Why "Furious 7" Makes You Realise How Quickly Everything Can End - Live Your Best Life

There comes a time in your life where you’re feeling down at least one. No matter the circumstances, you need that shoulder to cry on. For me, suffering with my mental health on a severe scale in the last fifteen months has been my biggest challenge, but I’ve been inspired to live my best life from the moment I’ve hit restart.

Fast and Furious 7 - or Furious 7 as it’s known to fans of the franchise – is an example of why everyone should be living life to its absolute full, approaching no boundaries or obstacles. Furious 7, released in 2015, is notable for its remembrance to Paul Walker, primarily in the closing scenes. In 2013, news rocked the world that Walker had been tragically killed in a single car accident. At the age of just 40, Walker’s legacy lives on in the films.

In the closing scenes of the seventh instalment, the producers decided the best way to honour Walker would be to retire Walker’s character, Brian O’Conner. Speaking about the way the film ended, the director, James Wan, said "If they had gone down the other path [killing Walker’s character off], I think I would have refused to finish making this movie.” Instead, they retired O’Brien in “the most sincere and elegant way [they] could. We took a lot of care in crafting that last end sequence."

Fans of the actor know Walker starred in other films, but his heart was set on the Fast and Furious franchise with Vin Diesel. The closing sequence with O’Conner on the beach with his family shows just how touching the send off Walker got was. Whilst this scene has CGI used to close Walker’s chapter in the story, the expressions are still Walker, and you can notice how much the franchise meant to him, which then makes you teary because the love is real. He had everything set on those films.

The song “See You Again” by Wiz Khalifa, ft. Charlie Puth was commissioned for the film in honour of Walker. The second the song kicks in at the end of the film brings back all the nostalgia and how much on a huge scale Walker will be missed.

His dedication to the franchise meant he could make lifelong friends and make every second of them worth it. Personally, I believe Walker’s character was slightly underused in the franchise, but that’s not the point, because he loved what he was doing. You feel that from re-watching all the films. His passion is hard and strong, meaning he can create work that will go down immensely well with his fans.

Everything can be over within a matter of seconds, so you need to have your heart set on what you really love. Using my past as an example, when I was suffering with my mental health following a death in the family, I wanted to bring my life to a close. That’s what I had my heart set on. But that is not the way out. With the much-needed help from student wellbeing at my university, I managed to recover swiftly and set my dreams on what I love doing in my spare time. I’ve put my past behind me and set new goals for the future. I continue to write stories, I continue to make short films, but most importantly, I continue to make sure I’m living my best life.

Whether that’s owning your dream car, having a big house, being rich, or just living a happy and simple life, every second of your life counts. Treasure the people you’re close with and make those important memories. Life can be cruel. We don’t know what’s coming, and in Walker’s case, he was taken at a young age. However, with those crucial memories he made with the team on Fast and Furious, his iconic and admirable legacy continues on, even today.