SPOILER ALERT: This story contains plot details, including the ending, of Ryan Coogler‘s “Sinners,” now playing in theaters.
Who survived their dance with the devil in Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners”?
The Premise
The period thriller takes place over one hog-wild, then harrowing day and night in October 1932, as the Smokestack twins — Smoke and Stack, played by Michael B. Jordan — return to their hometown in the Mississippi Delta to open a juke joint.
The first half of Coogler’s 2 hour and 17-minute sultry and scary opus is largely dedicated to Smoke and Stack’s preparations for the party, beginning with securing a venue. The twins, who’ve made some cash working in Chicago for Al Capone, buy an old sawmill from a condescending white man named Hogwood (David Maldonado), who promises the KKK is no longer around these parts, so they won’t be bothered.
Then, they recruit their cousin Sammie (newcomer Miles Caton), the son of a preacher and sharecropper who yearns to become a blues musician, for the evening’s entertainment, as well as a cast of local characters to work the party. Among them are Annie (Wunmi Mosaku), who is Smoke’s estranged love and a Hoodoo conjurer; Delta Slim, a local pianist with a penchant for boozing; shopkeepers Grace and Bo Chow (Li Jun Li and Yao); Pearline (Jayme Lawson), a singer whom Sammie takes a liking to; and Cornbread (Omar Miller), who works the door. Mary (Hailee Steinfeld) is Stack’s ex and a multiracial woman who can pass as white; she’s not explicitly invited, but this is her community too, so she shows up anyway.
The movie was inspired by his late Uncle James’ love of the blues, Coogler told Variety, and he got the idea for the premise from an famous old tune called “Wang Dang Doodle.”
“The song is the story of a group of people in a small community throwing a party. They all have nicknames that imply that they’re gangsters,” Coogler explained. “I was like, ‘Oh, wouldn’t it be cool if I made a one-day movie — which is more my favorite type of movie — where it’s this group of people, and everybody who they get together is dangerous, but they meet something that’s more dangerous than they could ever imagine.”
Indeed, the twins’ party is rockin’, but there’s danger lurking in the form of Remmick, an Irish-immigrant vampire who is attracted to Sammie’s otherworldly talent.
In a series of unfortunate events, first Mary, then Stack and most of the attendees at the party are converted to Remmick’s horde of vampires and the survivors — Smoke, Sammie, Annie, Delta Slim, Pearline and Grace — must fight to survive the night. After arming themselves with wooden stakes, cloves of garlic and a few other anti-vampire protections, they’re prepared for a bloody final battle.
Who Survives the Night?
It’s a gory sequence with lots of staking and blood spurts, and by the end, it’s Smoke and Sammie against Remmick and the remaining mob. They’re saved by the rising sun, with a fortuitous assist by Sammie’s trusty guitar. But there’s no time to revel in their victory — Smoke sends Sammie home, because Remmick warned them that the Klan is coming.
When Hogwood and his merry band of racists arrive at the sawmill at dawn, they expect to catch the twins unaware. But they were prepared for trouble, with a stash of heavy artillery just in case things got hairy. Smoke picks his attackers off one by one, with military precision. If nothing else, he’ll go out in a blaze of glory. Smoke is ultimately successful in the mission, but he’s also been struck by a bullet. It’s still a happy ending, though, as he has a vision where he’s reunited with Annie in the afterlife and gets to hold their baby daughter in his arms again.
Meanwhile, a bloodied Sammie drives the twins’ car back to his father’s church and limps inside. There, he’s faced with a choice: After all that’s happened, is he ready to give up these secular pursuits once and for all? Not a chance.
The film’s final scenes chronicle what happens over the next 60 years, up until October 16, 1992, with Sammie now played by legendary Blues musician Buddy Guy. Sammie has lived a long life, and most importantly, has realized his dream of becoming a traveling musician. (His band is named Pearline’s after his first love.)
But that’s not where Sammie’s story ends.
The Mid-Credits Scene
As Sammie enjoys a drink at the bar after that night’s show, he’s visited by ghosts of the past: Stack and Mary.
The ageless couple waltz in, dressed in their ’90s finest, and the audience learns that they also survived the night. Smoke spared Stack’s life after making him promise to let Sammie live out his and the couple fled to safety before the rest of the town was scorched by the sunrise.
Now, they’ve returned with an offer. Stack can sense that death is coming for the old man. “I can make it so you can stick around,” he says. But Sammie is content with the time he’s had and declines. Stack has another request: to hear Sammie perform some old-school blues for them, one more time.
Sammie obliges, then confesses he still has nightmares about what happened in 1932. But, he says, before the sun went down, it was the best day of his life. Stack agrees wholeheartedly because it was the last time he saw his brother and because, for a few hours, they were all free. Then the couple vanish into the night.
Coogler told Entertainment Weekly that the credits scene was particularly emotional to shoot because it reminded him of his Uncle James. “I broke down crying in tears because I realized that this whole movie was about that,” the filmmaker said. “It was about me not having a chance to say goodbye to my uncle.”
The Post-Credits Scene
This sequence, which comes at the very end of the reel, is short and sentimental. It features a young Sammie singing “This Little Light of Mine” and strumming that old guitar, innocent before that fateful night.
