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Sinners · written by Ryan Coogler · 2025
Scene 65 of 110 · ≈ 3 min on screen · Act two
In 1932 Mississippi, gifted sharecropper-bluesman Sammie Moore wants to make a life in the blues beyond his preacher father's rules, but the opening night of his cousins' juke joint becomes a siege by a vampire offering the community belonging at the price of its freedom.
The legend and prologue frame Sammie's segregated Delta life under his father's church and the twins' shadow.
Sammie wants the freedom, recognition, and musical life he imagines beyond the plantation.
He leaves the plantation with the twins, enters the wider Delta, and helps build their juke joint.
Sammie learns the blues is sacred, meets the room's people, and tries to claim a place among musicians and lovers.
His performance unites the juke with ancestral music and gives him the belonging and voice he wanted.
Remmick, Joan, and Bert arrive outside the opening-night juke after hearing Sammie's music.
Stack hears the lovers through the door and is summoned upstairs by Grace to speak with Smoke.
Smoke shows Stack the till and reveals that plantation credit is draining the twins' real cash.
Remmick's trio performs at the entrance, but Smoke refuses them entry and sends them back into the night.
This scene
The Twins and Cornbread huddle up. Annie and Mary listen in. Sammie and Pearline observe from a distance.
CORNBREAD
What ya’ll want to do?
STACK
You sure they came alone?
CORNBREAD
Three of thems all I saw.
SMOKE
Keep a eye on em till they leave.
ANNIE
They gave me the willies.
STACK
Yeah crackas at night time will do
that.
ANNIE
Wasn’t just that...
SMOKE
What if Hogwood set us up? I knew
I shoulda kil led that Klan
motherfucker when we had the
chance.
STACK
Slow down, Smoke. I don’t think
they got nothing to do with each
other.
SMOKE
You think they brought company?
STACK
Doubt it, but we got enough pepper
on is if they did.
SMOKE
Shit. We ain’t get the trunk.
STACK
Damn. Why you didn’t remind me?
SMOKE
Fool, I told you to remind me!
The twins look towards the door.
MARY
Ya’ll don’t need the trunk. It was
three of em.
The Twins turn to Mary. Maybe she’s right.
STACK
Maybe they just came to sing.
SMOKE
Somebody spill something on em,
step on they shoe, look at they
woman too long then we got a
bigger problem than just a fight
you understand?
Smoke turns to Cornbread.
SMOKE (CONT’D)
Don’t let em in.
Leaving Mary and Annie with each other.
ANNIE
You doin’ alright?
Mary nods.
ANNIE (CONT’D)
Look like you need something to
eat. Food in Little Rock ain't no
good?
MARY
It’s fine. Just grieving. You
ain't got none of that gumbo here
do you?
Annie shakes her head empathetically.
ANNIE
Catfish sandwich?
MARY
Could you?
ANNIE
Of cou rse.
Mary reaches for her pocket book.
ANNIE (CONT’D)
Stop it.
Annie and Mary head off into the Juke.
Mary follows Annie over to the kitchen area where Annie enters to make a new plate.
Mary looks around and notices Stack, visibly stressed, on the upstairs catwalk. She walks up the stairs to him.
MARY
What’s wrong?
STACK
We got a packed house, but we
under water.
MARY
How?
STACK
All the plantations paying is
credi ts.
MARY
All the plantations?
STACK
Seems that way.
MARY
What about them crackers?
STACK
What about em?
MARY
Let me go out there and feel em
out before they too far gone.
STACK
I can go feel em out.
MARY
They’ll tell me more than they’ll
tell you. I can find out what they
really have.
STACK
What if they from Little Rock?
MARY
They ain't.
(beat)
Let me try to get this money for
us. I know ya’ll need it.
STACK
What’s that supposed to mean.
MARY
Irish beer? Italian wine? You
robbed both sides. Let them blame
each other while you and Smoke
come down here and set up shop.
You need every dime you can get in
case they put two and two
together.
STACK
They won’t.
MARY
In case they do. Let me go talk to
them and see about putt ing
something real on the till.
Stack thinks for a long beat, then pulls his Luger. Mary snugs up close to him, and he slips it in her garter.