How is Han alive? That’s the main question we’ve been asking ourselves ever since the character was revealed to be in , the ninth movie in the Fast and Furious saga (tenth, if you count Hobbs and Shaw). We had : Was Han a robot? Was he secretly a god? Would we really be meeting Han’s long-lost brother, Shawn? Now that we’ve seen F9, we know the truth–and we can share it with you.
Warning: Obviously, we’re getting into spoilers for F9. If you haven’t seen it yet, we advise you to stop reading now and rush to the nearest screen on which it’s playing.
When Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) and Mia (Jordana Brewster) travel to Tokyo in F9, they don’t yet suspect that Han (Sung Kang) is alive. However, they quickly discover his secret: He’s been living in hiding, not just for his own protection, but to protect his ward, as well. Elle (Anna Sawai) is the daughter of the scientists who created the dangerous technology that serves as F9’s driving plot device, as well as one of the keys to using it. That means it’s time for Han to re-enter the picture and let his “family” know he’s alive.
As for how he survived the explosion that we witnessed all the way back in The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift, it turns out he didn’t–he wasn’t in the car at all. In the retcon to end all retcons, F9 reveals that Han worked with Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell) to fake his own death when Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) came after him. Never mind that Shaw’s presence at the scene of the crash was itself a retcon in a previous movie; back when , Han simply crashed and his car exploded. Mr. Nobody and Deckard Shaw hadn’t even entered the franchise yet; hell, at the time, we didn’t even know yet that Han was part of the family at all.
In any case, that reveal raises some interesting questions, chief among them: Why was Han OK faking his death and leaving a bunch of teenagers to deal with the Yakuza on their own? And who did they bury at Han’s funeral in Furious 7? And what’s he going to do to Deckard after that they shared?
We doubt we’ll ever get the answers to most of those questions, but we’re happy Han is back regardless. His stoic, snack-eating presence is a calming influence in our lives.
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