SINNERS

*CUT TO THE CHASE*

NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Jeremy

The film starts with a narration about how some music is said to be so powerful, it can conjure spirits from the past and the future. However, it is also possible to attract evil with this power.

Clarksdale, Mississippi, October 1932 – Sammie Moore (Miles Caton) drives to a church, looking beaten and with claw marks on his face while holding a broken guitar neck. He enters the church where his father, a pastor named Jedediah (Saul Williams), tries to help his son and tell him to give up music and repent his sinful ways. Sammie just clutches onto the guitar neck.

One day earlier, Sammie’s cousins, twin brothers Elijah and Elias Moore, AKA Smoke and Stack (Michael B. Jordan), are returning home to Clarksdale from their time in Chicago. The twins have stolen money from gangsters (implied to be Al Capone) and have purchased an old sawmill from a (supposedly) former Klansman, Hogwood (David Maldonado). They have plans to turn it into a juke joint to attract members of the black community.

Smoke goes into town to get help from old friends, Grace and Bo Chow (Li Jun Li and Yao), to help create a sign and provide other things for opening night. When he catches two young men trying to rob his truck full of alcohol, Smoke shoots one in the ass and the other in the leg to prove he means business. Other people in town know of the twins’ reputation. Meanwhile, Stack recruits Sammie, an aspiring blues musician, before finding another old friend, Cornbread (Omar Miller), and hiring him out of a cotton plantation to provide security.

Stack goes to the train station to find older blues singer, Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo). They attract attention by having Slim put on a performance. Stack gets him onboard by offering him Irish beer that they are going to sell. Moments later, Mary (Hailee Steinfeld), a childhood friend of Smoke and Stack (and former love of Stack) approaches the guys. Mary is upset that the twins never sent their regards or flowers for her mother who passed the day before, as she had been like a mother to the twins. Sammie also meets Pearline (Jayme Lawson), a married woman that he flirts with and invites to the juke joint’s opening.

Smoke goes to the home of his estranged wife Annie (Wunmi Mosaku), who practices voodoo. The two lost a child years earlier, which is part of the reason for their time apart. Annie claims her voodoo practices have kept the twins safe. Smoke and Annie then proceed to have sex.

As the sun is going down, an Irish man named Remmick (Jack O’Connell) runs to the home of a racist couple, Bert and Joan (Peter Dreimanis and Lola Kirke). Remmick convinces them to let him in by offering them gold in exchange for protection from “Injuns”. Soon, a group of Choctaws approach the house and tell Joan that Remmick is a dangerous man, but she refuses to listen to them and sends the men away. Joan goes back inside to discover that Remmick is a vampire, and he just turned Bert into one. They proceed to turn Joan as well.

The brothers open the juke joint with a large crowd turning out. However, they spent a lot of money just to get the place open and running. Stack and Annie convince Smoke to let some people pay coverage using scrips. Mary is allowed entry due to being considered family, as well as being 1/8th black on her mother’s side.

Stack has Sammie play his music. He puts on a soulful performance, which entrances the whole crowd. Sammie’s music is so powerful that he is able to conjure spirits. Black musicians across different time periods and cultures are shown in the juke joint joining in the celebration. The joint visually appears to burn down while everyone continues dancing. This draws the attention of Remmick, Bert, and Joan.

The vampires approach the juke joint under the guise of being musicians who heard the music playing and want to join. The trio play a bit of music, but Smoke is suspicious of them and denies them entry despite them offering payment. Mary decides to go and talk to them herself, since she knows the brothers could use the money. While Mary is impressed by their music, she sees something is off when Remmick’s eyes glow red and he starts drooling. Mary starts to walk away, but Remmick then flies toward her. At the same time, Cornbread goes outside to relieve himself while Slim takes over security. Bert and Joan lure Cornbread away by taunting him. Meanwhile, Sammie ends up taking Pearline to a room where he performs oral sex on her.

Mary is let back inside the juke joint, where she first attempts to seduce Smoke before returning her attention to Stack. They go into a room to have sex. Smoke deals with a patron who slashed another man across the face with a razor after being exposed for using loaded dice. Smoke orders Sammie to get Stack, but he is too embarrassed to pull him away from sex. When Smoke goes to see, he finds Mary biting into Stack’s neck. Smoke empties his guns into her, but Mary survives and vows to kill everyone before running away. Smoke tries to help Stack, but he dies.

Smoke and Slim order the patrons to leave the joint, leaving only Smoke, Sammie, Annie, Slim, Pearline, and Grace. After they are gone, Cornbread returns and demands to be invited inside. Annie realizes something is wrong. When Cornbread offers money, Smoke goes to grab it, and a vampirized Cornbread tries to bite him but gets shot in the face and flees. Annie realizes they are dealing with vampires. Stack ends up coming back to life as a vampire inside the closet, and he bursts out before fleeing out of the joint when Annie splashes picked garlic juice in his face. The vampires end up turning the other patrons, including Bo.

The crowd of vampires grows outside the joint. Remmick approaches with Mary, Stack, Bert and Joan. He explains that the brothers were set up by Hogwood, who is the Grand Dragon of the KKK and was going to have Bert, his nephew, lead other Klansmen to kill the twins and their patrons, something that Stack backs up since he has seen Remmick’s memories. Remmick does not adhere to the Klan’s racist views and instead wants Sammie, seeing his musical talents as being capable of conjuring the spirits of his own people that he lost. Remmick offers the group a chance to become vampires, allowing them to live forever and to escape racial persecution. When they refuse, Remmick suggests that they pay a visit to Lisa (Helena Hu), Grace and Bo’s teenage daughter.

The survivors gather stakes, guns, and garlic as Grace shouts at the vampires to come inside, leading to a final showdown. Grace charges at Bo with a stake, setting them both on fire. Slim attracts a crowd of vampires to go after him by cutting his arm, while Pearline is also fatally wounded in front of Sammie. Most of the other vampires are staked and blown up. Annie gets bitten, and she has Smoke stake her through the heart before she turns. Stack and Mary witness this, and their humanity briefly returns to express horror and sadness at Annie’s death. Smoke and Stack fight each other while Sammie tries to escape Remmick outside. The vampire claws his face (explaining what happened to his face earlier), but Sammie uses the twins’ father’s guitar to jam the silver part into Remmick’s skull. Smoke then shows up to stake Remmick through the chest, just as the sun comes up. Remmick bursts into flames while the other vampires follow suit and burn up.

Knowing that the Klan is coming, Smoke orders Sammie to get away quickly. Smoke gathers his weapons and hides as the Klansmen arrive. He proceeds to shoot them dead with a Tommy gun and even a grenade. One of the Klansmen shoots Smoke in the gut, but he has them blown up too. Hogwood is the last one left, offering Smoke money for his life, but Smoke pumps him full of lead. As he starts to die, Smoke sees Annie’s spirit along with that of their child.

Sammie returns to the church, but he refuses to give up music, despite his father’s pleas. He ends up driving north, with the guitar still in his hand.

During the credits, Sammie (Buddy Guy) is shown as an elderly blues musician in 1992. After a performance, he is found by Stack and Mary. They greet him warmly, with Stack saying that Smoke couldn’t kill him and ordered him to stay away from Sammie. Stack senses that Sammie doesn’t have long left and offers to turn him so he can stay around longer and keep playing music, but Sammie says he has seen enough of the world and is ready to go when his time comes. Sammie plays one last song for Stack and Mary. Before they leave, Sammie says that he still has nightmares from that night, but the time before the sun went down was the best day of his life. Stack agrees, saying it was the last time he saw his brother and the sun, and the last time he truly felt free.

In 1932, twin gangsters Elijah and Elias Moore, AKA Smoke and Stack, return to their hometown in Mississippi after seven years away in Chicago. They have plans to open up a juke joint to attract members of the black community. While they have a good turnout, the night is interrupted by the presence of vampires, led by an Irish immigrant named Remmick.

Remmick and his two accomplices turn Mary, Stack's ex-girlfriend, and Cornbread, the security guy. Mary turns Stack into a vampire, while the rest of the patrons get turned after Smoke orders them to leave. The remaining survivors are the twins' blues musician cousin Sammie, Smoke's estranged wife Annie, Sammie's new lover Pearline, elder blues musician Delta Slim, and shop owner Grace Chow. Remmick claims that he wants Sammie since his musical talents are so powerful, that they may be able to conjure spirits like Remmick's people. He also reveals to Smoke that Hogwood, the man that sold him and Stack the establishment, is the Grand Dragon of the KKK and was planning to have his men kill the twins and their patrons.

After Remmick turns Grace's husband and threatens to go after their daughter, she invites the vampires into the juke joint for a final showdown. Grace goes out with her husband, while Slim, Pearline, and Annie are all fatally wounded. Smoke and Stack fight, but Smoke spares his brother on the condition that he leaves Sammie alone. Smoke and Sammie kill Remmick while the other vampires burn up in the sun. After Sammie flees, Smoke stays behind to take on Hogwood and the KKK. He kills them all but suffers a fatal gunshot wound, and he reunites with Annie and their child in death.

In 1992, Sammie is now an elderly blues musician. He is found by Stack and Mary, who have continued to live as vampires. Stack offers to turn Sammie, knowing he is close to death, but Sammie declines. He plays one last song for Stack and Mary before they leave.