Cinemazlowski Paul Walker's legacy lives on in his charities, latest film

Apr 10, 2015

Last weekend, while most of us Catholics were focused on Easter weekend and the three most holy days of the year, the movie “Furious 7” – the seventh movie in the “Fast and the Furious” series of action movies - was breaking records at the box office. While seemingly just an action film filled with two hours of mayhem involving fast cars, explosions and the race to control a microchip that could create the most powerful surveillance system on the planet, the movie resonates with viewers on a deeper level for several reasons.

The most obvious reason is that the series’ costar, Paul Walker, died in 2013 during the making of the film as he and a friend took a wild joyride in a car that burst into flames, killing them almost instantly. It was initially easy to label this as merely reckless behavior and scoff at the 40-year-old Walker for having engaged in such reckless behavior, but then a deeper picture of the man emerged – with an Entertainment Weekly reporter writing that Walker was the most genuinely decent star they had met in the 15 years of their writing career.

It turned out that Walker was a devout Christian who was deeply involved in charitable activities that went far beyond writing donation checks and showing up for attention on red carpets. He founded the charity Reach Out Worldwide (ROWW), a disaster relief organization that was designed to cut through the usual red tape and help rush urgent care to the people suffering from the devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti.

In the three years between ROWW’s founding and Walker’s death in 2013 (the charity still goes strong today), it sent medical teams to Indonesia after the 2010 tsunami, and sent an entire crew of workers to lead the clean-up in Alabama after it was devastated by tornadoes. In fact, Walker bought $15,000 in power tools himself and then had his friends drive his own pickup truck from California to Alabama filled with even more tools.

Another hotspot for ROWW help was the Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan, the largest storm ever recorded. And Walker was also training to become a paramedic, with thoughts of giving up acting in the next few years to save lives for a living.

These are surprisingly deep involvements for a Hollywood actor in his prime, and Walker further showed strong character as a deeply involved father to an unexpected daughter he fathered at age 25. But these concerns and actions fit in with the surprisingly deep ethos that underpins the “Fast and Furious” film series- especially those from the fourth film on.

It was in that 4th film, 2009’s “Fast & Furious”, that the series’ other main star, Vin Diesel, demanded a greater say in the writing and direction of the movies in the series. And with that insistence came a stronger emotional subtext to the movies, as the gang emphasized just how much the other members were like family to them.

There was also a strong element of faith and prayer that got heightened in the last four films, as Diesel’s character Dominic Toretto, frequently wears a crucifix (in fact, a crucifix in the newest film is a key plot point) and leads his family and friends in sincere prayers before meals. It’s refreshing to see a team of bone-crunching, speed demon all-American heroes can also be shown as people of faith who draw more strength from that than from their perceived coolness.

There’s not much else out worth seeing this month of April, all the way until the release of the new “Avengers” movie on May 1. Action movie fans will have a blast with the latest “Furious” movie, but the rest of us who want to see people of prayer portrayed positively in Hollywood will find plenty to be happy here.

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