Universal PicturesIt's crazy talk, how Paul Walker has been gone for two years.
We just saw him reprise his most famous role, cop turned member of a close-knit underground-racing-and-crime-syndicate-busting team Brian O'Conner, in Furious 7. The humanitarian aid foundation he founded carries on in his name, his brothers look just like him, he had a teenage daughter who is helping to keep his memory alive, legal repercussions from the fatal crash that killed him and a friend exactly two years ago today continue to play out...
For so many reasons, Walker still feels very much with us.
If you're most familiar with him because of his most iconic character, you've probably seen all five of the Fast & Furious films he was in. Perhaps you already own the whole set and are feeling excited about the bittersweet news that the gang will be pressing on in an eighth film.
But Walker, who never wanted to limit himself in the acting department, left behind a long list of credits—and what better time than now to to acquaint yourself with more of his work?
Charming, intense and relentlessly handsome, Paul Walker always brought a certain something, and here are his movies that you can watch right this minute on Netflix:
Varsity Blues: One of Walker's breakout roles was playing Texas high school quarterback and Big Man on Campus Lance Harbor, whose season-ending injury paves the way for James Van Der Beek's second-stringer-turned-reluctant-football-star Mox to remind his father that he doesn't want his life. They play royal-fanfare-reminiscent music when Walker first appears onscreen to indicate just how much of a big deal he is in his small town. (Moreover, there are just so many excellent reasons to watch—or re-watch—this cult classic, Paul is icing on the cake.)
Brick Mansions: In what turned out to be his penultimate film, Walker is a cop ensnared in a corrupt system in a Detroit that's under martial law and all hell is breaking loose. So our hero teams up with ex-con Lino to take their city back from the drug lord and associated creeps who've been controlling the streets. "I handle what needs handling," he promises before going undercover to outsmart the baddies.
Timeline: Walker's Chris Johnston is the ridiculously good-looking son of an archaeology professor who's been sucked into a wormhole, and Chris joins some of his fellow students (including, of course, the girl he's crushing on) on a mission to locate his father in France circa 1357. Apparently no one is troubled by the idea of the butterfly effect in the fun sci-fi romp, based on the Michael Crichton book of the same name. (There's also a hell of a supporting cast, including David Thewlis, Gerard Butler, Michael Sheen, Billy Connelly, Anna Friel and Frances O'Connor.)
Vehicle 19: If you wish there were more moments to cherish of Walker behind the wheel, then check him out as an ex-con who rents a car that ensnares him in all sorts of dangerous intrigue. He could, of course, just call the cops—if only they weren't the criminals in this case...
So, you can stream one or all of these today in honor of the late actor, who was gone before his time but left a legacy—onscreen and off—that we can continue to appreciate for years to come.