On November 30, 2013, actor Paul Walker tragically died in a car crash, resulting in Furious 7’s production being halted for several months. On April 3, 2015, the seventh Fast & Furious movie was released in theaters, and moviegoers saw Walker’s likeness recreated through visual effects in order for his character, Brian O’Connor, to be retired from the franchise. But how was Furious 7 going to end prior to Walker’s death? We finally have that answer a decade later.
Author Barry Hertz’s new book Welcome to the Family, which explores the history of the Fast & Furious franchise, is out now. In addition to pulling the curtain back on Justin Lin’s exit from Fast X, the book also spends time specifically detailing how Furious 7 needed to be changed after Paul Walker’s death, As Hertz wrote (via ScreenRant):
Originally, [Furious 7] ended with the whole crew back at Neptune’s Net, the Malibu seafood joint off Pacific Coast Highway where Brian and Dom had bonded in the first movie, celebrating the successful retrieval of the ‘God’s Eye’ MacGuffin that Jason Statham’s villain, Deckard Shaw, was pursuing. But instead of giving the device back to the mysterious government agent Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell), who had just awarded the team congressional commendations, Dom crushes the God’s Eye under his boot, saying that it was too powerful for any one person to possess. The team then roars off onto the PCH, with the smiling Dom crumpling the commendation into a ball and tossing it out the window as the score swells and the end credits roll.
I have to say, given the Fast & Furious crew’s outlaw roots, destroying God’s Eye definitely would have been character for them. However, that would have led to The Fate of the Furious and Fast X’s stories being significantly changed given the hacking device’s presence in those movies. In any case, Barry Hertz also mentions in Welcome to the Family that Furious 7’s original ending included the crew deciding their next destination “by throwing a knife at a nearby map, letting ‘fate’ decide.”
All that was scrapped to ensure that Furious 7 could be completed in the aftermath of this tragedy. So in addition to Dominic Toretto giving Mr. Nobody the God’s Eye, the movie’s final moments saw Dom and Brian bidding a silent farewell to each other, then driving off in separate directions. While Paul Walker is sadly no longer with us, Brian O’Connor is still alive in the Fast & Furious universe. We saw his car drive up at the end of F9, and apparently he’ll be recreated through visual effects again in Fast & Furious 11.
Whether or not that actually happens remains to be seen, but apparently things are looking up for Fast & Furious, per Vin Diesel’s latest update. For now, feel free to stream Furious 7 with your Peacock subscription to see how this franchise brought Brian’s story to a close (for now).