the original ending of “Furious 7” is that it offers a sense of finality. Dom removes a dangerous player from the board, as well as rejecting the government’s justification for throwing him out of his car window. His actions are consistent with the DVD player hijacking street racer we have come to know and love. Even Brian’s goodbye would have been a perfect ending. More than a decade later, the “Fast” franchise is in limbo following the commercial disappointment of “Fast X.” To make matters worse, Diesel wants to reunite Dom and Brianpresumably with a CGI Walker, if “Fast 11” were to happen, and that’s pretty worrying.

“Furious 7” is currently streaming on Peacock.