Ten-year-old Tre Styles (Desi Arnez Hines II) lives with his single mother Reva Devereaux (Angela Bassett) in Inglewood, California, and is known to be a bully in his school. After Tre gets involved in a fight at school, his teacher calls Reva. The teacher informs Reva that although Tre is rather intelligent, he is immature and lacks respect for classmates and adults alike. Frightened about the future of her child, Reva sends him to live in the Crenshaw neighborhood of South Central with his 27-year-old father, Furious Styles (Laurence Fishburne), with whom she had a relationship when they were teens and Tre was born as a result, from whom she hopes Tre will learn valuable life lessons.
On the night of Tre’s arrival, he hears his father shooting at a burglar who tried to rob the house. LAPD officers arrive more than an hour later, and eventually decide the crime is unimportant because nothing was taken and the burglar escaped completely unharmed. The police, particularly the African American officer, treat Furious with disrespect and contempt, and mock him. The following day, Tre reunites with childhood friends Darrin “Doughboy” Baker (nicknamed because of his obesity), Doughboy’s maternal half-brother Ricky, and Chris, their mutual friend. Doughboy and Ricky live with their mother across the street from Furious and are happy with Tre living close with them.
While Ricky is naïve and trusting, Doughboy is aggressive and street-smart. As the kids wander into another neighborhood to view the decaying corpse of a murdered gang member in a vacant lot, Doughboy gets into a fight with a teenage Crips named Rick Rock (Vonte Sweet) after he intimidates Ricky and steals Ricky’s football. Doughboy is beaten up, but the ball is returned to him later by another Crips member, who was more polite with the boys (Lexie Bigham). Furious, who appears to be the only father present in the neighborhood, takes Tre on a fishing trip, where Furious also advises Tre not to join the Army ever, as Furious himself served in Vietnam, to act mature, and being responsible if he is going to be a father. The pair return to Crenshaw, where they witness Doughboy and Chris being led by police officers into a squad car, with Rick watching, after having been caught shoplifting in the local drugstore, and are told that they are going to juvenile hall.
7 years later[edit source | editbeta]
Seven years later, a “welcome home” party is being held in the Baker home. Doughboy (Ice Cube), who had previously dropped out of high school and lost a significant amount of weight, has just been released from prison, and sits at a table playing dominoes with Chris (Redge Green), now in a wheelchair from a gunshot wound, “Dookie” (Dedrick D. Gobert), and “Monster”. Ricky (Morris Chestnut), now a star running-back for Crenshaw High School, lives at home with his mother Brenda (Tyra Ferrell), girlfriend Shanice (Alysia Rogers), and their toddler son. Meanwhile, Furious has managed to tame Tre (Cuba Gooding Jr.), who now holds a steady job as a clerk at the Fox Hills Mall and excels in school. He hopes to attend college with his girlfriend, Brandi (Nia Long), whose desire to remain abstinent is a source of tension between them. After the party is over, Tre walks home with leftovers for his father. As he walks along the street, Tre notices a toddler, the child of Cheryl, with a local drug addict. He brings the toddler back to Cheryl, angrily reminding her to “keep the babies off the streets.”
Continuing on the way home, Tre encounters a group of Bloods gang members, who threateningly tease Tre by pointing a double-barreled shotgun at him. When Tre gets home, he gets a haircut from Furious, lying to him about the first time he had sex. Furious seems amused at first, but then sternly asks if Tre used a condom, warning against the dangers of contacting a sexually transmitted disease and of becoming a father at a young age (using himself as an example, as he was 17 when Tre was born). Life goes on in the Hood, with scenes including Tre flirting with Brandi and a drug-addict getting beat up by Doughboy and his gang after stealing Dookie’s necklace. One night, a man from the USC comes to interview Ricky about college, but Ricky’s rude friends make a bad impression. Ricky hopes to earn a scholarship to USC, but is daunted by the requirement that he must earn a 700 on his SAT to pass.[4]
Later, during a local street racing gathering, Ricky is provoked by Ferris (Raymond Turner), a Bloods member. In defense of Ricky, Doughboy, now a Crips member himself, brandishes his .45 ACP handgun and points it to Ferris’s head. Ferris fires his MAC-10 into the air, causing everyone to speed away from the scene. Tre and Ricky are pulled over by an LAPD patrol; the lead officer turns out to be the same one who responded to the burglary call made by Furious seven years earlier. The officer shoves a gun in Tre’s neck and taunts him, asking what he will do about it. Tre arrives late to Brandi’s house and breaks down crying; later that night, they have sex for the first time, ending both of their virginities.
The next afternoon, Ricky, annoyed by his girlfriend, has a fight with Doughboy. Brenda rushes to Ricky’s aid while berating Doughboy. Ricky and Tre later encounter Ferris and the Bloods. Doughboy, upon seeing Ferris and his fellow Bloods roll up on the block, senses that Tre and Ricky are in trouble, and rushes to their defense. Ricky and Tre cut through back alleys and separate to avoid them, but the Bloods find Ricky and shoot him once in the leg, followed by one fatal shot to the back. Tre cradles Ricky’s corpse as he mourns his friend while Doughboy and his friends arrive too late, and are just as grief-stricken as Tre. The boys take Ricky’s body home where Brenda and Shanice hysterically blame Doughboy, who unsuccessfully tries to comfort them. Later that night, Brenda sobs over Ricky’s test results, discovering he earned a 710 — just enough to qualify for a USC scholarship.
Angered and distraught, the remaining boys vow revenge on the Bloods. Furious finds Tre holding his .357 Magnum pistol and has a fight with him, but eventually convinces him to abandon his plans. However, Brandi and Furious catch Tre sneaking out of his bedroom window to join Doughboy and the Crips, but Furious lets him go. Later that night, as the gang drives around the city, Tre realizes that he is making a mistake and asks to be let out of the car. Doughboy pulls over and lets Tre out at a bus stop.
While Tre heads back home, realizing his father’s words, Doughboy finds the Bloods eating at a fast-food restaurant, and Monster opens fire on them with a Type 56 assault rifle in a drive-by shooting through the glass. Despite both Monster and Dookie’s pleas to flee the scene, Doughboy gets out of his car and personally kills Ferris and the other wounded gang member execution-style with his M1911 while Ferris begs for his life, avenging Ricky’s death. Meanwhile, Tre returns home and finds his waiting father. Furious and Tre silently exchange glances for a moment, and then Furious enters his own room and slams the door.
The next morning, Doughboy visits Tre, now understanding Tre’s reasons for abandoning the gang. Doughboy — having killed three men — knows that he will soon face retaliation for Ferris’ death, and accepts the consequences of his crime-ridden life. He plaintively questions why America “don’t know, don’t show, or don’t care about what’s going on in the Hood.” He sorrowfully says that he has no brothers left now after Ricky’s death, but is embraced by Tre, who says Doughboy still has “one brother left.” Doughboy then walks away, pouring out his malt liquor simultaneously.
In the epilogue text, it is revealed that Doughboy is murdered two weeks later on the street with the avenging crips members. Tre and Brandi resume their steady relationship, and go on to attend Morehouse and Spelman in Atlanta.