A tribute to Paul Walker video went up online yesterday at the Fast & Furious YouTube channel. The video, which is set to Diddy-Dirty Money (featuring Skylar Grey)’s "Coming Home," pays tribute to Walker using scenes from the Fast & Furious franchise to celebrate the actor, who passed away last weekend in a tragic car accident.
While we speculate over the fate of the Fast and Furious franchise in the wake of Paul Walker’s death, it’s still difficult to believe that Walker’s really gone. But the above tribute does a very nice job of honoring the actor and in particular, his involvement in the F&F movies, beginning with the first film when his character Brian was a law enforcer looking to infiltrate a group of street racers in an effort to investigate a wave of crimes. The tribute begins with one of Brian’s most amusing moments, as we see him tell Vin Diesel’s Dominic Toretto, "Dude, I almost had you." This took place after Brian did manage to get ahead of Dominic in a street race, only to eventually fall behind when his car started to fall apart. Anyone who remembers the film well knows Dominic’s response was "You almost had me? You never had me! You never had your car…" And after explaining everything Brian did wrong, he goes on to explain that "winning’s winning," whether it’s by an inch or a mile.
That scene and what came later was the start of a friendship that turned to brotherhood for Brian and Dominic, and it carried on through to the later films. There really was a great chemistry between the two characters, and between Diesel and Walker on screen.
From there, the video pays tribute to other happier moments in the movies, and it's the uplifting tone that I think works best, as it seems to look back at Walker with a smile. One of the things I always thought worked best about the F&F films was the family element and the closeness of the characters. That comes through nicely in the tribute video, which includes this caption:
A Tribute to Paul Walker. Paul Walker's family appreciates the outpouring of love and goodwill from his many fans and friends. They have asked, in lieu of flowers or other gifts, that donations please be made to Paul's charity Reach Out Worldwide (ROWW). Donations can easily be made through their website at http://www.ROWW.org/.
Once again, we’re sending our thoughts out to Walker’s friends and family in their time of loss.
Here’s a look at that scene from The Fast and the Furious (Contains adult language!)
