Abhiroop Das
Helmed by Deon Taylor, ‘Black and Blue’ is an action thriller movie that takes us to the underbelly of New Orleans to track a rookie officer’s fight against a corrupt police force. When Alicia West, a war veteran turned police officer, discovers a few of her co-workers partaking in illegal activities, she immediately finds herself with a target on her back. The only way to survive as such emerges from her returning to her roots, hoping to reconnect with the very people she once left behind. However, when the cops, specifically a narcotics officer named Malone, refuse to relent, Alicia realizes that the only way out might just involve some bending of the law in itself. By the end of the film, she is forced to make a choice between preserving her own life and fighting for the truth. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Black and Blue Plot Synopsis
‘Black and Blue’ begins with the story of Alicia West, a rookie cop who has returned to her hometown after serving in the army. Her partner for the day, Kevin Jennings, warns her of being cautious of an underprivileged neighborhood known as Kingston, not knowing that Alicia was born there. On one of their pit stops, she recognizes two of her friends, Missy and Mouse, but neither of them acknowledges her as a known presence. When the day ends, a patrol officer named Deek demands that Jennings do a double shift, but Alicia offers to step in instead. From there, the duo makes their way to a desolate factory, where Deek asks her to stay put while he wraps up something urgent. However, when she is forced to step out to stop a carjacking attempt, Alicia ends up hearing a gunshot.
Believing that Deek is in danger, Alicia ventures into the factory with her bodycam and witnesses Deek, along with narcotics officers Smitty and Malone, shoot down three drug dealers. One of the victims is apparently a police informant named Zero, which makes it clear that Deek is a corrupt cop. When the trio notices Alicia, they immediately try to shut things up by killing her, but the bulletproof vest saves her life. After sustaining several injuries in the ensuing chase, Alicia manages to make her way back to Mouse’s shop, where she stays hidden as the police come and go. From there, she goes to Mouse’s house, and it is revealed that the reason she is not being acknowledged by her friends is that she never looked back after deserting them all those years ago.
Meanwhile, Malone and his team realize what’s at stake and begin manufacturing a fake story about Alicia being the corrupt cop who killed three drug dealers. This particularly invites the ire of the kingpin Darius Tureau, who happens to be Zero’s uncle. When Alicia tries to reach out to the police via Jennings, he accidentally slips up that he is also on Malone’s payroll and is unable to subdue her any further. However, the drug dealers manage to track down Mouse and arrest him for questioning, leaving Alicia with no choice but to safeguard her bodycam footage and turn herself in to Darius. Once there, she tells them the truth just in time for Malone to arrive with a SWAT team, prepared to take both the gang and Alicia out. In the gunfight that follows, she manages to bring Malone to his knees, but without the bodycam footage, nothing she says has any worth.
Black and Blue Ending: Does Alicia Prove Her Innocence? Is Malone Arrested?
‘Black and Blue’ ends with Mouse uploading Alicia’s bodycam footage at the station just in time for the police captain to realize the truth. In reality, it is not Alicia, but Malone who killed Zero as a part of a much larger network of corruption. With the SWAT team prepared to rain hellfire on Alicia, things almost tip in Malone’s favor, but the captain orders the team to step back at the last minute, allowing Alicia to regain her footing and defeat her arch nemesis. However, things don’t go as smoothly either, as Malone manages to snatch his gun back and almost shoots her down, only to be stopped by Jennings. It doesn’t take long for the police to arrest him from that point on, initiating what is likely the first step in uprooting a systemic evil.
Though the movie is largely about Alicia’s survival against what appears to be an entire collective of corrupt cops, the story is incomplete without the rare but powerful support she gets from her community. From the start, she is framed as someone who left her toxic upbringing behind in the service of the nation, only to return from Afghanistan with a certain degree of distrust. Her decision to never return to her roots, that is, her community, can be interpreted as a major misstep, one that is corrected along the way. Ultimately, it is people like Mouse and Missy who help her out when no one would, even if it means facing the wrath of people much more powerful than they are. The fact that Deek turns on his own friends, whereas Captain Regina doesn’t, also ties into this, as she is in many ways a reflection of Alicia.
After Mouse manages to get the tape fully uploaded, the first thing he does is to subdue the corrupt cop who raided his shop earlier. In a powerful role-reversal, Mouse holds the man, and by extension the entire police system, accountable. Something similar unfolds on Alicia’s front, as we see her finally gain a victory against men like Deek, Malone, and even Jennings on some level, who have been withholding her progress both because of her age, race, and gender. Given that Malone is now being charged with the murder of the three drug dealers, chances are that information about his partners will come to light sooner rather than later. However, because we don’t know how deep the corruption runs in the force, there is a grim chance that they might just get away with it.
Why Does Jennings Shoot Malone? Why Does He Let Mouse go?
Arguably, the most drastic transformation in the movie comes not from Alicia, but her former cop partner Jenning, who goes from being in cahoots with Malone to shooting him in defense of Alicia. This lines up with his other major decision to let Mouse go to the police station, despite having a pretty good idea of what that entails. In both cases, his change of heart reflects on how he has come to his senses about the true nature of things. Though he hates the Kingston community and considers it responsible for its own infamy, by the end of it all, he has no choice but to accept his own role in constructing and fostering a system that encourages crime, violence, and death.
Given that Mouse manages to upload the entirety of Alicia’s bodycam footage, chances are that her confrontation with Jennings is also somewhere in there. While this doesn’t necessarily confirm his arrest or firing, the larger point remains that he is ready to take on responsibility. As such, there is a possibility that he turns himself in after getting Malone arrested, while also revealing information about Deek and his other partners in the illegal operation. Though he is aware of what might follow, Jennings does this from a position of equal parts empathy and guilt, as he now understands that his callous actions can very easily lead to a trail of bloodshed.
While Jennings ultimately takes Alicia’s side because of a moral awakening, a part of that choice is also informed by Malone’s actions. After learning that Jennings couldn’t restrain Alicia for long, a frustrated Malone nearly takes his life, and only relents when he remembers Mouse’s name and location. For Jennings, this all but confirms that he is trapped in a cycle in which the only way out is to put others in harm’s way, much as he originally relegated his responsibilities to Alicia, which kick-started all of this. As such, he gradually figures out that the only way out of this mess is to root it from the inside out, and that comes with an acknowledgment of the actual abusive faction in these twisted match-ups of power dynamics.
Do Alicia and Mouse End up Together?
With the movie ending in Alicia’s victory, the final moments also tease a romantic development between her and Mouse, while still retaining just enough ambiguity. Some time after Malone’s arrest, Alicia returns to her mother’s grave, contemplating her journey thus far. On her way out, however, we learn that she is accompanied by Mouse, who gives her a kiss on the forehead before they move along. While this forehead kiss isn’t necessarily a romantic gesture, it does confirm that the two have returned to being very close friends and might be on their way to developing something special. This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise either, as the duo’s chemistry is apparent throughout the entire movie, and especially in the final scene.
It is likely that Alicia and Mouse’s first interaction in the movie is, in fact, the first time they’ve met since she left for her military training. As much of Kingston’s narrative is set by the words of cops like Jennings, we are also initially led to perceive Mouse with doubtful eyes, but he, in turn, is quick to call out the biases at play. This argument has the most profound effect on Alicia, as it reminds her of who, or what, she has been fighting for this entire time. As it stands, the duo makes for a perfect romantic pair, as we have already seen how well Alicia syncs up with both him and Jamal, the neighborhood kid. However, their shared path ahead largely depends on how well Alicia manages to stay connected to her roots and help Mouse and his friends combat the police as well as local corruption.
Read More: Where Was Black and Blue Filmed? All Shooting Locations
