For Your (Re)Consideration: 20 Years Later, Paul Walker’s Legacy Stretches Beyond The Fast & Furious Franchise

In his near-30-year career, there's no denying that Paul Walker became a household name thanks to his tenure as Brian O'Conner in the Fast and Furious films, all before his untimely death in an automobile crash. However, his talents extended beyond the $7-plus billion franchise, whether bringing a soulfulness to the satirical Pleasantville, the tragedy of young men sent to war in Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers or a father fighting against all odds to protect his newborn in Hours.

But 20 years ago, Walker had one of the more unique months in his career in having two very different movies released: the intense, R-rated crime thriller Running Scared and Disney's moving survival drama Eight Below. While one is generally seen as being better than the other, particularly looking at their box office hauls, both films still stand out years later for showing just how good of a range the late actor had, and how versatile he could be when it came to the movies he starred in.

Walker's Electric Performance & Hyper-Stylized Direction Keep Running Scared Moving

Written and directed by Wayne Kramer after his breakout success with William H. Macy's The Cooler, Walker leads Running Scared as Joey Gazelle, a worker in the Perello Crime Family in New Jersey who, in the wake of a drug deal gone wrong, is tasked with disposing of a weapon involved in killing a corrupt police officer. When his 10-year-old neighbor takes the gun to protect himself against his abusive stepfather, and subsequently goes on the run, Joey's in a race against time to keep it from being tied back to his bosses, and prevent his own killing.

If there's one thing Running Scared can't be accused of, it's being dull, as Kramer almost never takes his foot off the pedal with both the movie's story and its visuals. The viewer never really gets a moment to catch their breath as both Joey and said neighbor, Cameron Bright's Oleg, find themselves in one harrowing situation after another.

Whether inadvertently helping a homeless person attempt to rob a local drug dealer, putting on their best poker face regarding the location of the missing gun, or getting in shootouts as a mob war looms on the horizon, the movie's 18-hour setting makes the most of its plot. Unfortunately, not much can be said about the originality of said plot, as Kramer seems more interested in keeping things moving without actually developing his characters in any interesting way, nor saying anything about the cultures he's exploring.

In addition to the story's lack of freshness, one of the other things that nearly derails Running Scared is simply how grim its world is. Clearly trying to emulate everyone from Quentin Tarantino to 48 Hrs.'s Walter Hill, almost everyone in the film feels as though they've chugged five cups of coffee before every scene, putting everyone on the verge of being caricatures rather than three-dimensional entities. Arguably the most egregious example is Karel Roden's Anzor, who is a bubbling kettle of drugged-up rage, but in a way that's all too excessive.

When the film isn't being carried by Kramer's remarkable sense of style or Jim Whitaker's eye as cinematographer, Running Scared's cast is doing a great job with their respective parts. Walker, shedding his emotional-yet-composed protagonist demeanor from the Fast and Furious films, showcases an astounding grip on energy, paranoia and devotion to those he cares about that it's a shame he never got the chance to take on more similar roles.

Vera Farmiga, now a scream queen thanks to her Conjuring Universe tenure, also gets the opportunity to be a proper force to reckon with in the film. She even arguably gets the best, and also one of the darkest, scenes of the 119-minute runtime as she tracks Oleg down to a husband-wife pair of child molesters, delivering the justice so few other characters do in the film.

For some, Running Scared might prove to be too dark and too exhausting a film to stomach, and with 20 years to reflect on, it's hard to deny certain elements haven't aged well. Efforts to be edgy and vulgar result in some colorful language that was already on its way out of being "acceptable" at the time, and its kinetic direction can only so much make up for a plot that starts to repeat itself in the second half. But with a cast doing their best, particularly Walker, and plenty of genuinely exciting setpieces, the film is still a woefully underrated gem in the late star's filmography.

Based on both the 1958 Japanese Antarctic research Expedition and the 1983 record-breaking Antarctica, Eight Below starred Walker as National Science Foundation Antarctic guide Jerry Shepard, who is in charge of a pack of sled dogs at a research base. After narrowly escaping a historic snow storm with an injured professor and the rest of his team, albeit at the expense of leaving his dogs behind, Shepard begins a months-long campaign to find help in rescuing them.

Disney's affinity for animals goes all the way back to their iconic mouse mascot, but their live-action work with them has always proven to have something of a shoddier track record. For every Homeward Bound and Secretariat giving them a legacy of heartwarming adventures, there's Snow Dogs and Tim Allen's Shaggy Dog to remind us that putting some cute animals in front of a camera doesn't necessarily make a good movie.

Which is where Eight Below, somewhat frustratingly, finds itself falling somewhere in the middle. Penned by future Terminal List franchise boss David DiGillio, the movie knows all the right beats to hit with its survival genre formula. From losing friends to the harsh elements of the Antarctic, to also overcoming deadly encounters thanks to the loyalty among the pack and last-minute escapes, DiGillio and director Frank Marshall knowingly deliver what viewers come to expect.

But it's also a shame that their efforts to keep a human element in the film with Walker's Shepard falls flat from the first montage of his failings to acquire funding to save the dogs from Antarctica. Barring one scene of his visiting the dogs' breeder, and having an emotional look back at their history together, it never feels like anything more than just padding and taking away from the more exciting adventure elements of the pack's survival.

Even more disappointing is that, while not completely terrible, Walker never feels like his performance is living up to the surprisingly excellent dog actors of Eight Below. Unlike Running Scared above, or even some of the Fast & Furious movies, it's almost as though Walker was told to go into each scene and hold back rather than fully let himself go. No more evident are some of his scenes with the dogs, particularly the climax, as his reaction to the fate of his pack is too subdued.

But it's a real blessing that Eight Below has so much going for it beyond Walker's underwhelming performance. The dogs themselves show more emotional range and scene presence than many actors today, Marshall's direction and cinematographer Don Burgess' visual stylings are magnificent, and, as familiar as it may be, it pulls all the right heartstrings to reduce any dog-lover to a puddle of tears.

After 20 years, both Eight Below and Running Scared may not live up to the same insane heights of the Fast and Furious franchise, but they still go a long way to showing how underutilized Paul Walker was in his career. The star had so much to give and was such a charming presence on screen that, when given more grounded material, he could make a meal out of his roles.