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Fast And Furious 9: 14 Ways Han Is Alive

The trailer for F9, the ninth installment in the Fast & Furious franchise has arrived. While it’s given some insight into the plot of the upcoming film and revealed John Cena’s role in the story (he’s Dom’s brother? What?), all of that pales in comparison to a twist revealed at the end of the clip.

As the gang hangs out in their underground base, which we’re going to call the Furious Cave, a familiar face walks in. After being killed off in Fast & Furious 6, or so we thought, Han Seoul-Oh (Sung Kang) is back. He simply walked into the Furious Cave snacking, per usual. “Nice clubhouse,” he said before giving Dom a hug.

With that one moment, our minds were completely blown. How did this happen? Where has Han been all this time? How does he fit into the story of F9? There are so many questions to be answered. We don’t want to wait for the May 22 release of the movie, though. So GameSpot has taken the liberty of trying to answer the biggest mystery: How is Han still alive?

Take a look below at our 14 best reasons we’re finally getting justice for Han in F9. Yes, they’re outlandish. This is the Fast & Furious franchise, though. If you’re not going way over-the-top, you’re not trying hard enough. Take a look at 14 potential ways Han is still alive before, then don’t miss our guide to everything we know about Fast & Furious 9.

F9 is in theaters on May 22.

Disclosure: ViacomCBS is GameSpot’s parent company.

1. Han is a robot

This is going to sound weird, but what if this isn’t Han at all? What is this is a robot designed to look like Han? How is that more ridiculous than anything else that’s happened in these movies? Or perhaps Han was a robot the entire time, so after he “died,” he was actually just repaired and has been off doing something else this entire time. – Chris E. Hayner

2. Maybe he got the Hobbs & Shaw treatment

If he’s not a robot, he could potentially have survived thanks to the sort of cybernetic implants Brixton Lore (Idris Elba), the villain of Hobbs & Shaw, used to turn him into “black Superman.” Maybe this enhanced version of Han is practically indestructible. – Chris E. Hayner

3. Han was never actually dead

It’s entirely possible Han never died. After all, everyone in Dom’s family is practically a superhero at this point. That does beg the question, though: Who did Dom and the crew bury at the funeral held for Han in Furious 7? – Chris E. Hayner

4. Han is secretly the villain

When Hobbs & Shaw hit theaters, there was plenty of speculation that Han was the mysterious director behind Eteon, the super-creepy evil organization that created the enhanced Brixton. What if Han is not only behind that, but all of the evil from throughout the Fast Saga? Han could be the biggest movie villain of all time. – Chris E. Hayner

5. This is actually Han’s long-lost twin brother Shawn

John Cena plays Dom’s long-lost brother in F9. What if Han also has a long-lost brother than happened to look exactly like him? Ladies and gentlemen, meet Shawn Seoul-Oh, international car thief or something. – Chris E. Hayner

6. This Han is from another earth in the multiverse

If the Arrow-verse has taught us anything, it’s that there are many earths out there, each with their own set of characters. That’s practically a fact now, right? What if this Han is actually from Fast & Furious Earth-2? The big question now is whether he traveled here through some kind of portal or if all of the earths were merged in some kind of crisis we’ll learn more about in Fast & Furious 10. – Chris E. Hayner

7. Han is the Palpatine-like overlord of the galaxy

Seriously, we want this one if only so the movie opens with a crawl that says, “THE DEAD SPEAK…”

But then, who’s the Rey of Fast 9? Is it Dom? Is John Cena’s new character Kylo Ren? Will Cena turn his back on Han’s Palpatine at the end to kiss Dom then die? No, that would be ridiculous. That’s the kind of thing they’d save for the tenth movie in the franchise. – Chris E. Hayner

8. The Gods of Cars reincarnated him into another Han body

Han’s death was unwarranted, unjust, and the most tragic moment in Tokyo Drift, aside from Bow Wow selling random objects in the streets of Japan. However, upon his death, Han’s spirit ascended to the heavens, and he gazed upon the God of Cars and NOS. The deity looked down upon Han, snacking away on some bagged chips and said, “Your time on Earth is not over. You must go back and show the world how to make snacking look effortless.” Han returned to his body–which had been magically put back together–and that was that. Also, Han has superpowers now. -Mat Elfring

9. Han is obviously the God of Cars and can’t be killed

We’ve already established that the God of Cars is totally canon within the Furiousverse. So it makes sense that Han could in fact be the manifestation of that god but sent to Earth in order to show people how to drift properly. When Shaw blew up his car at the end of Tokyo Drift–which happens after Fast & Furious 6–Han traversed the astral plane, with his body, and then came back to Earth after the dust had settled. -Mat Elfring

10. Han faked his own death because he wanted to eat in peace

Han likes to snack, something established very clearly in Tokyo Drift. However, training Sean Boswell to drift was his last straw. Han wanted a simple life away from all the action and drama of the world. Plus, with Giselle’s death still fresh in his mind, Han needed an escape. So he hired Deckard Shaw to kill him, and Han went into the mountains with a van full of various bagged snacks, and he lived there for years. However, he found in his isolation that being alone wasn’t what he needed. He needed those family values Dom hammered into his brain for years. Han decided to return, but only after a haircut. Also, Han has superpowers now. -Mat Elfring

11. Han is the physical manifestation of the Speed Force

This one sort of speaks for itself. Perhaps the Han we see now isn’t Han, but rather a Speedster version that has all the powers of the Speed Force. In this instance, his superhero name should be Justice. There’s only so far “driving fast cars” can go as a genre. Might as well dip into sci-fi. – Chris E. Hayner

12. Mother Shaw has figured out how to bring humans back from the dead

She’s got to be back in this movie for some reason, right? What if Deckard and Owen’s mum, Queenie Shaw (Hellen Mirren), found a way to reanimate corpses and restore life? Now only does that promise an eventual Fast & Furious horror movie, but it gives an interesting reason for Han’s return. Spoilers: She did it using NOS. – Chris E. Hayner

13. Han is actually just a holographic AI that exists only in the Furious Cave

What’s the one thing the Fast family is missing? That’s right, a JARVIS. The AI system essentially ran all of Tony Stark’s operations as Iron Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe before he evolved into Vision. What if–stay with us–this Han is actually a hologram and artificial intelligence system. It builds them cars, tells when where and how to drive, and keeps the operation moving forward as Dom tried to kill his brother for two-and-a-half hours. – Chris E. Hayner

14. Tokyo Drift and the mid-credit sequence of Fast & Furious 6 were all a dream

Everyone has nightmares, even someone as amazing as Han. While the majority of the events of the Fast & Furious franchise happened, Tokyo Drift never did–and neither did Deckard Shaw’s assassination of our favorite character. Han found himself awake in his own bed after this nightmare and went into the bathroom to find Patrick Duffy in his shower. Duffy assured him everything was alright, and Han went back to work with Dom and company. Does this create a ton of plotholes? Sure, but whatever. Also, Han has superpowers now. -Mat Elfring

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Huge Xbox One Anime Sale Live Now: Free Shows, Cheap Games, And More

To celebrate Anime Month, the Microsoft Store is running a huge sale on anime games, movies, and shows. The collection of more than 20 Xbox One game deals are available through March 2, but select movie and TV deals are only available for a few days.

Notably, the first seasons of three anime series–My Hero Academia, Dragon Ball Super, and Black Clover–are currently free to claim for a limited time. You can snag the first seasons of Dragon Ball Super and Black Clover for free until February 3, while Dragon Ball Super’s first season is free until February 6. As part of a limited-time flash sale, later seasons of each series are also discounted to $6 each, with both subbed and dubbed versions available. You’ll also find discounts on select anime movies, like Dragon Ball Super: Broly and My Hero Academia: Two Heroes, as part of the flash sale.

The larger sale that’s running for a full month includes deals on games like Mega Man 11, One Piece World Seeker, My Hero One’s Justice, and Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Trilogy. You can also take advantage of discounts on some fantastic anime films like A Silent Voice, A Letter to Momo, Perfect Blue, and more. Many anime TV series are cheaper to buy and rent right now as well.

Check out some of the highlights from the Anime Month sale below, or check out the full collection of anime games, movies, and TV shows on sale at Xbox.

Limited-time anime deals

Free anime series

Available until February 3

Available until February 6

Anime movie and TV discounts

Available until February 3

Movies

TV series

See flash sale on anime movies and TV

Anime Month deals (available until March 2)

Games

See all Xbox One game deals

Movies

See all anime movie deals

TV series

See all anime TV series deals

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Pokemon Go February 2020 Events Including A New Legendary, Shiny Pokemon, And More

February is officially upon us, and Pokemon Go developer Niantic has outlined all of the events it has lined up for its hit mobile game this month. In addition to the latest Community Day, which takes place February 22 and will feature a Pokemon voted on by players, this month will see the debut of new Gen 5 Pokemon, a new Legendary, and more.

First, Niantic will roll out another new Special Research questline revolving around Team Rocket. As with the previous Special Research quests, this will culminate in a battle with Giovanni, and if you can defeat him, you’ll earn a chance to capture a new Shadow Legendary Pokemon: Shadow Raikou.

Niantic is also offering a new set of Field Research tasks in February, along with a new Research Breakthrough reward. Each time you achieve a Research Breakthrough this month, you’ll earn a chance to catch the new Gen 5 Pokemon Woobat. Additionally, the Gen 5 Legendary Tornadus will make its debut in Raid Battles starting February 4.

From February 7-10, Niantic is holding a Sinnoh celebration event. During that time, Pokemon originally from the Sinnoh region will appear in the wild much more frequently, and any 7 km eggs you obtain during the event will exclusively hatch into certain Sinnoh Pokemon such as Budew, Gible, Riolu, Hippopotas, and Mantyke. You’ll also have your first chance to encounter Shiny versions of Riolu and Hippopotas during the event, and there will be special Field Research tasks that may reward you with Sinnoh Stones.

The following week, Pokemon Go’s annual Valentine’s Day event will return. The event will run from February 14-17, during which pink-colored Pokemon will appear much more often in the wild and Raids. The Gen 5 Pokemon Audino and Alomomola will also make their debut during the Valentine’s event, and you’ll have a chance to hatch a Shiny Happiny or encounter a Shiny Chansey in the wild.

During the Valentine’s event, Niantic will host a special Raid Day on Saturday, February 15, featuring Lickitung. The developer will also hold a friendship weekend event from February 21-24. During that time, friendship levels will increase more quickly, and you’ll earn twice the normal amount of Candy for trading. Trades will also cost half as much Stardust to perform, and the number of gifts you’ll be able to open each day will be increased to 40.

Last but not least, Niantic will hold two new kinds of events in February. First will be a Pokemon Spotlight Hour, which will take place on February 4. From 6-7 PM local time, a “surprise Pokemon” will appear more frequently in the wild than usual. Then, on February 6, Niantic will host a Mystery Bonus Hour event, which will offer a surprise bonus from 6-7 PM local time. You can read more about Pokemon Go’s February events on the game’s website.

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F9: Fast and Furious Trailer Finally Delivers Justice for Han

The first trailer for F9 delivers a big shock for Fast and Furious fans: Han is back. Even though his supposed death in a fiery car crash has been shown three times on-screen — in Tokyo Drift, Fast & Furious 6, and Furious 7 — the final moments of the trailer show Han walking into the Toretto family’s base of operations, casually quipping and eating a snack like it’s no big deal that he’s back and looking better than ever.

Check out the trailer below:

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Han Lue, played by Sung Kang, was a fan-favorite character who became one of the franchise’s most tragic and controversial figures due to a series of topsy turvy plot twists. The sixth installment revealed that Jason Statham’s villainous Deckard Shaw was the one responsible for Han’s death, but then fans recoiled in horror when Fate of the Furious pivoted Shaw to a redeemable hero. To pour salt in the wound, even though Shaw murdered Han, he was forgiven by Dominic Toretto and invited to enjoy a Corona with the family, which saw fans revolt with the #JusticeForHan hashtag on social media. Fan anger only swelled when Han’s murderer was featured in the franchise spin-off movie Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw.

Now, it seems, franchise vet and director Justin Lin is looking to address all of that by showing what really happened to Han.

A set of character posters for the F9 cast was revealed a few days ago when the trailer was first teased, and now a new poster featuring Han has been added:

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Kang made a surprise appearance at the pre-Super Bowl trailer premiere and concert event in Miami, and there he told the Los Angeles Times a bit about what this version of Han is like.

“[Director Justin Lin and I] know who and what Han is,” Kang said. “And we’re older now. This Han is older. The things that we learned as men in our personal lives, I hope it can transcend on-screen.”

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Kang wouldn’t reveal precisely how Han comes back, but he did say that everything ties back into the franchise’s theme of “family,” adding, “I hope we do it justice.” Kang acknowledged that he’s aware of the surge of fan support for his character, and the trailer seems equally aware of the #JusticeForHan movement with its closing promise, “Justice is coming.”

It may seem unbelievable for Han to have survived that explosion, but remember this is a franchise that has no qualms about playing fast and loose with its continuity. In Fast and Furious, Michelle Rodriguez’s Letty seemingly died in similar fashion to Han — a fiery car crash — but that didn’t stop her from making a return (with amnesia!) in Fast & Furious 6. Han doesn’t seem to have amnesia given how he embraces Dom in a brotherly hug, so we’ll have to wait and see what his deal is when Fast 9 hits on May 22.

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Joshua is Senior Features Editor at IGN. If Pokemon, Green Lantern, or Game of Thrones are frequently used words in your vocabulary, you’ll want to follow him on Twitter @JoshuaYehl and IGN.

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Acer’s XFA240 offers high refresh rates at an affordable price

Acer’s gaming monitors run the gamut: whether you’re on a budget or simply need the best the market has to offer, there’s a good chance the company has an option for you to consider. The XFA240 is one of the former, retailing for $199 but offering a full HD 24-inch TN panel clocked to run at 144 Hz and with a 1 ms response time. On paper, it sounds like a great bang for the buck, but we’ve gone hands-on to see it performs under pressure.

Should the Acer XFA240 be the next display on your shopping list? Let’s dig in and find out.

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Design and Features

The Acer XFA240 is simply designed. You won’t find the usual gamer flair found on displays twice its cost – the name of the game appears to be minimizing the extras that add little to your gaming experience and instead bringing gaming-grade, high refresh rate performance to the masses. As such, there’s no RGB or stylized etching; what you’ll see in the pictures is from separate backlights, not the monitor itself.

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What you get instead is a straightforward display that’s easy to set up and get gaming with. The stand has a red ring around the base as the lone splash of color, and attaches to the arm with a single thumb screw. From there, the monitor clicks into place on the mounting plate and you’re ready to connect cables. I like how simple and quick it is. The stand is also quite good, offering nearly six inches of height adjustment, plentiful tilt to use the display while standing, and even the ability to pivot it 90-degrees for portrait orientation. The only downside is that it doesn’t rotate, though the base isn’t too heavy to manually turn when the need arises. The display is also VESA compatible for aftermarket mounts.

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The bezels are fairly thick compared to many gaming monitors at about a half-inch per side. This is roughly double what you’ll find on more expensive “frameless” monitors, but for the price, it’s hard to be too critical. It does tend to make the 24-inches feel a bit more cramped than I would like, however. This design also allowed Acer to keep the controls right on the face of the monitor, which is eminently better than having to grope blindly along the back.

Coming from a larger display, I found the size of the XFA240 to be “just enough” for a good gameplay experience. The size allowed me to make out details clearly when the brightness or calibration wasn’t getting in the way – and it sometimes did, even after a good 20 minutes calibrating it.

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Out of the box, the colors were very washed out – the blacks for example were closer to dark gray. TN panels are known for having worse colors and blacks than either VA or IPS displays but even compared against other TNs I’ve reviewed, this out-of-box picture was one of the worst I’ve encountered. The OSD features six-color hue and saturation adjustments (CMYRGB), so I was able to improve the image but never completely got it to where I was happy. Even though it’s capable of 350-nits of brightness, tuning the colors and blacks forces you to turn that down. It’s a Catch-22 – do you want a bright screen with bad colors and blacks or a dimmer screen with an improved picture?

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The brightness also feels slightly uneven. In the picture above, taken in the lobby of The Blackout Club, you can clearly see how dark areas can appear to swallow details. This seems to be related to viewing angle because when I looked at this same scene from a downward angle, I could make out some of what was previously missing. This was also true on the Black Level test in Lagom’s LCD Test Pages, where the blacks in the darkest three boxes appeared crushed until I looked downward at the screen. As a result, I found myself fidgeting with the height of the display more than any other monitor I’ve used.

That isn’t to say gaming on the monitor was bad. At 1080p, my RTX 2080 was able to stay locked at 144 FPS in most games. If you’ve never used a high refresh rate monitor before, you’re in for a treat. Not only is everything smoother but your inputs feel almost instantaneous, which is also supported by the display’s 1 ms response time. This is the biggest benefit of a TN panel and why they’re so popular in esports.

True to what I experienced, the Response Time and Ghosting tests in Lagom’s test suite provided some of the best results I’ve seen. In the Response Time test, the flickering boxes had nearly imperceptible color shifting and the Ghosting Test revealed no ghosts whatsoever. In shifts from light to dark and vice versa, the XFA240 is outstanding.

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The display also supports AMD FreeSync and is compatible with Nvidia G-Sync between 48 and 144 FPS. It worked well with G-Sync and my RTX card, the sole exception being Apex Legends, which became very hitchy with G-Sync enabled. The monitor also supports Low Framerate Compensation, so if your framerate drops outside of the FreeSync range, the monitor will automatically increase its refresh rate to provide a smoother gaming experience.

Other gaming features include a Black Level adjustment, an AimPoint on-screen reticle, and FlickerFree technology to ward off eye strain. The first feature is practically useful if you also find it difficult to see into dark areas. The only thing I wish is that it had a keyboard shortcut or controller to quickly make adjustments on the fly. The reticle is also a boon for shooters that don’t offer one, giving you a one-up on accuracy when hip-firing.

The display has built-in speakers, as well as input/output jacks for routing PC audio to your headset. The speakers are only 2-watts each and lack both bass and volume. They’re good for watching the occasional YouTube video but with a normal box fan running in my room, I had trouble hearing in-game details, so you’ll want to find a better option long-term.

Finally, for connectivity we have a single HDMI, DisplayPort, and DVI-D connection. The DVI-D port is going the way of the Dodo on many displays but it’s fitting to find it on a more budget oriented option like this. Both HDMI and DisplayPort are capable of carrying audio to route to the headphone jack, but if you’re using DVI-D, you’ll also need to connect the included auxiliary cord to your motherboard.

Performance

I played a handful of games on the XFA240 over my week of testing and it performed very well. Full HD is an easier resolution than ever to run, so keeping games in triple-digit frame rates is an option even for gamers on hardware that’s a couple years old. With my RTX 2080, it remained virtually pegged in most games I tried.

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Gaming at this refresh rate in a shooter is ideal. In PUBG, that smoothness better allowed me to smoothly track enemies and pull off shots without any perceptible lag. I turned up the Black Level a touch, which let me keep the monitor at a comfortable eye level but also washed out the colors a bit more, which isn’t good when you’re trying to pick out far away enemies. Again, that Catch-22.

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In Apex and Overwatch, the XFA240 performed remarkably well. The smoothness was easily on par with my more-than-twice-as-expensive 144 Hz monitor from Pixio. Using the on-screen reticle gave a definite advantage in Overwatch but I quickly turned this off because it felt unfair. I was also able to play both games for a couple hours each without ever feeling eye strain.

The Blackout Club gave me a harder time. There are simply too many deep darks and the brightness issues made the game feel more claustrophobic than it should; like I couldn’t see everything I was meant to. I tried adjusting the monitor to a lower position which helped, but it was frankly frustrating to have to play with my monitor lower than where I wanted it to be. I settled for turning up the Black Level adjustment but precisely because so much of the game is dark, everything again looked washed out. It was unsatisfying.

Purchasing Guide

The Acer XFA240 gaming monitor is available on Amazon with an MSRP of $199.