How 'Furious 7' dropped real cars from planes in its most ridiculous stunt yet
Universal Pictures/"Furious 7"
One of the men responsible for making those scenes look as realistic as possible is 30-year stunt veteran Spiro Razatos.
"For the fourth film ("Fast & Furious") they kind of relied too much on CGI," Razatos told Business Insider. "So they realized they wanted to do less. That's what I do."
Razatos is responsible for some of the most jaw-dropping sequences from the franchise including when Dom (Vin Diesel), Brian (Paul Walker), and the rest of the crew dragged a giant bank vault through the busy streets of Rio de Janeiro in "Fast Five."
YouTube/Universal Pictures/"Fast Five"
YouTube/Universal Pictures/"Fast & Furious 6"
With fans starving for more, "Furious 7" director James Wan and the producers once again came to Razatos to take on the franchise's most insane sequence yet.
They called it the "air drop."
The idea was to have a sequence in the film with Dom and company in their souped-up cars drop from a plane high above Colorado and parachute into the mountains below.
YouTube/Universal Pictures/"Furious 7"
The producers assumed the sequence would have to rely heavily on special effects, but Razatos had other plans.
"I said let's really go for it and make the effort because I want this whole sequence to feel real, that's what the audience expects," he said.
The stunt took months of prep-solving problems. Cameras needed to be mounted onto cars in a way that they wouldn't be destroyed when the cars landed, and the crew needed a safe way to get the cars out of the plane.
"What if one of them gets stuck coming out of the plane?" said Razatos. "How is the plane going to land when you have a car dangling outside of it?"
YouTube/Universal Pictures/"Furious 7"
"It was 20 minutes and the cameras weren't placed where they should be," Razatos recalls. "I remember telling the guys, 'ignore this, this is just a test.'"
With a green light, shooting took place in Colorado with two airplane runs, flying at 12,000 feet, that would drop two cars apiece.
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 and listening to the radio chatter. Three skydivers used in the shoot wore helmet cams.Sky divers would either jump out before cars or after them.
YouTube/Universal Pictures/"Furious 7"
"I didn't realize how intense it would be," Razatos admits now.
"Sometimes a piece of debris would come off the car, so skydivers had to watch out for that," he added. "I'm in a helicopter and I want to get in close for the shots but you have to watch out because of the helicopter blades."
YouTube/Universal Pictures/"Furious 7"
Regardless of all the safety precautions, accidents can happen. Razatos says in one of the runs a skydiver lost his footing getting out of the plane and bounced off the rear exit hatch on his way out of he plane. Not the most graceful of jumps, but Razatos said he was fine.
YouTube/Universal Pictures/"Furious 7"
When one car landed its parachute caught an air pocket and was carrying the car to the freeway. "I'm hearing on the radio the car is being dragged and it can't stop," said Razatos. "People were on motorcycles to get to the car; jumping on the car with knives to cut the parachute."
"On the radio you hear people say, 'Skydiver, 200 feet you have a car gaining on your two o'clock,'" he added.
YouTube/Universal Pictures/"Furious 7"
Much of what Razatos and his 2nd unit team did on the day made it into the final cut of the movie. Some of it was enhanced to increase the look of the speed at which cars were diving. Shots of the actors in the cars were put in later, but for the most part Razatos' mission to do the scene as realistically as possible was a success.
YouTube/Universal Pictures/"Furious 7"
YouTube/Universal Pictures/"Furious 7"
YouTube/Universal Pictures/"Furious 7"
Thinking back on the "air drop" sequence he admits, "That's going to be hard to top."
Here's a behind-the-scenes look at how the sequence was done:
And here's how it looks in the film:
- I spent $2,000 for 7 nights in a 179-square-foot room on one of the world's largest cruise ships. Take a look inside my cabin.
- Colon cancer rates are rising in young people. If you have two symptoms you should get a colonoscopy, a GI oncologist says.
- Saudi Arabia wants China to help fund its struggling $500 billion Neom megaproject. Investors may not be too excited.
- Catan adds climate change to the latest edition of the world-famous board game
- Tired of blatant misinformation in the media? This video game can help you and your family fight fake news!
- Tired of blatant misinformation in the media? This video game can help you and your family fight fake news!
- JNK India IPO allotment – How to check allotment, GMP, listing date and more
- Indian Army unveils selfie point at Hombotingla Pass ahead of 25th anniversary of Kargil Vijay Diwas
- JNK India IPO allotment date
- JioCinema New Plans
- Realme Narzo 70 Launched
- Apple Let Loose event
- Elon Musk Apology
- RIL cash flows
- Charlie Munger
- Feedbank IPO allotment
- Tata IPO allotment
- Most generous retirement plans
- Broadcom lays off
- Cibil Score vs Cibil Report
- Birla and Bajaj in top Richest
- Nestle Sept 2023 report
- India Equity Market