Detective Cortez is a supporting character in Upgrade.
Biography[]
Cortez worked as a police detective who was trying to help Gray find the people who killed his wife. She was unable to find any information, though, much to Gray's irritation.
After one of her suspects, Serk Brantner, is murdered, Cortez looks over police drone footage from near Serk's house and observes Gray approaching the house in his wheelchair shortly before the murder. Suspicious, she asks Gray about it, but he says it couldn't have been him due to his paralysis, and she negates him as a suspect.
Later on, Cortez finds Gray's wheelchair abandoned at the Old Bones, where Tolan had also been murdered, and, even more suspicious of Gray, goes to interrogate him at his house; she leaves after planting a listening device on Gray's jacket. She listens into Gray having a conversation with STEM, in which STEM tells Gray that they will have to kill Fisk to prevent him from killing Gray and having STEM lose its "perfect human body". STEM uses Gray to drive to Fisk's residence, but doesn't discover the listening device until after Cortez is already tailing them. Nevertheless, STEM hijacks an automated car to crash into Cortez', briefly stopping her.
Cortez follows Gray to Eron Keen's house (him having went there after finding out that Eron had orchestrated the hit that killed his wife), and holds him up at gunpoint when he tries to kill Eron. STEM fights her off, and begins choking her to death, but Cortez then hits Gray with a tazer, causing STEM to malfunction. Eron then admits that STEM has been forcing him to do its bidding for years, having long since come to dominate all aspects of Eron's life in pursuit of its goal to obtain the "perfect human body"; STEM had chosen Gray to be its host because of his technophobia, and had orchestrated the mugging that left him paralyzed.
Death[]
Cortez being shot.
STEM then kills Eron, before turning its attention to Cortez, whom he tries to kill. However, Gray fights for control over his own body, managing to shoot himself in the neck. He suddenly wakes up in a hospital room, not paralyzed; Asha enters and explains he has been unconscious for days following their crash. In reality, however, Gray is still in Eron's home. STEM, now in full control, explains to Cortez that the psychological strain has finally broken Gray's mind; this was STEM's objective all along, as this allowed STEM to assume total control over Gray's mind and body and essentially replace him as a complete human. Gray's consciousness believes and is trapped in the idyllic dream state it has found, while STEM kills Cortez by shooting her in the chest and leaves.
James gave Cortez's death the Dull Machete since it was the most simple death of the movie, even though it was emotionally effective.
Trivia[]
- Cortez is played by Betty Gabriel, who also plays Georgina in Get Out, Nari in Unfriended: Dark Web, and Laney in The Purge: Election Year.