Rich Bower, known in the scene as Power, is a mover and shaker in the world of rap, and his influence spills into a network of legitimate and illicit ventures. His apartment becomes a magnet for musicians, hangers-on, and hipsters who want to feel inside the hottest circle of the day, including a group of white kids eager to prove they belong to this rhythm-driven inner world. The energy in this space is threaded with ambition, risk, and a thirst for status that can blur moral lines.
Sam (Shields), a filmmaker, arrives with a documentary project focused on Rich and his circle, capturing the dynamics, temptations, and tensions that swirl around wealth and fame. She enlists her husband Terry (Downey) to help, even as Terry, a homosexual man, wrestles with a sense of belonging within this milieu and the pressures of portraying such a charged environment with honesty.
Dean [Allan Houston] is Rich’s longtime friend from childhood and a gifted college basketball player. His loyalty to Rich is tested when a bookmaker named Mark (Stiller) offers him money to throw a game. The lure of the payoff tempts him to take the deal, but the choice quickly unsettles him as he realizes the danger wrapped in the arrangement. The situation intensifies when it becomes clear that Mark is not just taking bets; he is a cop hoping to dig up dirt on Rich, turning a private financial temptation into a public, legal risk.
As the stakes rise, Rich learns that Dean might be compelled to reveal what he knows in order to stay out of jail. The threat to Rich’s world pushes him toward an extreme decision: Dean must be eliminated. Yet he does not pull the trigger himself; instead, he recruits one of the eager white hangers-on to carry out the killing, believing this could be the cleaner solution to a problem that could spiral out of control.
In a sharp turn that underscores the movie’s themes of power, race, and susceptibility to coercion, the would-be killer turns out to be more deeply entangled in the system than anyone anticipated: he is the son of the District Attorney, a revelation that compounds the danger and ethical weight of the choices made by everyone involved.
Through its interwoven portraits of ambition, loyalty, and the corrupting lure of money, the story examines how the pursuit of influence can pull people into acts they never imagined—and how quickly a seemingly simple plan can escalate into a crisis with far-reaching consequences.
