With Furious 7 just days from theaters, CineFix’s 8-Bit Cinema team is taking us back to the beginning of the series and distilling the story down to the visual and contextual basics. Turning the whole film into a 3-minute racing scroller turns out to be pretty much enough to get the gist of the whole movie.

The video obviously takes some cues from classic racing games of the past like F-Zero, Pole Position and Out Run. CineFix even dipped into a bit of 16-bit magic to make the chase scenes really pop. With the cast as large as it is now, it’s hard to believe the film initially revolved around Paul Walker’s undercover cop Brian and Vin Diesel’s character Groot Dom.

In all honesty, I hadn’t gone back to revisit the original TF&TF since I saw it in theaters eons ago, so much like the 8-Bit Walking Dead recap a few weeks ago, it was a nice refresher. The only missing component in the 8-/16-Bit version is the over-the-top train scene towards the end. Other than that, the pared-down dialog windows in the video are pretty great. Rather than going for direct quotes, CineFix gives us shortened blurbs more in line with the theme of a racing game. [“Mia, noooooo.”]

Speaking of Mia, Jordana Brewster will forever hold a special place in my heart thanks to The Faculty. I know she’s had success in a number of things including the Fast & Furious film series, but seriously, how great was The Faculty?? If you haven’t seen it, do yourself a justice and watch it. It’s a great angsty-teen-horror flick with a pre-Frodo Elijah Wood, a rebellious turn by Penny Dreadful‘s Josh Hartnett and some moody business by the awesome Clea Duvall.

Furious 7 releases nationwide in 3D and 2D this Friday, April 3rd.