Ryan Coogler’s Sinners (2025) is a bold and exhilarating departure from his previous critically acclaimed works such as Black Panther and Creed. A southern gothic horror set in the 1930s, the film stars Michael B. Jordan in a dual role as gangster twins Smoke and Stack, who flee Chicago for Mississippi with blood-stained wealth. Alongside their cousin Sammie, a young blues musician played by newcomer Miles Caton, they aspire to open a Black-owned juke joint in defiance of the Ku Klux Klan. However, a more sinister threat looms.
Plot Summary
Set in 1932 Mississippi, Sinners follows twin brothers Smoke and Stack, World War I veterans who return to their hometown after years in Chicago. Using money stolen from gangsters, they purchase a sawmill from racist landowner Hogwood to start a juke joint for the local Black community. Their young cousin Sammie, an aspiring guitarist, joins them despite opposition from his pastor father, who warns that music holds dangerous, supernatural power.
The twins recruit a talented group of performers, including pianist Delta Slim and singer Pearline, with whom Sammie becomes enamored. Smoke’s estranged wife Annie also joins to help with the opening night, as do local Chinese shopkeepers Grace and Bo. Meanwhile, Stack awkwardly reconnects with his ex-girlfriend Mary, who passes for white but is secretly one-eighth Black. Mary harbors resentment over Stack abandoning her when he left for Chicago; in defense, he points out that society would never accept a “white” woman married to a Black man.
Elsewhere, Irish-immigrant vampire Remmick, fleeing Choctaw vampire hunters, turns a pair of local Klansmen into bloodthirsty followers.
The juke joint’s grand opening erupts with life and music. Encouraged by Annie and Stack, the reluctant Smoke agrees to lower prices so everyone can afford to enter. Sammie’s music is transcendent, summoning spirits of both past and future to join the entranced crowd. The performance draws Remmick’s attention, and he arrives with his minions, offering money for entry. Suspicious, the twins hesitate, but Mary insists on handling it privately, reminding them the bar needs the income. Alone with the vampires, Mary is turned. She returns to the bar, seduces Stack, and bites him, seemingly killing him. Smoke shoots her, but unharmed by regular bullets, Mary escapes.
As chaos erupts, Annie convinces Smoke to evacuate the bar. The vampires massacre the patrons and turn Bo. Stack revives as a vampire, but Annie repels him with pickled garlic juice. She educates the survivors: only silver or wooden stakes can kill vampires, and they cannot enter a building unless invited. She gives Smoke a talisman for protection.
Remmick negotiates, praising Sammie’s supernatural talent and claiming that vampirism offers immortality, freedom, and escape from racism. He also warns that Hogwood, who secretly heads the local Klan, plans to attack them at dawn. When the survivors refuse his offer, Remmick and Bo confront Grace, threatening to attack her daughter. In a desperate act, Grace dares them into the juke joint, inviting them in. The resulting battle leaves Grace, Annie, and Delta Slim dead. Though a vampire, Annie’s death devastates Mary, who flees.
Smoke, Sammie, and Pearline attempt to escape, only to be ambushed by Remmick and Stack. Smoke and Stack clash in a brutal fight, while Sammie and Pearline face off with Remmick. Pearline is bitten and begs Sammie to flee. He tries to escape by car, but Remmick stops him. In a final confrontation, Sammie smashes his guitar over Remmick’s head. Smoke arrives just in time to finish the vampire off. As the sun rises, the vampire horde is incinerated. Smoke urges Sammie to flee and prepares for the arrival of Hogwood and the Klan. Relying on his military training, Smoke kills them all but is mortally wounded. In his final moments, he has a vision of Annie and their daughter waiting for him in the afterlife, and peacefully joins them.
Sammie, battered and grief-stricken, returns to his father’s church. His father pleads with him to renounce music and seek salvation. Sammie refuses, leaving with his guitar in hand. Decades later, in 1992, an elderly Sammie—now a celebrated blues musician in Chicago—is visited by an ageless Stack and Mary. Stack reveals that he was spared by Smoke that night at the juke joint, allowing him to go free under the condition that he let Sammie live a peaceful life. The couple offers him the chance at immortality, but Sammie declines. Before leaving, Stack asks Sammie to play a song and Sammie obliges, confessing that although that night still haunts him, it was the greatest of his life. Stack agrees, as it was the last time he saw his brother, the sun, and the only time he ever truly felt free.
Cast and Characters
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Michael B. Jordan as Smoke and Stack, twin brothers with contrasting personalities.
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Miles Caton as Sammie, a young blues musician with a supernatural
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