Fast & Furious 9 spoilers follow.
The biggest mystery of Fast & Furious 9 ahead of release wasn't about how Dom has had a brother all these years we've never heard about, it was about how Han (Sung Kang) has returned from the dead.
We last saw Han in Fast & Furious 6 when he met his supposed death at the hands of Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham). It was the first retcon of Han's death which originally happened in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, but little did we know that there was another retcon coming.
The first trailer for the ninth movie sent fans into frenzy with the surprise return of Han. All sorts of theories went around about his resurrection, such as it was actually his long-lost twin brother or a clone – which would make sense in the Fast & Furious world.
But how did Han exactly survive death, if it even is the Han we know and love? We're about to go into spoilers for Fast & Furious 9, so look away now if you haven't seen the movie yet.
Han's return in Fast & Furious 9 explained
First things first, it is the same snack-loving Han from the previous movies. He's been working for Mr Nobody (Kurt Russell) in Tokyo since he went there in Fast & Furious 6 after the death of Gisele (Gal Gadot).
It's revealed that Han has a connection to the MacGuffin at the heart of Fast & Furious 9, Project Aries. Han's name was connected to the activation key for the technology, so Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) and Mia (Jordana Brewster) head to Tokyo to see if they can find out why.
Following a clue on a postcard mysteriously sent to Dom years before, they find an apartment in Tokyo where Elle (Anna Sawai) is living. They're not alone though as Jakob's (John Cena) team are also after Project Aries, but Han arrives just in time to save them.
Once Han reunites with the rest of the familia, he reveals that Mr Nobody approached him in Tokyo for a job to "steal some tech". Gisele worked for Mr Nobody when he was running the drug trade in central America, and since he knew that Gisele trusted Han, Mr Nobody knew he could trust him too with this job.
That tech turned out to be Project Aries and Elle is actually the activation key that makes it work, as her parents were the ones who created it. Han protected Elle and took Project Aries before Jakob could get his hands on it, but Elle's parents were killed by Jakob's team.
Mr Nobody knew that one of his best agents had gone rogue (Jakob) and so when he knew Shaw was coming for Han, "we used it as cover". "Mr Nobody had a way of making things look real," Han explains, but it's not completely clear exactly how they pulled it off.
We see the car crash again and Han in the car before Shaw drops the necklace and walks away, as we saw in Fast & Furious 6's credits scene.
However, this time, as Shaw walks away, we see Han 'disappear' as somebody (probably Shaw) walks in front of the car, and it's revealed he's actually standing by Mr Nobody away from the car.
"Pretty nifty magic trick," Han tells Mr Nobody, so it seems that maybe there's some reflection trickery going in to make us think Han is in the car. However, it could be more likely that he was never in the car to begin with (remote-controlled car, maybe?).
After all, Shaw never physically looks in the car, he's too busy looking cool walking away from the explosion. The only issue here is that we saw Han trapped in the car in the previous version of this scene, so we're going with mirror trickery or some sort of projection.
We're just happy Han is officially back, so really we're fine with a bit of confusion as it's just so good to see him again.
Fast & Furious 9 is out now in cinemas.
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