Plot

A young street hustler attempts to escape the rigors and temptations of the ghetto in a quest for a better life.

This urban nightmare chronicles several days in the life of Caine Lawson, following his high-school graduation, as he attempts to escape his violent existence in the projects of Watts, CA.—Daniel Bredy <gt3655a@prism.gatech.edu>

Caine is a black teenager living in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. Just before his graduation from high school, he walks into a liquor/convenience store with his friend O-Dog to buy some beer. One of the Korean owners is immediately suspicious of the duo and watches them closely, afraid they might steal something. When O-Dog becomes confrontational, the woman and her husband tell them to select what they need, pay and leave the store. As they walk out, the man mutters "I feel bad for your mother" in O-Dog's direction. O-Dog suddenly pulls out a pistol and shoots the man, startling Caine, who drops the beer bottle he'd been drinking from. O-Dog grabs the screaming woman and forces her into the back of the store, demanding she turn over the tape from the security camera. Several more shots are heard and O-Dog runs back out to empty the register, over Caine's objections. Furious that there's less than $10 in the cash drawer, he rifles the dead man's pockets and his sock and finds several hundred dollars more. The two run out of the store.

Caine himself is a low-level drug dealer, having been taught by his dead father's business partner, Pernell, how to survive and make his money on the streets. His neighborhood is a dangerous place to live; Caine speaks about how many black, male teens are not expected to live into their 20s or how they could end up in prison, like Pernell, who became a big brother-type to Caine when his father died, followed not long after by his mother. Caine lives with his mother's parents but they are gradually realizing that Caine's increasingly violent habits are leading to his own destruction and that he can't live with them much longer without bringing Caine's criminal life into their own home. At a very young age, Caine saw his father murder a friend during a card game and also saw his mother's deterioration and death due to heroin addiction.

Caine is very close with O-Dog and their friends Stacy, who is a teenage father, and Sharif, who has become a serious practitioner of Islam. One of Caine's other friends is Ronnie, Pernell's former girlfriend, with home she has a son, Anthony.

Caine manages to graduate from high school. At a graduation party, Caine, his cousin Harold and several others in their small crew decide to go out for something to eat. On the way there, Harold and Caine are carjacked. Harold tries to slyly reach for his pistol but is shot and left for dead on the street. Caine is also shot in the shoulder. He's driven to the ER by his friends while Sharif stays behind with Harold, now dead. Caine stays in the hospital for a week before returning to his grandparents' house. He and O-Dog are given a short lecture by Caine's grandfather, who cites scripture to them, but it has little effect on them. When they leave, O-Dog has some "good" news: he knows where to find the carjackers that shot his friend and murdered Harold.

When Caine joins his crew at their friend Chauncy's house, he's appalled to discover that O-Dog is openly playing the tape they stole from the convenience store, particularly the part where he murdered the owner. O-Dog is proud and arrogant, however no amount of convincing by Caine can make him stop showing the tape to their friends. One of their crew gives a pump-action shotgun to the thrilled O-Dog and they set out to find the jackers. On the way, Caine tells his friends that he's very hesitant about their mission since he's never actually killed anyone. O-Dog berates him for being weak. The quickly find their targets at a fast-food stand, sneak up and shoot them both. One of them, badly wounded, runs off and straight into their friend A-Wax, who finishes the man off with several more shots. Later, Caine seems remorseful but also numb, not knowing how to feel.

Caine and O-Dog are tasked by their friend Chauncy with stealing a car. They find one in a parking garage where a suspicious attendant calls the police while they're inside. The police block the exit and they run for it, hiding behind another car on a lower level. The police set a German Shepard loose and it finds them both. While awaiting arraignment, Caine is questioned by a detective on a case unrelated to the carjacking: Caine's prints were found on the bottle he'd been drinking from at the convenience store. However, he avoids being charged with that crime because there's no video evidence that he was there at the time of the shooting. O-Dog himself isn't charged with grand theft because he's still a minor.

Caine talks to Sharif and Stacy. Stacy reveals that he and Ronnie will be moving to Atlanta where Ronnie will take up an office clerk's job. She wants a better life for Anthony, a plan shared by Stacy who also wants a better life for his own kids. Sharif and Stacy want Caine to make the move too since life is becoming increasingly dangerous for them in LA. Caine is quite hesitant at the thought of such a big change in his life.

Caine takes delivery of a stolen Ford Mustang that a custom mechanic had fixed up and cleaned (re-registered as a used vehicle with new paperwork) for him. Caine is pleased with the car but unhappy with the ordinary wheel rims it comes with. He stalks another young man like himself driving on fancier rims and robs him of his cash, forces him to buy him lunch at a drive through and steals his car for its wheels. Caine also buys a small quantity of crack to prepare for sale. With the money he makes from dealing, he tries to sneak a small amount to Ronnie, who refuses to take it. She's also furious that Caine had been showing Anthony his Beretta pistol. Ronnie orders him to leave her house.

Right before a picnic with his friends, Caine woos a young woman in the park. After the picnic, Caine gets together with Sharif and his father - a teacher at a local high school - whom try to convince Caine to make the move with Ronnie and Stacy to Georgia. Caine remains reluctant and also doesn't have a clear answer when Sharif's father asks him where he thinks he'll be in a few years. Later, Caine and Sharif cruise around the neighborhood in Caine's new Mustang but are stopped by the police, who claim the car is stolen. Caine and Sharif are both violently arrested by the police and thrown into the back of their cruiser. However, rather than take them to processing, the police leave them in a Latino neighborhood, thinking they'll be further beaten or even killed by Latin gang members. However, the gang members are sympathetic and take both of them to the hospital. Caine is visited in the hospital by Ronnie, who brings up her plans to move to Georgia. Caine remains resistant.

Caine meets up with the young woman he'd talked to in the park, Ilena, and they have sex. She later calls him and tells him she's pregnant. Caine refuses the responsibility and brushes her off, despite her pleading with him that he was the only person she'd had sex with. Ronnie throws a party as a sendoff for herself and Anthony. At one point, she finds Anthony on her back stoop with Caine and O-Dog, who suggests they give Anthony a sip of beer. Ronnie becomes very angry and takes her son back in the house. She and Caine later have sex her bedroom. After they both return to the party, Chauncy becomes aggressive with Ronnie. Caine is instantly enraged and attacks Chauncy, beating him severely while his friends and Ronnie try to haul him off.

Ronnie has Caine accompany her to see Pernell one last time before she leaves. Caine hasn't visited or written Pernell in a long time; he tells his friend he didn't want to see him incarcerated. Pernell seems to know that Ronnie has started a relationship with Caine and even gives them his blessing.

Caine is later confronted by Ilena's cousin who demands that Caine own up to his shoddy treatment of Ilena. Caine refuses and beats the young man down in front of his grandparents. When they drag him back in the house, they tell him he's become too unpredictably dangerous and violent to live with them any longer. Caine finally decides he'll join Stacy and Ronnie on their trip to Georgia.

Chauncy, still angry over the beating Caine gave him at the party, sends a copy of the convenience store cassette to the police and a manhunt by LAPD detectives begins. Their search is fruitless while Caine keeps moving around to apartments and houses of friends while he prepares to leave LA with Ronnie and Anthony.

On the day they're set to leave, Ronnie oversees the packing and loading of her things by Caine, Stacy and O-Dog. She sends Caine outside to collect Anthony, who's been riding his new Big Wheel on the sidewalk. A car filled with Ilena's cousin's friends slips around the corner. They're all armed with guns and open fire on Ronnie's house. Sharif is hit several times and is killed, O-Dog fires blindly while running for cover, Caine and Ronnie hit the floor inside the house and Caine, taking several shots to the chest, throws himself on Anthony, shielding him from the worst of the gunfire. O-Dog has survived and is the first to find Sharif and Caine dying. Ronnie and Stacy run to Caine and take Anthony, unhurt, back into the house while Stacy holds Caine. Bleeding to death, Caine reflects on the life of violence he's lived, several events from his past flashing on the screen. He dies, his voiceover saying it's too late for him to find a way to live a safer life.