BLACK AND BLUE

*CUT TO THE CHASE*

The film opens in New Orleans. Alicia West (Naomie Harris) is out for a jog when she is stopped by two cops. They harrass her and think she is a suspect they have been looking for until they see she is also an officer. One of the cops apologizes, but Alicia is used to this type of treatment. She continues her run and stops to visit her mother’s tomb.

Alicia begins her day at work with her partner, Kevin Jennings (Reid Scott). They drive around Kingston, which was Alicia’s old neighborhood before she left to join the army. They pull over into a convenience store that had been robbed the day before (the police just “didn’t” get the call), and Alicia talks to a young boy, Jamal. His mother, Missy (Nafessa Williams), sends him away, as she used to be friends with Alicia but hasn’t taken kindly to her having joined the police force. She is antagonized by a gang member until he sees Kevin and walks away. The officers then go into the shop, owned by Missy’s brother Mouse (Tyrese Gibson), who is also rather cold toward Alicia because of her new life. Regardless, he lets the officers take what they want for free.

Alicia is assigned to ride with veteran officer Deacon Brown (James Moses Black). They ride to an altercation at a nightclub. As Alicia attempts to detain one subject, Brown catches another one attempting to murder Alicia. He grabs and pins him to the car before pulling his own gun on him. Alicia tries to diffuse the situation until Brown shows her the suspect’s gun. After taking him into custody, Alicia and Brown sit for coffee, and he tells her that the people in that neighborhood won’t have her back just because she’s black, and view her as more of an enemy because she’s a cop.

The next day, Brown takes Alicia outside a warehouse but orders her to stay in the car. She gets out when she spots what appears to be a drug deal, but the buyer runs away. Alicia then hears a gunshot from inside the warehouse. She goes in to find Brown with narcotics detectives Terry Malone (Frank Grillo) and Smitty (Beau Knapp). They are interrogating a young man named Zero (John Charles II) and two other dealers. He pleads with Malone and says that they will silence any word of their corruption, but Malone executes all three men. Alicia witnesses the act, and it is caught on her body cam. The men spot her, and Brown tries to keep things together before Smitty shoots at Alicia and sends her crashing through the floor. Realizing her body cam will incriminate them, the men rush to find her, but Alicia has already run, injured from a gunshot. The men see that she dropped her gun and is running around unarmed. They proceed to chase her through the streets. When she attempts to contact dispatch, Malone tells the operator that Alicia is just a rookie who got spooked during a drug bust.

Alicia comes across Officer Doyle (Nelson Bonilla), who appears to try and help her, but she overhears on her radio from Doyle’s partner that they are working with Malone. Alicia runs away again and goes around the neighborhood trying to get help, but true to Brown’s words, not a single person dares to help her. Alicia continues to run until she makes it into Mouse’s shop. He finds her and attempts to get her out by calling the cops. Alicia hides as Doyle and his partner get there. Doyle harrasses Mouse and intimidates him with his gun. Doyle’s partner runs his license and sees Mouse’s priors, but he doesn’t report it to Doyle and they let him go. Mouse is visibly shaken up from the encounter. He agrees to help Alicia.

Alicia contacts Kevin to help get her out of there. He picks her up and drives away with her. After she explains her situation, Alicia suggests bringing Internal Affairs in on the case. Kevin lets it slip that he knew Malone was the culprit, which alerts Alicia to Kevin’s complicity in the other officers’ crimes. She fights him and gets out, forcing her to keep running. Mouse takes her to his apartment to shelter her.

It becomes known that Zero was the nephew of Kingston Crew’s boss Darius Tyrell (Mike Colter). He talks to Malone, who is in league with him, and the dirty cop tells Darius that Alicia went crazy and shot Zero and his friends before running away. Darius spreads word that Alicia killed Zero, which even Jamal sees. He goes into Alicia’s room with a gun, but she draws hers on him. Mouse comes in to stop Jamal and sees what Darius sent him. Meanwhile, Brown and Malone try to cover their tracks with Captain Hackett (Deneen Tyler), insisting they go after Alicia. Malone goes with Smitty to the convenience store to find security footage of Mouse helping Alicia.

Mouse tries to help Alicia get out, but they are found by Darius’s goons. They kill two of them, but knowing that more are coming, Mouse gives Alicia a chance to get away while he gets captured by the thugs. Alicia records a testimony on her body cam and leaves it somewhere safe before entering the complex where Darius lives. She is greeted with jeering and bottles being thrown. After entering the building, she is attacked by Darius, but Alicia quickly tells him about the body cam. After they find it, Darius’s other nephew uploads the footage to the computer, thereby giving everyone concrete proof that Malone killed Zero. Darius lets Alicia and Mouse go, as he is preparing to bring hell to Malone. Missy, who is Darius’s girlfriend, has a brief talk with Alicia regarding Missy’s resentment and how they are not that different just because of the paths they took.

A team of officers is alerted to the Kingston area to recover Alicia, which also lets Malone, Brown, and Smitty know where to find her. Once they get there, Malone kills Brown while Smitty encounters Alicia and gets a bullet in his head. Darius finds Malone and confronts him for his treachery. The two fight, but Malone shoots Darius dead. Mouse manages to sneak past officers with a cop’s jacket and makes his way to the station to upload the body cam footage to the police’s network. He is found by Doyle and is held at gunpoint, but the footage uploads in time, and Mouse disarms Doyle and pistol-whips him. Meanwhile, Alicia catches Malone and tackles him off a balcony onto a car, but a whole SWAT team has their guns drawn on Alicia when she holds hers on Malone. She is ordered to stand down, just as Hackett sees the murder video at the station. She orders her men to stand down and declares that Alicia is innocent. Malone then tries to kill Alicia, but he is shot by Kevin. Malone and Kevin are taken into custody. Alicia and Missy reconcile with a hug.

Sometime later, Malone is charged with the murders. Alicia jogs again by the cemetery where she is met by Mouse. She thanks him for saving her life, but he says she saved him.

Alicia West is an officer who comes from a crime-ridden neighborhood in New Orleans. As such, she isn't respected by her fellow officers and is hated even more by the people from her old town. While riding with Officer Deacon Brown, Alicia comes across Brown and two other officers, Malone and Smitty, killing three drug dealers. Alicia is shot by Smitty when found, but the men realize that she was wearing a body cam that could incriminate them. Alicia has no choice but to run when she can't get help from anybody.

Alicia finds an ally in Mouse, a former friend from the neighborhood who helps hide her. Malone then convinces local kingpin Darius Tyrell that Alicia murdered the dealers, one of which was his beloved nephew. After a hit is put out on Alicia, Mouse helps her escape, but he is caught. Alicia turns herself in to Darius with the body cam, which cements Malone as the killer.

Cops go into the neighborhood to save Alicia. Malone kills Brown while looking for Alicia, and Smitty is killed by her. Mouse goes to the police station to upload the footage to take Malone down. He is arrested, and Alicia is exonerated from an involvement in the crimes