Furious 7: Which Brian O’Conner Scenes Weren’t Paul Walker

After Paul Walker tragically died in 2013 during the filming of Furious 7, the team faced the difficult task of giving Walker’s character, Brian O’Conner, a proper send-off from the franchise. Indeed, Walker’s Fast and Furious role has come to define the vast majority of the action, crime, and street racing movie saga.

Producer Neal Moritz said that in the immediate aftermath of Walker’s death, they were so lost that they thought they would have to cancel the movie, but instead, its ending had to be changed. In November 2013, while in Santa Clarita, CA, for a fundraiser, Walker met up with his business partner, race car driver Roger Rodas. Walker and Rodas went for a drive in a Porsche Carrera GT, but the ride ended in tragedy with Walker losing his life.

Although he had finished most of his on-camera work for Furious 7, Walker’s death meant that the film ultimately had to be rewritten to explain why Brian wouldn’t be in future sequels. This led to the scenes where Walker’s brother came in to complete Brian’s story in Furious 7. Since that movie’s release, Brian has shown up in later movies, also using scenes with his brother and unused footage from past films, to keep his character alive in Walker’s memory.

Every Brian O’Conner Scene That Was Not Paul Walker

Visual effects company Weta Digital was brought in to help with rounding out the performance that Walker had already given. It was no small task, as the effects company had to create 350 digital shots with Brian at the center. The scenes ranged from action-packed to more subtle, meaning a range of techniques would be necessary. To pull it off, Weta relied on an archive of footage and outtakes from Walker’s previous Fast Saga performances — and his brothers.

Combined with the actor’s work from the entirety of Fast and Furious, Paul Walker’s brother role-played scenes as Brian to provide templates for Weta. With Walker’s two brothers, Caleb and Cody, and actor John Brotherton serving as body doubles, Weta CGI artists were able to digitally overlay Walker’s face and create a convincing performance. These are some of the scenes that pay tribute to Paul Walker/Brian O’Conner’s Fast Saga legacy:

What Was The Hardest Brian Scene To Recreate Without Paul Walker?

Brian, standing with the rest of the crew, was particularly hard to render digitally because it involved a close-up of his face as he turned to Dom. However, the shot worked well enough that it was later used for marketing materials, including the poster for Furious 7. Another challenging scene for the Furious 7 VFX team was the one where Brian holds up a hard drive. Brian was tangling with the idea of leaving the fast life behind for his family, and the digital rendering of the late actor had to showcase that in his facial performance.

All told, the company’s employees did the best they could with CGI Paul Walker, digitally rendering him in a way that honored the actor’s legacy in the Fast and Furious franchise and the arc of Brian. The final sequence, though, carries the most emotional weight as it serves as Walker’s goodbye as Brian. Dom and the family are looking on as Brian, Mia, and their son are frolicking near the beach water.

Dom gets up to leave without saying goodbye, but Brian follows him in his own car, catching up at a stop sign. The two share a look one last time, and the film ends with Brian and Dom going their separate ways as the road takes them to their next destination. In the end, the results of creating a CGI Paul Walker for finishing the film were met with varying degrees of success. Consequently, Wan refused to comment on which of Walker’s performances were real and which weren’t. He commented (via SlashFilm):

“It’s very important that people go into this movie not fixated on trying to work out which is Paul, which isn’t Paul. I want them to just watch the movie and enjoy the film and be caught up in the emotion of it all.”

While that final digital shot may flirt with the uncanny valley, Furious 7 does give Walker’s character a worthy send-off in 2015.

Brian O’Conner’s Return In Fast & Furious Explained

F9 cleverly avoided all the problems associated with CGI by putting a different spin on Paul Walker’s Fast and Furious return. Walker’s character, Brian, does not appear at all in the movie, but it’s clear that he’s driving the blue 1999 Nissan Skyline GT-R that shows up at Dom’s house in the final scene.

Prior to this, Dom notices an empty chair at their table during a barbecue, and Mia tells Dom that the last guest will be arriving shortly. Considering Brian’s love of Nissans — and the context of the situation before his car appeared – it was undoubtedly Brian O’Conner behind the wheel.

This was a much less risky way of bringing Paul Walker’s Brian back. Moreover, in a franchise that has grown more over-the-top as time goes on, this was a highly refreshing and surprising dose of subtlety, which served as an emotional tribute to Walker’s character as well. Indeed, Brian was such a powerful and foundational force in The Fast Saga that he didn’t even really need to appear in F9 in order to make a convincing return.

How Brian O’Conner Returns In Fast X

In Fast X, Brian O’Conner returns to the franchise, but only in glimpses of the past. The movie opens in a flashback to the moments just before Dom and Brian’s infamous vault heist from Fast Five, with Hernan Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida) introducing his son and new franchise villain, Dante Reyes (Jason Momoa).

This time, Paul Walker’s Fast and Furious character is once again rendered in CGI — but only in brief moments of action, allowing Fast X to avoid the uncanny valley effect entirely. As the flashback heist from F5 commences, it’s revealed that Dom and Brian actually made their worst enemy on that day, with Dante seeking revenge for his father’s death throughout Fast X.

Vin Diesel has confirmed that Fast 11 is in the cards and that they’re considering turning Fast X into a full trilogy, meaning that the last movie in the franchise could actually be Fast 12. It will be interesting to see how the franchise can give Brian a proper send-off if he is to appear again in the next one or two movies.

Brian’s Future In Fast & Furious

The way Furious 7 handled the death of Paul Walker was met with critical acclaim. However, as the franchise has continued, the absence of Brian O’Conner has become increasingly obvious and distracting. The movies continue to reference the character, confirming he is still around and a part of the characters’ lives. However, there are always flimsy excuses about why he is not around, despite the fact that his loved ones are constantly in danger.

Fast Forever is the end of the franchise, at least on the big screen, and the movie will attempt to honor the character and Walker’s role in the franchise before it is over. There is almost no chance that the franchise kills Brian in the final movie, since that would be a disappointment, and it would likely cause a major backlash that would damage that film’s success. There is no way to bring Brian back other than the small appearances and mentions in the last few movies.

Fast Forever hits theaters on March 17, 2028, which will be just under five years since Fast X hit theaters. This will mark the end of the franchise, other than the Peacock TV shows Vin Diesel said were in the works. There have also been strong rumors that Universal wants the budget cut on the final movie and wants to limit the characters, meaning the “family” that Vin Diesel promotes so much might get limited appearances.

Considering the cost of special effects in Hollywood, there is little chance that Universal will add a lot of CGI shots of Brian, and there is even less of a chance that Diesel himself would want to limit the rest of his cast to accommodate the nostalgia of seeing Brian back on the screen one last time. This means that the franchise will almost surely do something like what happened at the end of F9, with Brian’s car delivering the final moment the character deserves. The Fast & Furious franchise can end with that last happy moment before riding into the sunset.

Release Date

April 3, 2015

Runtime

139 minutes

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  Paul Walker

  Brian O’Conner