Black and Blue (2019)

Black and Blue is a 2019 American action thriller film directed by Deon Taylor from a screenplay by Peter A. Dowling. The film stars Naomie Harris, Tyrese Gibson, Frank Grillo, Mike Colter, Reid Scott, and Beau Knapp, and follows a rookie police officer who goes on the run after she witnesses her colleagues commit a murder.

The film had its world premiere at the Urbanworld Film Festival on September 21, 2019, and was theatrically released in the United States on October 25, 2019, by Sony Pictures Releasing. It received mostly mixed reviews from critics.

U.S. Army veteran Alicia West returns to her hometown of New Orleans, joining the police department. She is partnered with easygoing Kevin Jennings. Their beat includes the deprived neighborhood where West grew up, and during one patrol, she meets an old friend, Milo “Mouse” Jackson, who now is a convenience store clerk. However, he acts as if he doesn’t know her, as the community deeply distrusts the police.

To let Jennings have a date night with his wife, West offers to cover his double shift with patrolman Deacon “Deek” Brown. During their shift, he gets a call on his personal phone and drives to a derelict power station, ostensibly to meet the informant Zero. When they arrive, he orders West to wait in the car while he enters alone.

West sees a crook trying to break into a vehicle and just as she is about to chase him, a gunshot rings out in the building, so West switches her target and enters the abandoned facility to check it out while wearing a bulletproof vest with a body camera. She stumbles on Brown and narcotics detectives Terry Malone and Smitty executing three unarmed drug pushers in cold blood. Malone attempts to explain the incriminating situation, but Smitty panics after seeing West’s bodycam and shoots her multiple times. Her bulletproof vest catches the rounds but the aftershock from the impact sends West backward onto a section of weak flooring and she plummets several stories, landing on a garbage patch.

Despite being badly injured, West escapes on foot without her gun, with Malone, Smitty and Brown in pursuit. She tries to get civilians to help upon realizing that her dispatch radio is compromised, but is rejected as the community in the area hates the police. Then she notices an approaching squad car, seeking help from the two patrolmen inside. However, she realizes that they are also part of Malone’s network of corrupt cops and thus compromised. She flees again and eventually finds sanctuary at Mouse’s store, though he is initially reluctant to help and considers turning her over to her pursuers.