10 Great Movie Characters Who Die At The Beginning

In Takashi Miike's 2012 film Ace Attorney, an adaptation of the visual novel Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, audiences quickly meet Mia Fey, protagonist Phoenix Wright's boss and mentor. Mia quickly proves her competence in court when she almost instantly solves the case for Phoenix, proving his client, Larry Butz, innocent. Phoenix himself is not a great lawyer at this point, fumbling papers on his desk and missing easy contradictions, but as long as he has Mia on his side, he should be fine.

Of course, shortly after this trial, Mia is murdered, and Phoenix is responsible for defending Mia's younger sister Maya who has been charged with Mia's murder. To make matters worse, Phoenix finds himself up against the fearsome prosecutor Miles Edgeworth without the help of his trusty mentor.

However, Mia once again saves the day during this trial when Maya channels her spirit to provide Phoenix with some much needed guidance. Mia effectively avenges her own murder by allowing Phoenix to earn Maya a not guilty verdict and causing the arrest of her actual killer, Redd White.

Mia again provides aid from beyond the grave for Phoenix throughout the film's final trial, in which we learn why she was killed. Mia found a key piece of evidence that could close the book on a fifteen-year-old unsolved case called DL-6. In the film's climax, Maya is able to finally channel Mia again, and Phoenix finds the piece of evidence Mia died for, hidden in the statue used to kill her, managing to solve the DL-6 case once and for all.

Even without her spirit being channeled, Mia plays an active role in the Ace Attorney film after her death. Mia is the mastermind behind Phoenix's defense, while also placing enough faith in him to allow him to grow into his own.