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While camping in a tent and maintaining a fire in Oppenheimer (2023), Frank shares with Lawrence and Oppenheimer his plans to get married. Lawrence offers his congratulations. When Oppenheimer inquires if the bride-to-be is Jackie, the waitress they know, Frank confirms that she is indeed his future wife:

Frank: Yeah, to Jackie. The waitress.

Lawrence: Oppie, you're right. It's lettin' up. I'm gonna go see if there's any stars.

Then Lawrence leaves the tent to go outside.

What does "It" refer to ?

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    The rain, probably. When the rain clouds pass, the rain "is letting up", i.e. the clouds are dissipating and the rain is coming down in perhaps only a slight drizzle, when earlier it had been coming down fairly heavily.
    – TimR
    Commented Jun 9 at 11:04

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In statements like "it's letting up" the word "it" functions as a dummy subject called an expletive (defined as a syllable, word, or phrase inserted to fill a vacancy (as in a sentence or a metrical line) without adding to the sense).

In your example of "it's letting up", "it" refers to adverse weather conditions, usually rain. You could say "the rain is letting up". Like other pronouns, "it" doesn't have to be something previously mentioned if it is really obvious what you are referring to, such as a person looking up at the rain and assessing it.

However, "it" does not always need to refer to any specific noun or pronoun. An expletive serves a grammatical purpose to fulfil the requirement for a subject in English sentences, particularly when talking about things like the weather, time (eg "it's late"), distances (eg "it's a long way"), and other situations.

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