Lemonade

The film opens with Beyoncé leaning against a car in a parking garage, face obscured by a fur coat. It cuts to a desolate Fort Macomb and intercuts shots of Beyoncé in a black hoodie among reeds and on an empty stage with closed red curtains. The sequence establishes mystery, isolation, and a mood of introspection.

Scenes unfold on a plantation with Black women dressed in white and a recitation of the first poem. The imagery is intercut with Beyoncé standing among reeds in a black hoodie, signaling dual identities and introspection before the narrative intensifies.

Beyoncé performs Pray You Catch Me in an old metal bathtub, then emerges from a stage onto a rooftop and leaps into deep waters as the song ends. The sequence blends vulnerability with a daring escape, setting a transformative arc into motion.

Underwater, Beyoncé unzips her hoodie to reveal a skin-toned bustier and swims toward a submerged grand bedroom where she encounters a version of herself resting on a bed. She contorts underwater, then emerges from the bedroom and exits through a courthouse doorway onto a street in a flowing yellow dress.

Beyoncé walks a busy city street, picks up a baseball bat, and smashes car windows while bystanders cheer. She triggers a fire hydrant, causing kids to play in the spray, breaks a security camera and storefront windows as explosions erupt behind her, then advances on the camera and climbs into a monster truck to drive off crushing vintage cars.

A high school band and majorettes parade down a suburban street, while women in long white dresses dance in a deserted parking garage. A ring of fire forms as Don't Hurt Yourself begins, and Beyoncé, in a wedding dress, wanders the garage before throwing her ring at the camera.

In a bus, dancers painted in tribal patterns move in unison as Beyoncé sits in contemplation, reciting a spoken-word poem about infidelity over a Swan Lake-inspired melody. The narrative shifts to a plantation mansion where Serena Williams wanders the halls and dances in front of Beyoncé, ending with naked women wandering a field as the scene fades to black.

Dear Moon is recited as the mansion glows in a blood-red light. Beyoncé rides a vintage Cadillac at night, then moves to a room with black-dressed women and a hanging lightbulb. The word LOSS flashes as a window explodes; she dances behind glass, lies in a white dress on a bed, and walks a hallway as the mansion catches fire, ending with the group outside watching it burn.

Little girls play in a mansion while a mother and daughter sit nearby. An interview with a man recounts meeting then-President Obama during a storm, intercut with Super 8 footage of him with his family in New Orleans. Beyoncé then returns to Fort Macomb to sing Daddy Lessons and play guitar, interlacing father videos and jazz funeral imagery.

Beyoncé lies in an empty playing field inside the Mercedes-Benz Superdome as Love Drought begins. The sequence pivots to women dressed in white walking into the ocean, alluding to Igbo Landing and a collective act of choosing resistance.

In a sparsely furnished house, she plays Sandcastles on the piano while intercut with intimate visuals of child drawings, wilted flowers, and a fireplace. She sings to Jay-Z as they caress and embrace, conveying reconciliation and tenderness.

A gathering of Black women in white dresses takes place in a historic park as Forward begins. They hold up pictures of deceased relatives, including matriarchs, while a Mardi Gras Indian circles around a dining room, amplifying communal memory and solidarity.

Freedom is performed acappella on an outdoor stage at night, intercut with women sitting under a willow tree and sharing a communal dinner. Winnie Harlow appears with a crown of thorns as the scene emphasizes resilience and collective hope.

Women care for themselves in a mansion as Beyoncé recites the final poem. Footage of Jay-Z's grandmother Hattie White celebrating her 90th birthday underscores overcoming hardship. The film culminates with women tending a communal garden on a plantation, then Beyoncé performing All Night back at Fort Macomb at sunset, followed by joyful home-video footage and the Formation music video.