Black and Blue

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. Plot U.S. Army veteran Alicia West returns to her hometown of New Orleans, where she joins the city's police department and is partnered with the easygoing Kevin Jennings. Their beat includes the deprived slum neighborhood where West grew up, and during one patrol she meets an old friend, Milo "Mouse" Jackson, who now works as a convenience store clerk. However, he acts as if he doesn't know her, as the community is deeply distrustful of the police. In order for Jennings to get home to date-night with his wife, West takes his place in a double shift with another 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 an informant named Zero; when they arrive, he orders West to wait in the car while he heads in alone. Soon afterward, West hears gunfire coming from the building and rushes in to help, wearing a bulletproof vest fitted with a body camera, only to stumble upon Brown and two narcotics detectives, Terry Malone and Smitty, executing three unarmed drug pushers in cold blood after a botched drug deal. Malone attempts to explain away the incriminating situation, but Smitty panics upon seeing West's bodycam and shoots her. She is protected by her vest but stumbles backward onto a weak section of flooring and falls several stories.