Hard to believe it’s already been five years since cinema reached an emotional and artistic acme never seen before—and unlikely to be seen again.
That peak was, of course, the finale of Furious 7, a moment that saw Vin Diesel driving film as a form as much as also driving a really cool car. Diesel’s Dom Toretto pulls up alongside his longtime friend and partner in outlandish crime, Brian O’Conner. Though Brian actor Paul Walker is gone, there’s a CGI version of him pasted behind the wheel, and the digital mannequin flashes Dom a grin. Dom, in turn, gives a rightly revolted smirk, the two taking one last ride before their paths diverse. Brian—clearly a proxy for Walker—takes what’s ostensibly the exit to Heaven, while Dom continues down the bumpy road of making at least three more of these things. As Wiz Khalifa’s “See You Again” swells, so too does the weeping of men around the world, Vin dropping the male burden of stoic machismo like he drops a car out of an airplane with a parachute.
Diesel himself recently confirmed that Hollywood can indeed pack it up, because no one is going to touch how good that was. Speaking to NME, the artist recently said of the scene, “We were able to do something so beautiful and so classy. It might be the best moment in cinematic history. Not just my career but in cinematic history.
“Men around the world, well everyone in the world, but men around the planet for the first time in history were able to cry together.”
This does raise an interesting question, though: if the end of Furious 7 is the best moment in cinematic history, then has Vin Diesel ever seen another movie?
