"I am! A revolutionary!"
"I don't believe I'm gonna die in no car wreck! I don't believe I'm gonna die slippin' on no ice! I don't believe I'm gonna die 'cause I got a bad heart! I believe I'm gonna die doin' what I was born for! I believe I'm gonna die high off the people!"
— Fred Hampton
Judas and the Black Messiah is a 2021 biographical drama directed by Shaka King and produced by Ryan Coogler. It tells the story of Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya), the charismatic chairman of the Illinois branch of the Black Panther party and how he was betrayed by William "Wild Bill" O'Neill (Lakeith Stanfield), a member of his organization who also served as an informant to the FBI, who were determined to bring down the Panthers at any cost.
In addition, the movie stars Jesse Plemons as FBI Agent Roy Mitchell, Dominique Fishback as Hampton's girlfriend and fellow Panther Deborah Johnson, Ashton Sanders and Algee Smith as other members of the Party, and Martin Sheen as FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. It premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival ahead of a release in theatres and on HBO Max on February 12, 2021.
Compare The Murder of Fred Hampton, a documentary about these same events that was partway through production when Hampton died.
Judas and the Black Messiah contains examples of:
- Affably Evil: Roy Mitchell plots against the Black Panthers, but he's polite and amiable, treats his blackmailed informant well, is clearly disturbed by his coworkers' dirty tactics, and is motivated by a genuine belief that his targets are dangerous rather than blatant racism like his boss. His worst actions only pop up near the end when he's under direct orders to get Fred Hampton killed, which he's uncomfortable with, but follows.
- Anti-Villain: Villain Protagonist Bill O'Neill was an FBI mole the whole time and crucial to Fred's assassination, but comes to genuinely like the Panthers and is implied to have started believing in their ideology. He becomes an informant to avoid multiple years in jail and tries to quit multiple times, but Mitchell keeps convincing him to stay — first by holding his jail charges over his head and later by reminding him of what the Panthers could do to a traitor.
- Bavarian Fire Drill: Bill's specialty - early in the movie he poses as an FBI agent to steal a car from a gang member, and later finds ways to improvise to keep himself out of danger from the Panthers as well as law enforcement.
- Becoming the Mask: Agent Mitchell suggests that his man on the inside, Bill, has genuinely started to believe in Hampton's rhetoric, as he witnessed Bill cheering along Hampton during a rally.
- Big Bad: J. Edgar Hoover, director of the FBI, portrayed here as an unapologetic bigot who will go to any length to compromise Black power.
- Bittersweet Ending: Leaning on Downer. Among others, Jimmy, Jake and Hampton are all killed by the police, several Panthers were seriously injured in the shootout where Hampton was shot, and Bill commits suicide after revealing his role in Hampton's assassination. But the legacy of Hampton lives on, with his son and Deborah chairing the Black Panther Party Cubs.
- Cheated Death, Died Anyway: Or murdered, more accurately. Jimmy is shot during the police standoff at the Black Panther HQ, but survives and is getting better. Until he gets transferred to the county hospital and murdered.
- Chekhov's Gun: Bill's fake FBI badge in the beginning comes back to haunt him when another FBI mole shows it to him in the climax, convincing him to go ahead with the assassination.
- Chummy Commies: Fred Hampton is a socialist and repeatedly references the theories of Mao Zedong. The film treats him as an inspirational, heroic figure.
- Corrupt Cop: The FBI is shown using many underhanded and illegal tactics to undermine the Black Panthers, while the CPD is depicted casually committing acts of police brutality.
- Deceased Fall-Guy Gambit: When Roy Mitchell tells his superior that Bill witnessed a Panther named George Sams confessing to murdering an FBI informant, the superior tells Mitchell that Sams was the informant, and the victim was murdered to cover this up.
- Deuteragonist: While the story is centered on Bill's journey infiltrating the Black Panthers, Fred's life is equally as important and given just as much weight.
- Dramatic Irony:
- After a Crowns member alludes to Bill's "badge" (a fake one as part of his criminal hustle), Judy immediately suspects him and asks him about his past and where he got his car at gunpoint. Bill manages to convince her well enough, even though the audience knows she is completely right to be suspicious of him.
- Even more so with the informant in Shreveport. The person who accused the informant is actually the informant, and it actually had nothing to do with Bill.
- Driven to Suicide: Bill's real-life counterpart killed himself after admitting his role in the assassination decades after the fact, as detailed in the postscript.
- Enemy Mine: Hampton joins forces with other rival Black organizations as well as white Southerners and Puerto Ricans to form the Rainbow Coalition, a multiracial Leftist political organization meant to protest the poverty, corruption, and police brutality that impact all of their lives.
- Even Evil Has Standards:
- Agent Roy Mitchell is certainly devoted to the FBI's cause of smashing the Black Panthers but seems genuinely perturbed by the lengths to which his fellow agents will go, including allowing an innocent man to be murdered to protect an informant and flat-out planning an assassination of Hampton. None of these things bother him enough to overtly object, however.
- Similar to Mitchell, William O'Neill grows more and more uncomfortable with his actions against the Panthers, occasionally trying to back out, but the potential jail time hanging over his head keeps getting the better of him. Bill tries one last time to put his foot down when asked to help set up Hampton's murder, but he falters again when Roy makes it clear he'll be outed to the Panthers and more than likely murdered if he doesn't follow his orders.
- FBI Agent: The villain protagonists of the movie are an FBI informant and his handler.
- Foregone Conclusion: Even if you know nothing about the historical events the film is based on, the title makes it obvious that a charismatic black man will be betrayed by someone close to him.
- Gory Discretion Shot: Fred Hampton's death is not shown onscreen. Instead the audience sees a closeup of Deborah's face as gunshots fire in the background and officers declare him dead.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: The Black Panthers in general and Fred Hampton in particular, who the movie shows to be primarily focused on political organization and preserving and assisting the Black community. Law enforcement and the media are able to take advantage of Hampton's fiery rhetoric to make him appear more violent and radical in an attempt to turn the community against him.
- The Infiltration: Bill is paid by the FBI to infiltrate the Black Panthers and report back information about their plans and buildings.
- Just Following Orders: Initially Averted by Roy, who has a personal interest in taking down the Black Panthers. But when he's ordered to exterminate Fred Hampton, this trope comes into play, as he's disturbed by the task, but goes on with it regardless.
- Maligned Mixed Marriage: J Edgar Hoover talks about the "threat" that it poses to white Americans (in reference to Roy's 18-month old daughter, no less) as his justification for going after Fred Hampton and the Black Panthers.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Already uncomfortable with his work against the Black Panthers, Bill is disgusted with himself when he helps plan Fred's assassination. While we can't know for sure, it's most likely not a coincidence that he killed himself the night a documentary featuring him admitting to his involvement in the matter aired.
- Nice Guy: While his impassioned speeches give him a bad reputation, Fred Hampton is a hero who fights for the oppressed and cares deeply for those around him.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Agent Roy Mitchell believes that the Black Panthers aren’t any better than the KKK, their enemies, but...
- Not So Similar: It's never directly commented on, but Fred uniting several different races to form a Rainbow Coalition destroys Mitchell's notion that the Black Panthers are just as bad as the KKK, a group that stands for a single ethnicity.
- Obliviously Evil: Roy genuinely to thinks he's doing good and, unlike his boss, does not seem to be motivated by any racial bias, at least not overtly. This is Subverted later on though, where Roy is clearly unnerved with plotting to straight up murder Fred, but goes through with it anyway.
- Police Brutality: In spades. Neither the CPD nor the FBI show any aversion to using deadly force against the Panthers, whether or not the Panthers shot first.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: J. Edgar Hoover is unapologetically racist and essentially demands his FBI agents follow suit. He insists on eliminating Fred Hampton and the Black Panthers not because he is fearful of them following through on their threats to overthrow the state but because he believes their community uplift programs and cross-racial coalition building will lead to his children marrying black people.
- Real Footage Re-creation: Invoked when the movie reproduces the footage of Bill's television interview in the prologue with Lakeith Stanfield. The real footage is then shown for the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue.
- Rule of Symbolism: Just like the titular Judas, Bill is a friend of the "messiah" given money to betray him and eventually lead him to his death, and just like Judas he kills himself out of guilt. This is especially emphasized in the ending.
- Sidelong Glance Biopic: Tells the story of Fred Hampton from the perspective of the informant who the FBI used to bring him down.
- Someone to Remember Him By: Deborah is eight months pregnant with Fred's son when Fred is killed.
- Title Drop: The title is partway dropped when Hoover is giving the briefing to his FBI agents about Hampton and the need to stop him. As Hoover puts it, Hampton has every chance of being "A Black Messiah" in the vein of Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X, so they must stop him before it comes to that.
- Trapped Undercover: Bill tries several times to end his role as an FBI informant but is stopped when Mitchell reminds him of how long he could potentially be sent to prison for stealing a car and impersonating a Federal officer.
- Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Fred Hampton is as kind and selfless as they come. Unfortunately, it's because of his sheer devotion to racial justice that he winds up dead.
- We ARE Struggling Together: The purpose of the Rainbow Coalition, comprised of various oppressed groups to fight back against Police Brutality, poverty, and the government abusing and abandoning them.
- Villainous Friendship: While Roy does occasionally have to dangle his blackmail over Bill's head, they otherwise get along quite well, and the latter speaks highly of his handler years later.
- Villain Protagonist: William O'Neil is our main character who plots against the Black Panthers.
- Villain with Good Publicity: The FBI are considered heroes by the general public, but behind the badge, they’re racist, classist, and are willing to use any means necessary against their opponents. Especially J. Edgar Hoover.
