Boyz n the Hood

In 1984, ten-year-old Jason "Tre" Styles III lives with his single mother, Reva Devereaux, in Inglewood, California. After Tre gets into a fight at school, his teacher calls Reva and says that although Tre is intelligent, he is immature and lacks respect. Frightened about Tre's future, Reva sends him to live in the Crenshaw neighborhood of South Central with his father, Jason "Furious" Styles Jr., from whom she hopes Tre will learn life lessons. Furious is strict and assigns Tre chores, but he is also a caring and attentive father. In Crenshaw, Tre reunites with his childhood friends Darrin "Doughboy" Baker, Doughboy's half-brother Ricky, and their friend Chris. That night, Tre hears Furious shooting at a burglar. Furious calls the LAPD, and two officers arrive an hour later. The white officer is civil and professional, while the black officer is hostile and demonstrates self-hatred. The next day, Tre and Furious return from a fishing trip to see Doughboy and Chris being arrested for theft.

Seven years later, a welcome home party is held for Doughboy, now a Rollin 60s Crips member, following his recent release from prison hoping to stay out. At the party are Chris, now paraplegic due to a gunshot wound, and new friends and fellow Crip members Dookie and Monster. Ricky is now a star running back at Crenshaw High School who hopes to earn a university scholarship. He lives with his mother Brenda, girlfriend Shanice, and their toddler son. A USC recruiter visits him and informs him he must score a 700 on the SAT to qualify. Meanwhile, Tre has grown into a mature and responsible teenager who hopes to attend college with his girlfriend, Brandi. Their relationship is troubled over Tre's desire to have sex, while Brandi, a traditional Catholic, wants to wait until after marriage.

Later, during a street gathering on Crenshaw Blvd, Ricky is provoked by Ferris, a Crenshaw Mafia Bloods member. In Ricky's defense, everybody comes to his defense, before Doughboy confronts Ferris and brandishes his handgun, leading to an argument between the gangs. Cooler heads prevail until Ferris fires an automatic Mac-10 in the air, with everybody scattering the from area.

After they leave, Tre and Ricky are pulled over by an LAPD patrol; the lead officer, Coffey, is the black officer who responded to the burglary years earlier. Coffey holds his gun at Tre's throat, threatening him. Distraught, Tre goes to Brandi's house, where he has a breakdown. After she comforts him, they have sex for the first time.

The next afternoon, Ricky has a fight with Doughboy, with Brenda taking Ricky's side, and berating Doughboy. Afterward, Brenda asks Ricky to run an errand and Tre accompanies him to a nearby drugstore. After they depart, a letter is delivered with Ricky's SAT results. After leaving the store, Ricky and Tre see Ferris and the Bloods driving around and cut through back alleys to avoid them before splitting up. As they walk in separate directions, the Bloods drive close to Ricky and one of them fatally guns him down. Doughboy, who realized Tre and Ricky were in trouble when he saw the car circling the block, is distraught over Ricky's death. Doughboy helps Tre carry Ricky's bloodied corpse home. After feeling devastated, Brenda and Shanice break into tears, with the women blaming Doughboy for causing the shooting, while he tries to unsuccessfully comfort both of them. Later, Brenda sobs over Ricky's test results - Ricky scored a 710, enough to qualify for the scholarship he sought.

Angered, the remaining boys vow vengeance on the Bloods. Furious finds Tre preparing to take his gun but seemingly convinces him to abandon his plans for revenge. Moments later, Brandi and Furious catch Tre sneaking out to join Doughboy. Later, as the gang drive around the city, Tre asks to be let out of the car and returns home. Doughboy finds the Bloods at a fast-food restaurant. Monster guns the Bloods down as they flee. Doughboy gets out of his car and shoots Ferris and another wounded gang member dead. Later that evening, after coming home, Furious waits for Tre. The two stare at each other with no words exchanged and walk into their bedrooms for the night.

The next morning, Doughboy visits Tre, understanding Tre's reasons for abandoning the gang. Doughboy knows he will face retaliation for killing Ferris and accepts the consequences of his crime-ridden life. He questions why American media "don't know, don't show, or don't care about what's going on in the hood." He says that he has no brothers after Ricky's death, but Tre embraces him, saying he has "still got one brother left."

The epilogue text reveals that Ricky was buried the next day, Doughboy was murdered two weeks later, and Tre later goes to college with Brandi in Atlanta.

• Cuba Gooding Jr. as Jason "Tre" Styles III (age 17)
  • Desi Arnez Hines II as Tre (age 10)
• Angela Bassett as Reva Devereaux
• Laurence Fishburne as Jason "Furious" Styles Jr.
• Ice Cube as Darrin "Doughboy" Baker (age 18)
  • Baha Jackson as Doughboy (age 11)
• Morris Chestnut as Ricky Baker (age 17)
  • Donovan McCrary as Ricky (age 10)
• Nia Long as Brandi (age 17)
  • Nicole Brown as Brandi (age 10)
• Tyra Ferrell as Brenda Baker
• Redge Green as Chris "Little Chris" (age 17)
  • Kenneth A. Brown as Chris (age 10)
• Whitman Mayo as the old man
• John Singleton as the mailman
• Dedrick D. Gobert as "Dooky"
• Baldwin C. Sykes as "Monster"
• Tracey Lewis-Sinclair as Shaniqua
• Alysia Rogers as Shanice
• Regina King as Shalika
• Lexie Bigham as "Mad Dog"
• Raymond Turner as Ferris
• Lloyd Avery II as Knucklehead #2
• Kirk Kinder as Officer Graham
• Jessie Lawrence Ferguson as Officer Coffey[6]

Singleton wrote the film based on his own life and that of people he knew.[7] When applying for film school, one of the questions on the application form was to describe "three ideas for films". One of the ideas Singleton composed was titled Summer of 84, which later evolved into Boyz n the Hood.[7] During writing, Singleton was influenced by the 1986 film Stand by Me, which inspired both an early scene where four young boys take a trip to see a dead body and the closing fade-out of main character Doughboy.[7]

Upon completion, Singleton was protective of his script, insisting that he be the one to direct the project, later explaining at a retrospective screening of the film "I wasn't going to have somebody from Idaho or Encino direct this movie."[2] He sold the script to Columbia Pictures in 1990, who greenlit the film immediately out of interest in making a film similar to the comedy-drama film Do the Right Thing (1989).

The role of Doughboy was written specially for Ice Cube, whom Singleton met while working as an intern at The Arsenio Hall Show.[7] Singleton also noted the studio was unaware of Ice Cube's standing as a member of rap group N.W.A.[7] Singleton claims Gooding and Chestnut were cast because they were the first ones who showed up to auditions,[7] while Fishburne was cast after Singleton met him on the set of Pee-wee's Playhouse, where Singleton worked as a production assistant and security guard.[8]

Long grew up in the area the film depicts and has said, "It was important as a young actor to me that this feels real because I knew what it was like go home from school and hear gunshots at night." Bassett referred to Singleton as her "little brother" on set. "I'd been in LA for about three years and I was trying, trying, trying to do films," she said. "We talked, I auditioned and he gave me a shot. I've been waiting to work with him ever since."[2]

The film was shot in sequence, with Singleton later noting that as the film goes on, the camera work gets better as Singleton was finding his foothold as a director.[2] He has a cameo in the film, appearing as a mailman handing over mail to Brenda as Doughboy and Ricky are having a scuffle in the front yard.

• List of hood films

Wikiquote has quotations related to Boyz n the Hood.

• Boyz n the Hood at IMDb
• Boyz n the Hood at the TCM Movie Database
• Boyz n the Hood at AllMovie
• Boyz n the Hood at Box Office Mojo
• Boyz n the Hood at Rotten Tomatoes
• Boyz n the Hood at Metacritic
• Boyz in the Hood essay by Daniel Eagan in America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry, A&C Black, 2010 ISBN 0826429777, pages