Small Arms of Furious 7

Ever since the movie came out in theaters, I’ve been waiting to buy it and take copious amounts of screen shots in order to make this post. Well, the movie was released on the 15th to the general public for paid download, you can go buy it yourself here at Google Play. Anyways, I’m the typical gun guy when it comes to action movies, always criticizing and calling everything out that is wrong with the small arms present. Although there was a lot completely off and unrealistic about the small arms in Furious 7, there actually was a lot of stuff right. In addition to a lot of detail that went into them and making the movie come alive, from a small arms perspective. If you want to get into some real detail, go check out the Internet Movie Firearms Database entry for Furious 7. There is also an excellent behind the scenes write up of the armorers from the movie, and some of the details from Range 365 blog. From their post-

“Even though we’re seven movies in, we do a lot of research and have a lot of contacts with different law-enforcement agencies,” said Fencl. “We want to make sure we use the proper gear.

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We try to get items that will please the audience, will flow well, and that will function flawlessly with all the various stunt sequences. We also need the guns and other gear to make sense for the period, the geography, and the background of the characters,” said DeLouche. “And, with Paul Walker, it had to pass his quality control. Paul was an accomplished shooter and tactician. He handpicked every item for himself.” (Walker died in a car accident on November 30, 2013.)

Given that this film is the seventh in in the series, you expect to see at least some familiar faces. I asked if the same could be said for the guns.

“Yes,” said DeLouche. “Hobbs’ (Dwayne Johnson, also known as The Rock) Smith & Wesson Model 629 custom .44 Magnum is back and it has a one-of-a-kind holster. We built it ourselves using two different Safariland holsters. But Vin (Diesel) always gets a bigger, better shotgun.”

Anyone who is fan of the series will recognize Hobbs’ gun from previous films. But there are some new guns in the film as well. Walker’s character has seen some significant changes from his days as an FBI agent.

“Paul transitioned from Sig 226s and Glock 22s to a S&W 1911 E-series for his carry piece, fitted with Crimson Trace’s excellent laser grips,” said DeLouche. “Though he also uses a Sig (taken from a bad guy), he carries a backup Glock 23 in a chest rig, and a Glock 18 in a drop-leg. For the final battle we see him prep an LMT custom AR .308, and an H&K MP5K.

The biggest thing that jumped out at me from the movie, is the sheer amount of Magpul product placement that just took place throughout. To the point of one of the bad guy characters having a tactical vest, filled with Pmags, while using a G36, which are completely incompatible (the company does make G36 compatible Pmags, but those aren’t in the film). There were Magpul components on rifles and shotguns almost everywhere. If Magpul itself had a hand in this, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised at all. Ops Core also had alot of product placement in the movie whenever it came to gear. However the one thing I did find really neat was that all of Paul Walkers guns were personally chosen by him, and weren’t simply assigned to him as a prop.