FATALE

*CUT TO THE CHASE*

NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Jeremy

The film starts with sports agent Derrick Tyler (Michael Ealy) driving through the city. His voiceover states how he was so used to winning, but now the game has changed, and he is playing for his life.

Derrick is married to Tracie (Damaris Lewis). They have a gathering with his best friend Rafe Grimes (Mike Colter) and his girlfriend Michaela (Kali Hawk). Derrick is a former college basketball star who works with Rafe to represent African American athletes. When Tracie starts going back to work, Derrick starts to feel unsure about her, and she in turn feels that he is keeping too close an eye on her.

Derrick and Rafe go to Vegas for a bachelor party. When Derrick expresses to Rafe that he thinks Tracie is seeing someone else, Rafe encourages him to remove his wedding ring and cut loose. While near the bar, Derrick meets a woman named Valerie Quinlan (Hilary Swank). He tells her his name is Darren, and after some chatting and flirting, they go back up to Valerie’s hotel room for sex. In the morning, Derrick tries to leave without waking Valerie up, but she does anyway, and when he asks for his phone, she tells him it’s in a safe. She agrees to give it to him for more sex.

Upon returning home, Derrick feels guilty for the affair. He continues to work and signs a popular athlete before he is visited by his freeloading ex-con cousin Tyrin (Tyrin Turner). Although he wants Tyrin to do better, Derrick helps him out with some money.

Later that night, Derrick and Tracie have a romantic evening together. While having sex, they hear a noise from upstairs. Derrick goes to investigate and is attacked by a masked intruder. The man draws his gun on Derrick, but he manages to fight him off and scare him away with a golf club. After Tracie goes upstairs, they call the police. To Derrick’s horror, the lead detective on the case is Valerie. She recognizes him but doesn’t give anything away. She conducts herself professionally and asks the questions that she needs to ask before she leaves.

The next morning, Valerie goes to the home of her ex-husband, politician Carter Heywood (Danny Pino), where she wants to visit their daughter Hayley (Oakley Bull). Carter has a restraining order against her and will not allow Valerie joint custody due to an incident where she passed out drunk, and Hayley got her gun and accidentally shot herself, leading to her being paraplegic. Carter makes it clear that Valerie is to go nowhere near Hayley.

Derrick goes to meet with Valerie to clarify the status between them. She makes it clear that she will not reveal anything to Tracie since she also doesn’t need to have her coworkers learn about what she does in her private time, and she is committed to finding out who broke into the house. When Derrick goes home, he looks up Valerie on Google to see that she is a decorated officer, and the incident with Hayley is also mentioned.

Later on, Valerie picks Derrick up from work and takes him near a beach house where she believes she has found a new development. Using binoculars, Derrick sees into the house from the beach and sees Rafe and Tracie meeting up for an affair. He is mortified by this revelation, and Valerie tries to get him to think that the two of them most likely set him up in an attempt to get rid of him and take Derrick’s shares of the company. He returns home with her and starts drinking before he has sex with Valerie again. After Derrick leaves, Valerie goes to talk to Carter again, and he once again reiterates that she will no longer be Hayley’s mother.

Derrick is picked up at his home by officers. At the station, Valerie presents him with crime scene photos revealing that Rafe and Tracie were murdered by gunshots to the head. Derrick is horrified at this discovery, but Valerie comes up with a possible motive. After he left her place, Derrick more than likely went to Rafe’s place and caught him and Tracie in the act. Valerie suspects that Derrick returned with a gun and murdered them.

Derrick’s company suffers following the allegations, with several employees not coming to work, and multiple clients are dropping him. At the funeral service for Rafe and Tracie, Valerie shows up, and Derrick quickly figures out that she killed them. When he tries to react, she pulls a gun and makes it clear she can kill him in self-defense. Afterward, Derrick’s mother offers words of encouragement to help him clear his name.

Tyrin recruits his friend Bumpy (Compton Menace) to help take care of Valerie since he knows she is framing Derrick. They break into her house and get her on the ground, but she feigns sickness and asks to go to the bathroom. When Bumpy has his back turned, she grabs the toilet cover and smashes him over the head before grabbing a shotgun from the ceiling tiles and shooting him dead. Tyrin attempts to return fire but is killed as well.

Valerie contacts Derrick and has him meet her. She informs him that Tyrin and Bumpy are dead, and she can have it made so that Derrick sent them to silence her. She offers him a solution, which is to have him kill Carter so she can get full custody of Hayley. She gives Derrick a gun and instructs him on where to find Carter during his morning run. Derrick has no choice but to go, but when he finds Carter, he attempts to warn him. He tries asking for his help in stopping Valerie, but Carter reacts violently and starts hitting Derrick, who tries to stop but accidentally fires the gun, killing Carter. He escapes before two other women discover Carter’s body.

Derrick returns to Valerie’s home, where she gives him Tyrin’s gun to make it look like he killed Rafe and Tracie. After she casually admits to killing people so she can get her daughter back, Derrick figures she intends to kill him too so there are no loose ends, and they exchange fire, with Derrick shooting Valerie down. After a moment, he finds that she has moved. She jumps him and stabs him repeatedly in the elevator until he shoots her back fatally. As she dies, Derrick plays a recording of Valerie confessing to the murders and her motive. The police then arrive on the scene.

The last scene has Derrick riding through the city while Terrence J and Angie from The Shade Room discuss over the radio that Derrick was officially exonerated, but they also advise male listeners to not cheat, period.

Derrick Tyler is a former college basketball star turned sports agent with his best friend Rafe Grimes. He is also married to Tracie, but he feels that their marriage has hit a bump. During a trip to Vegas, Derrick meets a woman named Valerie Quinlan, and the two engage in a brief affair.

Back home, a criminal breaks into the Tyler home. Derrick is shocked to discover that the lead detective on the case is Valerie. Although she agrees not to tell Tracie about the affair, she is also having personal problems of her own, since her ex-husband, politician Carter Heywood, refuses to let Valerie see their daughter after she passed out drunk and the girl accidentally shot and paralyzed herself with Valerie's gun.

Valerie brings Derrick to a beach house where they find Rafe and Tracie having an affair. Later, the two are found murdered, and Derrick becomes the prime suspect. After he realizes Valerie committed the murders, Derrick's cousin Tyrin gets a friend to go kill Valerie, only for her to kill them first. She uses this against Derrick to have him kill Carter so she can have sole custody of their daughter. Derrick tries to warn Carter, but the man attacks him and Derrick accidentally shoots Carter dead.

Derrick goes back to Valerie's home to get Tyrin's gun so he can bring it to the police station as evidence to exonerate him. However, he knows that Valerie plans to kill him too to cover up loose ends, so they engage in a shootout, ending with Derrick fatally shooting Valerie and showing her that he recorded her confessing to the murders and her motive for it, thereby clearing his name.