Welcome to day two of CinemaCon! Last night Paramount Pictures kicked things off in a big way, showing off brand new footage from both Star Trek Into Darkness and World War Z, but this morning was all about Universal Pictures.
During their presentation the studio showed off reels from movies including R.I.P.D., Kick-Ass 2, Despicable Me 2, and 2 Guns, but the real star of the show was the Fast and Furious franchise. In addition to officially announcing that 7 will be in theaters next summer, they also showed off a massive chunk of footage from the film, highlighting a massive, awesome action sequence from the middle of the movie.
The scene begins with a military convoy made up two Jeeps surrounding a humongous armored vehicle racing along a stretch of highway. From an exit we see the arrival of another Jeep, this one holding Owen Shaw (Luke Evans), Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) and Jah (Joe Taslim). The trio comes up from behind the convoy, takes out the Jeep guarding the giant armored vehicle from behind, and hop up to the top of their target vehicle.
As the guard Jeep flies off a bridge, the scene cuts to some sort of a military complex where Luke Hobbes (Dwayne Johnson) Riley (Gina Carano) are informed of the attack. Panicking, they call in a chopper. We then see that Tej (Ludacris), Han (Sung Kang) and Gisele (Gal Gadot) are waiting on a bridge watching Shaw and his team through binoculars try to take down the armored vehicle. He relays what he sees to Dom (Vin Diesel) and Brian (Paul Walker), who are on the opposite side of the highway driving towards the convoy.
But then the game changes completely as we see one of Shaw’s men lay a cable that stretches across the entire width of the highway. The cable completely cuts through the lead Jeep, totally dismantling it, but when the armored truck hits we learn what Shaw is really going after. The cable stops the vehicle in its tracks, but crashing through the front is a tank that is being driven by Shaw, Letty and Jah. Tej sees this through his binoculars and immediately warns the entire team that they need to come up with another plan.
Meanwhile Han and Gisele have taken motorcycles and gone after the cable-laying member of Shaw’s crew. Gisele gets to him first and leaps from her bike to the enemy’s car, but finds herself immediately in trouble as the driver tries to shake her off. Just as he is about to smash her against another truck on the road, however, Han comes to the rescue, is able to get from his bike to the car and gets it to swerve away from the truck. Gisele then pulls out a gun and puts it to the driver’s head - he’s been neutralized.
As Dom and Brian get closer to the convoy, we realize that the gang has another problem: Shaw’s tank’s gun is active. The villains fire at Dom’s car, but our hero is able to narrowly avoid the blast. Unfortunately, Shaw decides to have a bit of "fun" and drives to the opposite side of the highway into oncoming traffic. He begins to completely destroy cars at whim, undoubtedly killing many people. Letty protests and complains that this wasn’t part of the plan, but Shaw doesn’t seem to care in the slightest.
In order to try and save innocent lives, Dom calls to try and get cars to go away from the tank. This is where Roman (Tyrese Gibson) comes in. Roman drives his car in front of the massive military vehicle so that he can get drivers to start swerving earlier. While this plan works for a while, Shaw then decides to fire his weapon’s gun at the lead car. Roman is forced to slam on the brakes and starts getting sucked underneath the tank.
Dom, meanwhile is still in pursuit, but Shaw slows him down by firing at an upcoming bridge that stretches over the highway. Dom is, once again, able to barely escape the destruction. Meanwhile, with his car being slowly destroyed, Roman sneaks out of his window and attaches a cable from his car to the barrel of the tank. Brian, meanwhile, still on the other side of the highway, jumps his car high over an embankment and lands behind the tank – which Roman is now on top of. Roman then leaps from the tank to Brian’s car, and lands on the windshield safely.
The tank, meanwhile, is dragging Roman’s car as the road turns into an elevated highway. Dom calls to Brian that Roman’s car could be used as an effective anchor, and Brian starts to try knocking Roman’s car off of the side of the road. Realizing what the gang’s plan is, Shaw sends Letty out to the top of the tank to disengage the cable. Dom drives and gets even with the tank on the opposite side of the highway, and seeing Letty get to the top of the tank climbs on to the top of his own car. Just as Shaw is about to once again try and blast Dom’s car, Roman’s car wraps around a pole below the highway upending the tank. Letty goes flying in the air and Dom jumps towards her from his car…and then the scene cuts to the title card.
The scene is full of some seriously epic destruction and pretty great action that fans have come to expect from the franchise. But how will Dom and Letty survive their leap? What will happen to the rest of the crew? How will the gang take down Shaw and his merciless gang? We’ll just have to wait until May 24th to find out!
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