Yes, those are a bunch of cars driving off a plane!
The trailers are already out, and Furious 7, the seventh iteration of the popular Fast & Furious franchise, is all set for a April 3, 2015 release. If you’ve already devoured the trailers, there’s one action sequence in particular, where all the heroes drive off into nothingness , as their cars with them inside plummet earth-wards, after being parachuted out of an airplane.
A Dodge Challenger dangling around on a parachute – cute!
For those of you who pegged the whole spectacle as computer generated, here’s the deal – you’re wrong, the producers actually dropped the fleet of tuned cars from the back of an airborne Lockheed C-130 Hercules military transport aircraft, and then had it filmed! A new behind the scenes just clarifies that.
The Challenger being air-dropped during filming.
According to stunt coordinators Andy and Jack Gill, the cars jumped off the airplane at around 12,000 feet with the parachutes opening at about 5,000 feet. Three camera flyers and a helicopter captured shots of the vehicles, as they were free-falling at a speed of around 130 to 140mph (~ 209 to 225 km/h). Watch the behind the scenes video below: