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Fast & Furious: Letty Ortiz’s “Death” & Surprise Return Explained
Letty Oritz (Michelle Rodriguez) has become one of the most notable figures in The Fast Saga, and partially that's due to the fact that she's one of the franchises few characters to die and then return from the dead. Letty isn't just known for her demise and resurrection though; she's also famous for being one of the longest-running characters in The Fast Saga. She'll be one of only three characters in this summer's F9, alongside Dominic (Vin Diesel) and Mia Toretto (Jordana Brewster), to have originated in the franchises debut feature, The Fast and the Furious.
Save for a brief detour into villainy in Fast & Furious 6, Letty's personality across all nine titles has remained consistent. She's someone with expertise on automobiles, and she has a romantic history with Dominic Toretto. Perhaps her greatest evolution as a character is her being more hesitant about engaging in the perilous heists of The Fast and the Furious before becoming one of the most reliably gung-ho members of Dominic's crew by the time Furious 7 rolls around.
Also part of Letty's overall arc across the Fast & Furious films is her death and subsequent resurrection. Her shocking death transpires in the 2009 entry Fast & Furious, and the first hints of her return occur in 2011's Fast Five. But what happened to Letty?
Fast & the Furious begins with Dominic Toretto being forced to leave behind Letty in order to keep her safe from the police. Once in hiding, Toretto is informed by his sister that Letty has been murdered, forcing him to return to Los Angeles to find out who was responsible for Letty's death. It turns out that Letty was doing undercover work to take down a drug lord named Arturo Braga (John Oritz) in an attempt to get all charges cleared for Toretto.
It was a noble mission that got put to an abrupt end when Braga's right-hand man, Fenix Calderon (Laz Alonso), killed her. That seemed to be the end for Letty in the Fast & Furious movies until a post-credits scene for Fast Five saw Monica Fuentes (Eva Mendes) reveal to Luke Hobbs that Letty was actually alive. This revelation played a crucial role in the plot of Fast & Furious 6, which saw a resurrected Letty working for the film's primary antagonist, Owen Shaw (Luke Evans). The final cut of the film only briefly deals with the details of how she managed to survive, with Shaw, who apparently had connections to Braga, noting that he found Letty near-death and afterward recruited her for his team.
Letty's willingness to work for evildoers can be chalked up to how, after her near-death experience, she was suffering from amnesia. This meant she had no problem following the orders of Shaw and trying her best to kill former allies like Dominic Toretto and Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker). Eventually, after Letty and Toretto engage in a street race as well as Toretto saving Letty during a tank chase scene, Letty leaves Owen Shaw's criminal racket and rejoins her old friends. Though the status quo was restored by the end of Fast & Furious 6, the ripple effects of Letty's death and resurrection played a part in future installments. Letty's subsequent struggles with trying to re-enter her old life despite her fractured memories is the center of a subplot in Furious 7. Meanwhile, Dominic's brief turn to the dark side in The Fate of the Furious mirrors Letty's own momentary lapse into evil in Fast & Furious 6.
The Fast Saga will undoubtedly include more of Letty's story as Michelle Rodriguez is confirmed to return in F9. With her death and resurrection behind her, F9's trailer begins with Dom and Letty living a comfortable domestic life before the events of the film upend that tranquility.
F9/Fast & Furious 9 (2020)
Release Date: May 22, 2020
