New Jack City - Plot

Plot

Nino Brown (Wesley Snipes) and his gang, the Cash Money Brothers, become the dominant drug ring within New York City when crack cocaine is introduced to the city streets during the mid and late 1980s. Meanwhile, Scotty Appleton (Ice-T) has a deal with stick-up kid Pookie (Chris Rock). The deal goes wrong when Pookie takes the money and runs, causing Scotty into having a long chase and ends up wounding Pookie. He attempts to arrest him but the police let Pookie go. The CMB then convert an entire apartment complex (real-life Graham Court, known in the film as the "Carter") into a crack house, with assistance from his Nino's right hand man Gee Money (Allen Payne) and enforcer Duh Duh Man (Bill Nunn).

Scotty Appleton volunteers to go undercover into infiltrating Nino's gang and is partnered with Nick Peretti (Judd Nelson) as they try to convict the gang with evidence of the drug trafficking. On a mission they spy on the CMB, who are giving food to the poor, including Pookie. Scotty then recruits Pookie to work undercover at the Carter to help them gather incriminating evidence against Nino and the Cash Money Brothers. He then manages to get Pookie into recovery for his drug addiction and then to work for the CMB in a high-tech undercover mission.

Pookie ends up relapsing and sneaking drugs. While high, Pookie is caught by Gee Money, who also realizes that Pookie is wired. When the cops realize their cover has been blown, the CMB abandon and burn the Carter complex including any evidence of their activities with crack-addicted civilians inside. Later, the cops tries to reach to Pookie but they find his bloodied corpse with explosives on him. Nick manages to diffuse the bomb before it explodes. Nino discovers that Gee Money ordered the Carter to be destroyed, which makes Nino angry and threatens Gee Money.

After Pookie's funeral, Scotty takes matters into his own hands by going undercover as a drug dealer who wants to get in with the CMB. Scotty infiltrates the CMB thanks in part to the ambitions (and increasing drug use) of Gee Money, after they bribe a mobster named Frankie Needles, who has connections with the CMB from his boss, Don Armeteo.

On their first encounter, Nino tells Scotty a story of how he murdered a woman as a part of his initiation into the L.A. Boyz as a youth. When questioned by Scotty if the murder was personal or business, Nino explains this away by saying: "My brother, it's always business. Never personal." Scotty further gains the trust of Nino after "saving" him from a gun-toting old man and by revealing information about Gee Money's side-deal.

Nino, Scotty and the rest of the CMB attends a wedding as Nick sneaks in Nino's mansion (with a guard dog inside) to collect the video tapes from the Carter drug operations in order to gather evidence of Pookie's death and the drugs. At the end of the wedding, Don Armeteo sends hitmen to assassinate Nino. The hitman fails to assassinate him and instantly kills a female member of the CMB, Keish (Vanessa A. Williams). After that, Selina yells at Nino for using a little girl as a human shield and his murdering activities but Nino throws her out and ends his relationship with her. Don Armeteo calls Nino and he gives his words about giving everything to Nino as Nino angrily yells at him before the Don hangs up. Later, Nino sends motorcycle members to the Don's hideout, where Don Armeteo and his henchman are grisly shot to death.

Nino's megalomania separates the crime lord from his gang and is the catalyst for their downfall. Scotty's cover gets blown during another police sting of CMB operations when one of Nino's fellow gang members Karim (Christopher Williams) notices him from Pookie's wound situation, leading to a gruesome shootout and several police officers and Duh Duh Duh Man are killed in the shootout. On a boat, Nino confronts Gee Money for his act of betrayal and goes on the run, which Nino then regretfully shoots Gee Money in the head, killing him. After the gang's collapse, Nino holes up in an apartment and continues his crime empire solo.

Eventually, Nino is caught by the undercover cops. Scotty goes right in the apartment as Nick clearly kills a bodyguard guarding Nino's apartment and Nino is brutally beaten on a public street for his crimes against the community and as retribution for the mother's murder by Scotty. In rage, he says, "This ain't business, bitch, this is personal!" before pointing his gun at Nino to put an end to his nemesis. Nick convinces Scotty to let Nino live. Stone and Nino's ex-girlfriend arrive to take the severely injured Nino. Nino makes a remark that he will return before he is taken away.

At Nino's trial, after turning state's evidence while on the stand, Nino Brown pleads guilty to a lesser charge (though still a felony given the judge's note that the punishment would include at least 12 months prison time). Nino claims he was forced to work for CMB because they threatened his mother, and points the finger at Kareem, whom he falsely claims was the actual leader of CMB. As Nino walks triumphantly out of the courthouse, he is shot in the chest and falls to his death (justifiably so based on Nick and Scotty's reaction) by an older man (Bill Cobbs), who had earlier tried to convince the police of Nino's destruction of the community and had made an attempt on his life. Nick and Scotty happily leave as news reporters takes pictures of Nino's corpse.