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“ | To the world out there... I am the crocodile of the watering hole. | „ |
~ Cipher explaining her motivations. |
“ | Nothing is necessary. Everything is a choice. | „ |
~ Cipher's most famous line. |
“ | Do you know what I like about you, Dom? You're a genuine outlaw. | „ |
~ Cipher to Dom Toretto. |
“ | I don't want you to beg. I want you to learn. | „ |
~ Cipher while threatening to kill Dom's child, and shortly before she has her henchman Connor Rhodes execute the child's mother Elena Nevas. |
Cipher is one of the two main antagonists (alongside Dante Reyes) of the Fast & Furious franchise.
She is a manipulative and ruthless cyber-terrorist intent on world domination, which she plans to accomplish by igniting World War III via a Russian nuclear submarine. She is the overall archenemy of Dominic Toretto after kidnapping his infant son and forcing his compliance by having her right-hand Connor Rhodes murder Dom's previous fling Elena Neves.
After Dante Reyes stole her company and technology, Cipher became a temporary ally with her archenemy, Dominic Toretto just to kill Dante and take back her company.
She is portrayed by Charlize Theron, who also played Millie Bobeck in Reindeer Games, Queen Ravenna in Snow White and the Huntsman, Pria Lavesque in The Orville and Aileen Wuornos in Monster.
Personality[]
Cipher is a seductive, manipulative, and brutal cyber-terrorist who uses her charming looks to bribe Dominic Toretto into doing what she wants. Cipher is also ruthless when she kidnaps Elena Neves and is utterly callous when she has her enforcer Connor Rhodes execute a screaming Elena, which further cements Cipher as one of the darkest and most ruthless villains in the Fast & Furious franchise. Cipher's seductiveness and ruthlessness as well as her twisted control over technology make her dangerous to the core.
However, in Fast X, Cipher shows some honorable traits ever since she met Dom's would-be sworn nemesis Dante Reyes. It is alleged that she possibly feels remorse for her actions or Dante's plans being even worse than hers to tolerate and even giving Letty a helping hand despite them hating one another. That being said, though, Cipher doesn't seem to regret having killed Elena Neves and may actually still wish to conquer the world for herself, only opposing Dante because he is a threat to her plans and not because she genuinely cares for the planet.
Biography[]
Past[]
Because Cipher is an extremely skilled hacker, nothing is known about her past since she erased her identity repeatedly. Due to her immense power, it was believed for a long time that Cipher was an organization and not a person. What is known is that she hired mercenary Owen Shaw to steal Nightshade for her when his brother Deckard Shaw refused, and that she also later hired terrorist Mose Jakande to capture Ramsey and steal her God's Eye hacking device. Thanks to Dominic Toretto and his crew, both of these schemes failed and this prompted Cipher to want payback for thwarting her twice.
The Fate of the Furious[]
Recruiting Dom[]
Cipher first encounters Dom during his honeymoon with Letty on Cuba where Cipher instigates the breakdown of her car as she knows that Dom will stop to help her. After gaining Dom's attention, Cipher reveals that she is fully aware of what is wrong with her car, having manipulated it herself. Dom is startled and Cipher reveals that she has been watching Dom for quite some time to the extent of studying his daily schedule. Cipher reveals that she wants Dom to work for him but Dom refuses. Before Dom can walk away, Cipher hands him a phone which contains something that seems to worry Dom. Cipher claims that Dom will effectively betray his family, work against his friends and will join with Cipher to do his bidding. Thus, by showing him the content of his phone she effectively blackmails Dom into working for her.
Heists[]
Throughout the movie, she sends Dom on a number of missions to acquire the items needed for her agenda - starting by forcing him to deliberately drive his old companion Hobbs off the road after a successful heist in Berlin in order to steal the EMP the team obtained, delivering it to Cipher who picks him up moments later by bringing a cargo plane down onto the street into which Dom then drives mid-flight. The plane takes off immediately after, taking Dom and the EMP with them. Inside the plane, Cipher mocks Dom for his lifestyle and tries to convince him that her way is better. Meanwhile, the rest of Dom's former team is briefed about Cipher and encouraged to take her down in order to find Dom.
Cipher and her team later ambush and storm a government base where, ironically, Mr. Nobody is currently amassing Dom's former team to hunt Cipher down. Disorienting all federal agents and Dom's former team, Cipher storms the room with Dom where she mocks him for already having been replaced by Deckard Shaw. She also reminds Deckard that she made him an offer once, claiming that he chose the wrong side back then. While Dom keeps his former team at bay, Cipher steals data from one of the computers, stealing the entire hard drive. When Letty furiously screams at Dom for betraying his family, Cipher deliberately provokes her by kissing Dom in front of her. Back inside their plane, Dom angrily confronts Cipher because of the kiss. Annoyed by Dom's outburst of defiance, Cipher claims that she needs to remind Dom why he chose to be there with her. Her henchmen open a door, revealing that Dom's former girlfriend Elena and her and Dom's son are Cipher's prisoners - revealing that Dom betrayed his spiritual family for his real family.
After allowing Dom some time with Elena and her son, Cipher interrupts the meeting. She implies that with only her and her henchman Connor Rhodes in the room, Dom might get the idea that he could take both of them down and free Elena. She even hands Dom a gun, telling him to do with it whatever he pleases. However, she reveals that the room is filled with cameras and that the moment Dom makes a move, armed henchmen of Cipher will enter the room with one sole goal; not saving her, but killing Dom's son. Realizing the futility of his situation, Dom hands the gun back to Cipher.
Now in New York, Cipher uses her hacking network to track down the Russian Minister of Defense who is currently visiting the city. When she has located the man, who is currently driving in a car column, she informs Dom of the man's exact location. While Dom is approaching his target, Cipher holds contact with him via headphones. She then creates a distraction by hacking into hundreds of car controls, manually sending all these cars onto the streets of New York. Cipher creates complete chaos in New York, even using cars that are currently manned. She sends the hundreds of cars towards the Minister's convoy, effectively cutting him off from any help and taking down his police escorts. Cipher also activates the cars in car dealerships, bringing them onto the street in order to stop the upcoming police from reaching the minister.
Using more and more empty and manned cars, Cipher blocks any escape route for the convoy, finishing her action with dropping multiple cars from the roof of a car park and trapping the minister's sole remaining car amidst the wreckage. After Dom has obtained a suitcase from the Minister, Cipher congratulates him and tells him that they will meet at the pickup. When she is then informed by Dom that his team has come, Cipher tells Dom that he will have to deal with this situation himself. She orders him to get rid of his team before returning to the pickup.
Losing Dom[]
When Dom is forced to escape on foot, Cipher sends in Rhodes to assist him. However, when Rhodes threatens the life of Letty, Dom draws a gun on Rhodes, forcing him to spare Letty. The two head back to Cipher with the suitcase which is revealed to contain a nuclear code. Back at the cargo plane, Cipher reveals that she is disappointed with Dom for "betraying" her. When Cipher welcomes Dom back, he holds Dom's son in her arms. She claims that Dom made a choice and that it is now time for him to learn. Although she claims that she understands what Dom did, he made the wrong choice nonetheless. Cipher then orders Rhodes to execute Elena in from of Dom's eyes. After Elena's death, Cipher tells Dom to get it together, as they have one last job to do. She also claims that she did not have Dom steal the nuclear codes in order to start a nuclear war, she stole them to have the world's superpowers know that they will be held accountable by her should they make a wrong move.
Cipher and her team then fly to Northern Russia, intending to attack a hidden military base. Again, she sends Dom in to do the dirty work while she and the rest of her crew are observing from their plane. It is revealed that she has attached the EMP they stole to Dom's car, allowing him to take down the entire bases electricity. This also includes a nuclear submarine, which Cipher and her hackers then hack and hijack. As Dom's actions allowed Cipher to hack the entire bases main system, she has the submarine activated as she intends to launch one of its missiles. When she realizes that Dom's former team has turned up once more, she informs Dom that the plan has changed. She sends him coordinates and orders him to meet up with Rhodes. Meanwhile, Ramsey, the hacker from Dom's group, counter-hacks Cipher in order to keep the submarine in the hangar. This leads to a digital fight between Cipher and Ramsey, both women fighting to regain control over the submarine.
Eventually, Cipher is able to lock Ramsey out of the system and successfully takes control of the submarine. She also manages to start the launch protocol of one of the nuclear missiles, intending to use it as a warning to the world that she is a force to be reckoned with. However, the team manages to steal the chip from the submarine, preventing Cipher from launching any missile. Realizing this, Cipher has the entire submarine launched into the ocean, planning to steer it into deep water in order to recover the missiles later. After Dom has met up with Rhodes, Cipher orders Rhodes to take out Dom's team.
During all the chaos, Cipher's untraceable plane is suddenly approached by two helmet-masked men in jet pack suits. The two enter the cargo hold and are revealed to be the Shaw brothers. Deckard and Owen storm the plane, revealing themselves to Cipher who for the first time is shown to be afraid. She sends her men at the brothers who manage to take them down. The Shaws manage to rescue Dom's son, taking any influence she has on Dom away from her.
Chase through the Ice[]
After Dom is informed, he immediately betrays Cipher and kills Rhodes in revenge for Elena's death. When Cipher contacts Rhodes, Dom informs her that “he’s no longer with us” because he “picked the wrong target”. Quickly realizing that Dom had just murdered Rhodes, she congratulates him and declares that his actions have just executed his son. Dom, however, replies that he saved him. Realizing that everything she worked for seems to be in danger, she orders the submarine's torpedoes to be launched in order to kill Dom's entire team who are still escaping over the frozen ocean. She fails, however, as Hobbs manages to divert the torpedoes before they can kill his team. After Cipher learns that the torpedoes missed, she has the entire submarine breach through the ice.
As a last option, she has a heat-seeking missile fired from the submarine, vengefully planning to kill Dom and his crew. However, the missile pursues Dom who drives straight towards the submarine. Although Cipher shockingly realizes what Dom is doing, she is unable to prevent the missile from hitting the submarine, destroying it completely.
With her plan fully destroyed, Cipher has no other choice but to flee. She grabs her laptop containing her most vital information, but is then confronted by Deckard who is just shooting her remaining man. Cipher notes that Deckard is out of bullets, but Shaw replies that he does not need bullets to eliminate her. He vows to make her pay for what she did, but Cipher claims that there is one flaw in his plan: Cipher is the only one with a parachute. With the press of a button, Cipher opens the plane's door and is sucked out immediately. Deckard, however, manages to get hold of both Dom's son and a handle, preventing himself from being sucked out of the plane. The doors are sealed moments later. Although Shaw survived, Cipher manages to escape from the plane via parachute. She is never seen again in the movie after this, though she is mentioned by Mr. Nobody when he tells Dom and his team that she is still at large, spotted in Athens, but she won't have the power to nuke any cities anytime soon. It's likely that she was arrested for her crimes after the events of the film.
F9[]
Sometime after the events of The Fate of the Furious, it was later revealed that Mr. Nobody and his forces captured Cipher and put her on a plane taking her to a maximum security prison, but was extracted by Dom's estranged brother, Jakob Toretto, and his associate, Otto, before being kept hostage in a glass inside their base of operations to prevent her from interfering with their plans to steal Project Aries. After stealing the first half of Project Aries in Montequinto, Jakob meets Cipher inside their base, who tries to persuade him into working for her but Jakob refuses as he doesn't work for the competition. Cipher then explores Jakob's relationship with his brother Dom and lets him know where to find the other half of Project Aries in Edinburgh, and she lets him know that Jakob has no chance of survival now that Dom is involved. After Jakob is apprehended by Dominic Toretto and his crew in Edinburgh, Otto regroups at his secret base and recruits Cipher to work for him and betray Jakob. Cipher assists Otto from their base when he intercepts Dom's safe house and frees Jakob and she watches as Otto and Jakob launch a satellite into orbit so Project Aries can be activated with Elle's DNA, who is being held hostage by Otto's men. When the satellite gets destroyed, Cipher decides to finish the mission herself by flying on a jet in an attempt to kill Dom, who has boarded Otto's truck. She is able to blow up the truck but it only kills Otto when he recovers, and Dom is able to get out at the last minute and the truck ricochets into Cipher's plane and blows it up, completely destroying it and bringing the battle to an end. However it turns out that Cipher was flying the jet on a computer simulator and slips away in defeat, frustrated that her plans have been foiled once more.
Fast X[]
Two years after the events of F9, Cipher was approached by a man named Dante Reyes, the son of deceased Brazilian kingpin Hernan from 10 years prior, who she nicknamed as "The Devil", while dragging two of her guards that he killed with an offer of partnership, but she turns him down revealing she had her own plans for Dom and his crew and ordered her agents to kill him, but reveals to her agents that he has kidnapped their friends, families, and loved ones, except one agent who kills because he had no one. He succeeded in turning her agents against her and has her men stay behind to kill her, but she manages to disarm and kill them all because she never trusted them in the first place. However, Cipher was left injured and on the verge of death. Also, horrified of Dante's motives and seeing him as far worse than her, Cipher decided to go to Dom for help. She drove to the Toretto residence to warn Dom and Letty that Dante is coming for them, before getting arrested by Little Nobody and the Agency. Cipher was then sent to a black site prison in Antarctica for recovery and imprisonment.
Following her incarceration, Cipher discovers that Letty is also incarcerated at the same site after being framed and arrested for Dante's terrorist attack in Rome. Which Cipher then escapes her bonds through and manipulates the entire machinery of the site, using the air vents to release a sleeping gas which incapacitates the guards, and even releases Letty beside her for unknown reasons. While waiting for the chance to escape, Cipher and Letty start a brutal fight while trying to use a laser at Letty, which then ends with Letty winning and escaping without her, unaware that she is in Antarctica. Already aware of this, Cipher gives Letty, who came back when she found out where they were the hard way as Cipher then gives her winter clothing, despite Letty provoking her and trying to kill her at first. The two escape, and Cipher reveals she contacted Gisele Yashar to exit Antarctica, as she and Letty were ready to fight Dante and his ally Aimes.
Relationships[]
Allies[]
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Enemies[]
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Quotes[]
“ | You see these cameras in here? The moment you make a move, highly paid men with weapons will make their way into this room with one very specific instruction: it's not to save me, it's to kill your son. Now that's a lot of bullets. And it only takes one for you to lose everything, so I have to ask you because, I know family is so important to you. Is that really a choice you want to make? Because I'm ready if you are. | „ |
~ Cipher threatening Dominic's son. |
“ | Congratulations, Dom. You just killed your son. | „ |
~ Cipher seeing that Dom has betrayed her. |
“ | Put a heat seeker on him now...NOW!!! | „ |
~ Cipher’s villainous breakdown. |
“ | FIRE!! | „ |
~ Cipher firing a heat seeking missile at Toretto. |
“ | DIVE!! DIVE!!! | „ |
~ Cipher angry that Dom is trying to evade the missile. |
“ | Only one of us has a parachute | „ |
~ Cipher escaping. |
“ | Nice operation. You snatched me off of Mr. Nobody's plane without a scratch and you took it down. Money well spent. | „ |
~ Cipher meeting Jakob Toretto. |
“ | So your whole life you pushed yourself to be faster than Dom. Smarter than Dom. Stronger than Dom. Tell me, do you hate him enough that it keeps you up at night? | „ |
~ Cipher questioning Jakob's relationship with Dom. |
“ | You're Yoda. Yoda's a puppet with someone's hand shoved up his ass. | „ |
~ Cipher to Otto after Jakob got captured by Dom. |
“ | Guess who's out of the box, Jakob. But I did try to warn you. You were never my competition. | „ |
~ Cipher revealing Jakob that she and Otto joined forces and betrayed him. |
“ | I'll take care of this. | „ |
~ Cipher deciding to finish Dom herself. |
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Cipher is the first villain in the series to get away scot-free by the end of the movie (though she is later to be imprisoned by Mr. Nobody's forces, but was broken free by Dominic's brother, Jakob. As a result, she continues to remain at large thus far). Although she aids Letty in their escape, its purely pragmatic.
- It is revealed that she was the overarching antagonist of both Fast & Furious 6 and Furious 7, having hired Owen Shaw and Mose Jakande. Essentially, Cipher is the true main antagonist of the entire film series, given the fact that Owen Shaw was associated with Arturo Braga, the main antagonist of Fast & Furious, the first film that was responsible for later events concerning Letty in Fast & Furious 6.
- Cipher is also the first and only female main villain in the series so far, although she is the third overall villain played by a woman, after Riley Hicks and Vegh. Out of the two, she is considered to be the evilest female villain in the Fast & Furious franchise and has not received her deserved comeuppance as of yet from her reprehensible actions until Fast X where she is captured by Little Nobody and taken to a prison in Antarctica before escaping once more with help from Letty.
- Cipher was originally going to appear in a post-credits scene of Furious 7 assembling a team of her own to go after Dom and Brian's crew as a way to set up The Fate of the Furious. The group would've consisted of Shaw (who wouldn't be arrested at the end of the movie), along with the previous antagonists Johnny Tran, Carter Verone, Arturo Braga and Zizi. However, the plan was scrapped after Paul Walker's death.
- Charlize Theron previously worked with Jason Statham in The Italian Job, where she portrayed Stella Bridger, the daughter of John Bridger who joins forces with Charlie Crocker and his crew to get the gold back from Steve.
- In the same year The Fate of the Furious was released, Charlize Theron later portrayed protagonist Lorraine Broughton in Atomic Blonde, who is an MI6 agent dispatched to stop KGB agents.
- After F9, Charlize Theron would later reprise her role as Morticia Addams in The Addams Family 2, which is a sequel to the first film.
- In F9, one of the songs is called "Furiosa" which is sung by Anitta, and obviously references the titular character from Mad Max: Fury Road, also portrayed by Charlize Theron herself.
- It was believed Cipher was the main antagonist in F9, but she was more of the secondary antagonist since she was held captive in a glass cage before being released, while Dom's brother Jakob Toretto was basically the main antagonist before switching sides after being double-crossed by Otto, who is basically the true main antagonist of the film as he had bigger plans than Cipher. After killing Otto with his own drone, she became the final antagonist, though the only villainous act she does is fly on a computer-simulated jet in an attempt to kill Dominic Toretto.
- During Fast X, she shows some honorable traits. Whether she will redeem or not remains unknown, but she did prove she wants to save the world from Dante's destruction. Despite this redeeming feature, many fans did not want her to show any good traits, though one can argue that, given how Cipher may return in the last two sequels, it could be possible that she wants to save the world from Dante because she wants the world for herself, which would make her motives of redemption purely pragmatic, especially given how she doesn't regret having killed Elena Neves. Therefore, her redeeming traits are not only pragmatic, they're also a facade.
- In Fast X, Cipher drives a Delorean Alpha5. when she goes to Dom’s house to warn him about Dante. The Delorean was known for being in the Back to the Future franchise, also made by Universal Studios.
- Cipher briefly joining forces with Dom can somewhat be similar to Dr. Eggman briefly teaming up with Sonic if a worst enemy goes after them both.
External Links[]
- Cipher on the Pure Evil Wiki
- Cipher on the Fast & Furious Wiki
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Villains | ||
Tran's Crew Verone Crime Family Braga Cartel Reyes Crime Family Yakuza Cipher's Organization Eteon SH1FT3R Otto's Army Others |