“Fast and Furious” and the ‘magic’ in the script of a saga that kills and revives characters

To keep a saga alive after more than two decades, writers sometimes have to juggle history and that is why in famous movies we see inexplicable twists in the script. The franchise of “Fast and furious” has not been the exception. The plot led by Dominic Toretto, played by Vin Diesel, has ended and returned from death to a couple of characters, such as Letty (Michelle Rodríguez), in the blink of an eye. Now that the production returns this May 18 with “Fast X”, its new installment, we wonder if we will see more of this “movie magic” again. Here our review of some inconsistencies in the history of “Fast & Furious”.

Letty by Michelle Rodriguez

The first appearance of the young Letty Ortiz in “Fast and Furious” was in the debut of the saga that hit theaters in 2001. The character played by actress Michelle Rodríguez (United States; 1978) is the childhood crush of Dom Toretto (Diesel) and got involved from a very young age in illegal racing for his partner.

This is how he becomes a fundamental piece for the team and ends up being a participant in each of the robberies; and, consequently, of each “achievement” obtained. For the fourth “Fast and Furious” movie in 2009, and when the public had already become fond of this character, Letty offered to immerse herself in the mission of exposing Arturo Braga (John Ortiz) for the FBI. Once she has finished her work, she attempts to return to her family, but is chased by Braga’s henchman, Fénix Calderón (Laz Alonso), and ends up wrecking her car. At the end of that installment, the production implies that Ortiz has died in the explosion of the vehicle, but they do not show his body; an old trick of scriptwriters in case they “need” to open a closed story.

When both Dominic Torreto’s team and the fans of the saga thought that Michelle Rodríguez’s participation as Letty had ended there, the writers of “Fast and Furious” chose to bring her back from death in the sixth installment, released in 2013. Although , director Justin Lin’s real plan was for his death to be permanent, but that changed during filming. “I felt like it was the right decision for the movie, but, at the same time, I was punishing myself by saying, ‘Oh man, I love her so much. It’s great to work with her,’” Lin told Entertainment Weekly.

Rodríguez’s character returned for “Fast and Furious 6” and the production explained that he had not died in the car explosion; Rather, she managed to escape from the car, but she suffered amnesia from the accident and was admitted to the hospital. At that time, she is recruited by Owen Shaw (Luke Evans) to finish off Dominic Toretto’s team, whom the young woman does not remember as her partner. For the sixth film of 2013, Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson), an agent of the Diplomatic Security Service, confesses to Dom and his team that Letty is alive. The rest is history because, after recovering her memory, Rodríguez’s character is -again- in the family.

Han Seoul-Oh by Sung Kang

The 2006 film “Fast and Furious: Tokyo Challenge” was the introduction of Han Seoul-Oh, played by actor Sung Kang, in this action-packed cinematic universe. Thanks to his wealth, this character is able to buy cars and modify them in his garage to make them more powerful. It is so that he is involved in illegal racing in the city of Tokyo (Japan).

However, his life is put in danger when he is confronted with Takashi (Brian Tee), the nephew of Kamata (Sonny Chiba), a member of the Yakuza association, over the money he has been secretly stealing from his uncle. Finding an opportunity to escape, he takes a car and is chased through the streets of Tokyo until he crashes into another car and his car ends up exploding. From there, it is presumed that the character had died. But the writers had another plan.

The great return of Han Seoul-Oh occurred in “F9”, the ninth installment of “Fast and Furious” released in 2021. Despite the fact that he was presumed dead for years, since the third film “Tokyo Challenge”, the character returned after surviving Deckard Shaw’s (Jason Statham) evil plan involving his death.

In this new installment, Han revealed that it had been Frank Petty ´Mr. Nobody’, played by Kurt Russell, who had helped him fake his death from the world and kept him hidden to keep him alive. However, the production did not bother to go into details and there were still some doubts among the followers, such as the plan to escape from his car before the explosion. Meanwhile, only in the ninth “Fast and Furious” movie, Han was able to reappear.

After Dominic Toretto’s team finds out that he is alive, they send Mia Toretto (Jordana Brewster) and Letty to gather information. It is there where this key piece joins the group again and gets involved in this life full of adrenaline again.

Entering the great villain of “Fast X”, we cannot say that the writers ‘revived’ him, but they did do some magic to include him in the plot starring Vin Diesel. To fully understand the incorporation of Jason Momoa’s character, Dante, we must go back to “Fast and Furious 5”.

In this installment of the million-dollar “Fast and Furious” franchise, set in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Dominic Toretto (Diesel) and Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) embark on a mission, together with their team, to steal a vault that keeps 100 million dollars, which belong to the corrupt businessman Hernán Reyes.

Looking back at the vault robbery scene, you realize that by adding a couple of shots to the scene, the team did a good job of fitting Dante into the story. In the original sequence, the duo is only seen to remove the vault from the location; but, in the trailer for “Fast X”, we realize that Dante was in the same room and witnessed the robbery.

Meanwhile, during the police pursuit of Toretto and O’Conner, the duo see that they probably won’t be able to get out of that situation; so Dom makes a radical decision and will face alone the agents who followed his steps. Although, as movie magic is capable of anything, the protagonist is capable of taking down each of the patrols. Until the most important moment arrives: defeating Hernán Reyes and his henchmen.

This would be the second appearance that Jason Momoa would have had in “Fast and Furious 5” (if his character had really been planned for that participation). Dante was allegedly the driver of the second Reyes vehicle that had a shooter, who was shooting at Toretto’s car. But, Dom is not easy to beat and the villains’ cars end up getting knocked over. When Dante’s vehicle falls into the water, in the original installment, the scene is cut. But, bringing back the trailer for “Fast X”, we see that the character is at the bottom of the river, but he doesn’t die.

Dominic Toretto. You are about to learn all about fear. You have built such a beautiful life full of love and family. I never had that opportunity. You stole it from me. My future. My family. And now I’m going to break yours. Piece by piece”is the first thing Dante says in the trailer, which sounds like a blunt threat against the “Fast and Furious” family.

Gisele from Gal Gadot

Gal Gadot’s first appearance as Gisele Yashar occurred in “Fast and Furious 4” in 2009. This character was a drug dealer and messenger for Arturo Braga who, despite being an enemy at first, manages to become an ally Dominic Toretto and his family in “Fast and Furious: 5in Control” (2011).

She manages to fit in perfectly with the team thanks to her driving skills and aiming with weapons. Love would also be an important factor for Gisele, who begins a relationship with Han Lue (Sung Kang). And, when the public thought that she had a great future ahead of her in the franchise, the tragic end of her came.

In “Fast and Furious 6” (2013), Gisele dropped from the plane in the well-remembered scene on the runway to prevent her partner Han from being killed by Owen Shaw’s (Luke Evans) shooters. This death shocked the public. Since then, the public awaits her return. And, this is more of a possibility than a certainty; but the return of the actress Gal Gadot with the character of Gisele to “Fast X” has been strongly commented. The trailer gives us a first clue with the appearance of the photograph of her in the famous room that Dante (Momoa) has with the face of the entire Dominic Toretto family.

In case the production has decided to “return to life” this beloved character from “Fast and Furious”, how would you do it? We have a few theories, but the strongest is that, in the same vein as his then-Han couple, he was helped to fake his death and keep himself safe in secret. Again, Mr. Nobody could have something to do with it.

THE BONUS

Brian O’Conner by Paul Walker

The actor Paul Walker began the journey of “Fast and Furious” since 2001 with his partner and great friend Vin Diesel. Brian O’Conner’s character captivated fans of the saga and thinking of the story without his participation was not possible. Until 2013 arrived.

On the afternoon of November 30 of that year, the world heard the news that the actor had lost his life, ironically, in a terrible car accident in the city of Santa Clarita, California (United States). The Porsche Carrera GT in which he was traveling as co-driver caught fire after coming out of a corner and colliding with a power pole and a tree.

His death also occurred while the production of “Fast and Furious” was still filming the seventh film, which would later be turned into a tribute to Brian O’Conner’s character. After the film’s release in 2015, audiences learned that Dominic Toretto’s best friend hadn’t actually died in the film; rather, the production had left an open ending for him. Precisely, so that he can “return” at any time. And it seems that that time has come.

“Fast X” director Louis Leterrier has confirmed that Paul Walker’s Brian O’Conner will be ‘in’ for the saga finale. “This film jumps back and forth, between the past and the present. You will see Brian in the past, you will not see Brian in the present. It is something that everyone has to agree with. The Walker family continues to be a very important part of this franchise,” the filmmaker told TotalFilm.

For his part, Vin Diesel also told the outlet that he can’t imagine “the end of this saga without really saying goodbye to Brian O’Conner.” “I will say you just have to look at where we are in the world, where technology is flying so fast that we don’t have a moment to consider the ramifications or the implications of how our future might be affected by it, and imagine what Toretto’s philosophy would be. . If you think of a car as representing freedom, the antithesis of that is AI: it’s driverless cars. Somewhere out there will be the contrasting themes, the philosophies that will be at war in this finale.” Also, keep an eye on the data, Brian’s car appears in the trailer for “Fast X”, so let’s wait for how this character will be included in the tenth installment of the saga.

SEE MORE ON SKIP INTRO INSTAGRAM