Hobbs And Shaw Explains How Every Fast And Furious Character Can Come Back From The Dead
This article contains light spoilers for "Fast X."
When 2019's "Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw" was first announced, it seemed like a way for Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson to pull a fast one on the franchise that he was previously part of only as a member of the ensemble. With this spin-off film, it appeared that Johnson was making a bid to move his character of DSS Agent Luke Hobbs into his own multi-movie franchise — and, as extra insurance, he brought reformed "Furious 7" villain Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) along with him.
Though that may have indeed been the idea behind the conception of "Hobbs & Shaw," the movie proved itself to be firmly entrenched within the "Fast & Furious" franchise in many ways. For one, the film features Hobbs, Shaw, and others performing incredible feats of strength and insanity in and out of various vehicles. For another, the plot involves the characters' extended families, from Hobbs' estranged brother Jonah (Cliff Curtis) to Shaw's MI6 Agent sister, Hattie (Vanessa Kirby).
Most interestingly, however, the movie involved a techno-terrorism organization as its antagonist, a shady cabal called Eteon, represented by the villainous Brixton Lore (Idris Elba). Not only did this continue the "Fast" series' penchant for including sci-fi-style tech in its stories, it also provided a new supervillain-esque Big Bad for the "Fast" universe. While neither "F9" nor "Fast X" explicitly make reference to the events of "Hobbs & Shaw," it's highly possible that the franchise might utilize some of the Eteon tech established in the movie as a way of explaining just how in the hell characters in the series keep managing to come back from the dead.
The tech in 'Hobbs & Shaw' is responsible for bringing Elba's character back from the dead
The main reason why the Eteon tech in "Hobbs & Shaw" might be employed in a future "Fast" film to bring certain characters back to life is that it's precisely what happens in "Hobbs & Shaw." Well, in a flashback/backstory capacity, anyhow.
In the film, it's explained that Eteon is part shadowy, well-financed organization, part creepy cult, with its ethos involving a general apathy toward humanity shared by every member. That's why the major MacGuffin in "Hobbs & Shaw" is a programmable deadly super virus named "Snowflake," as it's a tech-bio-weapon that Eteon doesn't want for ransom purposes, but genuinely intends to use.
It's revealed that Brixton, once an MI6 agent who served alongside Shaw, eventually became disillusioned with humankind and various government organizations over the course of his career. Successfully recruited by Eteon, he was given a mandate by their mysterious leader (whose identity we may never discover) to recruit Shaw as well, only Shaw refused and fired a bullet directly into Lore's head.
Where such a thing would have killed any regular person outside of the "Fast & Furious" universe, Brixton was subsequently patched up by Eteon's sci-fi tech in a big way. Not only resurrected, he was also given various cybernetic implants, enhancements, and artificial limbs, turning him into a more-human-than-human cyborg in a very "Universal Soldier" fashion.
There are a few catches to becoming, in Lore's words, "Black Superman," however. For one, Hobbs and Shaw are able to defeat him by working as a team and attacking him in ways too unpredictable for Lore's predictive software to counter. For another, upon being defeated, Lore is murdered thanks to a kill switch that was implanted inside his brain at the time of his resurrection. Eteon giveth, and Eteon apparently taketh away!
What's going on at the Agency?
In "F9," the previously-thought-dead Han (Sung Kang) is revealed to have faked his demise (all the way back during "Tokyo Drift") with the help of Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell), who claims to have done that type of thing many times before. Though Han's "resurrection" is more about sleight-of-hand and obfuscation than high-tech wizardry, it's highly suspicious that he's not the first "Fast" character to return from the dead, that honor going to Letty Ortiz (Michelle Rodriguez). Again, Letty's return was apparently due to a series of similarly convoluted circumstances (as revealed in "Fast & Furious 6"), but when coming back from the dead is such a regular occurrence, it's entirely possible that there's more than meets the eye going on.
That idea is raised once again during "Fast X," as we get a better look at the inner workings of the Agency where Mr. Nobody (who is still missing after "F9") came from. As the reins of the organization are turned over to Aimes (Alan Ritchson), it's revealed that the head of the Agency answers to a mysterious council of powerful figures (a group that feels highly reminiscent of the World Security Council from the "Avengers" series). Who knows if one or more of these figures happens to be secretly aligned with Eteon?
The amazing resurrection laser
Later in "Fast X," Cipher (Charlize Theron) and Letty are taken to an Agency black site prison, which features a high-tech lab that includes a curious giant laser that has the ability to literally patch up and seemingly rapidly heal wounds. With tech like that, it seems likely that anyone the Agency deems necessary could be brought back from near death — maybe even total death. The laser also feels highly similar to Eteon's technology, at least in function.
Whether the "Fast" saga opts to openly reference the events of "Hobbs & Shaw" and/or continues to go down this road of high-tech, cyborg-like near-immortality or not, the option is clearly available to be used. That means that any other characters coming back from the dead needn't have a complex backstory to explain (though they probably still will, because we love that about the series), and any characters who may be mortally wounded need not end up dead, either. If the cliffhanger finale of "Fast X" is any indication, at least, it seems the Family is going to need all the options available to them to make it to the series' finish line.
"Fast X" is currently in theaters.