A habit is spreading in blockbuster cinema that takes on bizarre proportions. Characters that are actually 100 percent dead keep coming back just like that. The explanations are mostly flimsy. In Star Wars 9, for example, “somehow” has to suffice. Somehow Palpatine has returned. The master of this discipline has been the Fast and Furious series since May 17, 2023 at the latest.
On this day, Fast & Furious 10 started in the cinemas and surprised with an almost unbelievable afterlife return. And it was FAR from the first medically and anatomically questionable CPR of its kind. We go through the series’ three extremely brazen death comebacks and end by asking what that actually does to the meaning of death in the franchise. Spoilers: nothing good. Spoiler 2: Don’t read any further if you haven’t seen Fast 10 yet.
The three most bizarre death comebacks in the Fast and Furious series
Fast & Furious 10 – Open Road Trailer (English) HD
Fast and Furious Death 1: Letty
Universal
letty
how died Letty Ortiz (Michelle Rodriguez) died in Fast & Furious: New Model. original parts. and her death is one of the strangest decisions of the series. Killing one of the original characters without real need always seemed odd. Letty survived a car explosion.
How returned? Letty is back in Fast & Furious 6. Dom found out about it in the end credits scene of Fast & Furious Five. Letty lost her memory and all memories of Dom and her past life. She joined the organization of Fast 6 villain Owen Shaw. Dom, however, gets Letty, how could it be otherwise, to fall in love with him again. And in Fast & Furious 7 she gets all her memories back. Ah!
Fast and Furious Death 2: Han
Universal
Han
how died Han (Sung Kang) dies in a shocking scene in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. An anonymous car crashes into him. Pretty senseless, but a death couldn’t be clearer. Han should never have escaped his fate under the current laws of nature and film. Actually.
Han’s death is an important part of near-mythology. We learn as the series progresses that Tokyo Drift takes place chronologically after Fast 6, although the former was released seven years earlier. That’s the only way Han could get back into the story at all. Former villain Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) is revealed in Fast 6 as Han’s killer.
How returned? In Fast & Furious 9, fan favorite Han is surprisingly back. We learn: Han only faked his death. Han’s girlfriend Gisele (Gal Gadot) worked for the mysterious Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell). After Gisele’s death (yes, we’ll get to her in a bit) Nobody contacted her grieving boyfriend Han. Han was given the task of protecting the secret behind Project Aries: the little girl Elle. The prerequisite for this was that he faked his death.
Fast and Furious Death 3: Gisele
Universal
Gisele
how died In Fast 6, Gisele dies in the legendary chase on the 100-kilometer runway. She falls out of the moving plane. She could never survive that and consequently she was missing in the next 3 parts of the franchise.
How returned? In Fast 10, Gisele literally reappears: together with a nuclear submarine. She smiles happily at Cipher (Charlize Theron) and Letty from the sub’s door. We don’t yet know exactly how she survived her accident and why she didn’t get in touch with the “family” for years. This story may also have something to do with Mr. Nobodoy.
Death in the Fast line no longer has any meaning and that’s a problem
Explosions, collisions with cars, falls from a plane at about 150 kilometers per hour: In Fast and Furious, the main characters can apparently survive any fate if the script wants it that way. Or Vin Diesel needs another top star with franchise stable smell in his blockbuster. The problem: From this arbitrariness in dealing with death or mortal danger creates an emotional vacuum. A vacuum that is particularly damaging to an action film that thrives on stunt thrills.
Now lots of quotation marks: Do you remember the “death” of John Cenas Jacob in Fast 10? He “dies” in an explosion on the Autobahn in the finale. He says a few emotional parting words and in any other franchise his death would be final as well. But not in Fast and Furious. If John Cena is really dead in Fast 11, I’ll drink a liter of gas.