Crash

A black detective, Graham Waters (Don Cheadle), speaks dazedly about the nature of L.A. and the need for people to crash into each other. A Latino woman driving the car Waters is in, Ria (Jennifer Esposito), mentions that they were hit from behind. She ensues to argue with the other driver as Waters gets out of the car. Walking to a nearby crime scene, the police officer there informs Waters of a newly discovered body. A shoe is seen, while Waters stares at something off screen on the ground. He is horrified by the latter. At a gun shop, Iranian Farhad (Shaun Toub) and his daughter Dorri (Bahar Soomekh) are buying a gun. The shop's owner, angered by the two speaking Persian, tells them to leave his shop, ending in an infuriated Farhad being escorted outside. After being harassed with sexually charged comments from the shop owner, Dorri hurriedly purchases the gun and buys a box of bullets. Two young black men, Anthony (Chris "Ludacris" Bridges) and Peter (Larenz Tate), leave a restaurant. Anthony is lecturing Peter on racism when they walk past Rick Cabot (Brendan Fraser), the local D.A., and his wife, Jean (Sandra Bullock). The two men then promptly carjack them. Inside Rick's Navigator, Peter puts a St. Christopher statue on the dashboard. At the Cabot house, Jean is upset. A locksmith (Michael Pena) is changing the locks, and overhears her telling Rick to hire another locksmith in the morning, labelling the current one as a gang member. The locksmith, Daniel Ruiz, hears this and leaves insulted. In a diner, two Asian men talk about a pickup of items. Nearby, LAPD Officer John Ryan (Matt Dillon) speaks with an HMO administrator (Loretta Devine) about his father's medical ailment. When a racist comment is made by Ryan because Shaniqua refuses to help, she hangs up. As Ryan leaves, a white van containing the Asians passes by. He and his partner, Tom Hansen (Ryan Phillipe) begin their evening patrol and notice a black Navigator. Ignoring Hansen's protests, Ryan pulls the car over because the occupants are black. The cops order the couple, director Cameron Thayer (Terrence Howard) and his wife Christine (Thandie Newton) to exit. Cameron is polite, but Christine, who's a little drunk, taunts the cops. An angry Ryan makes an example of the woman by "frisking" her, in reality, sexual molesting her. Thayer says nothing. Once Ryan's done, the couple is let go. At Farhad's shop, his wife Shereen (Marina Sirtis) notes that the door doesn't close right. Dorri loads the gun with the bullets. At the Thayers' house, Christine is enraged that Cameron did nothing. Cameron insists what he did was correct, and the argument ends with Christine storming out. At his home, Daniel talks to his daughter, Lara, who is hiding under her bed after hearing a gun shot. To "protect" her from bullets, Daniel gives her an "invisible impenetrable cloak". He then lovingly puts her to bed, only to get a page for another locksmith job. In the SUV, Anthony and Peter continue talking about racism, and country music. As they talk, they pass a van and hit something. Getting out, they see that they hit an Asian man (one of the two from earlier). Unsure as to what to do, they eventually pull him out from under the car and dump him in front of a hospital. At the police station, Hansen talks to his superior, Lt. Dixon (Keith David) about switching partners. Dixon, a black man, claims that Hansen's "Ryan's racist" claim could cost them (Hansen and Dixon) both their jobs. Dixon suggests a transfer to a one-man car, due to uncontrollable flatulence. Daniel replaces the lock, but tells Farhad he needs a new door. Farhad doesn't listen and, thinking he is being cheated, refusing to pay. Daniel crumples up his workorder and throws it away, leaving irritated. At a chop shop, the owner, Lucien (Dato Bakhtadze), tells Anthony and Peter that he can't take the car due to the bloodstains. Waters and Ria are making love when the phone rings. Upset that Waters answered, and that he says he's with a white woman to annoy his mother, Ria angrily leaves. The next morning, Farhad discovers that his shop has been wrecked and tagged with racist graffitti. Jean angrily berates her Mexican maid, Maria, for the lack of clean dishes. Anthony refuses to take the bus and claims that he'd never rob a black person. Ryan visits Shaniqua in person. Apologising, Ryan says his father, who has a bladder infection, has an incompetent HMO. He wants a transfer, but is told that their health plan won't cover it. Furious, Ryan tells of his father's acts on behalf of blacks and how he lost everything due to Affirmative Action. He begs her to help, and she says that if his father had come, she would have. Shereen tries to clean the mess, wondering when Persians became Arabs. Waters goes to visit his mother. She lives in a small apartment and is high on cocaine, worried about his little brother who is missing. Waters promises to find him, noticing before leaving the lack of food. Outside, Ria has no clue what is actually happening. In the studio, where Cameron works, a white producer says a black actor isn't acting ‘black’ enough. Cameron thinks he's kidding, but is made to re-shoot the scene. Christine then appears and wants to talk about the previous evening, saying that he lost his dignity. Cameron is livid and leaves her in tears. An insurance man tells the Iranians that their insurance won't cover the damage, calling it a case of negligence on Farhad’s behalf. Farhad vows revenge, but the locksmith company won't tell him Daniel’s name. Going out on shift, Ryan says goodbye to Hansen, claiming that Hansen doesn't know himself as well as he thinks. Meanwhile, a dispatcher makes a joke at Hansen's flatulence problem. Farhad discovers Daniel’s address through his tossed away work order. At the scene of an accident, Ryan runs to an overturned car, where a woman is trapped inside. The woman is revealed to be Christine Thayer, who, upon recognizing Ryan, screams for him to leave. Unfortunately, gas is pouring from a nearby flaming wreck, and has been set ablaze. With the assistance of his partner and spectators, Ryan manages to pull Christine out just as the car explodes. A grateful Christine looks back at Ryan as she is taken away. Jake Flanagan (William Fichtner), Rick's campaign manager, offers Waters a position in Office. Waters refuses, but as an incentive, Flanagan offers to acquit his missing bother’s criminal record. Waters eventually agrees. Driving alone in his Navigator, Cameron comes to a stop sign. Suddenly, Anthony and Peter appear to carjack him, realizing too late that he is black. A fight ensues when Cameron fights back, which is seen by some nearby cops. Peter leaves as Cameron and Anthony take off in the car. After a chase, the car is cornered. Cameron gets out and threatens the cops, while Anthony hides in the passenger seat. Hansen, who responded to the call, recognizes Cameron and talks him down. When they are released, Cameron calls Anthony an embarrassment and sends him away. Farhad confronts Daniel when he returns home and points his gun at him, demanding money. Seeing this, Lara runs out to protect him with her "cloak", just as the shot is fired. For a moment, it looks bad, but miraculously, the little girl is okay. Daniel carries his daughter away as Farhad leaves, confused. As his mother sleeps, Waters returns with fresh groceries and places them in her fridge. After telling a friend that she wakes up angry everyday, Jean slips and falls down some stairs. Later that evening, while hitchhiking, Peter is picked up by Hansen, whose off-duty. They chat, but problems soon arise. Peter laughs at the statue of St Christopher on Hansen's dashboard and tries to get his out of his pocket. Thinking the worst, Hansen shoots him dead. Horrified when he sees Peter's statue, Hansen dumps the body. Back to the opening scene, Peter is revealed to be Waters' missing brother, which explains his look of horror. Anthony rides a bus and, while observing the other passengers, notices something. He gets out and goes to the white van from earlier and takes it. The Asian woman from the rear end in the film's opening arrives at a hospital for her husband, the man Anthony and Peter hit. Still coherent, he tells her to cash a check that he has. Anthony takes the van to the chop shop, where a bunch of illegal immigrants are found in the back. Lucien offers $500 for each. When Mrs. Waters sees Peter's dead body at a morgue, she breaks down in tears. She then hatefully accuses Waters of shooting Peter, and tells him that the last thing he did was bring her groceries, which visibly upsets Waters. Ria sees. Dorri comes to see Farhad, who explains what happened. He thinks that the little girl was his angel and tells her its okay. As Dorri removes the gun and box of bullets, we see that the bullets were actually blanks. Rick and Jean talk on the phone. Ironically, none of Jean's friends had arrived to help her, and she had been taken to the emergency room by Maria. Miserably, she hugs her housekeeper and tells Maria that she is her closest friend. Hansen abandons his car and sets it on fire. Cameron later finds it and, as it snows, throws a block of wood into the blaze. Christine then calls him and they forgive each other. Anthony, having refused the money, drops the immigrants off in Chinatown and gives one of them money for food. He then leaves, feeling redeemed. Nearby, a minor rear ender occurs and Shaniqua and another driver start yelling at each other as the snow falls.