'Furious 7' Deleted Scene: Here's Where Letty Went
For anyone who would like to argue against the idea that the Fast & Furious films are successful because they graft action movie setpieces to soap opera story concepts, I point to the Michelle Rodriguez character Letty Ortiz as Exhibit A.
So many classic soap opera plot ideas have been applied to Letty over the past four films that she's basically a Cliffs Notes for any daytime TV series with the gumption to be on the air in 2015. Why watch Days of Our Lives now? Just check out Letty's character arc, which has a bunch of car chases and punching as a bonus.
In the seventh film, Letty tries to deal with her amnesia (amnesia!) by running off to find her memories. She disappears from the movie for a while, but at least one scene was shot to show where Letty went. You can watch that Furious 7 deleted scene below, complete with a bonus appearance from Gal Gadot! Spoilers ahead for half of the films series, by the way.
Killed as a plot point in Fast & Furious in 2009, Letty is also revealed to be working as an undercover agent, then revealed to be alive at the end of Fast Five, works with the bad guys in Fast & Furious Six, but reunites with her husband Dom at the end of that film, despite suffering from amnesia.
So, in Furious 7, Letty basically says "I gotta find my memories" and runs away for a chunk of the movie, rejoining in time for the big action so she can cradle Dom as he's near death, telling him her memories are back. Where did Letty go when she drove off in the first act? Where did she find her memories? Was she just tired of driving?
The Wall Street Journal has this deleted scene featuring Letty, which will also appear on the Furious 7 blu-ray when it hits stores on September 12.
Given the momentum of Furious 7, a visit to a dusty med clinic south of the border probably sent the movie into a skid, which could be one reason it was cut. This is a pretty inert scene, except for one thing: the return of Gal Gadot as Gisele. She was killed off in the sixth film, and seen in a photo in Furious 7. She and Han were my faves in this series, so I'll take anything that puts her back in the story for a minute. Nice to know that she was part of the effort to keep Letty alive.