Crash (2004 Film) - Plot

Plot

Los Angeles detectives Graham Waters (Don Cheadle) and his partner Ria (Jennifer Esposito) approach a crime scene investigation. Waters exits the car to check out the scene. One day prior, Farhad (Shaun Toub), a Persian shop owner, and his daughter, Dorri (Bahar Soomekh), argue with each other in front of a gun store owner as Farhad tries to buy a revolver. The shop keeper grows impatient and orders an infuriated Farhad outside. Dorri defiantly finishes the gun purchase, which she had opposed. The purchase entitles the buyer to one box of ammunition. She selects a red box.

In another part of town, Rick Cabot (Brendan Fraser), the local district attorney, and his wife, Jean (Sandra Bullock), are carjacked as they are about to enter their Lincoln Navigator, by Anthony (Chris "Ludacris" Bridges) and Peter (Larenz Tate). Later, at the Cabot house, Hispanic locksmith Daniel Ruiz (Michael Peña) is changing their locks when he overhears Jean complaining about having been carjacked earlier by two black men and now having to endure a heavily tattooed Hispanic with a shaved head changing their locks, because she is sure he is going to leave and give copies of the new keys to "his other gang members." Detectives Waters and Ria next arrive at the scene of a shooting between two drivers. The surviving shooter is a white male, identified as an undercover police officer. The dead shooter, a black male, is revealed also to be an undercover police officer. There is a large amount of cash found in the black officer's trunk. This is the third time the white officer has shot and killed a black man.

LAPD officer John Ryan (Matt Dillon) and his partner, Tom Hanson (Ryan Phillippe), begin their evening patrol. They pull over a Navigator similar to the one carjacked earlier, despite discrepancies in the descriptions of the carjackers and in the license plate numbers. They order the couple, TV director Cameron Thayer (Terrence Howard) and his wife Christine (Thandie Newton), to exit. Cameron is cooperative, but Christine has had a few drinks and is argumentative. This annoys Ryan, who sexually molests Christine under the pretense of administering a pat-down; intimidated, Cameron says nothing. The couple is released without a citation. Once home, Christine becomes enraged that Cameron did nothing while she was being violated. Cameron insists that what he did was correct and storms out. Arriving home from work long after dark, Daniel finds his young daughter, Lara, hiding under her bed after hearing a gunshot outside. To comfort her, Daniel gives her an "invisible impenetrable cloak," which makes her feel safe enough to fall asleep in her bed. In the carjacked SUV, Anthony and Peter, arguing and distracted, hit something while passing a parked white van. Stopping, they discover that they have run over an Asian man, now trapped under the SUV. They argue about what to do with him, finally dumping him in front of a hospital and driving away.

The next day, at the LAPD station, Hanson talks to his superior, Lt. Dixon (Keith David), about switching partners. Dixon, a black man, claims that Hanson's charge of Ryan as a racist could cost both Hanson and Dixon their jobs. Dixon suggests a transfer to a one-man car and mockingly tells Hanson that he should justify it by claiming to have uncontrollable flatulence. Ryan visits Shaniqua Johnson (Loretta Devine), a "managed care" insurance representative with whom he argued earlier. Apologizing for insulting her previously, he explains that his father was previously diagnosed with a bladder infection but he fears the diagnosis is incorrect and that it may be prostate cancer. Ryan wants him to see a different doctor, but Shaniqua icily informs him that the health plan won't cover it. Daniel is seen replacing a lock at Farhad's shop and tries to explain to him that the door frame is shattered and not secure and needs to be replaced. Farhad, whose English is limited, misunderstands and accuses Daniel of cheating him and refuses to pay. The next morning, Farhad discovers the store has been looted, wrecked and tagged with graffiti. His insurance company does not cover the damage, calling it a case of negligence, as he had been advised to replace the door and did not. Farhad looks for and finds Daniel's full name on the discarded invoice and vows revenge. Detective Waters visits his mother, a some-time hard drug abuser. She asks him to find his missing younger brother; he promises and takes notice that there is almost no food in the apartment as he is leaving.

In the studio where Cameron works, a white producer, Fred (Tony Danza), suggests that a black actor isn't acting "black" enough, as he was using proper grammar. Cameron had been satisfied with the take just completed, but Fred strongly suggests that another take be done, with the black actor speaking more "black." Cameron initially pushes back but, threatened with his job, he concedes. Ryan comes across a car accident and as he crawls into the overturned vehicle, he finds Christine, who is trapped. Upon recognizing Ryan, Christine becomes hysterical, screaming for him to leave her alone and refusing his help, but gasoline is leaking from the tank and running downhill towards another wreck, which has already caught fire. He calms her down, and with the assistance of his partner and spectators, Ryan pulls Christine out just as her car bursts into flames. A confused but grateful Christine is taken away by EMTs. Anthony and Peter attempt to carjack Cameron. Cameron has reached his limit of being pushed around, and he resists the attempt. Peter asks Anthony to shoot Cameron even though he had earlier claimed that he would never rob another black man but Anthony does not. As police officers arrive, Cameron jumps back in the car and drives away, with Anthony continuing to hold a gun on him. A car chase ensues; one of the police responders to the chase is Tom Hanson, who recognizes the vehicle as the one he and Ryan pulled over the night before. Cameron drives to a dead end, grabs Anthony's gun, and gets out of the car, all the while yelling insults at the officers. Just before he pulls out the gun, Hanson convinces him to stop aggravating the situation and just go home. Hanson vouches for Cameron to the other officers, telling them that Cameron has no prior history of breaking the law and promises to give him a "harsh warning." All depart. Cameron tells Anthony that as a black man he is embarrassed for him and gives back the gun as he drops Anthony at a bus stop.

Using the White Pages of the phone book, Farhad locates Daniel's home address and travels there with his gun. As Daniel's wife Elizabeth (Karina Arroyave) watches in horror, Farhad shoots at Daniel at point-blank range -- just as Daniel's daughter Lara jumps into his arms to protect her father with the "invisible cloak." It takes the grief-stricken parents a moment to realize that Lara is miraculously unharmed; the red box of ammunition that Dorri had selected contained blanks, rendering Farhad's gun harmless. Farhad later tells his daughter that he believes that the little girl was his angel, saving him from committing a terrible crime. Peter, who is hitchhiking, is picked up by Hanson. They awkwardly try to bridge the gap between their cultures. Peter sees that Hanson has a small statuette of Saint Christopher, which he also has. He begins to laugh as he realizes that there is no difference between the two of them, but Hanson thinks that he is being racist. Peter then pulls his statuette out of his pocket, but Hanson thinks it is a gun and shoots and kills Peter. Hanson dumps the body and then torches his own car in another part of town. Peter is revealed to be Waters' missing brother. Waters and his mother meet up at the morgue, and Waters promises to find who is responsible. His mother tells him not to bother, as she blames him for his brother's death. Anthony returns to the white van owned by the Asian man that they had run over earlier. Finding the keys still hanging from the door lock, he drives the van away. Kim Lee (the Asian woman from the crash at the film's opening) arrives at a hospital looking for her husband Choi Jin Gui, the man Anthony and Peter ran over. Conscious and coherent, he tells her to go and immediately cash a check that he has in his wallet. Anthony has driven the white van to a chop shop he frequents, and as they inspect the van, a number of Asian immigrants are discovered to be chained and locked in the back of the van, revealing that Choi was, in fact, involved in human trafficking. Anthony is offered $500 for each person in the van.

The last scene of the film shows the white van being parked in Chinatown, where Anthony walks to the back, opens the van, and sets the Asians free. He tells the uncomprehending passengers that "this is America," and he gives $40 to one of the men, telling him to buy everyone some "chop suey" to eat. As Anthony drives away, he passes a minor crash, which turns out to involve Shaniqua. The film closes as Shaniqua and the other driver, who rear-ended her car, hurl racial insults at one another.